176 THE RED DEER OF EXMOOR. 



than old age and starvation, and this necessitated a 

 great increase in enclosure and the introduction 

 of hedges. This revolution in sheep farming was 

 coincident with the great rise in the price of corn 

 consequent upon the Napoleonic war, and both 

 causes led to enclosure and extended cultivation. 



In addition to their ingrounds, or permanently 

 enclosed ground, each farm seems to have had its 

 own specific tract of arable land which remained 

 unenclosed or only partially enclosed. This seems 

 to have been cultivated in patches for a year or two, 

 the stubbles being fed off by the ewes and young 

 beasts under the care of a shepherd, and then the land 

 was fallowed for a time and other land ploughed up. 

 The area under crops was generally protected from 

 trespass by sheep by the process of " ankle learing" 

 (layering), that is, by putting up a little temporary 

 bank with a little wattle fence on the top leaning 

 outwards. It got its name from the fact that the 

 maker stuck in a stick and bent it down over his 

 ankle to pleach it, or twist it into the wattle. These 

 fences were allowed to go into decay when the land 

 was fallowed, and the traces of them disappeared 

 when the land was permanently enclosed. 



An examination of the original unimproved edition 

 of the Ordnance Survey published in 1809 confirms 

 this to some extent. There each farm is marked 

 with a very small enclosure round it. The map is 

 very badly done and very indistinctly printed, but 

 many of the farms are shown as having a ring fence 



