60 FARMING FOR PROFIT 



century. Already anxious for the maintenance of the national 

 supply of corn, men began to be alarmed at another result of the 

 movement which became increasingly prominent. John Rous l 

 (1411-91), chantry priest of Guy's Cliffe and Warwickshire antiquary, 

 was the first to protest against the decay of population caused in 

 the midland counties by enclosures for pasture farming. To this 

 rural exodus the attention of Parliament had been called by the 

 Lord Chancellor in the first year of Richard III. (1484). Francis 

 Bacon, writing of the opening years of the reign of Henry VII., 

 says : 2 " Inclosures at that time began to be more frequent, 

 whereby arable land, which could not be manured without people 

 and families, was turned into pasture which was easily rid by a 

 few herdsmen ; and tenances for years, lives, and at will, whereupon 

 much of the yeomanry lived, were turned into demesnes. This 

 bred a decay of people." So formidable did the danger begin to 

 appear, that in 1489 two Acts of Parliament were passed for its 

 prevention. The first Act was local, dealing with the effects of 

 enclosures in the Isle of Wight from the point of view of national 

 defence ; the second is general, directed " against the pulling down 

 of tounes " (i.e. townships or villages). These Acts were the pre- 

 cursors of many others throughout the sixteenth century, 3 for- 

 bidding the conversion of arable land into pasture, ordering newly 

 laid pasture to be restored to tillage, directing enclosures to be 

 thrown down, requiring decayed houses to be rebuilt, limiting the 

 number of sheep and of farms which could legally be held by one 

 man, and imposing severe penalties for disobedience to the new 

 provisions. 



No favour was shown by Parliament to enclosers, except perhaps 

 in the case of deer-parks. On the contrary, strenuous efforts were 

 repeatedly made to stop the process of enclosure. Nor was the 

 Government satisfied with passing laws and imposing penalties. 

 Wolsey personally interested himself in enforcing obedience to the 

 laws against the decay of houses and farm-buildings and against 



1 Historia Regum Angliae, ed. 1745, pp. 116-24. But Thomas Ilearne was 

 not always a reliable editor. 



2 History of King Henry the Seventh ( Works, ed. Spedding, vol. vi. pp. 

 93-4). 



3 E.g. 1489 (4 Hen. VII. cc. 16, 19) ; 1514 (6 Hen. VIII. c. 5) ; 1515 (7 Hen. 

 VIII. c. 1) ; 1533-4 (25 Hen. VIII. c. 13) ; 1535-6 (27 Hen. VIII. c. 22) ; 

 1551-2 (5 and 6 Ed. VI. c. 5) ; 1555 (2 and 3 Phil, and Mary, c. 2) ; 1562-3 

 (5 Eliz. c. 2) ; 1593 (35 Eliz. c. 7, repealing part of 5 Eliz. c. 2) ; 1597-8 (39 

 Eliz. c. 1) ; 1601 (43 Eliz. c. 9) ; in 1624 the enclosure laws were repealed. 



