232 OPEN-FIELD FARMS AND PASTURE COMMONS 



ward as objections to the enclosing system. This question was much 

 agitated with regard to the inclosure of Corse Chace in this 

 county ; but if the present state and appearance of it, since the 

 inclosure in 1796, be contrasted to what it was before, or its present 

 produce of corn to the sheep that used to run over it, little doubt 

 can remain of the advantageous result in favour of the community ; 

 1350 acres of wet and rushy waste were inclosed, and, in the first 

 year of cultivation, the produce was calculated at 20,250 bushels 

 of wheat, or of some other crop in equal proportion. If it could 

 even be proved that some cottagers were deprived of a few trifling 

 advantages, yet the small losses of individuals ought not to stand 

 in the way of certain improvements on a large scale." The Reporter 

 also quotes two Cotswold parishes, formerly open-fields, but now 

 enclosed, as examples of increased produce. In Aldsworth, the 

 annual produce of corn rose from 720 quarters to 2300 quarters ; 

 in Eastington, it increased from 690 quarters to 2100 quarters. 

 He adds that enclosures encouraged labour. " Labourers, who 

 formerly were under the necessity of seeking employment in London 

 and other places, now find it in sufficient quantity at home in 

 their respective parishes." 



In Somersetshire 1 (1797) the two largest districts of waste land 

 were the Brent Marsh and King's Sedgmoor. The Reporter 

 describes the Brent Marsh as a country which had " been hereto- 

 fore much neglected, probably on account of the stagnant waters, 

 and unwholesome air. But of late many efforts have been made 

 to improve the soil, by draining and enclosing, under a variety of 

 Acts of Parliament. The benefit resulting therefrom has been 

 astonishing." The total area was over 20,000 acres, of which 

 many thousands, " heretofore overflown . . . and of little or no 

 value, are become fine grazing and dairy lands." Besides the 

 general improvement to the health of the district, " scarcely a 

 farmer can now be found who does not possess a considerable landed 

 property ; and many whose fathers lived in idleness and sloth, on 

 the precarious support of a few half-starved cows, or a few limping 

 geese, are now in affluence." On the South Marsh, chiefly formed 

 by the river Parret, " near thirty thousand acres of fine land are 

 frequently overflown for a considerable time together, rendering 

 the herbage unwholesome for the cattle, and the air unhealthy to 

 the inhabitants." An Act of Parliament had been recently (1791) 

 1 Billingsley's Somersetshire (1797), pp. 167-73, 188. 



