6 The Fence Question in the South. 



leases to farmers who will divide their farms into proper inclosures ; by 

 which operation, he says. 



" If an acre of land be worth sixpence rental, before it is inclosed, it will be 

 worth eightpence when it is inclosed. " 



The oppressions arising from the old military tenures were discontinued 

 during the civil wars in the reign of Charles 1st. and in the time of the 

 Commonwealth were entirely abolished in a strong movement of the landed 

 gentlemen of England, by express statute under Charles II, (12, C. II. p. 26 

 and from that time English farm and rural life assumed permanent traits 

 which extended from the mother country to all her colonies and dependencies. 



Up to that time there had existed in all parts of the kingdom, even in the 

 vicinity of the large towns, vast areas of common and waste fields so incum- 

 bered by mixed tenures and customs that their cultivation was impossible. 

 By special acts of Parliament on petition of commoners interested, one after 

 another these commons were laid out, subdivided and inclosed by special com- 

 missioners. The first act on the subject of commons, had in the time of 

 Henry III, (20 H. Ill, c. 4) defined the rights of lords of manors to improve 

 to the profits of their tenants, by inclosing, cultivating, or building upon the 

 woods, wastes, and common pastures. 



The first of the " Inclosure Acts " so called, upon whose fruits the pride 

 and beauty of rural England so largely rest, was passed under Charles II ; the 

 next under Queen Anne. At considerable intervals these acts followed, in 

 the face of much opposition, the movement becoming general early in the last 

 century. Thus from 1719 to 1759 there were 249 acts; from 1764 to 1777 

 their number was 941, an average of 58 annually; from 1780 to 1794, there 

 were 445. In 1795, and 1796 the number was 144, and from 1797 to 1805 

 there were 794. In the first forty years of the reign of George III, there 

 were 1213 Inclosure Acts covering 1,960,189 acres. 



The total area of land inclosed by 2591 Acts up to the end of 1805 was 

 4,187,056 acres. Since then these acts have been very numerous, even in 

 our own time. 



Referring to this subject, Blackstone says, (Commentaries 3rf. vol. p. 188.) 

 " The cultivation of common lands, and the inclosure and management of 

 them are now (1765) carried on under private Acts of Parliament, subject to 

 the regulation laid down in 13 George III, c. 81, and 41 Geo. Ill c. 109, 

 which are incorporated into all special inclosure Acts." 



" Thus," says a writer on British rural affairs (1816) " the commons, and 

 common fields," a disgrace to English Agriculture, are being wiped away." 



The principle and custom of fence prescriptions established in these 

 Inclosure Acts will be understood from the following notes of a case at issue 

 given in The Jurist (Vol. 9. N. S. 60). By the 13th Section of the Act of 

 50 Geo. Ill for enclosing the lands of the parish of Gosforth the commis- 

 sioners are required ' ' to allot and set out by marks and bounds so much of 

 the commons and waste grounds as shall seem necessary, and to sell the same ; 

 and the purchasers thereof, their heirs and assigns, shall be liable to make and 

 keep in repair such part of the ring or outer fences as shall be directed by 

 the commissioners." 



NOTES ON ENGLISH FENCING. 



That the English fence was designed to be something more than a boundary 

 mark, as the old time furrow, trench, or simple barrier, may be understood 

 from an early work on advanced English Agriculture, (General View of the 

 Agriculture of Devon 1813,) which gives a view of the modes of fencing 

 resorted to. In one instance (p. 133) there occurs this description. 



Raising a mound on a nine feet base, with a ditch three feet wide on each side (making the 

 whole site of the fence fifteen feet) facing the mound four feet high with stones sodded three 



