A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



not show that the arable land was turned into pasture, but the consolidation 

 of tenements into a few hands enabled the free tenants to inclose with but 

 little opposition. Three rentals at Haversham afford an illustration of what 

 was probably taking place all over the county. In 13056 there were fifty- 

 two tenants of all kinds ; in 14589 several men were holding two tenements 

 each, and, in consequence, the number of tenants had fallen to thirty-five. 

 Lastly, in 14978, there were only fourteen tenants in the rental ; of these 

 three held one messuage and half a virgate of land each, and one had only a 

 cottage, so that the remaining ten tenants must each have acquired a con- 

 siderable amount of land. At Fawley the number of tenants also decreased 

 during the same period, and at Cippenham in 1407-8 two virgates of land 

 had been definitely inclosed in the park, and therefore the rents were no 

 longer received by the bailiff. 



Towards the end of the fifteenth century, however, the inclosers turned 

 arable land into pasture, pulled down houses, and turned away the tenants 

 and labourers for whom there was no longer any work. In 1490 an Act 

 was passed entitled an ' Act for keeping up of houses of husbondry,' but it 

 failed owing to the machinery for carrying it into effect being placed entirely 

 in the hands of those most interested in the retention of inclosures. Another 

 Act ' against the pulling down of towns ' was passed in 1515, which provided 

 a more adequate method of dealing with inclosures ; and was followed by 

 the appointment of a commission to inquire into the number and effect of 

 those already in existence. The returns for several counties are in existence, 

 amongst them being those for Buckinghamshire. The commissioners held 

 inquiries as to all inclosures made between the years 1485 and 1517, and the 

 terms of their commission especially were confined to inclosures for sheep 

 farming. The returns are made in very various forms, so that it is difficult 

 to ascertain whether in all the instances inclosure was followed by the con- 

 version of the arable land into pasture. Nearly 9,000 acres are included in 

 the Buckinghamshire returns, and in 81*5 per cent, of these it was definitely 

 stated that this conversion had taken place. With regard to the remainder 

 it seems probable that the omission was due to accident in the drawing up 

 of the evidence, particularly if the scale of inclosures in different hundreds is 

 considered. In the hundred of Ashendon 2,979 acres had been inclosed, 

 and in Newport and Cottesloe Hundreds over 1,800 and 1,100 acres respec- 

 tively, in all three districts the land being suitable for sheep farming. There 

 are practically no returns for the hundred of Desborough (48 acres in all), 

 but in Burnham 490 acres had been inclosed. There was, however, but 

 little land fit for pasture in these two hundreds, but good land for arable 

 farming, so that the incentive to inclosure for pasture would not be great. 

 A few years later Leland, passing through Burnham Hundred from Amer- 

 sham to Uxbridge, noted the ' goodly enclosed groundes ' that lay on each 

 side of his road, but of the inclosures returned in 1517 his way only passed 

 through Chalfont St. Peter. On entering Stoke Hundred, Denham again 

 was the only place along the road at which there were inclosures in 1517, 

 to the extent of 84 acres. Thus it is probable that the returns were made 

 only when inclosure was followed by the conversion of arable land into 

 pasture, though the land mentioned by Leland might of course have been 

 inclosed before 1485, or in the interval between 1517 and his journey. 



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