m 



EVILS OF COMMON FIELDS 149 



Why then was this most obvious improvement not more 

 generally effected ? Because there was a great impediment 

 to it in the numerous interests and diversity of titles and 

 claims to almost every common field and piece of waste land 

 in England, whereby one or more envious or ignorant persons 

 could thwart the will of the majority.^ Another hindrance, 

 he says, was that many roads passed over the commons and 

 wastes, which a statute was needed to stop. 



In the seventeenth century hop growing was not nearly 

 so common in England as in the preceding, when Harrison 

 had said, in his Description of Britain^ ' there are few farmers 

 r occupiers in the country which have not gardens and hops 



owing of their own, and those far better than do come from 

 Flanders.' There seems, indeed, to have been a prejudice 

 against the hop ; Worlidge ^ says it was esteemed an un- 

 wholesome herb for the use it was usually put to, * which may 

 also be supplied with several other wholesome and better 

 herbs.' John Evelyn was very much against them, probably 

 because he was such an advocate of cider : * It is little more 

 than an age,' he says, * since hopps transmuted our wholesome 

 ale into beer, which doubtless much altered our constitutions. 

 That one ingredient, by some not unworthily suspected, pre- 

 serving drink indeed, and so by custom made agreeable, 

 yet repaying the pleasure with tormenting diseases, and 

 a shorter life, may deservedly abate our fondness for it, 

 especially if with this be considered likewise the casualties 

 in planting it, as seldom succeeding more than once in three 

 years.' ^ The City of London petitioned against hops as 

 spoiling the taste of drink. 



Yet its cultivation is said to have advanced the price of 

 land to £\o^ £^0, and sometimes ;^ioo an acre, the latter 

 an almost incredible price if we consider the value of money 

 then. There were not enough planted to serve the kingdom, 



' Ibid. p. 124. ^ Ibid. p. 124. 



' Pomona (ed. 1664), p. i. 



