88 I N C L O S U R E S. s- 



management, was, in effed, left without aii 

 advocate; and folely by " the uncertainty 

 of the law" loft its right. Even the houfe- 

 ovvners themfelves confidered the verdid as 

 a game artfully won— and their large allot- 

 ments as plunder bravely got. Right was 

 out of the queftion : the idea of it had been 

 abforbed long before the decifion, in rancour 

 and ill blood ; a circumftance more to be la- 

 mented than the inequitable divifion of the 

 commons. 



In the cafe of Knaresborough, too, a dif- 

 pute between the land-owners and houfc- 

 owners was ordered to be decided by legal 

 corJcJl. There, as at Pickering, the houfes *^ 



* In this cafe the houfes were divided into m'JTuagts 

 and cottages — ovlC meflliage was confidered as equal to 

 two cottages. This diftindtion, which is not uncom- 

 mon, has moT pr.bably niiien from the circumilance of 

 the woodlands being grubbed for the fake of herbage. 

 A melT.iage, namely, u houfe with wiiich land was an- 

 ciently occupied, had not rnly a privilege of cutting 

 fiiel\\\ the outwoods, but, of nccellity in early days, a 

 privilege of taking plowholt., cartbolf. Sec. Kcnce its 

 claim upon the ' e-t>a;^ewh'i^h. fuccceded theiu^jo^becamc 

 greater than t^at of a mere cottage, with which no 

 landi be ng o cupicd, hr.d ni ufc for implements of 

 l.ufbasdr^ . 



claimed 



