150 MY LIFE 



parish or manor in proportion to the size or value of their 

 estates. To those that had much, much was to be given, 

 while from the poor their rights were taken away ; for 

 though nominally those that owned a little land had some 

 compensation, it was so small as to be of no use to them in 

 comparison with the grazing rights they before possessed. 

 In the case of all cottagers who were tenants or leaseholders, 

 it was simple robbery, as they had no compensation whatever, 

 and were left wholly dependent on farmers for employment. 

 And this was all done — as similar enclosures are almost 

 always done — under false pretences. The " General Enclosure 

 Act " states in its preamble, " Whereas it is expedient to 

 facilitate the enclosure and improvement of commons and 

 other lands now subject to the rights of property which 

 obstruct cultivation and the productive employment of labour, 

 be it enacted," etc. But in hundreds of cases, when the 

 commons, heaths, and mountains have been partitioned out 

 among the landowners, the land remains as little cultivated 

 as before. It is either thrown into adjacent farms as rough 

 pasture at a nominal rent, or is used for game-coverts, and 

 often continues in this waste and unproductive state for half 

 a century or more, till any portions of it are required for 

 railroads, or for building upon, when a price equal to that of 

 the best land in the district is often demanded and obtained. 

 I know of thousands of acres in many parts of the south of 

 England to which these remarks will apply, and if this is not 

 obtaining land under false pretences — a legalized robbery of 

 the poor for the aggrandizement of the rich, who were the 

 law-makers — words have no meaning. 



In this particular case the same course has been pursued. 

 While writing these pages a friend was staying at Llandrindod 

 for his wife's health, and I took the opportunity of asking him 

 what was the present condition of the land more than sixty 

 years after its inclosure. He informs me that, by inquiries 

 among old inhabitants, he finds that at the time nothing 

 whatever was done except to enclose the portions allotted 

 to each landlord with turf banks or other rough fencing; and 

 that to this day almost all the great boggy moor, with the 



