84 
Exmoor Reclamation. 
Avithout fear of detection, is still celebrated for lost sheep. The 
old nursery rhyme — 
" Steal the sheep and sell the wool, 
Say the bells of Withypool," 
shows that an evil tradition lurks around that locality. 
Many of the farm-buildings, fifty years ago, were of the most 
miserable description. A long building like a shed would 
sometimes contain two or three farm-houses. The farms (small 
as they were) were seldom united in a ring-fence. The fields 
were disposed as if they had been chosen by lot instead of being 
laid out for the convenience of the owners or tenants. Some 
catch-water meadows they had, and these were the only pieces 
of land that were well attended to and kept in good order. The 
cottages in the hill villages were dirty and wretched, and the 
pig, when driven, took refuge, as in Ireland, in the dwelling- 
house. 
The enclosure of the commons and the high price of live-stock 
and dairy produce, have raised the value of the whole hill country. 
Landlords, tenants, and labourers have alike benefited. Many 
thousands of acres of inclosed common-land, which fifty years 
ago counted for little or nothing in the valuation of a parish, 
are now let for from 10s. to 20s. an acre. 
The tenant-class have all money in their pockets ; and whereas 
half a century ago it was difficult to find a good tenant for a 
farm of lOOZ. a year, several eligible men are now found at once 
as competitors for farms of three or four times that rental. 
But the greatest change for the better has been among the 
labouring classes. Their condition, thirty years since, partook 
of the poverty of the agricultural labourers of the south-west of 
England generally. Since that time their wages have nearly, 
if not quite, doubled. In the parish of Exmoor there is but one 
pauper. 
The inclosure of the commons opened a wide field for the 
labourer ; nearly 100 miles of new roads, and many hundred 
miles of new fences (besides building, draining, paving, and 
other cultivation on lands from wliich no labourer had ever 
earned an honest shilling in their uninclosed state), have been 
mainly done by piece-work during the time of which I am 
speaking. 
The gangers, or small contractors, for this work have developed 
themselves in great numbers into thriving farmers. In no part 
of England has the working-class had such an opportunity, 
during the last thirty or forty years, as in the north of Devon 
and the adjoining parts of Somerset. These remarks must be 
