president’s address. 
C>33 
increase subsequent to the Inclosure Act, and an increase 
slightly higher in proportion to the county increase during 
same period, and a decrease during the agricultural depression 
at a later date. 
The number and size of the churches in the district, and 
their frequently isolated position with respect to the houses, 
suggests not only that the district was once much more 
thickly populated than at present, but also that the houses 
which now at Ruston cluster around the Common lands, 
have moved away from the churches. Seldom, however, are 
any remains of ancient dwellings discovered, but this may be 
accounted for by t he fact that in ancient times cottages 
were usually constructed out of far less enduring materials 
than are the most jerry-built houses of the present day. 
Several “ clay-lumps ” (cottages with mud and wood walls, 
and thatched or turf-clad roofs) have crumbled to decay on 
Ruston holmes, within the past quarter of a century, and 
left no trace of foundations behind them. 
In their award, under the Inclosure Act of 1810. the 
Commissioners ordered the erection of sixteen new gates, 
with posts, rails, planks, and stiles where necessary : the 
making of banks by the road sides, from the earth thrown 
out of ditches, which were to be four feet wide at the top 
and three feet deep. These fences were to be planted with 
whitethorn layer, which was to be protected by half-hurdles 
or thorns, which were to be set on the top of such banks, 
and to be kept in good repair for the next seven years. As 
a further protection of the thorn hedge, no stock were to l>e 
allowed to graze the roadside-herbage for the six succeeding 
years. The fen. or low ground, was to be divided or separated 
by water dykes, nine feet wide at the top. and four and 
a half feet at the bottom, by five feet deep. The work of 
inclosure was to be completed within three calendar months. 
Instead of inclosure, and the changes that accompanied it. 
producing rural depopulation here, and as has been said of 
