The whole of the Weald of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex appears never to have passed through the common-field system. This is indicated in the first place by the fact that there have been no Enclosure Acts for enclosing common fields. Secondly, we have what may be termed the expert evidence of William Marshall, the shrewdest of all the eighteenth-century agricultural writers, and the only one really interested in the origin and early history of the common-field system. He says of the Maidstone district, “the entire district appears to have been inclosed from the forest or pasture state. I observed not a trace of common-field lands” (“Southern District,” Vol. I., p. 21). Of the Weald of Kent, “The whole is in a state of inclosure, and mostly divided by wide woodland belts, into well sized fields” (Ibid., p. 345). Of the Weald of Sussex, “... there being, I believe, no trace at present, of common fields having ever gained an establishment” (Vol. II., p. 100). “The whole of the district (between Pulborough and Midhurst) under view is in a state of Inclosure; except a few small heathlets and commons; and except a small remnant of common field in the Maam soil.” The Maam soil, he says, is a vein of land of peculiar nature at the foot of the chalk hills, to be identified, presumably, with the Gault formation.
In 1649, seeing that a considerable amount of common field survived in the part of Surrey north of the North Downs, until the time of Parliamentary enclosure, and some in Sussex south of the South Downs, and in spite of this, Blith speaks of Surrey and Sussex as enclosed counties, enclosure must at least have predominated in the Weald.
Celia Fiennes adds a confirmation. Sussex, she says, is “much in blind, dark lanes” (p. 32). This implies narrow roads, with well-grown hedges, that is, ancient enclosure. For roads are everywhere broad in proportion as the industrial state at which enclosure takes place is advanced. Again, from Calvery to Branklye, “the way is thro’ lanes, being an Enclosed Country for the most part, as is much of Sussex which joyns to Kent” (p. 112). And the view from Boxhill was that of “a fruitfull vale, full of inclosures and woods” (p. 32).
The part of Surrey which lies on the north slope of the North Downs, from the Kent boundary to the Bagshot sands, contained up till the time of Parliamentary enclosure a considerable proportion of common-field land, as may be seen by the appendix and the map.
James and Malcom, the reporters for Surrey, give a list of the chief common fields remaining in 1793 (“Agriculture of Surrey,” p. 43), from which we find that besides Merrow, enclosed about 1870, East and West Clandon, Ashtead and Thorpe have been enclosed without Acts since. In each of these four cases enclosure took place before the date of tithe commutation.
But even this part of Surrey must be considered as on the whole an early enclosed district; as much so, in fact, as the corresponding slope of the Chiltern Hills, and the Hertfordshire Hills on the other side of the Thames.
The western part of the south slope of the Sussex Downs has a few examples of common fields surviving to a late date, but they are fewer in number and smaller in area than on the north slope of the Surrey Downs. William Marshall says: “In the Isle of Selsey I observed some common field land; also about Chichester, in the year 1791” (Southern District, Vol. II., p. 230.) The accompanying map shows the parishes enclosed by Acts.
Under the heading of Wessex I include the counties of Hampshire, Wiltshire, Berkshire and Dorset. There is a close resemblance between the enclosure history of each of these; while Gloucester is a connecting link between them and the Midland counties on the one hand, and the south-western on the other. It may be described as at present a country of very large farms, with a very large proportion of open down, the cultivated land itself remaining remarkably open, being divided in general into large rectangular fields by hedges which are frequently full of gaps. Rights of common here more than elsewhere have decayed, irrespective of actual enclosure; and using the word enclosure in its broad sense, it may be said that in Wessex the process of enclosure has least of all taken visible shape, either in the growing of hedges, or building of walls, or in the conversion of arable to pasture, or pasture to arable, or in the scattering of the habitations of the inhabitants over the whole parish; but that it has most profoundly affected the social life of the villages. The case of Grimstone, in which the nine “livings” for generations held by about a dozen different copyholders, was converted into a single farm, and by no means an exceptionally large one, is typical of the whole district. This aspect has been previously treated. What here has to be noticed is that these characteristics of Wessex enclosure make it more difficult to trace the progress, at least so far as the higher lands are concerned. If Celia Fiennes could revisit the neighbourhood of Amesbury and Stonehenge, she would probably again describe it as “all on the downs, a fine champion country.” It is fortunate that we have the accounts of two such expert observers as Thomas Davis and William Marshall. They wrote practically at the same date, Marshall apparently in 1792, Davis in 1793; but as Marshall confines himself to the actual condition, while Davis deals with the past, he must here take precedence.
“Basingstoke to Salisbury.—The state of inclosure varies. To the eastward the country is mostly inclosed, much of it in large, square, regular inclosures. More westward, it is entirely open; as are the tops of the higher hills throughout. Extensive views, with no other break, than what is given by corn or flocks, fallows or the sheep fold.
“Environs of Salisbury.—To the southward of the town there are some well-sized, square fields, with good live hedges (at least on three sides) apparently of forty or fifty years’ growth; yet, extraordinary as it is, many of these fields lie open to the roads; the fences on the sides next the lanes lying in a state of neglect. And, to the north of the Avon, the country for many miles every way, lies open, unless about villages and hamlets, and along the narrow bottoms of the watered valleys. To the eastward of Salisbury an attempt has been made at inclosure; the ruins of the hedges are still evident; broken banks, with here and there a hawthorn. And similar instances are observable in other parts of the Downs.
“Are we to infer from hence, that chalk down lands are not proper to be kept in a state of inclosure? Or that where sheep are kept in flocks, and few cattle are kept, fences are not requisite? Or is the foliage of shrubs a natural and favourite food of sheep, and hence, in a country chiefly stocked with sheep, it is difficult to preserve a live hedge from destruction?
“Ludgershall to Basingstoke.—The country is wholly inclosed: excepting a few plots to the right; mostly in large square fields, doubtless from a state of open down; the hedges in general of a Middle Age; some instances of vacant inclosure.
“With respect to the present state of appropriation of this tract of country,[103] the mere traveller is liable to be deceived. From the more public roads, the whole appears to be in a state of divided property. But on a closer examination, much of it is found to be in a state of commonage. In the immediate environs of Salisbury, there are evident remains of a common field, lying in narrow strips, intermixed, in the south of England manner; and not far from it, a common cow pasture and a common meadow. About Mere” (on the Somerset border of Wiltshire) “I observed the same appearances. In the Valley of Amesbury much of the land remains, I understand, under similar circumstances, though they do not so evidently appear in the arable lands, which by the aggregation of estates, or of farms, or by exchanges among landlords and their tenants, lie mostly in well-sized pieces. But the after-eatage,[104] whether of the stubbs or the meadows, is enjoyed in common. And the grass downs of the common field townships are in a state of common pasture the year round; being stinted by the arable lands” (“Southern District,” p. 308, etc.).
One fact to be noticed is that Hampshire was earlier enclosed than Wiltshire; which is in accordance with what one would have expected. Enclosure spread westwards into Hampshire from Surrey and Sussex.
Davis I have previously quoted. “The greater part of this county (Wiltshire) was formerly, and at no very remote period, in the hands of great proprietors. Almost every manor had its resident lord, who held part of the lands in demesne, and granted out the rest by copy or lease to under tenants, usually for three lives renewable. A state of commonage, and particularly of open common fields, was peculiarly favourable to this tenure. Inclosures naturally tend to its extinction.
“The North-West of Wiltshire being much better adapted to inclosures and to sub-division of property than the South, was inclosed first; while the South-East or Down district, has undergone few inclosures and still fewer sub-divisions” (“Agriculture of Wiltshire,” p. 8).
We have previously seen that Cobbett, traversing that same South-East district of Wiltshire, found in 1825 the common field or “tenantry” system completely superseded by that of great farms. Parliamentary enclosure only partly effected the change, which appears to have been so complete in the space of a single generation, 1793–1825. The violent fluctuations in the price of grain during the great war, the wholesale ruin of farmers in 1815 and 1816, the abuse of the Poor Law peculiarly rampant in Wiltshire, by which the peasants who held such little holdings as we have observed in Fordington and Stratton and Grimstone, by lease or copy, were compelled to pay in their rates the wages of the labourers employed by the great farmers who were superseding them, and the decay of home industries to which Cobbett bears witness, all these were complementary parts of the social transition, each assisting all the others, and all together converting the tiller of the soil from the peasant with a medieval status, a responsible member of a self-governing village community, into a pauperised, half-starved labourer.
Though North-West Wiltshire was enclosed earlier than the South-East, Berkshire was enclosed later than Wiltshire as a whole. This is indicated by the scope and distribution of Enclosure Acts. Parliamentary enclosure covers 26·0 per cent. of Berkshire, 24·1 per cent. of Wiltshire. Of the total 120,002 acres enclosed by Act in Berkshire, 42,631 acres was enclosed in the eighteenth century; 77,371 acres in the nineteenth. In Wiltshire the proportions are reversed; 126,060 acres were enclosed in the eighteenth century, 86,073 acres in the nineteenth.
The non-Parliamentary enclosure in the nineteenth century was peculiarly active in Berkshire. William Pearce, the Board of Agriculture surveyor, computed that in 1794 the common fields and downs occupied 220,000 acres; forests, wastes, and commons, 40,000; and the enclosed lands, including parks and woods, only 170,000 acres (“Agriculture of Berkshire,” p. 13). He further assures us that at least half of the arable land was in common fields (p. 49). As rather less than 20 per cent. of the total area of the county was enclosed by Acts at a later date, it would follow that about 30 per cent. of its area was enclosed without Acts after 1793; and from my own inquiries I can quite believe this conclusion is accurate. Enclosure under the general Acts of 1836 and 1840 may have been specially extensive in Berkshire.
Dorset underwent enclosure at an earlier period. The percentage of Parliamentary enclosure is only 8·7, which is similar to that of Hampshire, 6.0; and there is no evidence of very extensive non-Parliamentary enclosure in the nineteenth century. Stevenson in 1812 reported, “There are but few uninclosed fields remaining” (“Agriculture of Dorset,” p. 194); and the earlier reporter, Claridge, in 1794, said, “Very few parishes in this county have of late years been enclosed” (“Agriculture of Dorset,” p. 46). In the intervening period only fourteen Acts enclosing sixteen parishes were passed; Dorset must therefore have been mainly enclosed before the time of the American War; enclosure having no doubt spread eastwards from Devonshire, which was a very old enclosed county.
Celia Fiennes adds little to our information, except that she says the Vale of the White Horse, in Berkshire, “extends a vast way, a rich jnclosed country” (p. 19), that there were “Good lands, meadows, woods and jnclosures” in the Isle of Purbeck, (p. 6), and that the country round “Stonidge,” like that round Newtontony, was “most champion and open, husbandry mostly corn and sheep” (p. 10). But there is a significant passage in John Norden, which shows that the characteristic Wiltshire and Dorsetshire common-field management in 1600 prevailed over all four counties. “In Dorset, Wiltshire, Hamshire, Barkeshire, and other places champion, the farmers do much inrich their land indeed with the sheepfold” (Book V., p. 232).
Leland, however, is full of information. He came into Berkshire at Wallingford, and rode thence to Abingdon and to Oxford. The first touch of description is “About this Sinodune beginneth the fruteful Vale of White Horse—this Vale is not plentifulle of woodde” (Vol. II., fol. 14). This must be compared with Celia Fiennes’ description of the same Vale, “a rich jnclosed country.” He next proceeded westwards along the southern side of the Thames. “From this place” (Hinxey hill, one mile from Oxford) the hilly ground was “meately woody for the space of a mile, and thens 10 miles al by Chaumpain, and sum Corne, but most pasture, to Farington.” He crossed the river and entered Gloucestershire, but turning south entered Wiltshire, and found the eight miles from Cirencester to Malmesbury “about a Mile on Furse then al by Champayne Ground, fruteful of corne and Grasse, but very little wood” (fol. 26). To Chippenham “al the Ground on that side of the Ryver was Chaumpayne” (fol. 28) but towards Bradford “the countre beginneth to wax woddy” (fol. 30); and then he went west into Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. He came back into Dorset from Axmouth, and in the extreme western part of Dorset gives no distinct description of the state of enclosure—it is “meately good ground” or “corne, pasture and wood;” but from Melbury to Frome was “vj miles stille by Champaine ground on an high rigge” (Vol. III., fol. 47). He came through Weymouth and Poole, and specified neither enclosure nor champain, till he reaches the north-west corner of the county; but from Hoston to Cranbourne is “al by Champain Ground having nother Closure nor Wood,” and all the way to Salisbury continues “al by Champayne” (fol. 56). Again, “all the way from Salisbury to Winchester is Champayne,” but from Winchester to Southampton, while there is “mouch drye feren Ground,” “the most part of the Ground betwixt is enclosid and reasonably woddyd” (fol. 74).
To Portsmouth enclosure predominated in the cultivated land. There is “much enclosid and Hethy Ground myxt with Ferne” (fol. 79), and “the Ground within the Isle of Portsmouth is partely enclosid” (fol. 82). Turning north there was some “playn Ground” before entering Bere forest, afterwards “enclosid Ground” to Bishops Waltham, and for three miles beyond; the remaining four to Winchester being “Champain” (fol. 83).
But particularly in Dorset, instead of describing the land as enclosed, or “Champain,” he frequently uses such expressions as “meately well woddid” or “good Corne and sum Grasse,” which it is difficult to interpret in terms of enclosure. The choice of such expressions probably implies (1) that there is not much actual enclosure by hedges, and (2) that there are no extensive arable common fields. Such descriptions would suit land passing directly from the condition of forest or moor into separate cultivation, but in which the cultivated patches were not as yet enclosed with hedges; or a district in which small arable common fields were surrounded by such later extensions of cultivation. But leaving Dorset in doubt, it is clear from Leland’s notes that enclosure was well begun in the south of Hampshire, while the country to the north was all open.
In the above journey Leland skirted the central chalk district; later he passed directly through it, going from Oxford through Abingdon, Lambourn, Marlborough and Devizes to Trowbridge. He passed the forests of Savernake and Blake, but all the cultivated land is described as “champayne” (Vol. VII., Part 2, fol. 63–7).
To sum up, we find that in the south of Hampshire, the cultivated land was early enclosed, and also probably in the south and west of Dorset, that enclosure gradually spread from the middle of the sixteenth century into the rest of the four counties, the movement attacking the “champain” district on three sides, on the east from Surrey, on the south from the early enclosed district between Winchester and Southampton and Portsmouth, and in the west from Devon and Somerset; the progress of enclosure appears to have been practically confined to Dorset and Hampshire in the seventeenth century; to have had the north-west of Wiltshire for its chief scene in the greater part of the eighteenth century, and finally to have attacked south-east Wiltshire and Berkshire, the former in the first quarter, the latter throughout the first half, of the nineteenth century.
The whole of Gloucester, with the exception of the Forest of Dean and its neighbourhood in the west, has scattered over it parishes enclosed by Acts of Parliament; and the enclosure so effected amounted to nearly a quarter (22·5 per cent.) of the whole area of the county. The rich land in the Severn Valley was the latest enclosed district. William Marshall tells us that in 1789 “perhaps half the vale is undivided property.” (“Rural Economy of Gloucestershire,” Vol. I., p. 16.) As enclosure by Act of Parliament, and doubtless also without Acts, had been proceeding vigorously since 1726, it is probable that at the earlier date nearly the whole was in “a state of commonage.” Of the Cotswold Hills, Marshall says: “Thirty years ago (i.e., in 1759) this district lay almost entirely in an open state, namely, in arable common fields, sheep-walk, and cow-down. At present it may be said to be in a state of Inclosure, though some few townships yet remain open.” (Ibid., Vol. II., p. 9.)
I have already pointed out that in Gloucestershire enclosure without Acts was specially easy, in consequence of the custom of holding land. The ancient custom of “copyhold by three lives renewable” had very generally been converted into “leasehold by three lives renewable,” the difference being that the lord of the manor’s option of accepting a new life became real instead of nominal. It was easy for a landlord who wished to enclose to convert each such lease as it fell in to one for a short period of years; and it was in this way, Marshall says, the enclosure of the Cotswold Hills was mainly effected.
The south-west of Gloucestershire, towards Somerset, to a considerable extent shared in the early enclosure of that county; though for Somerset we have also to say that while the western half was, like Devonshire, very early enclosed, the eastern half to a certain extent shared in the comparatively late enclosure Gloucestershire and the north-west of Wiltshire, as the map shows.
Worcester similarly shows the transition between South Warwickshire, the enclosure history of which has been dealt with, and the counties on the Welsh border. Pomeroy reported in 1794 to the Board of Agriculture: “The lands are in general inclosed; there are, however, some considerable tracts in open fields.” About 45,000 acres have since been enclosed by Acts for enclosing common fields inter alia; which is perhaps as large an area as the phrase “considerable tracts” is intended to describe. Just one-sixth of the total area of the county is covered by the whole series of such Acts, mainly in the eastern half of the county. Leland tells us “most part of all Somersetshire is yn hegge rowys enclosid” with elms, and from his other notes we find that the north-west half of Worcestershire was enclosed by about 1540, and the southern extremity of Gloucestershire about half enclosed by that date. We further find, from evidence quoted above, that the rest of Worcestershire shared the enclosure experience of Warwick and Leicester, though probably at a somewhat earlier date, that is, undergoing enclosure mainly in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, though in the end the process dragged on and was only completed after the Act of 1845 was passed. We find the Cotswold Hills enclosed mainly between 1750 and 1790, the Severn Valley undergoing enclosure during this period, but only about half enclosed at the end of it, and enclosure continuing steadily to the very end of the nineteenth century, with Elmstone Hardwicke still remaining uninclosed, waiting for leases for lives to expire.
The part of the country which remains to be considered is that in which the problem is complicated by the question whether the primitive village community was of an English or Celtic type. The remaining counties may be grouped under the titles West Wales, Strathclyde and the Welsh border.
We have previously seen that fluidity in the tenure of the soil, which is one characteristic of the Celtic run-rig as compared with the Anglo-Saxon common field system, favours the separation of properties and holdings at the time when co-aration ceases to be practised; and, in consequence, to early enclosure without any special efforts of the type of an Act of Parliament. But we have also seen that a prevailingly pastoral country tends to have its arable lands more easily and earlier enclosed than a prevailingly arable country. There are therefore two explanations available for the early enclosure of the whole western half of England and Wales.
First, however, the broad facts with regard to the history of enclosure must be made clear.
There are no Acts specifically for enclosing common arable fields in Wales, nor any in which the phraseology of the preamble clearly indicates the existence in Wales of land possessing all three of the essential characteristics of English common field: (1) intermixed ownership or occupation, (2) absence of adequate hedges or other obstacles to the passage of men and animals from one holding to another, (3) common rights exercisable over the tilled land.
But there were[105] in Wales open tilled fields in which properties and holdings were intermixed—that is, land possessing the first two characteristics. Several Welsh Acts for enclosing commonable waste also enclose “intermixed lands,” and one (1843, c. 14) is for the enclosure in Llandudno and three neighbouring villages, of “Divers Commons, commonable lands and waste grounds, Heaths, open and Common and other Fields and Waste lands, and other Common lands and Waste grounds, which lie intermixed in small parcels, and are inconveniently situated for the use and enjoyment of the several proprietors.”
The following are the reports on the subject by the Board of Agriculture reporters in 1793 and 1794:—
“Open or Common Fields are rarely met with in South Wales. It is a mode of cultivation only practised in a few instances, where ecclesiastical and private property are blended.” (John Fox, “Agriculture of Glamorgan,” p. 41.)
“The only tract like a common field is an extent of very productive barley land, reaching on the coast from Aberavon to Llanrhysted. This quarter is much intermixed, and chiefly in small holdings.” (Thomas Lloyd, “Agriculture of Cardigan,” p. 29.)
Carmarthen. “I do not know of any considerable extent of open common field in the county.” (Charles Hassell, “Agriculture of Carmarthen,” p. 21.)
Pembroke. “In the neighbourhood of St. David’s considerable tracts of open field lands are still remaining which is chiefly owing to the possessions of the church being intermixed with private property.” (Charles Hassell, “Agriculture of Pembroke,” p. 20.)
Radnor. “Here are no Common Fields.” (John Clark, “Agriculture of Radnor,” p. 21.)
Flint. “There are no common fields, or fields in run-rig, in this county, except between Flint and St. Asaph, and it is in intention to divide and inclose them.” (George Kay, “Agriculture of Flint,” p. 4.)
Cærnarvon. “Run-rig. There are no lands of this description that I could hear of, but there is a good deal of mixed property that might be exchanged.” (George Kay, “Agriculture of Cærnarvon.”)
There was in existence a mere remnant of open intermixed, arable land, which one reporter evidently thinks ought to be described as run-rig, and not as common field. Though in many respects agricultural methods were of the most primitive type, yet enclosure was practically complete; in two out of the four counties in which open fields are stated to be surviving, the explanation of such an exceptional circumstance is given in the intermixture of church and lay property. This well corroborates the a priori argument that the Celtic type of village community easily yields to enclosure; and that a predominance of pasture over arable also facilitates early enclosure of what arable there is. Mr. A. N. Palmer shows that the varying operation of the custom of gavelkind (equal inheritance by all sons) is also closely connected with the recent phenomena of the distribution of holdings. Everywhere the land which was ancient open arable fields is now, and has been for an unknown period dating at least as far back as 1620, divided by hedges into small enclosures, as in Devonshire; but in some districts these contain, or are known to have contained in comparatively recent times, intermixed quillets of other ownership. In these districts Mr. Palmer supposes the ancient “gafæl” or “gwely” (which may be roughly defined as a patriarchal family holding), was at the time when co-aration ceased, very much sub-divided. In other districts where the “gafæl” or “gwely” was little sub-divided, so that each occupier could support his own plough team, when co-aration ceased, holdings became entirely separated from one another. (“History of Ancient Tenures of Land in North Wales,” pp. 35–37.)
We have now to fix with what accuracy we may the time of the enclosure of the western counties, and then to search for evidence in those counties of variations from the typical English village community.
These counties were very early enclosed. There is so much earlier evidence that it seems superfluous to quote Celia Fiennes, but there are some suggestive touches in her description.
“I entered into Devonshire 5 miles off from Wellington, just on a high ridge of hills which discovers a vast prospect on Each side full of Inclosures and lesser hills which is the description of most part of the West. You could see large tracts of grounds full of Enclosures, good grass and corn beset with quicksetts and hedgerows” (p. 206). In very similar words she describes the views on the roads from Exeter to Chudleigh, and from Chudleigh to Ashburton.
“Devonshire is Much like Somersetshire, fruitfull countrys for corn, graseing, much for inclosures that makes the wayes very narrow, so as in some places a coach and waggons cannot pass. They are forced to carry their corn and carriagis on horses backes with frames of woods like pannyers on either side of the horse, so load it high and tye it with cords. This they do altogether the further westward they goe, for the wayes grow narrower and narrower up to the land’s end” (p. 9). As Celia Fiennes rode into the far west of Cornwall, hers is the evidence of an eye-witness. She points to the explanation of the extreme narrowness for which Devonshire lanes are still noted—enclosure took place before the introduction of carts.
Devonshire is spoken of in the previously quoted passage in the “Discourse of the Commonweal,” about 1550, as, with Essex and Kent, one of the most enclosed counties. Leland, about the year 1537 passed through North Devon into Cornwall, as far as Wadebridge and Bodmin, and back through South Devon. His statement that Somerset was much enclosed with hedgerows of elms, has already been quoted. In Devon and Cornwall he found no “champaine,” but frequently “meately good corne and grasse;” on the other hand, he frequently found enclosure.
After recording his arrival at Dunster, he says: “From Combane to the Sterte most part of the Shore is Hilly Ground, and nere the Shore is no Store of wood; that that is ys al in Hegge rowes of Enclosures” (Vol. II., fol. 63). There was enclosed ground between Bideford and Torrington (fol. 68); from Torrington to Launceston was either “hilly and much enclosid,” or “hilly and much morisch” (fol. 69), and also from Launceston to Boscastle (fol. 72).
Entering South Devon, he remarks simply on the fertility of the soil, but remarks: “The hole Ground bytwixt Torrebay and Exmouth booth sumwhat to the shore and especially inward is wel inclosed” (Vol. III., fol. 31).
In the year of Leland’s visit, probably either 1537 or 1538, the cultivated lands of Devon and Cornwall and Somerset were largely, but not entirely, enclosed. In East Somerset alone did Leland find any land which he could describe as “champaine”; we may infer therefore that though no doubt there was a good deal of open field arable, probably still cultivated by co-aration, it existed in the form of comparatively small areas round villages and hamlets; nowhere, in Leland’s route, extending over a considerable tract of country.
Carew, in his book on Cornwall, dated 1600, gives an account of the enclosure of that county. Of the manorial tenants, he says: “They fal everywhere from Commons to Inclosure and partake not of some Eastern Tenants envious dispositions, who will sooner prejudice their owne present thrift, by continuing this mingle mangle, than advance the Lordes expectant benefit, after their terme expired” (p. 30).
This pregnant passage tells us—
(1) That the Enclosure of tilled land in Cornwall had been proceeding rapidly up to 1600 and was then nearly complete;
(2) That previous to enclosure the system of cultivation, whether it most resembled the English common field system or Scotch run-rig, had for one of its features the intermixture of holdings; and for another some elements of collective ownership or management entitling it to the name “Commons”;
(3) That Carew’s conception of a manorial tenant is not that of a freeholder, nor of a copyholder, but that of a leaseholder, whose term expires, the lord of the manor reaping the fruit, on the expiration of the lease, of any improvements the tenant may have made. He further on explains that the system of leases for three lives was practically universal in Cornwall, not in the modern form in which any three lives may be named in the lease, but depending for its continuance on the lives of the lessee, his widow and his son. It is obvious that this condition of land tenure would be more favourable to early enclosure than copyhold.
Another passage in Carew bears witness to the practical completion of enclosure. Writing of the legal conditions under which the miners pursued their enterprise, he says: “Their workes, both streame and Load, lie either in severall or in waistrell,” that is, either in enclosed land under separate exclusive ownership and occupation, or in waste. One cannot draw the inference that there was absolutely no open field land; but merely that its extent was in comparison so small as to appear negligible in this connection to Carew.
Though it is not improbable that the enclosure of Cornwall took place at an earlier stage of agricultural evolution than that of Devonshire, it is somewhat improbable that it took place at an earlier date. It is a reasonable inference from the evidence that by the end of the sixteenth century the enclosure of Devon and Cornwall was practically complete. When it began is a different question.
The charter of John by which all Devonshire except Dartmoor and Exmoor was deforested, expressly forbids the making of hedges on those two forests. This is itself some evidence that enclosure of some sort, probably enclosure of waste, for the purpose of cultivation, was going on actively in the beginning of the thirteenth century.
Attention must here be drawn to an ancient custom in Devon and Cornwall surviving to the end of the eighteenth century. William Marshall gives an account of it, and shows its probable importance in determining the character of enclosure and of all the attendant circumstances in Devon and Cornwall.
“West Devonshire. This district has no traces of common fields. The cultivated lands are all enclosed, mostly in well sized enclosures; generally large in proportion to the sizes of farms. They have every appearance of having been formed from a state of common pasture; in which state, some considerable part of the District still remains; and what is observable, the better parts of these open commons have evidently been heretofore in a state of aration; lying in obvious ridges and furrows; with generally the remains of hedgebanks, corresponding with the ridges, and with faint traces of buildings.
“From these circumstances it is understood by some men of observation, that these lands have formerly been in a state of permanent inclosure, and have been thrown up again, to a state of commonage, through a decrease in the population of the country.
“But from observations made in different parts of Devonshire, these appearances, which are common, perhaps, to every part of the county, would rather seem to have arisen out of a custom, peculiar perhaps to this part of the island, and which still remains in use, of lords of manors having the privileges of letting portions of the common lands, lying within their respective precincts, to tenants, for the purpose of taking one or more crops of corn, and then suffering the land to revert to a state of grass and commonage.
“In the infancy of society, and while the country remained in the forest state, this was a most rational and eligible way of proceeding. The rough sides of the dells and dingles with which it abounds were most fit for the production of wood; the flatter, better parts of the surface of the country were required for corn and pasturage; and how could a more ready way of procuring both have been fallen upon than that of giving due portions of it to the industrious part of the inhabitants, to clear away the wood and adjust the surface, and after having reaped a few crops of corn to pay the expense of cultivation, to throw it up to grass, before it had become too much exhausted to prevent its becoming, in a few years, profitable sward? In this manner the county would be supplied progressively as population increased, with corn and pasturage, and the forests be converted, by degrees, into common pasture.
“The wild or unreclaimed lands being at length gone over in this way, some other source of arable crops would be requisite. Indeed, before this could take place, the pasture grounds would be disproportionate to the corn lands; and out of these circumstances, it is highly probable, arose the present Inclosures.” (“Rural Economy of the West of England,” 1795, p. 31.)
The same custom was observed in Cornwall by G. B. Morgan, the Board of Agriculture Reporter. (“Agriculture of Cornwall,” p. 46.)
I believe this custom is the explanation of the huge size of the hedges which is frequently observable in Devonshire. A mound about eight feet high, and six or seven feet through, surmounted by a quickset hedge, is not uncommon. When a plot of land which had once been enclosed from the waste for cultivation, and then thrown into common pasture, with its hedges cast down, had recovered its fertility, it would naturally again be selected for enclosure and cultivation; the cast down rough stone wall, now overgrown with vegetation, would be made the foundation for a new hedge; and the same process might be repeated several times before final enclosure.
I have said above that it is reasonable to infer from the evidence that enclosure was practically complete in Devon and Cornwall by the end of the sixteenth century. It is not, however, absolutely complete to the present day; for Braunton Great Field remains uninclosed. Braunton is a little town of about two thousand inhabitants, situated between Ilfracombe and Barnstaple, near the sea coast. Braunton Field is said to have “as many acres as there are days in the year,” each nominal acre being a strip of land of about an acre in area. Properties and holdings are very much intermixed, many of the holdings are very small and cultivated by their owners. Each “acre” is separated from the rest on each side by a balk of untilled land, growing grass, yarrow, hawkweed, etc., just a foot wide. They are locally known as “launchers,” which one associates with the Dorset name “lawns” for the strips of ploughed land, and the name “landshare,” in the Stratton Court rolls for the unploughed balks.
There is also always a path, or a broader balk, called an “edge,” separating the different sets of acres, which elsewhere would be called “Shots” or “Furlongs,” from one another.
No common rights exist at present, or have existed in living memory over either the unploughed balks, or the tillage lands themselves. But old villagers remember that long ago one half of the field was kept for wheat, and the other half for potatoes, clover, etc., in other words, that there use to be a common rule for the cultivation of the field and this common rule was similar to that prevailing in the Gloucestershire every year lands. At present each occupant cultivates his strips just as he pleases. It is of course possible that this obsolete common rule is itself a survival from an older one, and that originally this field was cultivated on the two-field system so prevalent in Lincolnshire; half under wheat, half fallow, the fallow being commonable all the year, and the wheat after harvest. But on the other hand, the custom of getting a crop every year may have been the original one, and Braunton Great Field may be ancient “Every Year land” or “Infield.”