of the petty tenants, and the absorption of their lands in larger farms. The loss of pasture would make a man less reluctant to sell. Tillage and pasture worked in with each other; together, they brought the poor man a sufficient reward for his toil. When the pasture was gone, his cow became an expense instead of a source of income. Her milk was too dearly purchased when he could no longer feed her half the year in the open field, and the other half in the common pasture. And so the good wages often to be got in the town attracted him more and more. He sold his few roods or acres, and went to swell the population of cities.
Suffolk and most of Essex were so early enclosed that they are mentioned by Tusser, who highly approved of the better farming, made possible by enclosing the, "champion."[1] But in 1795, in his Survey of Essex, Young found the part next Middlesex, "in about 40 parishes, still very much in open fields." In Kent, no portion "was occupied by a community of persons, as in many other counties," Two-thirds of Hertfordshire were enclosed. "The larger common fields lie towards Cambridgeshire" (Young's Second Survey). In Warwick, rather more than a third was enclosed. About 1754 the south and west parts had been mostly open fields (Marshall, Survey of 1794). Pitt's Survey of 1813 gives two-thirds of Worcester as enclosed (not the S.E. corner). "The greater part of this country is ancient enclosure." Part of the Vale of Evesham and some other "rich common fields are of modern enclosure."
Durham was enclosed from 1658 to soon after the Restoration. In Northamptonshire enclosure was early (it is mentioned in the "Four Supplications," 1530). The old enclosed land was chiefly turned into grazing farms. Shropshire was very early enclosed. In Norfolk, the rebels did not complain of the enclosing of arable land, so probably this had been stopped. One-fourth of the arable land there was in common fields even in 1796. But most of east Norfolk is "a very old enclosed country" (Marshall). The Survey of 1796 says:
- ↑ Tusser wrote in the reign of Elizabeth. See note at end of chapter.
