arable land was divided into 2790 strips, each averaging less than half-an-acre—some were only twelve feet wide. In North Luffenham, 1493 acres were held in 1631 strips. When the corn had been cut, the whole of the land was thrown open to be roamed over by animals as common pasturage for the parish. The "three-course husbandry" was followed—a rotation of wheat, barley and fallow for each field. In North and South Luffenham there were also 391 acres of common, "waste of a manor"; and in Barrowden there was also a tract of common land known as the Cow Pasture; and in North Luffenham there were 143 acres of common pasture. The "Cow Pasture" was held in severalty to get a crop of hay, and the cattle only went in when the hay was carried.
It is very easy to see the effect which the abolition of this system must have had on village life, and ultimately on town life. A strong inducement to remain in the village was gone, and the work on larger farms by no means absorbed all the labour formerly expended on the "open field." But parishes like Barrowden and the Luffenhams might have been found everywhere till comparatively recent times. About twenty years ago the traces of the town-lands round a Berkshire village were pointed out to me—the ridges and furrows were still quite visible. The right of common is very tenacious; it has not even been decided whether it is ever lost more than temporarily, even when the land has been built over, or turned into a reservoir, so as to be quite incapable of producing crops on which to feed cattle. But there is no such right in respect of a house which has no land attached to it, and no means of housing cattle.[1] The legal aspects of "common-right" became very practical when Sir Thomas Mary on Wilson tried to enclose Hampstead Heath, but, as the Metropolitan Board of Works bought the Heath, the suit was not fought out.
Theoretically, no enclosure can now be made without the consent of the Board of Agriculture, and the sanction of Parliament. By the Act of 1893, the lord of a manor if he enclosed could be challenged to show that no rights of common existed; or he could plead the Statutes of
- ↑ Hunter.
