Of one parish, Over, we only know that it was open in 1793.
Of nine parishes, Borough Green, Croydon-cum-Clapton, East Hatley, Papworth St. Agnes, Long Stanton, Westley Waterless, Wisbeach St. Peter, Witcham and Witchford, we only know that they were enclosed before the date of tithe commutation.
Of two, Little Gransden and Stanground, we have no information.
I have before laid stress upon the eastward march of enclosure in the midlands during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, which the following comparison illustrates:—
| — | Parliamentary Enclosure. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| In the 18th Century. | In the 19th Century. | |||
| Acts. | Acres. | Acts. | Acres. | |
| Warwick | 91 | 124,828 | 23 | 24,731 |
| Cambridge | 23 | 51,028 | 85 | 147,311 |
Celia Fiennes traversed the county. She describes the part from Littlebery (in Essex) to Cambridge as entirely open (p. 48), and makes no mention of enclosures in the description of the view from the “Hogmogoge Hills” (p. 49), but she speaks of “good enclosure” between Cambridge and Huntingdon.
Though Cambridgeshire was on the whole so late in undergoing enclosure, the conversion of arable into tillage had so far proceeded that about one-fifth of the county was included in the Inquisition of 1517, and it was found that in this part 1,422 acres had been enclosed and converted into parks or pasture (Leadam, “Domesday of Inclosures”).
Huntingdon.
George Maxwell, the Board of Agriculture reporter, says that Huntingdon contains one hundred and six towns and hamlets, of which forty-one were then (1793) wholly enclosed, and of the remaining sixty-five a very considerable part was enclosed. He computes that about a half of the “high land part” of the county, which would, of course, include all old arable land, was still unenclosed (“Agriculture of Huntingdon,” p. 16).