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.