Eden gives an account of the condition of the arable land in seven Cumberland parishes, written either in December, 1794, or January, 1795.
“Gilcrux. About 400 acres of common field have been enclosed within the last fifty years” ([“State of the Poor,” Vol. II.], p. 76).
“Hesket. No more than 200 acres have been enclosed within the last fifty years. A large part appears to have had its hedges planted a little before that period” ([Ibid.], p. 81).
“Ainstable. Area 5,120 acres of which 3,480 are common.[106] About 400 acres have been enclosed in the common fields within the last fifty years.... The average rent of land is about 18s. per acre; but it is observable that here and in most parts of Cumberland, an extensive common right[107] is attached to most arable land” (p. 46).
“Croglin. The average rent of open fields is 9s. 6d. the acre, of inclosures, 15s. or 16s. About 100 acres of common-field land have been enclosed within the last fifty years; but a great part of the arable land still remains in narrow, crooked dales, or ranes, as they are called” (p. 67).
“Castle Carrock. The greatest part of this parish remains in dales, or doles as they are called; which are strips of cultivated land belonging to different proprietors, separated from each other by ridges of grass land; about 100 acres may have been enclosed in the last fifty years” (p. 65).
“Cumrew. The land is cultivated in the old Cumberland manner; the grass ridges in the fields are from twenty to thirty feet wide; and some of them are 1000 feet in length. Grazing cattle often injure the crops” (p. 68).
“Warwick. Almost the whole of the cultivated land (1126 acres) has been enclosed within the last fifty years. It formerly, although divided, lay in long strips, or narrow dales, separated from each other by ranes, or narrow ridges of land, which are left unploughed. In this manner a great deal, and perhaps the whole, of the cultivated lands in Cumberland, was anciently disposed” (p. 92).