So far as I know, Hunmanby is the only place where it has been recorded as having been put into execution, and it has been doubted whether it was not practically a dead letter. My own impression is that the distribution of the “sicks” at Laxton was consciously arranged in accordance with the provisions of the Act, that originally the method of choosing the fallow crops in Castor and Ailesworth was an application of it, and also the six years’ course used for part of the fields of Barrowden and Luffenham, but I can bring no evidence to support this view. If, however, it is correct, the Act may have been of considerable use to many other parishes also by clearly defining methods of procedure which otherwise would be determined by custom only.

CHAPTER X.
ENCLOSURE AND DEPOPULATION.

The very word “enclosure” to a historical student suggests “depopulation.” The two words are almost treated as synonyms in Acts of Parliament, tracts, and official documents of the sixteenth century. In the seventeenth century we find the proverbs, “Horn and thorn shall make England forlorn,” “Inclosures make fat beasts and lean poor people,” while the superstition grew up that inclosed land was cursed, and must within three generations pass away from the families of “these madded and irreligious depopulators,” these “dispeoplers of towns, ruiners of commonwealths, occasioners of beggary ... cruell inclosiers.”

After the Restoration, the literary attack on enclosure becomes more feeble, the defence more powerful. W. Wales in 1781, the Rev. J. Howlett in 1786, published statistics to show that enclosure had the effect of increasing the population, the latter tract being widely quoted; there ceased to be any opposition from the Central Government to enclosure, and private Acts were passed in continually increasing numbers; finally the one practical measure carried through by the Board of Agriculture was the General Enclosure Act of 1801, to simplify and cheapen Parliamentary proceedings. Dr. Cunningham sums up the case as follows: “He (Joseph Massie) was aware that enclosing had meant rural depopulation in the sixteenth century, and he too hastily assumed that the enclosing which had been proceeding in the eighteenth century was attended with similar results; but the conditions of the time were entirely changed. Despite the reiterated allegation,[36] it is impossible to believe that enclosing in the eighteenth century implied either more pasture farming or less employment for labour. The prohibition of export kept down the price of wool; the bounty on exportation gave direct encouragement to corn-growing; the improved agriculture gave more employment to labour than the old.”[37]

Taken in one sense, I must admit the substantial accuracy of this opinion. On the other hand I am disposed to maintain the general accuracy of the statements with regard to depopulation made by the opponents of enclosure, (a) provided these statements are understood in the sense in which they are meant, and (b) statements only with regard to the part of the country the writer is familiar with are regarded, and his inferences with regard to other parts are neglected.

For it must be remembered that side by side with the movement for the enclosure of arable fields, there was going on a movement for the enclosure of wastes. From [Appendix A.] it will be seen that 577 Acts for enclosing wastes and common pastures were passed between 1702 and 1802, and over 800,000 acres were so added to the cultivated area of England and Wales. There were besides enclosures occasionally on a large scale by landed proprietors of wastes on which either common rights were not exercised, or on which they were too feebly maintained to necessitate an Act. The Board of Agriculture report for Notts records that 10,666 acres had recently been so enclosed from Sherwood Forest alone.[38] Lastly there was the continual pushing forward of cultivation by farmers, squatters, etc. It is impossible to do more than form a vague guess as to the quantity of land so enclosed, but reasons will be given later for the belief that it was far greater than the area of commons and waste enclosed by Act of Parliament.