They had land, and they had stock; and, as an escape from
absolute ruin, they let the land to tenants who took over the stock and,
probably, as the need arose, replaced it with their own beasts. This
revolution, already in full swing in the fourteenth century, paved the
way for the present order of things, under which the tenant pays a fixed
rent for the use of land and buildings, and finds the capital for
farming.
THE WASTE
We have next to deal with the waste. The meaning of the term is
clear--it signifies land which, from the poverty of the soil or other
reasons, had never been brought under cultivation. The commons that
still survive are mostly of that description, the more valuable land
having been resumed during one of the successive periods of enclosure,
or--piecemeal.
Originally, there is little doubt, such land belonged to the family or
sept, by whom it was used as forest for game or as pasturage for cattle.
Unlike the arable field or the common meadow, it was not distributed
into sets, but enjoyed in common by all who possessed the right of
stocking it. In a genial article in the "Antiquary" describing how the
world wagged in his parish of Blewbury, Berks, in the eighteenth
century, the Rev. N. L. Whitchurch observes: "There were 'cow commons'
on the downs in those days, and a road from the village is still called
the 'cow way.' In the early morning a man would collect the various cows
of the village, which he drove to pasture for the day.
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