Victoria County History : Gloucestershire, Vol. II. (A. Con- stable
and Co. 41 us. 6d. net per vol.)—This second volume, among other matters, deals with the ecclesiastical history, the religious houses, which wero of more than average importance, and the various industries of the county, cloth- making and the breeding of sheep among them. St. Peter's Abbey at Gloucester at the dissolution had a revenue of £1,846 (including the revenues of four cells) ; there were between thirty and forty monks. Tewkesbury, with three cells, had £1,598, with about as many. Winchcombe, with £759, had sixteen. Clearly there was much waste. Some facts under the heading of agriculture have a bearing on the small holdings question. Aldsworth was enclosed early in the nineteenth century, with this result : "1,800 sheep were bred as compared with 200, 20 beasts against 10, 360 tods of wool against 50, besides an additional 1,640 quarters of corn produced per annum." It is interesting to note that the average crop of wheat per acre was before the enclosure six bushels, after twelve ; now it is about thirty. Our methods are not so backward as some politicians are pleased to say.
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