The Domesday of Inclosures, 1517 - 1518. Edited by I. S. Leadam.
2 vols. (Longman and Co. 36s.)—In 1517 Wolsey, urged by financial reasons, determined to put a check on the growing fre- quency of inclosnres. He appointed a numerous Commission of Inquiry. In these volumes we have a part of this Commission's re- turns. Circumstances have compelled the Royal Historical Society, for which Mr. Leadam has been at work, to limit the scope of the publication. All the available material, too, has not been examined. It seemed unadvisable to wait till this could be done. A very considerable mass of facts, however, has been collected and digested, facts which have no inconsiderable relation to present questions that concern the land. The editor has carefully analysed, and set forth in elaborate tables, these facts as they concern the counties of Berks and Bucks. In Berke 6,615 acres were inclosed in the following proportions : for park, 274; for arable, 4,068; for pasture, 2,273. A displacement of population amounting to 670 followed, and 119 houses, of which seven were manors and one a parsonage, were "decayed." In Bucks there were 8,9851 acres inclosed. The figures of " parks " is again insignificant (61 acres). Pasture and arable change places, for of the former there are 7,2621, and of the latter 1,662; 1,179 houses are decayed, four of them being manors, ten cottages, and one a barn (the two latter terms do not appear in the Berke inquisition). The displaced population was 1,131. Mr. Leadam's work will repay study. We do not pretend to give more than the barest outline of it.
Previous page
