Enclosure movement

“ When the successive hatchings have furnished to the mother the reinforcement she is waiting for, the workers she has raised occupy themselves in building new cells, and in raising the wall of enclosure which is to protect the nest. ”

“ The soil of the enclosure has never been disturbed, and there is no danger that the little creatures ever will be smothered in their burrows, as frequently happens in earth that has once been dug up and filled in again. ”

“ In captivity the small and delicate species of deer, antelopes and gazelles are better cared for in enclosures that are not too large. For such creatures, freedom in a large enclosure usually means early death from accident or exposure. ”

“ Next to your lordly wall, in dignity of enclosure, comes your close-set wooden paling, which is more objectionable, because it commonly means enclosure on a larger scale than people want. Still it is significative of pleasant parks, and well-kept field walks, and herds of deer, and other such aristocratic pastoralisms, which have here and there their proper place in a country, and may be passed without any discredit. ”

“ If they are very numerous, there may be lines on both sides of the enclosure, stretching from end to end; whereas if they are few only, they would be in facing lines at the far end only of the enclosure. ”

“ It is a good plan to have the space between the inside and outside fences filled with trees and clumps of brush so as to obstruct the view. The inner enclosures are small and designed for single animals and pairs and should be about thirty or forty feet in size. There should also be several larger enclosures for the males and [Pg 74] females, for, except during the breeding season it will do no harm to allow the males to run together. Each separate enclosure should be provided with a gate so that it will be an easy matter to remove the foxes from one enclosure to another. ”

“ Entering an enclosure, we found ourselves in a delightful flower-garden, among trees and thick rose-bushes, allowed to spread in freedom, and only saved from rankness and riot by the loving hand of man. ”

“ They will walk through any opening in an enclosure, but in the absence of such a means of ingress, I have always found that they got inside by creeping through the fence, even when it was low and very thick and thorny. ”

“ A covered enclosure is made, constructed of trees, about four feet high and of various sizes, closed everywhere except at one end, where a small opening is left through which a small trench is dug, sloping very gradually at both ends, into and from the pen. ”

“ I take it that Isaac Leatham, who, by the way, was a strong advocate of enclosure in general, meant that the open field was, on the whole, enjoyed in as beneficial a manner as if it were enclosed, because there still remained the great disadvantage that each occupier had his lands in widely scattered strips, and had to waste much time and labour in cultivating them ”

“ Falconry diminished as hedges and enclosures displaced the broad expanses of land. With enclosure there could be more innovation and more efficiency. It was easier to prevent over-grazing and half- starved animals as a result. ”

“ Far more important from a broad national point of view, is the enclosure of common fields—the enclosure, that is, of land previously cultivated according to a system which did not involve the separation of one holding from another by any tangible barrier. Enclosure of this sort, when suddenly effected, as by a Private Act of Enclosure, is rightly termed the extinction of a village community. ”

“ The first step will be to accustom the birds to feed inside a wire enclosure, with some dark building, such as a barn or stable, at one end of the enclosure, and connected with it by means of a door. The birds all having been coaxed inside the enclosure to feed, shut the door of the enclosure quietly, and gradually drive the birds into the dark building. Here the birds will be left all night, and owing to the darkness will not damage themselves. ”

“ So enclosure caused distress to many individuals, but was for the good of the whole nation. The history of enclosure is really the history of progress in farming; the conversion of land badly tilled in the old common fields, and of waste land little more valuable than the prairies; into well-managed fruitful farms. That much of the common-field land when enclosed was laid down to grass is certainly true, and certainly inevitable if it paid best under grass. [448] No one can expect the holders of land naturally best suited for grass to keep it under tillage for philanthropic purposes. ”

“ At the foot of the orchard, and on the very edge of the woodland, lies a small enclosure, where from the head of the slope you catch sight, between the apple trees, of a number of white stones glimmering; but your eyes rest rather on the figure of a girl who has just left the enclosure, and is mounting the slope with a spade on her shoulder. ”

“ South of its unenclosed limits there flows a rapid-running stream, down in whose barren valley are placed the long unsightly wooden stables, the big square corrals for quartermaster's stock, the huge stacks of hay and straw, and vast piles of cord-wood. Farther east along this tortuous stream, and on its left bank, too, midway between fort and city, is another big brown enclosure, in which are dozens of sheds and storehouses. ”

“ Turning, he struck off from the track at a run, crossed a triangle of turf and found himself confronted by the wide hedge. But he could see over it, and what he saw was an odd little enclosure formed by one end of the barn and two walls of packing cases and boxes piled one upon another. In the center of the enclosure stood a girl with the bluest of blue eyes, the reddest of red hair and the most despairing of freckled faces. ”

“ The opening of the outer enclosure is disguised, as much as possible, by bamboos and branches of trees stuck into the ground, so as to make it look like a natural jungle. It is not without much difficulty that the leader can be induced to enter: but, after he has passed, all the others immediately follow. ”

“ Others refer to the contemporary complaints of the bad effect of enclosure upon the quality of wool. The breed of sheep which could be kept in enclosed pastures was said to produce coarser wool than those grazing on the hilly pastures, and this deterioration in the quality of wool so cut down the profits from enclosures that men now preferred to plow them up again, and resume tillage. ”

“ This process is repeated upon the entire herd until they are all in a state of furious excitement, and, as soon as they have reached that stage, the gate of the enclosure is thrown open, and the frightened animals dash out of it. ”

“ There was a great quantity of young timber, particularly birch, in this enclosure, which is nearly all destroyed in consequence of the fences being pulled down.”
“Serridge Enclosure was made about twelve years ago. It contained 409 acres 3 roods 20 poles, and was fenced with a dry stone wall, of which but little remains, being quite open in many parts; there are no young trees of any sort, and but few old trees.” ”

“ In fact, the history of enclosures is part of the history of the great revolution in agriculture by which the manorial system was converted into the modern system as we know it to-day of several ownership and the triumvirate of landlord, tenant farmer, and labourer. No one could have objected to the enclosure of waste; it was that of the common arable fields and of the common pasture that excited the indignation of contemporaries. They saw many of the small holders displaced and the countryside depopulated ”

“ And yet the grounds are large enough, there is room for all; the walks lend themselves to long strolls. No matter: they want to roam afar. If they were free, they would disperse in every direction. Last year, at the same time, the colonists of the enclosure left the village and I never saw them again. ”

“ Failing to find a natural enclosure, the trapper constructs one, using such material as may be found on the spot. It is advisable as a rule to make as little disturbance as possible and to give the enclosure a natural appearance. ”

“ This diversity in the effect of enclosure on the face of the country is a symbol of the diversity of its effect upon the material, social, and moral conditions of the local peasantry, who, like the land itself, may be said to have undergone Enclosure. ”

“ A long strip of netting was attached to upright stakes, to form an enclosure with an opening towards the sea, constructed like a fishing weir in such a way that the fish enter the enclosure at high tide and are unable to escape. ”

“ Sometimes also a large enclosure is formed with a narrow entrance, and having a road lined with trees leading to it, broad at the outer end, and gradually decreasing in width towards the mouth of the pound. ”

“ In India the enclosure is a vast and complicated trap, with an opening a mile or so in width, into which the elephants are driven gradually, and which is closed behind them as they advance into smaller and smaller prisons. ”

“ A lid covers it altogether when the weather is cold and especially when the rain threatens a flood, which would have disastrous effects on this undrained ground. It is raised more or less high according to the state of the day. The enclosure has ample room for two dozen chambers, each with its potsherd and its occupant. Moreover, wide alleys and spacious cross-roads allow long walks to be taken without hindrance. ”

“ The enclosure must not be covered over with wire-netting, for the birds, whenever startled, would fly- 56 - upwards and injure themselves—and it is wonderful with what perseverance a pheasant will fly up again and again, until its pate has no skin left, and sometimes until it can fly up no more. So the keeper sometimes covers the enclosure with string netting, small enough to prevent the birds escaping, and large enough to prevent them catching their heads and hanging themselves. ”

“ On being removed into a sufficiently large enclosure, with an abundance of vegetable material within reach, the male began at once to throw it up into a heap behind him, by a scratching motion of his powerful feet, which projected each footful as he grasped it for a considerable distance in the rear. ”

“ Agriculturally, enclosure of arable land in the midst of unenclosed arable land is a preliminary step to its conversion into pasture, the hedge is erected to keep animals in; enclosure of land in the midst of open common pasture is a preliminary step to tillage, the hedge keeps animals out. ”

“ Such an enclosure therefore looked at a distance like the hurdles in which we enclose the sheep at night in Sweden. They were really no closer than hurdles, being only destined to keep out the greater animals, such as cows and horses. The hogs are kept near the farm-houses every where about Philadelphia, and therefore this enclosure does not need to be made closer on their account. Chesnut trees were commonly made use of for this [92] purpose, because this wood keeps longest against putrefaction, and an enclosure made of it can stand for thirty years together. ”

“ If an animal only has to make one trip into the enclosure to get all the bait he will not be as apt to be taken as if he made several trips, which he is pretty sure to do if the bait is cut into small pieces and scattered around in the enclosure. ”

“ Other cottagers kept cows by right of hiring their cottages and common rights, and on enclosure the land was thrown into a farm, and the cottager had to sell his cow. Two examples taken from the Bedfordshire Report illustrate the consequences of enclosure to the small man. ”

“ A whole herd is confined in an enclosed space, or margueira. From time to time men on horseback drive fifty or sixty beasts into a narrower and stronger enclosure, with a sloping floor of brick, boards or concrete, which is always very slippery. ”

“ Systematic enclosure for the purpose of sheep-farming on a large scale was but the final step in a process of progressively less intense cultivation which had been going on for centuries. The attention of some historians has been devoted too exclusively to the covetous sheep-master, against whom contemporary invective was directed, and the process which was going on in fields where no encloser was at work has escaped their notice. ”

“ Here, as in the Hertfordshire district described above, and in the Wiltshire district dealt with in Chapter X., “Enclosure and Depopulation,” enclosure is one aspect of a change of which the most vital aspects are the engrossing of farms and the consolidation of properties. ”

“ Enclosure has been effected by simply enclosing the strips of arable land in the open field as they are. The fact that no common rights existed over the Field, supposing this always to have been the case, would have made such enclosure almost a matter of indifference to the other occupiers; and the motive, no doubt, would be the desire to lay the strip down in pasture. The whole field is known to the villagers as 252“the tillage land.” ”

“ As soon as the herd has entered the first enclosure, strong barricades are erected across the entrance; and as there is no ditch at this point, the hunters take advantage of the remarkable dread which the animal has of fire, to scare them from this most vulnerable part of the fortification. Fires are gradually lit all round the first enclosure, so that the only way of escape which is left is by the entrance to the second. ”

“ When their excitement has somewhat subsided, they are enticed one by one to enter a narrow passage leading to the second enclosure. As soon as one enters in, the entrance is closed, and as the passage is so narrow that it cannot turn round, it soon fatigues itself by unavailing exertions to beat down the barrier. ”

“ When, however, the survey was made, change had begun, though not in the direction of enclosure, of which there was still little. Conversion to meadow had proceeded without it: nearly all the parcels of the various tenants in East field and West field are said to have been meadow; arable still predominated only in Middle field, and even there it had begun to yield. [102]
At Westwick, Whorlton, Bolam and Willington in Durham, and at Welford, Northamptonshire, a similar transformation had taken place. ”