e
population no fewer than eleven-twelfths were employed in
agriculture.[198]

It was sought to remedy enclosure and depopulation by legislation, and
the statute of 4 Hen. VII, c. 19, was passed, which stated in its
preamble that where in some towns (meaning townships or villages) 200
persons used to be occupied and lived by their lawful labours, now
there are occupied only two or three herdsmen, so that the residue
fall into idleness, and husbandry is greatly decayed, churches
destroyed, the bodies there buried not prayed for, the parsons and
curates wronged, and the defence of this land enfeebled and impaired;
the latter point being wisely deemed one of the most serious defects
in the new system of farming. Indeed, the encouragement of tillage was
largely prompted by the desire to see the people fed on good
home-grown corn and made strong and healthy by rural labour for the
defence of England. It therefore enacted that houses which within
three years before had been let for farms with 20 acres of tillage
land should be kept in that condition, under a penalty of forfeiting
half the profits to the king or the lord of the fee. Soon after Henry
VIII ascended the throne came another statute, 6 Hen. VIII, c. 5, that
all townships, villages, &c., decayed and turned from husbandry and
tillage into pasture, shall by the owner be rebuilt and the land made
mete for tillage within one year; and this was repeated and made
perpetual by a law of the next year.[199]

But legislation was in vain; the price of wool was now beginning to
advance so that the attraction of sheep farming was irresistible, and
laws, which asked landowners and farmers to turn from what was
profitable to what was not, were little likely to be observed,
especially as the administration of these laws was in the hands of
those whose interest it was that they should not be observed.

Their ill success, however, did not deter the Parliament from fresh
efforts. 25 Hen. VIII, c. 13, sets forth the condition of affairs in
its preamble: as many persons have accumulated into few, great
multitude of farms and great plenty of cattle, especially sheep,
putting such land as they can get into pasture, and enhanced the old
rents and raised the prices of corn, cattle, wool, and poultry almost
double, 'by reason whereof a mervaylous multitude and nombre of the
people of this realme be not able to provide drynke and clothes
necessary for themselves, but be so discoraged with