es; under Geo. I, 16 Acts, enclosing 17,960 acres; under Geo. II,
226 Acts, enclosing 318,778 acres; from 1760 to 1797, 1,532 Acts,
enclosing 2,804,197 acres.

The period from 1700 to 1765 has been called the golden age of the
agricultural classes, as the fifteenth century has been called the
golden age of the labourer, but the farmer and landlord were often
hard pressed; rates were low, wages were fair, and the demand for the
produce of the farm constant owing to the growth of the population,
yet prices for wheat, stock, and wool were often unremunerative to the
farmer, and we are told in 1734, 'necessity has compelled our farmers
to more carefulness and frugality in laying out their money than they
were accustomed to in better times.'[368] The labourer's wages varied
according to locality. The assessment of wages by the magistrates in
Lancashire for 1725 remains, and according to that the ordinary
labourer earned 10d. a day in the summer and 9d. in the winter months,
with extras in harvest, and this may be taken as the average pay at
that date. Threshing and winnowing wheat by piece-work cost 2s. a
quarter, oats 1s. a quarter. Making a ditch 4 feet wide at the top, 18
inches wide at the bottom, and 3 feet deep, double set with quicks,
cost 1s. a rood (8 yards), 10d. if without the quick.[369] The
magistrates remarked in their proclamation on the plenty of the times
and were afraid that for the northern part of the county, which was
then very backward, the wages were too liberal. Wheat was,
unfortunately, that year 46s. 1d. a quarter, but a few years before
and after that date it was cheap--20s., 24s., 28s. a quarter--and
fresh meat was only 3d. a lb., so that their wages went a long
way.[370] A considerable portion of the wages was paid in kind, not
only in drink but in food, though this custom became less frequent as
the century went on.[371]

As for his food, Eden tells us[372] that the diet of Bedford workhouse
in 1730 was much better than that of the most industrious labourer in
his own home, and this was the diet: bread and cheese or broth for
breakfast, boiled beef hot or cold, sometimes with suet pudding for
dinner, and bread and cheese or broth for supper. This must have been
sufficiently monotonous, and we may be sure the labourer at home very
seldom had boiled beef for dinner; but in the north he was much
cleverer than his southern brother in cooking cereal foods such as
oatmeal porridge, crowdie (also of