the eighteenth century. Each occupier of land
in the common fields contributed to the town flock a number of sheep
in proportion to his holding, which were placed under a shepherd who
fed them and folded them on all parts of the township. A similar
practice was observed with the common herd of cows, which were placed
under one cowherd who tended them by day and brought them back at
night to be milked, distributing them among their respective owners,
and in the morning they were collected by the sound of the
horn.--_Rural Economy of Southern Counties_, ii. 351.

[570] _Report of Committee on Waste Lands_ (1795), p. 204. Ground was
frequently left by the Acts for the erection of cottages for the poor,
and special allotments were made to Guardians for the use of the poor,
in addition to the land allotted to all according to their respective
claims. Can any one doubt that if there had been a systematic robbery
of the smaller holders on enclosure they would not have risen 'en
masse'?

[571] Slater, _op. cit._ p. 133.

[572] _Agricultural State of the Kingdom_ (1816), p. 8.

[573] _Report_, p. 204.

[574] _State of the Poor_, pp. i, xviii.

[575] Lecky, _England in the Eighteenth Century_, vi. 191.

[576] Slater, _op. cit._ p. 191.

[577] _Report_, p. 27.

[578] _See_ above. Another estimate puts them at 180,000.

[579] _Tour_, i. (2), 37, 38.

[580] Toynbee, _Industrial Revolution_, p. 62.

[581] Hasbach, _op. cit._ p. 71.

[582] Marshall, _Review of Agriculture, Reports Western Department_,
p. 18.

[583] _Parliamentary Reports, Commissioners_ (1897), xv. 32.

[584] _Parliamentary Accounts and Papers_, lxxx. 21. The number of
those owning over 500 acres does not concern the small owner or the
yeoman class, but they were: from 500 acres to 1,000, 4,799; from
1,000 to 2,000, 2,719; from 2,000 to 5,000, 1,815; from 5,000 to
10,000, 581; from 10,000 to 20,000, 223; from 20,000 to 50,000, 66;
from 50,000 to 100,000, 3; over 100,000, 1. For the numbers of the
'holdings' of various sizes in 1875 and 1907 see below, p. 334. The
term 'holdings', however, includes freeholds and leaseholds.

CHAPTER XIX

1816-1837

DEPRESSION

The summer of 1816 was wretched; the distress, aggravated by the bad
season, caused riots everywhere. At Bideford the mob interfered to
prevent the export of a cargo of potatoes; at Bridport they broke
into the bakers' shops. Incendiary fires broke out night after night
in the