the other hand,
an advantage was really felt, I think, in the opening that arose for
building cottages on the newly-acquired freeholds. Quite a number of
cottages seem to date from that period; and I infer that the opportunity
was seized by various men who wished to provide new house-room for
themselves, or for a married son or daughter. They could still go to
work almost on the old lines. Perhaps the recognized price--seventy
pounds, it is said to have been, for building a cottage of three
rooms--would have to be exceeded a little, when timbers for floor and
roof could no longer be had for the cutting out of fir-trees on the
common; and yet there, after all, were the trees, inexpensive to buy;
and there was the peasant tradition, still unimpaired, to encourage and
commend such enterprise.

There is really little need, however, for these explanations of the
people's unconcern at the disaster which had, in fact, befallen them.
The passing of the common seemed unimportant at the time, not so much
because a few short-lived advantages concealed its meaning as because
the real disadvantages were slow to appear. At first the enclosure was
rather a nominal event than an actual one. It had been made in theory;
in practice it was deferred. I have just said that in many cases the
boundaries were left unmarked; I may add now that to this day they have
not quite all been defined, although the few spots which remain unfenced
are not worthy of notice. They are to be found only in places where
building is impossible; elsewhere all is now closed in. For it is the
recent building boom that has at last caused the enclosure to take its
full effect. Before that began, not more than ten or twelve years ago,
there were abundant patches of heath still left open; and on many a spot
where nowadays the well-to-do have their tennis or their afternoon tea,
of old I have seen donkeys peacefully grazing. The donkeys have had to
go, their room being wanted, and not many cottagers can keep a donkey
now; but kept they were, and in considerable numbers, until these late
years, in spite of the enclosure. But if the end could be deferred so
long, one may judge how slowly the change began--slowly and
inconspicuously, so that those who saw the beginning could almost ignore
it. Even the cows--once as numerous as the donkeys--were not given up
quite immediately, though in a few years they were all gone, I am told.
But long after them, heath for thatching and