Acts were for enclosing commonable waste, the rest for enclosing open
and commonable fields and lands.[564] Owing to the expense an Act was
only obtained in the last resource. It was also because of the
expense[565] that many landlords desirous to enclose were unable to do
so, and therefore devoted their attention to the improvement of the
common fields. That agriculture benefited by enclosure there is no
possible doubt, but it was attended with great hardships. The
landowner generally gained, for his rents increased largely. In
twenty-three parishes of Lincolnshire, for instance, his rents doubled
on enclosure. But the expenses were so heavy that his gain was often
very small, and sometimes he was a loser by the process. As for the
farmers, the poorer ones suffered, for more capital was needed for
enclosed lands, and the process generally was so slow, taking from
two to six years before the final award was given, that many farmers
were thrown out in the management of their farms, for they did not
know where their future lands would be allotted. That the poor
suffered greatly is indubitable: 'By nineteen Enclosure Acts out of
twenty the poor are injured, in some cases grossly injured,' wrote
Young in 1801.[566] In the Acts it was endeavoured to treat them
fairly,[567] and allotments were made to them, or money paid on
enclosure in lieu of their rights of common, or small plots of land;
but the expense of enclosing small allotments was proportionately very
great, generally too great, and they had to be sold, while the sums of
money were often spent in the alehouse. The results of sixty-eight
Acts were investigated in the eastern counties, with the result that
in all but fifteen the poor were injured. It was generally found that
they had lost their cows.

Its effect on the smallholder is well described by Davis in his
_Report on Wilts_.[568] There, before enclosure, the tenants usually
occupied yard-lands consisting of a homestead, 2 acres of meadow, 18
acres of arable, generally in eighteen or twenty strips, with a right
on the common meadows, common fields and downs for 40 sheep, and as
many cattle as the tenant could winter with the fodder he grew. The 40
sheep were kept by a common shepherd with the common herd, were taken
every day to the downs and brought back every night to be folded on
the arable fields, the rule being to fold 1,000 sheep on a 'tenantry'
acre (three-quarters of a statute acre) every night.[569]