at land was in tillage and had been converted from tillage into
pasture. The commission issued precepts to the sheriffs, who summoned
jurors, and the inquests were to be returned, certified, to the Court of
Exchequer. Any prosecution for penalties should take place within three
years, and the act continues for ten years."

2 and 3 Philip and Mary, cap. 2, recites the former acts of 4 Henry
VII., cap. 19, etc,, which it enforces. It enacts:

"That as some doubts had arisen as to the interpretation of the words
twenty acres of land, the act should apply to houses with twenty acres
of land, according to the measurement of the ancient statute; and it
appoints commissioners to inquire as to all houses pulled down and all
land converted from pasture into tillage since the 4th Henry VII. The
commissioners were to take security by recognizance from offenders,
and to re-edify the houses and re-convert the land into tillage, and
to assess the tenants for life toward the repairs. The amount expended
under order of the commissioners was made recoverable against the
estate, and the occupiers were made liable to their orders; and they had
power to commit persons refusing to give security to carry out the act."

2 and 3 Philip and Mary, cap. 3, was passed to provide for the increase
of milch cattle, and it enacts:

"That one milch-cow shall be kept and calf reared for every sixty sheep
and ten oxen during the following seven years."

The 2d Elizabeth, cap. 2, confirms the previously quoted acts of 4 Henry
VII., cap. 19; 7 Henry VIII., cap. 1; 27 Henry VIII., cap. 22; 27 Henry
VIII., cap. 18; and it enacts:

"That all farm-houses belonging to suppressed monasteries should be
kept up, and that all lands which had been in tillage for four years
successively at any time since the 20th Henry VIII., should be kept in
tillage under a penalty of 10s. per acre, which was payable to the heir
in reversion, or in case he did not levy it, to the Crown."

31 Elizabeth, cap. 7, went further; and in order to provide allotments
for the cottagers, many of whom were dispossessed from their land, it
provided:

"For avoiding the great inconvenience which is found by experience to
grow by the erecting and building of great number of cottages, which
daily more and more increased in many parts of the realm, it was enacted
that no person should build a cottage for habitation or dwelling,
nor convert any building into a cottage, without assigning and l