Note 22 — Chapter II

The case is put vigorously by Sir Thomas More in 1516: "Your sheep, that were wont to be so meek and tame, are now become so great devourers and so wild that they eat up and swallow down the very men themselves. They consume, destroy, and devour whole fields, houses, and cities; for look in what part of the realm doth grow the finest, and therefore dearest wool, there noblemen and gentlemen, yea, and certain abbots, holy men, God wot! not contenting themselves with the yearly revenues and profits that were wont to grow to their forefathers and predecessors of their lands, nor being content that they live in rest and pleasure—nothing profiting, yea, much annoying the weal publick—leave no ground for tillage; they enclose all into pastures, they throw down houses, they pluck down towns, and leave nothing standing but only the church to be made a sheep-house. And, as though you lost no small quantity of ground by forests, chases, lands, and parks, those good holy men turn all dwelling places and all glebe lands into desolation and wilderness, enclosing many thousands acres of ground together within one pale or hedge," while those who formerly lived on the land, "poor, silly, wretched souls, men, women, husbands, wives, fatherless children, widows, and woeful mothers with young babes, were starving and homeless. And where many labourers had existed by field labour, only a single shepherd or herdsman was occupied."—Utopia, book i.