Note 93 — Chapter XVII · THE PROGRESS OF ENCLOSURE WITHOUT PARLIAMENTARY SANCTION.

William Pitt, who made a second survey of the agriculture of Leicestershire for the Board, published in 1809, gives an interesting account of the enclosure of the vale of Belvoir. This, the north-eastern corner of Leicestershire, was enclosed between 1760 and 1800; and as a result a complete change in the cultivation took place; the rich land in the valleys, which had been arable common fields, was laid down in grass, and the tenants forbidden under heavy penalties to plough it; while the summits of the hills and edges of the vales, which had been sheep-runs, were converted into arable land.