much more luxurious and refined. Hence they were generally upon the alert to improve their estates, as the only means of keeping pace with the increasing elegance of their age. Accordingly, they enclosed waste grounds contiguous to their properties, or patches of arable land, for the purpose of laying them down in pasture, they discouraged those petty farms in which the tenants gained a scanty living almost exclusively by tillage, and they endeavoured to throw such a number of acres together as would enable the occupant to keep a considerable stock. There can be no doubt, that these arrangements, however selfishly intended, were highly conducive to the national benefit. Their operation was gradually to cover the agricultural districts of England with handsome mansions, respectable farm-houses and buildings, extensive flocks and herds, fields excellently cultivated, and cottages inhabited in

An enclosure is, "when any man hath taken away and enclosed any other men's commons, or hath pulled down houses of husbandry, and converted the lands from tillage to pasture." Charge of Mr. Hales, one of the commissioners of enclosures. (Strype, Eccl. Mem. Appendix II. 362.) This gentleman thus describes the changes which these arrangements had wrought in the population. "Towns, villages, and parishes do daily decay in great numbers; houses of husbandry, and poor men's habitations be utterly destroyed every where, and in no small number; husbandry and tillage, which is the very paunch of the commonwealth, that is, that which nourisheth the whole body of the realm, greatly abated: and finally, the King's subjects wonderfully diminished; as those can well declare that confer the new books of the musters with the old, or with the chronicles." Ibid, 352.

as much comfort as mere labour can be expected to afford. From these things would necessarily flow, with considerable rapidity, populous towns, thriving manufactures, wealth, intelligence, and refinement. While, however, the system of rural economy was under alteration, it is obvious that some inconvenience might be sustained by the peasantry, and it is certain, that a body, so impatient of innovation, would not fail to attribute all its evils to a departure from established habits. Such was now the general impression of those who formed the rustic population of England. They considered the enclosures, the extended farms, and the breeding of live stock which had become objects of desire with the gentry, merely as heartless devices to impoverish and degrade the humble cultivator'. This unkindly feeling towards their wealthier neighbours was exasperated by the sullen dissatisfaction with which the country-people had generally viewed the abolition of those superstitions, which are so dear to weak and ignorant minds. The new Liturgy completed

"If the King's honour, as some men say, standeth in the great multitude of people; then these graziers, enclosers, and rent-rearers, are great hinderers of the King's honour. For whereas have been a great many of housholders and inhabitants, there is now but a shepherd and his dog." (Latimer's Sermons, 1. 92.) "These (enclosers) were great graziers and sheepmasters, that ceased tilling the ground, and sowing of corn: pulling down houses, and destroying whole towns, that so they might have the more land for grazing, and the less charge of poor tenants, who had dependance on them as their plowme and husbandmen." Strype, Eccl. Mem. II. 260.

their disgust, and its appearance among them gave the signal for that explosion which had long been in preparation.

In Wiltshire, the popular discontent first decidedly vented itself in open outrage. The tumult, however, there was promptly suppressed by Sir William Herbert, subsequently earl of Pembroke. Soon afterwards, riotous assemblages disturbed the public peace in the counties of Sussex, Hants, Kent, Gloucester, Suffolk, Warwick, Essex, Hertford, Leicester, Worcester, and Rutland. It was, however, found possible to allay this mass of irritation by promising to the excited peasantry, that their demands should be fairly considered. Unfortunately, in holding out this understanding, Somerset assumed an appearance of siding with the mutinous populace. He admitted, that the poorer classes had been aggrieved, and in consequence, it was announced, that past disorders

• "What seeth your Grace over the King's subjects out of all discipline, out of obedience, caring neither for Protector nor King, and much less for any other mean officer. And what is the cause? Your own lenity, your softness, your opinion to be good to the poor; the opinion of such as saith to your grace, Oh! Sir, there was never man had the hearts of the poor as you have. Oh! the commons pray for you, Sir, they say, God save your life." Sir William Paget, to the Lord Protector. Strype, Eccl. Mem. Appendix, II. 430.

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By a proclamation which he published, "contrary to the mind of the whole council." (Burnet, Hist. Ref. II. 184.) The improved modes of managing landed property attracted legislative notice so early as the fourth year of King Henry VII. This year, accordingly, is the point as to time, at which the commissioners of enclosures were to terminate their investigation.

should be forgiven, and, that commissioners should be sent down to examine the grounds upon which enclosures had recently been made, for the purpose of destroying such as were effected upon no sufficient authority. This concession was perfectly in unison with the Protector's habitual good nature, but it had a most pernicious effect upon the public tranquillity. The landed interest now felt itself attacked, and under an impression, that it was about to be sacrificed for the sake of Somerset's popularity, it rather rejoiced than otherwise in the prospect of commotions which might overthrow the existing administration. On the other hand, the populace were highly elated on seeing the Protector admit the justice of their complaints, and were thereby confirmed in their determination that no efforts of their opulent neighbours should prevent the accomplishment of their favourite objects. Hence in many places the people would not wait for the government commissioners, but assembling in a tumultuous manner with spades and other such implements, destroyed of their own heads the obnoxious enclosures". In the western counties, artful Papists of a condition above the lowest, industriously fanned the flame of popular discontent. As these parts of England were remote from London, the great seat of information and intelligence, gross They were to enquire what lands had been enclosed since that date; how many ploughs had been discontinued in consequence; and how many dwellings decayed.

offer incense before his statues; to mutter fifteen decads of Aves, each decad followed by a Pater Noster, all at a time, and to feel assured, that this Latin repetition would abridge their stay in Purgatory; to trust for the same purpose, in a particular kind of diet, in trudging barefoot to some idol, or in hiring a priest to receive the Sacrament; to confess, be absolved, anointed, and to take the Eucharist, at the point of death; at last, to close their eyes in a full assurance, that they had lived in the faithful profession of that religion which an all-wise God revealed as the instrument for ameliorating the hearts, and enlightening the minds of his rational creatures. An anxiety to be left in undisturbed possession of such a religion as this was, however, not confined to the villagers of Sampford. On the contrary, the divinity of these rustics soon appeared to be that which a great majority of zealots and turbulent spirits throughout the diocese of Exeter, were disposed to maintain at all hazards. Within a short time, not less than ten thousand men appeared in the field, all eager to retain the papal yoke about their own necks, and to rivet it about the necks of their latest posterity. Their leader was Humphrey Arundel, a Cornish gentlemen; who was accompanied in his enterprise by others of his own condition. As a farther encouragement, certain clergymen left their homes to join this misguided rabble. By these unworthy priests, the people's madness was invested with

Burnet, Hist. ef. II. 185.