Parishes that were allowed Right of Common, as being Members of Manors having Boundaries on the Forest : The quantity of land claimed, allowed, and objected to, in the cases of the six Lords of the Forest, is here given, in order to give the reader some idea of the extent of claims, and the general mode in which they were adjusted. The claims of Mr. Butler Danvers, as one of the largest claimants, are also stated. For Anstey and Thurcaston, Lord Stamford claimed also on Rothley Plain. In this statement, it will be seen that not a single claim for land was objected to by the Commissioners; but their objections to Lord Stamford's claims for messuages and sites were very numerous. In Barrow, Lord Moira put in forty-five claims for messuages, with ten perches to each; every one of which was objected to, either "because the premises were built on the Waste" or had "not been built forty years." + Because no Stocking was proved. Because the Premises were on the Waste, and claimed by Trustees of Wigston's Hospital. ....... 617 0 0 92 1 15 41 0 0 102 0 0 Loughborough (as having a Parochial and Manorial Boundary) 1140 3 15 Claims objected to. A. R. P. Not one of Mr. Herrick's claims was objected to: and it has been alleged that that gentleman might, with great justice, have somewhat extended them. The present proprietor of Beaumanor has made considerable additions to his Forest property by purchase. Long Whatton (as being within the Manor of Sheepshed and Belton).. 1170 2 12 Osgathorpe (by Prescription) Thringstone (as having Parochial and Manorial Boundary) ............. Whitwick (ditto).... Hathern (as part of Sheepshed) Kegworth (by Prescription)... 4 2 16 45 2 27 42 3 2 12 0 15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 132 0 2 000 000 000 $57 2 31 Mr. Butler Danvers claimed on Rothley Plain, for the same quantity of land in Swithland, Rothley, Thurcaston, and Cropston. Compensation for Manorial Rights was also claimed and allowed in all the preceding six cases. One of the most singular claims was that of Great Wigston, situated nearly twenty miles from the Forest. It was made in consequence of some horse-dealers, resident at that place, having been accustomed, in their return from the Belton and the northern fairs, to turn in their horses, and to leave them there till the next neighbouring fair. It was, of course, disallowed. A recapitulation of all the claims made, both on the Forest and Rothley Plain, would be more tedious than useful. In this place it will be sufficient to state, that the number of messuages claimed for were 36314; of sites, 181; of acres, 60,605, 3 roods, 20 perches. The number of allotable acres, both on the Forest and Plain, are stated by Mr. Jackson, the highly respectable Surveyor, to have been only 11,500. From these, the land ordered to be set apart for building and endowing Chapels-the compensation for manorial rights, and for tithes the land for roads, and the expenses of making them, and the whole cost of the Act, Commission, Surveys, &c., had first to be deducted. One of the greatest items of expenditure was the outlay for making roads, which I state, on the authority of Mr. Jackson, to have been not less than sixty thousand pounds. For some of these purposes, extensive sales of Forest lands took place. The amount of land so sold was 2558 acres on the Forest, and 60 acres on Rothley Plain. To every proprietor whose claim had been admitted, about 3s. 6d. worth of Forest land was allotted for every £5. worth of the old inclosure for which he claimed; and for every messuage and every site, having right of common, 8s. worth of Forest land. Hence there. were allotments so small as one-sixth of a perch. One of the hardships committed by the inclosure will strike every visitor of the Forestthe absence of foot-paths. That in a district affording means of support to many hundreds of humble cottagers-means of recreation to thousands-not one yard of foot-path, not one acre of open ground should have been reserved, was at least a hardship. The poor, however, had perhaps an equivalent in the new field which was opened for their labour: and the public, in the improved roads which run in every direction, intersecting the hitherto almost impassable region. One remarkable clause in the Act was, that formally disafforesting Charnwood.* They who had predicted that the attempts to render the Forest profitable by the plough would prove futile, were astonished at the result of the first few years' culture. The sower who had the courage to hazard his seed, "might think himself fortunate," said the opponents of the inclosure, "if his crop returned the seed." What was their surprise, when the apparently sterile and valueless Broombriggs produced ten quarters of oats an acre! True, this portion of Charnwood had the benefit of the skill and energy of one of the best practical agriculturists that ever set plough on the Forest-the late talented and lamented Mr. Charles Allsop. Those readers who knew that estimable and highly-gifted man, will not think some allusion to him, in this place, foreign to the subject of my history. He was born in the parish of Wanlip, in the year 1780, and was descended from an old and most respectable agricultural family, who had for many years been tenants on the Wanlip estate. His excellent conduct, his quickness of apprehension, the ingenuousness of his mind, and the desire which he evinced to improve himself, attracted the notice, and subsequently secured for him the friendship and esteem of the late Sir Charles Hudson and his family admitted into their society and intimacy, he gradually acquired habits and tastes, to which he otherwise might have been comparatively a stranger; and probably imbibed that love for literature which proved a recreation to him after many a weary hour of labour and toil, and a solace to him amidst the many domestic sorrows with which it pleased Providence to afflict him. A matrimonial alliance which he formed in the year 1812, with Mary, the eldest daughter, and one of the co-heiresses of the late George Watkinson, Esq., of Woodhouse, first made him acquainted with the neighbourhood of Charnwood, and through this connexion he ultimately became the possessor of the Broombriggs estate. The beauty of the Forest scenery attracted his imagination—the contemplated inclosure -the scope that it would give to bring his agricultural theories to the test, and his practical knowledge to bear—and above all, the good which he felt conscious he could accomplish— were incentives which his ardent mind was unable to resist, and led him to contemplate with less regret, the exchange which he shortly afterwards made of the richly-cultivated lands of Wanlip for the unbroken and apparently sterile soil of Broombriggs. His mind was intent on his object: and within a short time after his residence on the borders of the Forest, the face of the country was wholly changed. By his skill and industry, the heath-clad hills became verdant pastures; the valleys were filled with luxuriant * This, I believe, was a legal formulary, introduced into all Inclosure Acts where the lands to be inclosed have, at any time, been part of a Forest. |