12 THE ESSEX NATURALIST.
arable land to pasture land within the London Clay area. There
is, furthermore, a possible reason for the absence of enclosures
within the remaining four parishes. We may consider that they
were either already enclosed or suffered this fate at a later date,
although no mention of this incident appears in later records.
It may be mentioned, however, that these four parishes, and one
of the former nine, contain areas of sandy soil—the remainder
of the parishes of the hundred having London Clay soil. At the
present time these five parishes contain the greater part of the
arable land of the district, whilst the London Clay country
Fig. 2.—Known Essex Enclosures, 1400-1600.
bears grassland (Fig. 6). It is therefore conceivable that the
enclosures within the four former parishes occurred early, and
were perhaps for arable farming—a proceeding that did not
cause the great outcry following eviction that pastoral enclosures
produced. It should, also, be borne in mind that these four
parishes lay to the north of the hundred near Romanised areas,
and perhaps were more easily, and so earlier, enclosed. In
any case we have concrete evidence for later and large en-
closures for pastoral farming within the "Saxon" London
Clay area (Fig. 2).