File:The history of England, from the accession of James the Second (1914) (14577857107).jpg

Identifier: histofengfromthe01macauoft (find matches)
Title: The history of England, from the accession of James the Second
Year: 1914 (1910s)
Authors: Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron, 1800-1859 Firth, C. H. (Charles Harding), 1857-1936
Subjects: Great Britain -- History James II, 1685-1688 Great Britain -- History William and Mary, 1689-1702
Publisher: London : Macmillan
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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ndState of may at first sight seem appalling. But those who areagriculture aiarmed by the increase of the public burdens may perhapsbe reassured when they have considered the increase of the publicresources. In the year 1685, the value of the produce of the soil farexceeded the value of all the other fruits of human industry. Yet agri-culture was in what would now be considered as a very rude and im-perfect state. The arable land and pasture land were not supposed bythe best political arithmeticians of that age to amount to much morethan half the area of the kingdom.2 The remainder was believed toconsist of moor, forest, and fen. These computations are strongly con-firmed by the road books and maps of the seventeenth century. Fromthose books and maps it is clear that many routes which now passthrough an endless succession of orchards, cornfields, hayfields, and bean- 1 See the Travels of the Grand Duke Cosmo. 2 Kings Natural and Political Conclusions. Davenant on the Balance of Trade.
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A PAGE FROM OGILBYS ITINERARIUM ANGLI/E, 1675 3o2 HISTORY OF ENGLAND chap, hi fields, then ran through nothing but heath, swamp, and warren.1 In thedrawings of English landscapes made in that age for the Grand DukeCosmo, scarce a hedgerow is to be seen, and numerous tracts, now richwith cultivation, appear as bare as Salisbury Plain.2 At Enfield, hardlyout of sight of the smoke of the capital, was a region of five and twentymiles in circumference, which contained only three houses and scarcelyany enclosed fields. Deer, as free as in an American forest, wanderedthere by thousands.3 It is to be remarked, that wild animals of largesize were then far more numerous than at present. The last wildboars, indeed, which had been preserved for the royal diversion, and hadbeen allowed to ravage the cultivated land with their tusks, had beenslaughtered by the exasperated rustics during the license of the civilwar. The last wolf that has roamed our island had been slain in Scot-land a short time be

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