The Enclosure Act was passed in 1886, and the award is dated 1891. Before enclosure Totternhoe was a typical open-field parish; there were only 370 acres of old enclosure, to 1797 acres of common field arable, and 193 acres of common. The situation of Totternhoe is like that of Clothall, on the steep northern slope of the Hertfordshire chalk hills, which here have an almost mountainous appearance. The greater part of the parish was in the ownership of the lord of the manor, but there were forty owners of land altogether, the others being chiefly yeomen. The movement for enclosure came from these yeomen. They took this step in order to protect themselves against the tenants of the lord of the manor, who, whether from ignorance or otherwise, endeavoured to prevent the exercise of well-known rights of common over land in their occupation. The hill top was saved as an open space, and is a favourite picnic resort for the people of Dunstable. Recreation grounds and land for allotments were also set out, as has been the rule since the passing of the Commons Act of 1876. I asked one of the yeomen, who had taken a leading part in bringing about the enclosure, whether it had benefited the parish. He said undoubtedly it had done so, but “the parish has not recovered from it yet.” Questioned as to how this could be, he gave me to understand that the actual increase to the cultivators in annual value was not equal to the interest on the capital expended on carrying out the enclosure; that the assessment had gone up, and the burden of rates and taxes was consequently increased. The land allotted to the lord of the manor still, in the summer of 1900, was mainly unenclosed, and one could get something of the impression of the “champion” country, an impression of great open fields sweeping up to bare downs. NORTH AND SOUTH LUFFENHAM AND BARROWDEN (RUTLAND).