But now I must bring your attention to a more serious subject. I‘ve had my wrist slapped, my knuckles have been rapped, I almost had my bottom smacked---but not quite, thank goodness. I have been charged by a representative of no less an austere body as the Forestry Commission of the grievous offence of the use of the word ‘Enclosure’; he says I should be writing ‘Inclosure’ and who am I to argue with such a reverable organisation? I defer to local knowledge and the more observant of you will have already noticed the change in the heading of this months scribble.

But was I wrong to use ‘Enclosure’?

“Yes” I hear you say---but only because you’re all in possession of Ordnance Survey maps of the Forest and as that equally respected body repeatedly uses the word Inclosure then surely, Inclosure it must be.

I wasn’t so sure, so I referred to that definitive of tomes, The Oxford English Dictionary, and as the letter ‘E’ comes before ‘I’ in the alphabet, I looked-up the word Enclosure first, and I quote: “the action of enclosing, especially the enclosing of waste or common land”, so far so good. Next, the word Inclosure, and once again I quote: “Variant of Enclosure”. Interesting! But it didn’t help to explain why, in the Forest, the preferred use is Inclosure and not Enclosure? I decided to use my limited home library to undertake further investigation.

I discovered that in his book ‘Portrait of The New Forest’ Brian Vessey-Fitzgerald writes about Enclosures when referring to the 1483 Encoppicement Act. Heywood Sumner, a most prolific and knowledgeable writer and resident of the Forest shows a preference for Enclosure and under “Places of Interest” he boldly heads one location as “Backley Enclosure.” Even the Forestry Commission in it’s guide entitled ‘Explore the New Forest’ refers to Enclosable land and also to Charles II, who Enclosed New Park. On the other hand, in 1899 C. J. Cornish wrote of “some 20,000 acres Inclosed since the year 1700”, and in the countryside writers bible ‘The Language of Field Sports’ by C. E. Hare, a ‘Park’ is said to consist of “Vert, Venison and Inclosure”. Finally, in her book ‘Records of Burley’, Miss F. Hardcastle a much respected historian and past resident of the village refers to a copy of Richardson, King and Drivers map of 1787 which clearly names both Burley Enclosure and Sandys Enclosure. Whilst the Ordnance Survey map of 1872 which is also shown in the same book lists Oakley Inclosure.

Now there’s food for thought, personally I’m none the wiser but I’m sure there will be someone out there who is!

Originally, the word ‘Enclose’ meant to shut-up. So without further ado I will now enclose but not before I wish you all a very merry Christmas.

Ian Thew

We read about the late harvest and wayward autumn leaves in Ians article next week From the Inclosure