SOURCE: “An Exercise in Nostalgia?: John Clare and Enclosure,” in The Independent Spirit: John Clare and the Self-taught Tradition, edited by John Goodridge, The John Clare Society, 1994, pp. 165-77.

In the following essay, Rowbotham discusses whether John Clare was correct in blaming enclosure for what he saw as the destructive changes in rural society.

There once was lanes in natures freedom dropt There once was paths that every valley wound Inclosure came, and every path was stopt Each tyrant fixt his sign where pads was found To hint a trespass now who crossd the ground Justice is made to speak as they command The high road now must be each stinted bound —inclosure thourt a curse upon the land And tastless was the wretch who thy existence pland 

Clare's direct experience of enclosure came when he was sixteen. In that year, 1809, his parish of Helpston was enclosed:

But...