VOLUME 30 1982 PART I An Eighteenth-Century Land Agent: The Career of Nathaniel Kent (1737-1810) PAMELA HORN 'The Art and Craft of Chicken Cramming': Poultry in the Weald of Sussex 1850-1950 BRIAN SHORT The Economics of Horses and Oxen in Medieval England JOHN LANGDON Enclosure and the Inquisitions of 1607: An Examination of Dr Kerridge's Article 'The Returns of the Inquisitions of Depopulation' JOHN MARTIN Farming in the North American Grasslands: A Survey of Publications, 1947-80 ALLAN G BOGUE Annual List and Brief Review of Articles on Agrarian History, 1980 RAINE MORGAN THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW • VOLUME 30 PART I 1982 Contents An Eighteenth-Century Land Agent: The Career of Nathaniel Kent (!737-1810) PAMELA HORN 1 'The Art and Craft of Chicken Cramming': Poultry in the Weald of Sussex 1850-1950 BRIAN SHORT 17 The Economics of Horses and Oxen in Medieval England JOHN LANGDON 31 Enclosure and the Inquisitions of 1607: An Examination of Dr Kerridge's Article 'The Returns of the Inquisitions of Depopulation' JOHN MARTIN 41 Farming in the North American Grasslands: A Survey of Publications, 1947-80 ALLAN G BOGUE 49 Annual List and Brief Review of Articles on Agrarian History, 1980 RAINE MORGAN 69 Book Reviews: The Agrarian History of England and Wales, Vol. I, Part I; Prehistory, ed by Stuart Piggott PAUL ASHBEE 80 The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Archaeology, ed by Andrew Sherratt AXEL STEENSBERG 82 Animal. Diseases in Archaeology, byJ Baker and D Brothwdl M L RYDER 83 Medieval Moated Sites, ed by F A Aberg H S A FOX 84 Population Growth and Agrarian Change. An Historical Perspective, by David Grigg M W FLINN 85 Confiscation and Restoration: the Archbishopric Estates and the Civil War, by I J Gentles and W J Sheils JOAN THIRSK 85 Science and Society in Restoration England, by MichaelHunter MAURICE CROSLAND 86 The Victoria History of Gloucestershire, Volume VII, ed by C P Elrington G E MINGAY 86 PROBATE INVENTORIES. A new sourcefor the historicalstudy of weahh, material culture and agricultural development, ed by Ad van der Woude and Anton Schuurmen G E FUSSELL 87 The History of Myddle, by Richard Gough MICHAEL HAVINDEN 88 (continued on page iii of cover) /.?i:i~ : ' ,~k THE - , ,q Agricultural History Review edited by G E MINGAY Volume 30 I982 PUBLISHED BY THE BRITISH AGRICULTURAL HISTORY SOCIETY Printed by the University Printing Sen,ice at the University of Leeds F ? CONTENTS Volume 30 An Eighteenth-Century Land Agent: The Career of Nathaniel Kent (I737-18Io) Pamela Horn I 'The Art and Craft of Chicken Cramming': Poultry in the Weald of Sussex, I85o-I95o Brian Short I7 The Economics of Horses and Oxen in Medieval England John Langdon 3! Enclosure and the Inquisitions of I6o7: An Examination of Dr Kerridge's Article 'The Returns of the Inquisitions of Depopulation' John Martin 4! Farming in the North American Grasslands: A Survey of Publications, I947-8o Allan G Bogtte 49 Annual List and Brief Review of Articles on Agrarian History, I98o Raine Morgan 69 The Decline of the Small Landowner in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century England: Some Regional Consi- derations j VBeckett 97 The Financing of Parliamentary Waste Land Enclosure: Some Evidence from North Somerset, I77o--I83O Bj Buchanan II2 The Plough and the Cross: Peasant Unions in South- Western France M C Cleaty I27 The Tariff Commission Report G E Fussell I37 List of Books and Pamphlets on Agrarian History I98I Margaret C Snlyth Z43 Supplement to the Bibliography of Theses on British Agrarian History: Omissions and Additions for 1979, t98o Raine Morgan x5o 5 Book Reviews: ~r The Agrarian History of England and Wales, Vol I, Part I; Prehistory, ed by Stuart Piggott Patti Ashbee 80 ? The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Archaeology, ed by Andrew Sherratt Axel Steensberg 82 Animal Diseases in Archaeolog),, by J Baker and D Brothwell M L Ryder 83 5 Medieval Moated Sites, ed by F A Aberg H S A Fox 84 5 Population Growth and Agrarian Change. An Historical Perspective, by David Grigg M WFlinn 85 Collfiscation and Restoratiott: the Archbishopric Estates and the Civil War, by I J Gentles and W J Sheils joan Thirsk 85 Science and Society in Restoration England, by Michael Hunter Main'ice Crosland 86 The Victoria History qf Gloucestershire, Volume VII, ed by C P Elrington G E Mingay 86 PROBATE INVENTORIES. A new sourcefor the historical study of wealth, material culture and agricultural develop- ment, ed by Ad van der Woude and Anton Schuurmen G E Fussell 87 The History of Myddie, by Richard Gough Michael Ha vinden 88 The Rural Architecture of Scotland, by Alexander Fenton and Bruce Walker Malcobn Gray 89 Lord attd Peasant in Nineteenth Century Britain, by Dennis R Mills David W Howell 9o The Econo.lic Theory of Agricultural Land Tenltre, by J M Currie Ross Wordie 9I Rural Society in japan, by Tadashi Fukutake T L Ridmrdson 9 I Coleshill Model Farm, Oxfordshire, Past Present Future, ed by John Weller Roy Brigden 9z Edwardian Childhoods, by Thea Thompson Pamela Horn 93 Domesticated Animals ~ fi'om early times, by Juliet Clutton- Brock M L Ryder I56 Consequences qf Climatic Change, edited by C Delano Smith and M Parry David Kemp 157 Roman Britain, by P Salway Shimo, Applebamn 157 Lexikon des Mittelalters. Band ~, Li@nmg 1-Io, edited by Gloria Avella-Widhahn, Liselotte Lutz, Roswitha and Ulrich Mattejiet Dj Davis 159 Clifton and Westbury Probate hwentories 16o9-1761, edited by John S Moore j H Bettey I6o Servants in Husbandry in Early Modern England. by A Kussmaul W A Armstrong 16I Gentlemen and Poadters: The English Game Laws, 167~-18M, by P B Munsche F M L Thompson I62 Wives for Sale: an ethnographic stud), of British popular divorce, by Samuel Pyeatt Menefee G E Mingay I63 A Geol~lian Parson and his Village: The story qfDavid Davies 074z-l&9), by Pamela Horn G E Minga), ~64 Explorations and Explanations: Essays in the Social Histor), o]" Victorian Wales, by I G Jones David I4/. Howell I64 Opium and the People: Opiate Use in Nineteenth-Centur), England. by Virginia Berridge and Griffith Edwards G E Mincay 165 Propert), and Politics 187o-1914: Landownership, Law, hh'oh,g), and Urban Development in England. by Aw~er Offer Rj Ohwy I66 L 'Agriculture et la Soci~t( rurale dam le Pas-de-Calais du milieu du XIX" si&le ~ 1914, by R H Hubscher Alan R H Baker I66 American Farmers: the new minorit),, by Gilbert C Fite G E Mi,ga), 167 Animal Husbandry in Htmgary in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, by L Ga~il and P Gunst J,,h, Duck.,orth ~68 Proceedings, Ammal Agricultural History qf Ontario Seminar, ed by T A Crowley Robert S Dille), 169 Agricultural Research 19M-I 9& -- A history of the Agricultural Re¢carch Council and a review q/'developments in agricultural science during the last 5o years, ed by G W Cooke M L R),der 169 Orkney Heritage, ed by Willialn P L Thompson Malcohn Gray 17o Landscape History. Journal of the Society Jbr Landscape Studies Robert S Dilh'y 17o Shorter Notices 94, I72 Books Received 175 Notes on Contributors 30, III Notes and Comments I36,149 :i/ An Eighteenth-Century Land Agent: The Career of Nathaniel Kent (1737-1810) By PAMELA HORN I War. 2 His next move came when he secured a HEN Nathaniel Kent died at Fulham secretarial position on the staff of Admiral on 10 October 1810 an obituary in Geary, a rear-admiral of the white, who W the Gentleman's Magazine enthusi- served as post-admiral at Portsmouth from astically proclaimed it to be 'universally 1760 to 1762. When that employment came allowed that no professional man ever to an end, he managed to obtain a similar rendered more substantial services to the agri- appointment with Sir James Porter, minister- culture of his country than the late Mr. Kent'. plenipotentiary at Brussels from 1763 to 1765. Yet, despite the contribution to agrarian This early period on the fringes of govern- reform which he made -- and which included ment service was a difficult one for the young supervision of the royal estates at Richmond Kent. As Sir Lewis Namier has pointed out, Park and Windsor Great Park during the departmental secretaries were the personal 1790's -- relatively little is known of his life dependants of the ministers (or others) whom or methods. 1 This article attempts to remedy they served, and, as such, were often in a some of the deficiencies. delicate relationship with their superiors. A Nathaniel was born in. 1737, the son of quarrel or a failure to please could lead to their Ambrose Kent of Penton Mewsey in being cast adrift after years of diligent service. Hampshire. His early life remains obscure, 'Both the dignity and inferiority of the though it is known that his elder brother, also chaplain or curate at a big country house named Ambrose, went up to Oxford in the attached to their persons and position', wrote mid-1740's. Subsequently he became a fellow Namier: 'they had to know a great deal and and bursar of Magdalen College. Nathaniel, not expect too much, to be qualified to sit at by contrast, was destined for government the table of their chief and, in most cases, be service and at the beginning of 1755, when satisfied with the lowest places at it. '3 To aged about eighteen, he obtained a clerical Kent, however, the post's main recommenda- post at Portsmouth dockyard under Mr tion seems to have been its 'gentlemanly' Fiennes Eddowes, a former Oxford man in his status.