Over the same period, two million acres of commons and wasteland (public woods, marshes and moors free for all to use) were brought under cultivation.60 Such enclosures not only deprived peasants of land to farm, but robbed them of the commons that had formed a vital part of the rural economy. Constituting one third of all land in England and Wales in 1688, commons were used to graze livestock, to catch a bird or rabbit for the pot and to gather materials such as wood or peat for furniture and fuel, moss and bracken for bedding, as well as rushes, wax, honey, wild plants, berries and herbs.61
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