The Village Minstrel (1821), title page

Clare's heyday came in the early 1820s when, integrated into the circle of writers that contributed to the London Magazine, Clare published books that led to his being hailed as a peasant genius. The Village Minstrel is in many respects the most intriguing; at its heart Clare placed an autobiographical work describing Lubin, a peasant poet who was oppressed by the modern evil of enclosure (the practice whereby aristocrats were able simply to fence off large chunks of the English countryside and claim ownership of them, threatening trespassers with severe penalties).