[ 192 ] 



find them to contain from three to three acres and a. 

 half each, ftatute meafure. 



In fomewhat after the fame manner the farmer 

 tilled his arable land; for the chief villager, or 

 earlieft rifer, began to plow in the common field 

 ■where he pleafed, drove on till his catde wanted 

 breath, and then turned about; which commonly 

 happened at the length of one-eighth part of a 

 mile, from hence called a furlong, fo the full day's 

 work of the team was at the clofe of the evening 

 called an acre.* Sometimes the plowman No. i, 

 owner of one ox, happened to be beat off by the rain 

 at the end of half a day, in which cafe the plowman 

 No. 2, who alfo owned another ox, began plowing at 

 the fame place, and fo reduced the bit of land No. i 

 to half an acre, nay fometimes to a fingle ridge or 

 dole, commonly called a yard or plot, it being an 

 indefinite term fignifying one quarter of an acre, 

 more or lefs. But the catching after land thus, as 

 fchool-boys do for nuts, was, foon after the diffo- 

 lution of monafteries, found inconvenient, which 



* If the curious agriculturift will be pleafed to attend to this circum- 

 ftance, and recollect that we had no ftatute meafure except the yard, 

 -whofe length was determined by the length of the arm, he will readily 

 be able to account not only for the difference in fize of the acres in 

 almoft every country, but alfo for the ridiculous irregularity of fences 

 and intermixture of property, to the very great injury of the different 

 proprietors, and emolumeat of none but gentlemen of the long robe. . 



caufed 



