By C. K. Straton. 297 



the rudge. When the fields were all cut up into Seliones or 

 Scamniels, as these acre strips were called, the appearance of the 

 country was very different from what it is to-day when hedgerows 

 form half its beauty. But a field cut up into strips was the only 

 idea of a cornfield which our Anglo-Saxon ancestors had, and in 

 the Anglo-Saxon translation of the bible Ruth is described as 

 gleaning about among the acres. 



Besides these three great arable fields there were meadows 

 which were also cut up into strips or doles and were allotted to 

 the tenants by the court of the manor, hence in the survey they 

 are often called Courtlands or Courtdeal lands. The lots were 

 separated by a hurdle fence until the hay crop was " lifted," then 

 the fences were removed, and like the stubble fields these meadows 

 were grazed by the fiocks of the commoners. Irregular bits of 

 meadow were called " stitches " or " cantles." The lots are spoken 

 of as if they had been in tens, each tithing of tenants taking 

 alternate strips in a block at some early period. 



Outside the cornfields and meadows were great open pastures 

 which joined the pastures of the next manor, and served to shield 

 the arable, lands of each manor from the cattle of neighbouring 

 manors. On these leas we see the herds graze till twilight and 

 then : — 



" The curfew tolls the knell of passing day, 

 The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea." 



Beyond the leas was the lord's waste and the woods in which 

 the tenants had the right of obtaining wood for burning or for the 

 repair of houses or ploughs. 



There were forests, also, like Savernake and Grovely, where the 

 commoners in the adjoining manors kept certain cattle all the 

 year round, but during the " four months " in the summer they took 

 up all their flocks of sheep and goats and their milk kine. In 

 Grovely there were three hundred fallow deer and a number of 

 wild boars, and in Barford each two commoners reared one hound 

 for the lord. There were also in Grovely Courts of Vert and Ven, 

 where all questions of greenwood or game were tried, and the 

 tenants of the surrounding hamlets acted as the jury and did suit 



