1900 E. C. SCOBELL — COMMON FIELDS AT UPTON 219 



In this homily we read " they do much provoke the 

 wrath of God upon themselves which use to grind up 

 the doles and marks which of ancient time were laid for 

 the division of meers and balks in the fields to bring the 

 owners to their right." 



" It is lamentable to see in some places how greedy 

 men use to plough up and grate upon their neighbour's 

 land that lieth next them ; how covetous men now-a-days 

 plough up so nigh the common balks and walks which 

 good men aforetime made the greater and broader, partly 

 for the commodious walk of his neighbour, partly for the 

 better shack in harvest time, to the more comfort of his 

 poor neighbour's cattle. It is a shame to behold the 

 insatiableness of some covetous persons in their doings ; 

 that where their ancestors left of their land a broad and 

 sufficient bier-balk to carry the corpse to the Christian 

 sepulture, how men pinch at such bier-balks ; and now 

 they either quite ear them up and turn the dead bodies 

 to be borne farther about in the high streets ; or else, if 

 they leave any such meer, it is too strait for two to 

 walk on." * 



We find a similar allusion in Piers the Plowman : 

 " Dikeres and Delveres digged up the balks." 



Now these balks — which hold such an important place 

 in the common field system — must, owing to the various 

 shapes of the fields, be of various lengths, and sometimes 

 not in a straight line, but at the same time there does 

 appear to be a norm upon which they were formed, show- 

 ing that the length is not altogether arbitrary and fanciful. 

 It will be observed that the ancient shape of an acre is 

 oblong, for in the reign of Edward I. it is declared that 

 " 40 perches in length and 4 in breadth make an acre " : 

 thus an acre may be said to consist of 4 strips, each 40 



* A " corpse road " so called exists in Stratton, in Worcestershire. 



