VALLEY OF PYDEL AND BUCKLAND NEWTON. 11. 



them. The Romans had left practically no trace whatever of 

 their occupation. Theirs was simply a passing visit. They may 

 have thrown up a little camp here and there and passed on, but 

 he had seen no trace of Roman occupation whatever in that 

 immediate district. Passing over the Roman occupation, and 

 coming down to the times of the English invasion, they had 

 many mementoes of their arrival and of their mode of life. He 

 had on the way a short time ago pointed out those Common- 

 fields farmed on a co-operative system, in which the whole of 

 the community had to take their part in the farm work, and the 

 village council decided which commonfield was to be laid down 

 in light crops and which field should be ploughed up. Every 

 man had his own acres distinctly marked out, but none of them 

 were fenced. If a man fenced in any part of his land he at 

 once forfeited his right of common feeding for his stock. 

 Throughout the Middle Ages the commonfield was universal in 

 England, and it was interesting that in Pydeltrenthide they had 

 the evidence of that system so well preserved. That day they 

 would be passing over ground which might be said to be an old 

 slate upon which the inhabitants of those uplands had left half- 

 rubbed-out traces of their operations from the very earliest 

 times. 



After the PRESIDENT had thanked Mr. Dicker, a start was 

 made for 



PLUSH. 



Canon RAVENHILL, addressing the party in the Chapel of St. 

 John the Baptist, said 



The tithing of Plush is a detached portion of the parish of Buckland Newton, 

 called Boclande Abbas in olden days. The late Dorset poet, Mr. Barnes, said 

 that " Newton" described Buckland as the new enclosure, Alton, the adjoining 

 parish, being the old enclosure. " Boclande," according to Blackstone, means 

 land held by book or charter, as opposed to Folcland, land held by common con- 

 sent. Plush is mentioned under the name of "Plis " in the Rentatia et Custom - 

 arium of Glastonbury Abbey. It formed part of the Manor of Buckland Newton, 

 and it was given with it, according to John of Glastonbury, by King Ethelwolf 



