MEDIEVAL AGRICULTURE. 29 



in the sixteenth, and vastly more than in the eighteenth, 

 century. Again, it is generally admitted, that tracts of 

 forest land, though they may, in particular positions, afford 

 shelter, do, if we estimate the average of annual tempera- 

 ture, depress the total amount of solar heat d . There can 

 be, I think, no doubt, that while ornamental wood was 

 scarce in the thirteenth century, and long afterwards, natu- 

 ral forest was abundant, and occupied considerable tracts or 

 belts. 



Now, it is said that the cultivation of wheat was not, 

 till within the last hundred years, carried on successfully 

 beyond the north bank of the Humber, and that the chief 

 cereal produce in the northern counties was oats. This rule 

 holds good still on the western side of the island. In Arthur 

 Young's time, indeed, (Northern Journal, vol. iii. p. 378,) 

 land was cropped with wheat to some extent on the north- 

 east side of the island, but in much less quantity than in 

 the southern counties. But it is clear that wheat was grown 

 in Northumberland and Durham during the thirteenth and 

 fourteenth centuries. 



Again, the vine was cultivated, and wine was manufac- 

 tured from home-grown grapes, as far north as Ditchingham 

 in Norfolk 6 . Nor is the price at which the produce is sold 

 indicative of the quality being much inferior to ordinary 

 Bordeaux or Gascony. A vine is bought for the king's house 

 at Woodstock, in 1365. (ii. 594.1.) At the present time, 

 however, it would be hardly possible, I imagine, to ripen 

 English grapes sufficiently for the production of the thinnest 

 beverage. Vineries were attempted in many of the southern 

 counties, and the record of such cultivation lingers in local 

 names. Thus, for instance, near the road from Petersfield 

 in Hampshire to Eastmeon in the same county, there is a 

 steep hollow in the downs, having a south-by-west aspect, 

 which still goes by the name of c The Vineyard Holm/ 



The accounts which I have consulted contain but little 



d Lyell's Principles of Geology, cap. vii. e ii. 548. ii. 



