FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES. 65 



at any place. The condition of the cottages and their sur- 

 roundings is illustrated by the following : ' Specially that water 

 that cometh out of a town from every man's midding or dung- 

 hill is best, and will make the meadows most rankest.' 



Sometimes land was sown with oats two or three years in 

 succession, especially if the ground were mossy, then allowed to 

 lie fallow till it was fit to bear other corn crops. Mole hillocks 

 were thought to be useful in mossy ground, if scattered over 

 the surface, as they serve to rot the moss. But the most useful 

 process for mending ground was marling. In general, where 

 such a material does exist, marl pits have long been opened, 

 though latterly the practice of marling was becoming un- 

 common. Fitzherbert assigns two causes for this change of 

 custom, which are so significant of the social state of England 

 in the first quarter of the sixteenth century that I will quote 

 his words : ' One is, the tenants be so doubtful of their land- 

 lords, that if they should marl and make their holdings much 

 better, they fear lest they should be put out, or make a great 

 fine, or else pay more rent. And if a lord do so, meseemeth 

 he is unreasonable, seeing that it was done all at the costs of 

 his tenant, and not at his. The second cause is, that men be 

 disposed to idleness, and will not labour, as they have done in 

 times passed, but pass forth the time as his father did before 

 him ; but yet meseemeth a freeholder should not be of that 

 condition, for he is in a surety, his chief lord cannot put him 

 out doing his duty. And he knoweth well he shall take the 

 whole profit while he liveth, and his heirs after him ; a courage 

 to improve his own, the which is as good as and he had pur- 

 chased as much as the improvement cometh to. And one man 

 this doing would give other men a courage, and a good example 

 to follow the same. And all other countries may take ensample 

 at Chestershire and Lancastershire, for many of them that have 

 so done, have made the improvement as good as the land was 

 before,' i. e., I suppose, have doubled its value. ' Marl,' says my 

 author, ' mends all manner of ground, but it is costly V 



1 It will be seen from vol. ii. p. 454, that the cost of marling when done by another 

 VOL. TV. F 



