SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. 49 



wheat, rye, and maslin is from the end of May till the begin- 

 ning of September. A stock of malt made as suggested 

 above is always most saleable in September, it is then old and 

 ripe, and the new crop is not ready. So much for plowing 

 and tillage. 



In this work Markham makes no allusion to the system, at 

 that time I believe almost universal, of cultivating land in 

 common fields. A great deal has latterly been made of what 

 appears to be a great and surprising discovery to those who 

 were ignorant of English agriculture, except in recent times, 

 the fact namely that this was an ancient and almost universal 

 practice. As I have said, I believe it was well nigh universal 

 for centuries, as I have shown from Fitzherbert's book on 

 Surveying *, where it is treated as a normal state of things. The 

 extent to which the subdivision of land in common fields, and 

 even of small closes, was carried, is curiously illustrated by a 

 survey of the parish of Gamlingay in Cambridgeshire, taken at 

 the expense and in the interests of Merton College, Oxford, in 

 March, 1602 (44 Eliz.). The parish, containing two manors, is 

 very large, being 3255 acres in extent, and the greater part is 

 under cultivation. There are however thousands of strips in 

 the common fields assigned to different owners, the Queen 

 and Clare College, Cambridge, being the most considerable 

 proprietors after Merton College. I well remember in my 

 youth seeing the system in full operation on the sides of the 

 turnpike road between Oxford and Birmingham, and I am 

 informed that it long lingered in Warwickshire 2 . I shall take 

 occasion to show, I trust, how some of these tenancies were 

 fraudulently extinguished under form of law. 



Markham proceeds to discuss, in the second part of his first 

 book, the art of gardening and orchard-making, and states 

 that he derives most of his information from Italian, French, 

 and Dutch authors, whose works he has read, and has con- 



iv. p. 94. 



* The merits and advantages of enclosed as opposed to common land are discussed 

 by Norden. The Gamlingay survey is in the archives of Merton College. The 

 College paid 12 for the work. 



VOL. V. 1 



