10 A ROYAL PURVEYANCE IN THE ELIZABETHAN AGE. 



Baron," by which both lords and tenants were, and are still legally 

 bound ; and of which, though the lord or his steward be the judge, 

 the tenants are the jury. 



In general there was in each manor one great farm called the 

 lord's farm, which usually had its land in severalty and distinct 

 from the tenants. The rest of the manor, called the tenantry part, 

 was divided into small copyhold tenements or farms called " yard- 

 land, * lying dispersedly and uninclosed in lots and furlongs ; 

 each of which was originally of nearly equal value, and enjoyed 

 equal rights of commonage. These tenants sent their sheep to one 

 common flock and their cows and plough oxen to a common herd, 

 respectively under the care of a common shepherd and herdsman. 

 The value of the virgates or yard-lands and the number of acres 

 they contained varied considerably in different parishes, and this 

 document furnishes us with information in this respect which may 

 be a useful addition to that obtained from other counties. Here as 

 elsewhere the normal area was about 30 scattered acres 10 in each 

 of the three fields, but at Southanton or Southington the yard- 

 land was 37J acres, at Woodhay 60 acres, at Cold Waltham, now 

 North Waltham, the virgate or yard-land varied from about 32 to 

 50 acres, while at Whitchurch it contained 20 acres. The quantity 

 varying according to the quality of the soil or its productive value. 



It may here be explained that in English the virgate was 

 commonly called a yerd, or yard land, but both this English term 

 and the Latin one virgate are evidently of very different origin. 

 The word yard or rather yerde is of Saxon origin. It is, however, 

 different from the word yard, the measure of length, although that 

 is also derived from the Saxon, or rather is a continuance of the 

 old Saxon word yerd. The superficial measure a yerde or yard is 

 derived from the Saxon yearde, and means a certain extent of land. 

 The word virgate is made to mean the same, but as we have 

 observed is rather derived from the nature of the holding than the 

 extent of the land. These small estates were generally, it may be 

 said universally, held under the lord of the manor, either directly 

 as grants from him, or immediately through him by the authority 

 of his court; and the method of giving seizin or possession of them 

 was by means of a rod which the seneschal or steward of the manor 

 bore as his sign of office, and by touching which the tenant was 



* The yard-land consisted of sufficient land for a plough of oxen and a 

 yard to winter them, each being occupied by one tenant, and enjoyed equal 

 stinted rights of common. 



