INTRODUCTION. 13 



harness with himself, and his horse, when he came to the place that he 

 should receive the King's wages. I can remember that I buckled his 

 harness when he went unto Black Heath field. He kept me to school, or 

 else I had not been able to have preached before the King's Majesty now. 

 He married my sisters with 5, or twenty nobles a-piece, so that he 

 brought them np in godliness and the fear of God. He kept hospitality 

 for his poor neighbours, and some alms he gave to the poor ; this he did 

 on the same fann where he that now hath it payeth 16 a year or more, 

 and is not able to do anything for his Prince, for himself, or his children, 

 or give a cup of drink to the poor." 



The cottages of the cottars or labourers, each with ita garden 

 and curtilage, were huilt on the bare earth, with upright posts, 

 wattled with willow or hazel rods, and smeared inside and out with 

 clay, or cob, and not provided with an outer finishing coat of 

 roughcast, as was the case with his master's dwelling. Half-way 

 up was a rude floor made of unhewn poles, and reached by a 

 ladder. The whole was thatched with straw, reeds, or broom. 

 Sometimes the hut was wholly made of mud or clay kneaded with 

 a few sticks to give it cohesion. Close to each cottage or farm- 

 house was the mud heap, streams from which in rainy weather 

 poured down to fertilise the lower meadows. In many of these 

 huts, however, cloth and homespun linen were woven, and when 

 collected by the chapmen, of which we have a reminiscence in the 

 local name of " Chapman's ford," were sold at the great fairs of 

 Weyhill and Winchester. The only building of any pretensions 

 was the parish church, in which most of the local business was 

 transacted, when religious services were over, and even produce 

 was stored, as we remember to have seen in one of these North 

 Hampshire churches not many years ago. 



Under the common-field system little or no variation of crops 

 could take place, wheat, barley, and oats were the principal grains 

 thought of; and the first object always was to get the wheat crop 

 round as often as possible, whether the land was good or bad, deep 

 or shallow. The general course of cultivation was 1. Wheat; 

 2. Barley or Oats ; 3. Fallow. * 



The peculiar disadvantages of this form of cultivation namely, 

 the obligation of ploughing and cropping all soils alike ; the almost 

 total preclusion that a common flock made to any improvement in 

 the breed of sheep stock, the difficulty, and in some instances, the 

 impossibility of raising sufficient hay or green winter food for the 



* It may be observed that the word "fallow" bears two significations, 

 and one was either a frequent ploughing of land to make it lighter, and clean 

 from weeds when it had become foul by repeated crops, or, a mere rest to the 

 land when it is exhausted. The end in view however, being the same in both 

 cases, viz., to enable the land to bear a fresh succession of crops. 



