4 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE 



the hamlet as a protection from night attacks. Whilst 

 this was being done, the man of the group who under- 

 stood woodwork, the carpenter, would, with the help 

 of the smith, be making a plough, or, more probably, 

 putting into working order one left by the Celts. 

 This done, the men, who might have brought with 

 them or perhaps captured from the Celts the oxen 

 they needed, would be in a position to begin the work 

 of cultivation. A part of the open land on the south- 

 west of the hamlet having been selected, the bush and 

 rough grass would be burnt, so that the ashes might 

 fertilize the soil, and the plough, which needed eight 

 oxen to draw it, would be started by the appointed 

 ploughman to plough each day a long narrow strip. 

 Such a strip, of which one name a * land ' * is common 

 at the present day, might also be called an 'acre,' a 

 word that seems in early times to have meant a day's 

 ploughing, varying in amount according to the nature 

 of the soil and the custom of the locality. Between 

 the ploughed acre strips would be left narrow belts of 

 grass, a foot or so broad, to act as boundary divisions ; 

 and similar broader belts, to be used as rough road- 

 ways, would be left to edge the dozen or so ploughed 

 acre strips that it was the custom to form into a group 

 sometimes called a * shot ' or * furlong.' When suf- 

 ficient land had been ploughed, the various strips 

 would be divided amongst the several families. The 

 division might be made by lot, or perhaps the leader* 

 of the party undertook to make a fair partition. 

 Whatever the arrangement, it was doubtless intended 

 that every man should have a fair share in the land, 



1 Although this system was carried on throughout England, 

 the names for the various features varied with the, locality ; see 

 Appendix, p. 164. 



