ARTHUK YOUNG AND THE DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE 57 



yated. In Bucks 90,000, in Lincolnshire 268,000, in 

 Huntingdon 130,000 acres were under tliis open field sys- 

 tem. The Vale of Pickering, in Yorkshire, was farmed by 

 the township, the common sheep-walks and pastures were 

 overrun with bushes and weeds, the arable fields inces- 

 santly ploughed for an unvarying succession of crops, the 

 meadows mown year after year without intermission or 

 amelioration. At Naseby a few pasture enclosures sur- 

 rounded the mud-built village ; the open fields, tilled on 

 the trinity system, were crossed and recrossed by paths to 

 the different holdings, uneven, filled with cavernous depths 

 of mire : the common pastures were in a state of nature, 

 rough, full of furze, rushes, and fern. Bosworth Field, in 

 1785, was in wheat, as it had been three centmies before. 

 In Oxfordshii-e and the neighbouring counties the common 

 field system extensively prevailed. At Aston Boges, in 

 Oxfordshire, the customs of the manor, ' used time out of 

 mind,' were confirmed in ' ye 35th yeare of Queen Eliza- 

 beth, ano. dom. 1593.' The rules of cultivation which 

 they laid down were carried out in the present century by 

 the Sixteens, representatives chosen one from every four of 

 the sixty-four yardlands ^ into which the manor was divided. 

 In 1797 Rothwell, in Northamptonshire, contained 3,000 

 acres : 600 acres were small enclosures near the village ; 

 the remaining 2,400 acres were in three distinct fields of 

 800 acres each, partly arable, partly meadow, divided into 

 eighty yardlands cut up into parcels, and scattered over 

 the fields. Stewkley, in Buckinghamshire, was at the 

 same time surrounded by three extended fields, one fallow, 

 one wheat, one beans. There were 104 yardlands of thirty 

 acres each. The main roads were rendered invisible by 

 the driftways to the various properties. The Cotswolds, 

 * A yardland generally consisted of 30 acres. 



