33 



HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part I. 



205. The Norman clergy^ and particularly the monks, were still greater improvers than 

 the nobility ; and the lands of the church, especially of the convents, were conspicuous 

 for their superior cultivation. For the monks of every monastery retained such of their 

 lands as lay most convenient in their own possession, which they cultivated with great 

 care, under their own inspection, and frequently with their own hands. It was so much 

 the custom of the monks of this period to assist in the cultivation of their lands, especially 

 in seed-time, hay-time, and harvest, that the famous Thomas Becket, after he was 

 Archbishop of Canterbury, used to go out to the field, with the monks of the monasteries 

 where he happened to reside, and join with them in reaping Iheir corn and making their 

 hay. [Chron. Gervas. col. 1400.) This is indeed mentioned by the historian as an act 

 of uncommon condescension in a person of his high station in the church ; but it is 

 sufficient proof that the monks of those times used to work with their own hands, at 

 some seasons, in the labors of the field : and as many of them were men of genius and 

 invention, they no doubt made various improvements in the art of agriculture. The 

 twenty-sixth canon of the general council of Lateran, held A.D. 1179, affords a further 

 proof that the protection and encouragement of all who were concerned in agriculture, 

 was an object of attention to the church. For by that canon, it is decreed, " That all 

 presbyters, clerks, monks, converts, pilgrims, and peasants, when they are engaged in 

 the labors of husbandry, together with the 23 

 cattle in their ploughs, and the seed 

 which they carry into the field, shall 

 enjoy perfect security ; and that all who 

 molest or interrupt them, if they do not 

 desist when they have been admonished, 

 shall be excommunicated." {Id. col. 

 1456.) 



206. The implements of husbandry, in 

 this peHod, were of the same kind with 

 those that are employed at present ; but 

 some of them were less perfect in their 

 construction. One sort of plough, for ex- 

 ample, had but one stilt or handle, which 

 the ploughman guided with one hand, having in his other hand an instrument which 

 served both for cleaning and mending his plough, (^g. 23.) and breaking the clods. 

 This implement was probably intended for breaking up strong lands ; for such a purpose 

 the wheels would contribute much to its steadiness, which would render two handles 

 unnecessary, and thus leave the holder with one hand at liberty to use his axe- 



> like instrument in clearing away roots and clods, or otherwise aiding the 

 operation of the plough. Another plough (fig. 24.) seems to have been without 

 wheels, and was probably intended for light soil. _(See Strutt's Complete View 

 of the Manners, ^c. of Eiigland, vol. ii. p. 12.) 

 wheels; and, in the light soil of Nor- 

 mandy, was commonly drawn by one 

 ox, or two oxen; but in England a 

 greater number, according to the nature 

 of the soil, was often necessary. [M. 

 Montfaucon, Monumens de Monarchic 

 Francois, torn. i. plate 47. Girald. 

 Cambrens. Bescript. Cambrics, c.ll .) In 

 Wales, the person who conducted the 

 oxen in the plough, walked backwards. 



{Id. ibid. ) Their carts, harrows, scythes, sickles, and flails, from the figures of them still 

 remaining, appear to have been nearly of the same construction with those that are 

 now used. {Strutt's View, vol. i. plate 26. 32. 33. and V /-^^ 25 



^^^fig- 25.) In Wales, they did not use a sickle in^ 

 reaping their corn, but an instrument like the blade 

 of a knife, with a wooden handle at each end. ( Girald. 

 Cam., ibid.) Water-mills for grinding corn were very 

 common, but they had also a kind of mills turned 

 by horses, which were chiefly used in their armies, and 

 at sieges, or in places where running water was scarce. 

 {Gaufrid Vinisauf. iter Hierosolymit. 1. i. c. 33. M. 

 Paris. Vit. Abbot, p. 94. col. 2.) 



207. The various operations of husbandry, as 

 manuring, ploughing, sowing, harrowing, reaping, 

 threshing, winnowing, &c. are incidentally mentioned by the writers of this period ; 

 but it is impossible to collect from them a distinct account of the manner in which 



The Norman plough had two 



