Book II. APPROPRIATING LANDS. 503 



former may be the most eligible ; though attended with more expense and more notoriety 

 than the latter ; which, for the purpose under view, and when expedition is not neces- 

 sary, will generally, if properly conducted, be found preferable. To conduct a sale of 

 detached lands with judgment and reputation, the first step is to have them deliberately 

 valued by at least two men of character and ability, and to divide them into parcels or 

 lots, according to situation, and so as to render them of superior value to adjacent pro- 

 prietors. Then fix upon each parcel such value as it is fairly worth to the owner of the 

 lands with which it is naturally united ; and give liim the refusal of it. Such parcels as 

 are not disposed of in this way, may either lie open to private contract, or be sold by 

 public auction ; the motive for selling being, in either and every case, openly declared. 

 It is to be remarked, however, that for a sale by auction, a fresh arrangement of lots 

 will be required : the principle of allotment being in this case the reverse of the former. 

 At an auction, a certain degree of competition is requisite to raise the article on sale to 

 its full value; and it is no more than common prudence in the seller to make up hi^ 

 lots in such a manner as will bring together the greatest number of competitors. 



Chap. II. 

 Of apj)ropriating Commonable Lands. 



3233. Commonable lands, or such as He intermixed or are occupied in common by the 

 inhabitants according to certain laws and customs, may be considered in regard to their 

 origin and kinds, and their appropriation or division. 



Sect. I. Of the Origin and different Kinds of Commonable Lands. 



3234. A very few centuries ago, nearly the whole of the lands of Britain lay in an open, 

 and more or less in a commonable state. { See Fitzherbert on the Statute Extenta Manerii. ) 

 Each parish, or township, (at least in the more central and northern districts) comprised 

 ditferent descriptions of lands ; having been subjected, during successive ages, to speci- 

 fied modes of occupancy, under ancient and strict regulations, which time had converted 

 to law. These parochial arrangements, however, varied somewhat in different districts ; 

 but, in the more central and greater part of the kingdom, not widely ; and the following 

 statement may serve to convey a general idea of the whole of what may be termed com- 

 mon-field townships, throughout England. 



3235. Each parish or township was considered as one common farm ; though the tenan- 

 try were numerous. (See also Blackstone's Commentaries, art. Tithing of Townsh.) Round 

 the village in which the tenants resided, lay a few small enclosures, or grass yards, for 

 rearing calves, and as baiting and nursery grounds, for other farm stock. This was the 

 common farmstead, or homestall, which was generally placed as near the centre of the 

 more culturable lands of the parish or township as water and shelter would permit. 



3236. Hound the 'homestall lay a suit of arable fields, including the deepest and 

 soundest of the lower grounds, situated out of water's way, for raising corn and pulse ; 

 as well as to produjce fodder and litter for cattle and horses, in the winter season ; and, 

 in the lowest situation, as in the water-formed base of a rivered valley, or in swampy- 

 dips, shooting up among the arable lands, lay an extent of meadow grounds, or ings, to 

 afford a supply of hay, for cows and working stock, in the veinter and spring months. 



3237. On the otdskirts of the arable lands, where the soil is adapted to the pasturage of 

 cattle, or on the springy slope of hills, less adapted to cultivation, or in the fenny bases 

 of valleys, which were too wet, or gravelly lands, thrown up by water, which were too dry 

 to produce an annual supply of hay with sufficient certainty, one or more stinted pastures, 

 or hams, were laid out for milking cows, working cattle, or other stock which required 

 superior pasturage, in summer. 



3238. IVie bleakest, worst-soiled, and most distant lands of the township, were left in 

 their native wild state, for timber and fuel, and for a common pasture, or suit of 

 pastures, for the more ordinary stock of the township, whether horses, rearing cattle, 

 sheep, or swine ; without any other stint, or restriction, than what the arable and meadow 

 lands indirectly gave , every joint-tenant, or occupier of the township, having the 

 nominal privilege of keeping as much live stock on these common pastures, in summer, 

 as the appropriated lands he occupied would maintain in winter. 



3239. The ai^projniated lands of each township were laid out with equal good sense 

 and propriety. That each occupier might have his proportionate share of lands of 

 different qualities, and lying in different situations, the arable lands, more particularly, 

 were divided into numerous parcels of sizes, doubtless, according to the size of the given 

 township, and the number and rank of the occupiers. 



3240. The whole was subjected to the same plan of managcmeiit, and conducted as 

 one common farm, for which purpose the arable lands were divided into compartments, 



Kk 4 



