20 AGRICULTURAL WRITERS. 



ryght frutifull mater: and hath to name the boke of surueyeng and 

 improuvemete. In the prologue the author asks: 



Howe and by what maner doo all these great estates and noblemen and women 

 live, and mantayne their honour and degree ? And in my opynion, their honour and 

 degree is upholden and mayntayned, by reason of their rentes, issues, revenewes, and 

 profyttes, that comes to their maners lordshyps iandes and tenements to themym 

 belonginge. Then it is necessory to be knowen, howe all these maners, lordeshyps, 

 Iandes and tenements should be extended, surveyed, butted, bounded, and valued in 

 every parte. 



He further states that "for the grounde of this treat3^se I do take an 

 olde statute named Extenta manerii," referred to above, and this fact 

 accounts for the many legal references contained therein. This was the 

 document in which Fitzherbert defines the meaning of a common and its 

 uses. He quotes in Latin many forms under which lands are held. 

 Chapter XIX. is headed, "What a Surveyur shuld do," and it is so 

 interesting that I quote it in cxteiiso: 



Nowe this statute is brefely declared it wolde be understand, how a lordshyp or a 

 manor shuld be surveyed and viewed, butted and bounded on every parte, that it may 

 be knowen for ever, whose every parcel thereof was, at the makyng of this boke, and 

 it may serve as well to save the inheritance of the lordes, as of every freholder by 

 charter, copyholder, and customary holder, and to knowe every man's land, as it lyeth 

 to his house, one from another, so that it may be knowen an hundred years after, and 

 forever, what maner of Iandes and how many acres every man had to his house at 

 that time, and where they ly. The name of a surveiour is a French name, and is as 

 moche to saye in Englysshe as an overseer. Then it wolde be knowen, how a 

 surveyour shuld oversee or survey a town or a lordshyp. As if the City of London 

 shulde be surveyed, the surveyour niaye nat stande at Hygate, nor at Shoter's hill, nor 

 yet at the Blackeheth, nor suche other places, and overloke the city on every syde. 

 P^or if he do, he shall nat see the goodly streets, the fayre buyldyngs, nor the great 

 substance of r3'chesse conteyned in them, for then he may be called a disceyner, and 

 not a surveyour : and in likewise yf a man shall view a close, or a pasture, he may not 

 loke over the hedge, and go his way, but he must outher ride, or goo ouer, and see 

 every parcel! thereof, and to know how many acres it conteyneth, and how moche 

 thereof was medowe grounde, heythe, lynge, or such other, and what an acre of 

 medowe grounde is worthe, and what an acre of pasture, and what an acre of the wod 

 grounde of bushe, and such other be worthe. And what maner of cattell it is best for. 

 And how many cattell it will grasse or finde by the yere, and what a beastes grasse is 

 worthe by the yere in suche a pasture or els he cannat set a true value what it is 

 worthe. And therefore a surveyour must be diligent and laborious, and nat slouthful 

 and rechelesse, for and he be, he is nat worthy to have his fee or wages, and maye 

 fortune to make an unperfite boke. And if he so do, it is to his shame and rebuke, 

 and great jeopardye to his soule to make a false precydent, wherefore it is convenient 

 to remember the saying of the wise philosopher Adhibe curam, that is to say, take 

 heed to thy charge, and so if he shulde view a citie or a towne he must begyn at a 

 certayne place, as yf he were at the drawe bridge of London bridge on the east syde, 

 and there to make his tytelynge where he beginneth, and to show who is lorde of his 

 house next into the sayd bridge, and who is tenant. And if he be a freholder, what 

 chpfe rents he payeth to the lorde, customes, or other services. And if he be no 

 freholder, than the rent needeth nat to be spoken of but at his pleasure, for it may 

 ryse and fal. And how many tote in brede, and how many in length. Then to the 



