ENGLISH FIELD SYSTEMS 



INTRODUCTION 



The term '^ field system " signifies the manner in which the 

 inhabitants of a township subdivided and tilled their arable, 

 meadow, and pasture land. Although a study of field systems 

 may seem to be primarily of antiquarian interest, the following 

 chapters have been written as a contribution to our knowledge 

 of the settlement of England and to the history of Enghsh agri- 

 culture. Since these subjects are wide in scope, no attempt has 

 been made to treat either of them fully; yet it may not be 

 impossible to show that a comprehension of the structure and 

 cultivation of township fields is germane to both. 



The settlement of England, as every one knows, is a topic 

 relative to which the sources of information are very scanty. To 

 what extent Celtic and Roman influences persisted after the 

 Germanic invasions of the fifth century is inadequately revealed 

 in existing written records.^ To supplement narrative accounts 

 scholars have had recourse to such indirect sources of information 

 as linguistics, mythology, archaeology, and to later social, govern- 

 mental, and legal institutions. Since not the least significant 

 among social customs, especially with primitive peoples, is the 

 method adopted in tilKng the soil, an understanding of the dift'er- 

 ences in agricultural practice early manifested in various parts of 

 England may prove of assistance in distinguishing between the 

 groups that retained or occupied and held the several sections of 

 the country. 



Perhaps a still more important and more comprehensive sub- 

 ject is the history of Enghsh agriculture. Until the nineteenth 



^ The question as to what Germanic groups occupied the several parts of Eng- 

 land in the course of the fifth and sixth centuries is ably discussed by H. M. Chad- 

 wick, The Origin of the English Nation, Cambridge, 1907. 



