12 ENGLISH FIELD SYSTEMS 



be examined in some tletail, not only for the purpose of ascertain- 

 ing the extent to which open arable fields persisted within their 

 borders, but also in the hope of discovering what systems of 

 tillage were practiced at the time of enclosing. In so far as it 

 is possible to determine whether these were improvements upon 

 old methods, and whether any relationship existed between them 

 and the tendency toward enclosure, new light will have been 

 thrown upon the history of English farming. 



The study of field systems, while it should prove conducive to 

 a knowledge of the phases of agricultural development, is, as has 

 been indicated, related to another aspect of English history. 

 Since the structure and tillage of township fields have roots far 

 in the past, the subject is one that reflects the usages and 

 characteristics of primitive society. For this reason it furnishes 

 acceptable information about the groups of settlers whose fusion 

 in early Anglo-Saxon days resulted in the formation of the EngHsh 

 people. Written records of that period being few, investigations 

 and inferences like those which Meitzen made for the continent 

 are pertinent for England. To such the later chapters of this 

 volume are in a measure devoted. 



Within the sphere of agrarian studies it is possible to direct 

 attention to t>TDes of settlement and to units of land measure as 

 well as to field systems. To the first of these topics no such study 

 has been given in England as Meitzen and Schliiter have 

 bestowed upon Germany.^ Maitland's remarks and Vinogradoff 's 

 examination of Essex and Derbyshire are the only approaches to 

 the subject, and the latter is concerned with the size rather than 

 the structure of village settlement.^ Units of land measurement, 

 however, have to some extent been considered in two important 

 recent works, whose authors have hazarded certain inferences as 

 to Celtic and Roman influences.^ Relative to the subject of 



1 Otto Schliiter, Siedlungskunde des Thales der Unslrul von der sachlenhurger 

 P forte bis zur Miindung, Halle, 1896. 



* F. W. Maitland, Domesday Book and Beyond, three Essays in the Early 

 History of England (Cambridge, 1897), pp. 15-16; Vinogradoff, English Society 

 in the Eleventh Century, pp. 269-273. 



' F. Seebohm, Customary Acres and their Historical Importance, London, 1914; 

 G. J. Turner, A Calendar of the Feet of Fines relating to the County of Huntingdon 



