THE TWO- AND THREE-FIELD SYSTEM 1 9 



The area of Chalgrove in 1841 was 2358 acres. Two-thirds of 

 this area was arable, nearly one-fifth meadow and pasture.^ 

 Much of the latter lay enclosed in three farms, which were situated 

 to the north between the open fields and the common of 140 acres. 

 Probably the farms had at some time been improved from the 

 waste, with perhaps some encroachment upon the common arable 

 fields. When the map was made, however, these fields seem to 

 have been nearly intact. They consisted of about two thousand 

 long narrow " lands " or selions, each containing usually from one- 

 fourth of an acre to one acre.^ Several parallel lands constituted 

 a furlong or shot, and there were about one hundred furlongs in 

 the township. These differed in shape and size, both features 

 depending largely upon the contour of the land. In consequence 

 the strips varied in length; but a desire to Hmit their length seems 

 manifest in the frequent appearance side by side of two furlongs 

 the strips of which ran in the same direction. In general the 

 length of a " land " did not exceed that of the English standard 

 acre (forty rods or poles), and there was an undoubted tendency 

 on the part of the acre parcels to conform roughly to the shape 

 of the standard acre. Their breadth thus became one-tenth of 

 their length, that of half-acre parcels one-twentieth, and that of 

 quarter-acres one-fortieth. In other field documents short strips 

 and subdivided strips are often called butts, while triangular or 

 irregular parcels at the end of a furlong are called gores. The 

 map shows the lands of two adjacent furlongs frequently at right 

 angles to one another. In such cases that strip of one furlong 

 upon which the strips of the other abutted served as a turning- 

 ground for the plough when the abutting strips were ploughed, 

 and was called a headland. The lands numbered 755 and 1751 

 on the accompanying plan are designated in the schedule as head- 

 lands, their situation being that just described. 



A stream formed part of the northern boundary of the town- 

 ship, and another traversed it near the village. Some of the 



^ The schedule appended to the map subtracts the glebe and gives areas in acres 

 as follows: arable land, 1620; meadow and pasture land, 431; wood land, 8; com- 

 mon land (i. e., the common pasture, or waste), 140; homesteads, 48; glebe, 69; 

 roads and wastes, 42. 



^ Cf. the following terrier, p. 22, below. 



