28 ENGLISH FIELD SYSTEMS 



is given. Each of three tenants held one and one-half virgates, 

 ten others a virgate apiece, the remainder for the most part half a 

 virgate apiece. The normal virgate comprised three or four acres 

 in the common meadow, from five to ten acres of enclosed land, 

 and between seven and ten acres in each of three common arable 

 fields. Often the arable acres of the holdings were almost exactly- 

 divided among the three fields (lo, lo, 8; 4, 5, 4^; 3, 3!, 35). At 

 times, however, there were discrepancies which might give to one 

 field as many as five or six acres more than to another (15, 9, 9; 

 62- I if > 7; 4) 3^14)- The number of parcels into which the arable 

 was divided is not stated, as it usually is not in the surveys of 

 Jacobean days. On the other hand, we are told more about the 

 common meadows than at Kington, and learn that each holding 

 had half-acre or quarter-acre parcels in them. There is further 

 an obvious intention to give information about the pasturage 

 rights of the customary tenants. Nearly always occurs the ab- 

 breviation " communia pasture ut supra." But we refer back in 

 vain; for either a folio is gone, or, as is more likely, the folios as 

 they stand at present have been incorrectly rearranged. Toward 

 the end of the survey descriptions of three holdings specify com- 

 mon of pasture " in omnibus Campis, etc.," " in omnibus Com- 

 muniis, etc.," and "in Einsham heath and Kinges Heath." ^ The 

 first statement, to the effect that there was common of pasture 

 in all fields {campus is the usual term for arable field), undoubt- 

 edly represents the existent rights. 



The somewhat full extracts from the surveys of Kington and 

 Handborough will perhaps serve to make clear the nature of our 

 most detailed evidence about English field systems.- For 

 specific and decisive pronouncements Tudor and Jacobean sur- 

 veys will continually have to be relied upon, and in the light of 

 what they reveal the earlier testimony from many regions of 



^ Cf. Appendix I, below, pp. 434-436. 



* In one respect the Handborough situation was somewhat unusual. The 

 demesne was farmed, not to two or three or a half-dozen lessees in large parcels, but 

 to some thirty-six persons, nearly all customary tenants. These leaseholds usually 

 comprised less than ten acres each, and frequently lay outside the three common fields 

 in areas called the Great Hide and the Little Hide. The title was " per copiam," 

 and the tenure seems very like copyhold of inheritance. 



