THE TWO- AND THREE-FIELD SYSTEM 49 



other features which have been noted above. However brief the 

 terrier or grant, it will indicate whether arable open field tended to 

 preponderate over enclosures ; it will show how evenly the arable 

 was divided between two or three fields; very likely it will be the 

 description of a copyhold; it may by good chance refer to a vir- 

 gate, a bovate, or a fraction thereof. If our source of information 

 be an extent rather than a terrier, it may, if it relates to a two- or 

 three-field township, either apportion the demesne acres between 

 two or three fields, or it may state that every second or third year 

 one-half or one-third of the demesne was fallow and had no 

 value because it lay in common. Such are the criteria to be ap- 

 plied in sifting the evidence now to be considered. 



