52 EiYGUSH FIELD SYSTEMS 



immediately reveal the existence of an open-field system. One 

 hide subtracted from a five-hide township should, under a two- 

 or three-field system, comprise many scattered parcels in the 

 arable fields; ' and the bounding of such a hide should involve a 

 reference to the existence of these scattered acres. Such refer- 

 ences, as it happens, are seldom found. Wherefore Nasse and 

 Seebohm have argued that in these cases there grew up the con- 

 vention of giving the boundaries of the entire township, just as 

 if the latter were conveyed in toto.- The convention, they ex- 

 plain, would have arisen because the intermixture of acres made 

 difficult any exact definition of boundary. Reversing the argu- 

 ment, they conclude that, if part of a township is described with 

 the boundary phrases employed elsewhere relative to the entire 

 township, this circumstance proves that intermixed acres existed. 

 In all they cite six instances to establish such a usage. Thereupon 

 they infer that the general employment in Anglo-Saxon charters 

 of concise boundaries for relatively small transfers of land is 

 evidence of the wide extension of open-field arable at an early 

 date. 



Before this conclusion can be admitted, the six instances from 

 which they argue that a grant of part of a township and another 

 of the complete township employ the same boundaries deserve re- 

 examination. One instance relates to Kingston, Berkshire.^ 

 Two charters of almost the same date describe respectively thir- 

 teen mansae and seven cassati, the boundaries being alike. We 

 are not, however, left to arrive at the existence of intermixed 

 arable acres by inference; for in both charters we find the pre- 

 amble, " Dis sind «a landgemaero [boundaries] to Cyngestune 

 aecer onder aecere." The last phrase, " aecer onder aecere," is so 

 unusual that there might be doubt about its meaning were it not 

 for the explanation vouchsafed in another charter. Three cassati 

 at Hendred, Berkshire, transferred in 962, are left without 

 boundaries; but where the 7netae are usually inserted we are told, 

 " Dises landgemaera syn gemaene sua tSaet litS ajefre aecer under 



^ Unless, as often happened at a later period, it was consolidated demesne. 

 * Nasse, op. cit., pp. 24, 25; Seebohm, op. cit., p. iii. 

 ' Cod. Dip., 1276, 1277 (c. 977). 



