EARLY HISTORY OF TWO AND THREE FIELDS 53 



aecer," " The boundaries are common in such way that the 

 arable acres are intermixed." ^ This clarifies the phraseology of 

 the Kingston charters. The preamble to them wishes to tell us 

 that the acres were intermixed. It is equivalent to explaining 

 why the scribe gave the boundaries of an entire township rather 

 than attempt the impossible task of locating scattered acres. We 

 may therefore agree with Nasse and Seebohm in their immediate 

 inference that open arable fields are referred to in the Kingston 

 charters, but we are not obliged to adopt their generalization. 

 It appears rather that, if the boundaries of a township are used 

 to describe a part of the township, this device is explained 

 by a statement about intermixed acres.^ When such explana- 

 tion is wanting, inferences as to intermixed acres may be un- 

 warranted. 



Another citation of Nasse's and one of Seebohm's are not more 

 happy. The latter is concerned with two charters which relate 

 to Stanton, Somerset, and employ very similar boundaries. One 

 conveys two and one-half hides, the other seven and one-half.^ 

 But the former distinctly states, " Dis synt 6a landgemaera to 

 Stantune [the entire township]," and after the recital continues, 

 *' Donne is binnan Sam tyn hydun Aelfsiges [the grantee's] pridde 

 healfe hide." The justification for the use of the boundaries of 

 the township in connection with a part of it is specific : the two 

 and one-half hides lay within the ten hides. Nasse's Waltham 

 instance is of the same sort; * for the fourteen hides which King 

 Eadmund booked are expressly said to he " binnan Sam pritigum 

 hidum landgemaero " — within the thirty hides whose boundaries 

 are given. At Waltham, as at Stanton, the use of the boundaries 

 of an entire township when a part of the township was to be con- 

 veyed appeared so unusual as to need explanation. 



Two other groups of charters to which we are referred are not 

 convincing. In 903, as Seebohm points out. King Edward gave 

 to his "princeps" Ordlaf twenty cassati at Stanton, Wiltshire; in 



^ Cod. Dip., 1240. 



2 Nasse cites the explanatory phrase of the Kingston charters, but Seebohm re- 

 fers to it only in a note upon another point (op. cit., p. 112, n. 3). 



' Cod. Dip., 502 {an. 963), 516 (an. 965). * Ibid., 1134 {an. 940). 



