EARLY HISTORY OF TWO AND THREE FIELDS 6 1 



shire, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Oxfordshire, and North- 

 amptonshire form a compact area, a part of the larger territory 

 within which we shall soon see the two- and three-field system 

 domiciled. The testimony of the charters is, therefore, in accord 

 with that of more detailed but later evidence. Briefly stated, 

 it is this: in seven counties of the southern midlands some 

 -twenty charters of the tenth and eleventh centuries testify to the 

 existence of open common arable fields, and one or two of them 

 probably reflect to a two-field system. 



Turning to the Anglo-Saxon laws, we find a single passage of 

 first-rate importance relative to open fields, but we find Httle 

 besides. The passage in question, which has been quoted by 

 Nasse and Seebohm,^ runs as follows: — 



" Gif ceorlas gaerstun haebben gemaenne oSSe o^er gedalland 

 to tynanne, 7 haebben sume getyned hiora dael, sume naebben, 

 7 etten hiora gemaenan aeceras o6Se gaers, gan }'a )>onne ]>e 

 Saet geat agan, 7 gebete I'am oSrum, l>e hiora dael getynedne 

 haebben, )?one aewerdlan ]>e ^aer gedon sie." ^ 



What gives this regulation a unique importance is its date. 

 Ine's laws belong to the end of the seventh century, to the years 

 between 688 and 694.^ At this time there existed, as the extract 

 shows, common meadow and " other gedalland " which it was the 

 duty of the tenants to hedge. If one of them failed to do his 

 share of the hedging, and cattle destroyed the growing grass or 

 grain, he was responsible to his co-tenants. Such a conception 

 of gedalland corresponds with what we have learned of it in 

 the tenth century. The term was then applied to common inter- 

 mixed arable acres. The gedalland of Ine's law was not pasture, 

 since pasture would not have been divided. It was " other 



' Nasse, op. cit, p. 19; Seebohm, op. cit., p. no. 



2 F. Liebermann, Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen (3 vols., Halle, 1898-191 2), i. 106. 

 " If ceorls have common meadow or other gedalland to hedge and some have hedged 

 their share and some have not, [and If stray cattle] eat their common acres or grass, 

 let those who are answerable for the opening go and give compensation to those 

 who have hedged their share for the injury which may have been done." 



^ Liebermann, " Ueber die Gesetze Ines von Wessex," in Melanges d' Hisloire 

 offerts a M. Charles Bemont . . . (Paris, 1913), p. 32. Liebermann recognizes 

 in the above passage " ein Dorf mit Gemeinwiese und Gemenglage der Aecker " 

 (ibid., 26). 



