I02 ENGLISH FIELD SYSTEMS 



and thrcc-ticld townships as disregard of their field conventions 

 could render it.' 



Before we pass to the north of England, we should not fail 

 to note the decay of a two-tield system in the Isle of Wight. 

 The precise division of acres between two fields, characteristic of 

 Wellow,- was unusual in surveys from that island. At Niton in 

 6 James I there were still two fields, but they had suffered from 

 the activity of the tenant encloser, most holdings being half or 

 more than half enclosed. While the acres had been abstracted 

 sometimes from one field, sometimes from the other, East field 

 had shrunken more; in it there remained but 53 acres of copy- 

 hold, while West field contained 71 and the enclosures 167I. 

 Of common meadow there was scarcely any. 



At " Uggaton " the appearance of open-field names in the sur- 

 vey is so infrequent that it is doubtful whether such fields really 

 sur\'ived. One tenant had 2\ acres in South field, two had 

 together 2^ acres in North field, four had 29! acres in West field. 

 That was all. Since such data are too slight to build inferences 

 upon, the township should be looked upon as practically enclosed 

 by 6 James I.^ 



Enclosed beyond all doubt were the fields of Thorley, sur- 

 veyed at the same time.^ All areas are said to be closes, although 

 the character of these as pasture or arable is not specified. What 

 is interesting here and at "Uggaton" is the goodly array of copy- 

 holders whom no evicting landlord seems to have disturbed. At 

 " Uggaton " there were eighteen with from 5 to 68 acres of land 

 apiece, at Thorley fifteen similarly circumstanced. To be sure, 

 these manors were royal ones, upon which evictions could not be- 

 comingly have taken place; yet they make it clear that the quiet 

 passage from open fields to enclosures could be effected in the 



1 The numerous Wiltshire manors of the Earl of Pembroke, surveyed in 9 Eliza- 

 beth, were largely in two or three fields (cf. below, Appendix II, pp. 501-503). Four, 

 however, Bower Chalk, Chilmark, Hilcott, and Stockton, had adopted a four-field 

 arrangement. Two, Berwick St. John and Bedwyn, had irregular fields, due prob- 

 ably to their situation in remote upland valleys. Cf. Straton, Survey of the Lands 

 of William, First Earl of Pembroke, vol. i. 



2 Cf. above, p. 31. 



' Exch. Aug. Of., M. B. 421. Because the open fields were so insignificant, no 

 holdings have been transcribed in Appendix III. * Ibid. 



