I08 ENGLISH FIELD SYSTEMS 



boundary which the thirteenth century would have drawn round 

 the two- and three-field area seem in the sixteenth century to 

 detach themselves. Such in particular were the counties of the 

 west. — Herefordshire and Shropshire,' parts of Staffordshire, 

 Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Gloucestershire, and Somerset,-^- 

 the Isle of Wight in the south, and part of the county of Durham 

 in the north. In Tudor days these were regions characterized by 

 innovations in field systems, most of which looked toward the im- 

 provement of agriculture. Either the arable of a township had 

 been subdivided in such a way that more of it than before could 

 be utilized for tillage, or large portions of it had been converted 

 into remunerative meadow or pasture. The latter process had 

 at times been accompanied by enclosure, at times not. Even if 

 it had been, there is often no evidence that the tenants had been 

 dispossessed. To ascertain more fully the relation existing be- 

 tween the decadence of the raiidland field system and the advance 

 of agriculture, especially the enclosure of the open fields, a closer 

 study of what happened in t>'pical counties is essential. 



* Since we have few satisfactor>' surveys from Shropshire, none have been sum- 

 marized. That of the manor of Cleobury shows irregular field arrangements 

 (Land Rev., M. B. 185, ff. 86-97, 21 Eliz.), and it is highly probable that the county 

 differed little in this respect from Herefordshire on the south and StafiFordshire on 

 the east. 



