I I 2 ENGLISH FIELD SYSTEMS 



as to the arable strips, often have nothing to say about fields, 

 but require the student to puzzle out the arrangement from the 

 schedule, as has been done in the case of Chalgrove.' These late 

 awards, furthermore, like some earlier ones, do not trouble to 

 add up the allotments, but throw that burden upon the investi- 

 gator. Most annoying of all, however, is the brevity which, in 

 both early and late awards, combines arable and waste without 

 specifying the respective areas of each. For this reason it is 

 often necessary to estimate the extent of the waste, and at 

 times there are no data for such an estimate.^ The entire en- 

 closure has then to be set down as arable, an expedient which 

 obviously exaggerates the amount of arable that was enclosed. 

 A final difficulty comes in determining the areas of the old en- 

 closures. Seldom are they stated. Sometimes they can be 

 computed from the plan by a comparison of the space there as- 

 signed to them with that assigned to the open areas. Again, 

 when it may be assumed that the area of the township has re- 

 mained substantially unchanged and that no other open common 

 land existed save that described in the award (or awards), the 

 old enclosures may be obtained by subtraction. To ascertain 

 them in this way, we need only deduct the combined area of open- 

 field arable and unenclosed waste from the area of the town- 

 ship. Sometimes, lastly, the allotment for tithes is so described 

 in the award that the part of it made in lieu of tithes due 

 from old enclosures is distinguished from the part made in lieu 

 of tithes due from open fields. Since the former was about 

 one-ninth of the value of the old enclosures,^ the area of these 



^ Cf. above, p. 21. 



^ In the later awards the allotment to the lord of the manor, as such, for his 

 rights in the waste was about one-fifteenth or one-sixteenth of the waste divided. 

 In the tables of the Appendix the area of the uncultivated common has often been 

 computed from this entry. 



* It is so in the award for Blackthorn, Oxons. At Sandford St. Martin it was one- 

 sixth, at Burford one-fifth. The estimate in question is vahd only if no old en- 

 closures had already been exempted from tithes. A divergence between an esti- 

 mate got in this way and the area obtained by subtracting the total enclosure from 

 the total area of the township may arise because some old enclosures had already 

 been exempted before the award was made. The divergences are noted below in 

 Appendix IV. 



