I20 ENGLISH FIELD SYSTEMS 



doubt directly enclosed from the forest. Five other early en- 

 closed townships lay in the plain between the hills and the river,* 

 a situation that probably had something to do with the absence 

 of open fields, although two neighboring townships retained such 

 fields until well into the nineteenth century. ^ In general, the 

 Chilterns, apart from certain areas near the Thames, are to be 

 looked upon as a forest region in which enclosure was early and 

 probably coincident with improvement from the forest state. ^ 



The condition of such of these townships as lay between the 

 hills and the Thames suggests another reason for early enclosure, 

 namely, proximity to a river. Already situations of this kind 

 have been instanced to explain Tudor and Jacobean irregularities 

 in field arrangements. May they not also have been responsible 

 for a further step — the conversion to enclosed pasture of lands 

 obviously fitted for such use ? The three large streams of 

 Oxfordshire are the Thames, the Cherwell, and the Thame. If 

 we run through the list of early enclosed townships, we find that 

 no fewer than nineteen of them were meadow townships lying 

 on or near these streams.* Most are of small size, containing 

 from 500 to 1000 acres apiece, a circumstance also conducive 

 to prompt enclosure. There were, of course, many riverside 

 townships which retained open arable fields; but since they were 

 in general larger than the nineteen in question, speedy conver- 

 sion of all their open fields to pasture would have been more 

 diflacult. 



We come finally to a group of townships the early enclosure of 

 which is explained by their history. Each has long been notable 

 as the site of a mediaeval monastery, an ancient manor-house, 



^ Eye and Dunsden, Henley-on-Thames and Badgemore, Greys, Harpsden, 

 Mapledurham. 



2 Caversham and Shiplake. 



' Except in three or four instances the hamlets near Wychwood forest, unlike 

 those of the Chilterns, had open fields and retained a part of them until the time 

 of parliamentary enclosure. Long Coombe, whose field irregularities have already 

 been noticed (p. 84, above), may have been enclosed early, since no enclosure 

 award is forthcoming. 



* Langford, Radcot, Bampton, Chimney, Shifford, Lew, Yelford, Begbrook, 

 Binsey, Marston, Cutslow, Gosford, Hampton Gay, Newnham Murren, Monge- 

 well, Chippinghurst, Stadhampton, Albury, Tiddington. 



