LATER HISTORY OF THE MIDLAND SYSTEM I 25 



At the beginning of the nineteenth century there were more 

 three-field townships in the region round about Thame than in 

 all the rest of Oxfordshire. Besides those mentioned, Little Mil- 

 ton, Littlemore, Wheatley, Headington, and Islip had each sub- 

 divided three fields into six. A little to the north were Beckley, 

 Piddington, and Bicester Market End, also showing at the some- 

 what earlier date when they were enclosed three fields apiece. In 

 short, if with Oxford as a center a quadrant were to be described 

 from Bicester (fifteen miles to the northeast) toward the east 

 and south, it would include several townships which still, in 

 1800 or even in 1825, were cultivated in the three-field manner. 

 Since this region was noticeably the last in the county to 

 undergo enclosure, the system seems not to have been wanting 

 in tenacity. 



Elsewhere in Oxfordshire few traces of the three-field system 

 appear in the parliamentary enclosure awards, except just to 

 the west of Oxford. ^ What had happened can be read on many 

 pages of Arthur Young's account and verified from the enclosure 

 plans. The change amounted to a substantial improvement in 

 agriculture. Many of the townships had adopted a four-field 

 system,^ with a four-course rotation of crops, the latter in general 

 being (i) fallow, (2) wheat, (3) beans, (4) barley or oats.^ 

 Young's illustrations are for the most part from the regions north 

 and west of Oxford, although he cites Garsington, situated in the 

 district in which we have seen the three-field rotation holding 

 its own. The order of the four courses varied only at Dedding- 

 ton, where it was (i) fallow, (2) wheat, (3) barley, (4) peas or 

 beans. 



These accounts of four-course tillage are confirmed by the plans 

 and enumerations of the enclosure awards. The region round 

 Oxford is again the one which furnishes most illustrations. At 



^ There seem to have been three important fields at Eynsham in 1802, six at 

 Ducklington in 1839, and six at Curbridge in 1845. These parishes lay close 

 together, ten or fifteen miles west of Oxford. 



^ Davis in the quotation given above says " a few " townships, but the evidence 

 about to be cited seems to show that they were numerous. 



' Young, Agriculture of Oxfordshire, pp. 111-130. So at Bampton, Hampton 

 Poyle, Garsington, Tackley, Wood Eaton, Wendlebury, Bicester Kings End, Kid- 

 lington, Kelmscott. 



