LATER HISTORY OF THE MIDLAND SYSTEM 1 29 



enclosure of the open fields of Great Tew in 1767. The first two 

 are not clear about field divisions or the rotation of crops. The 

 third, dated October, 1 761, is specific, enumerating the open fields 

 in eight divisions, as follows: (i) Huckerswell, (2) Between the 

 Hedges, (3) Upper Barnwell, (4) The Lower side of Woodstock 

 way beyond the Brook, (5) Gaily Therns and the old Hill, (6) 

 Park Hill and Great Oxenden, (7) Upper Oxenden, plank pitts, 

 ten Lands . . . Wheat Land, Broad and picked Castors, Hollow- 

 marsh Hill to Alepath, (8) Alepath to the Great Pool and the 

 West field from Alepath and Woodway Ford. The first of these 

 divisions was to be subject to an eight-course rotation beginning 

 the following spring and observing the following succession: (i) 

 turnips, (2) barley with grass seeds, (3) hay, (4) sheepwalk, (5) 

 oats, (6) fallow, (7) wheat, (8) peas. The second division was 

 to begin the same rotation a year later, the third two years later, 

 and so on throughout the series. Eight presumably equal divi- 

 sions of the open fields were, in short, arranged for an eight-course 

 rotation of crops. 



That this arrangement was not new in 1761, but that certain 

 of the areas mentioned were at the earlier dates sown precisely 

 as they would have been had the specified rotation been in force, 

 is suggested by four items in the first two rolls. Thus, in the 

 spring of 1757 Upper Barnwell was destined for spring grain and 

 grass seeds, while Between the Hedges was the clover quarter. 

 Eight years later, as we have seen, the same crops were assigned 

 to these areas. According to the second roll the Upper Oxenden 

 group was in the spring of 1761 to be sown with barley and grass 

 seeds, while Park Hill and Great Oxenden were in 1760 to be 

 " lay'd down with rye grass and clover " (i. e., mowed for hay). 

 The specifications of the third roll were to the effect that the same 

 situations should prevail in the respective divisions eight years 

 later. An eight-course rotation and the subdivision of the open 

 fields into eight parts thus seem to antedate 1756, the date of 

 the first roll, but by how much we cannot say. 



These arrangements amounted to the introduction of a second 

 four-course rotation besides the one described by Arthur Young. 

 The normal four-course succession, it will be perceived, appears 



