1 86 ENGLISH FIELD SYSTEMS 



" duae acrae iacent in cultura qui vocatur Kayraryan . . . 

 et una acra iacet in cultura qui vocatur Kayrpistel 

 et una acra iacet in cultura qui vocatur Hendref." 



This may be open field or it may not be. Somewhat more sug- 

 gestive of it are the 4f acres of arable which were conveyed along 

 with one- third of a messuage in Landoghe; ^ but abundant testi- 

 mony of this sort is by no means forthcoming. 



Our examination of Jacobean surveys from Wales has brought 

 to light only a relatively slight extent of open arable field in which 

 the parcels of the tenants were intermixed. In each of the two 

 townships of Pembrokeshire for which areas can be estimated it 

 did not exceed one hundred acres, and it was not greater in the 

 Denbighshire townships. In purely Welsh regions little more 

 than the existence of common arable fields in Jacobean days can 

 be determined. 



A reason for the insignificance of such fields, together with 

 testimony to their earher prevalence, is to be found in Owen's 

 description of Pembrokeshire, written in 1603. Explaining why 

 winter corn is so little grown in that county, the author remarks: 

 " One other cause was the use of gavelkinde used amonge most of 

 these Welshmen to parte all the Fathers patrymonie amonge all 

 his sonnes, so that in proces of tyme the whole countrie was 

 brought into smale peeces of ground and intermingled upp and 

 downe one with another, so as in every five or sixe acres you shall 

 have ten or twelve owners; this made the Countrie to remayne 

 Champion, and without enclosures or hedging, and wynter Corne 

 if it weare sowen amonge them should be grased all the winter 

 and eaten by sheepe and other cattell, which could not be kept 

 from the same: . . . this in my opinion was one cheefe cause 



^ " Dimidia acra iacet in loco qui vocatur Votlond inter terram . . . et 

 terram . . . et caput ejus occidens extenditur usque ad feodum de 

 Denaspowys 

 due acre et dimidia iacent apud Langeton inter terram . . . et terram . . . 

 dimidia acra iacet inter terram . . . et terram . . . 

 dimidia acra iacet scilicet in V'otlond inter terram . . . et terram . . . 

 dimidia acra iacet in loco appellate Morewithe Stlad . . . 

 una roda iacet in parte boreali prati quondam Alexandri " Cartae, etc. 

 (Cardiff, 1910), iii. 722. 



