192 ENGLISH FIELD SYSTEMS 



The most surprising thing in this account is perhaps not the 

 excessive subdivision which resulted in 205 acres being cut up 

 into 422 lots held intermixedly by twenty-nine tenants; it is 

 rather that a compact farm had been thus transformed within 

 two generations — a fact which Seebohm neglected to note. The 

 cause of the subdivision and the manner in which it had been 

 made are indicated in the quotation. Co-tenancy had been re- 

 sponsible. This custom demanded that the heirs of a tenant 

 receive equal parcels of each quality of his land, no matter how 

 widely distributed the plots of the same quality may have been. 

 The tangle of strips and plats shown on the map was the result. 



Such an account corresponds with what has already been noted 

 relative to a Scottish farm or townland. There, too, co-heirs 

 were often the tenants who held their lands in runrig. In both 

 countries other tenants, not heirs of the original holder, must at 

 times, through purchase or otherwise, have substituted them- 

 selves for some of the co-heirs. But the principle is plain and 

 the rapidity with which results could be achieved is startHng. 

 With such a tradition at work, both countries must necessarily 

 at one time or another have had many a townland as much 

 subdivided as were the open fields of the English midlands. 

 Testimony to the prevalence of runrig in Scotland before the 

 middle of the eighteenth century has been given. Something 

 more should be added regarding Ireland. 



When the Devon Commission made its report in 1845 runrig 

 had pretty nearly disappeared in certain parts of the island. 

 The following quotations are respectively from Antrim, Down, 

 and Londonderry, three counties of Ulster: — 



"Are there many farms near you held in rundale, or in com- 

 mon ? " " Very few. . . . There are none on the Ballycastle 

 estate. ... I do not know more than a dozen cases in my 

 range. I consider it a very objectionable system." 



" Are there any persons holding in common or in joint ten- 

 ancy ? " " Very few. I do not know any at present. I had a 

 property some time ago under me which was in rundale." " In 

 what state were the tenants ? " " Very bad indeed; but I 

 divided it all." 



