2l6 



ENGLISH FIELD SYSTEMS 



1832 acres in North field, 137^ in South field, and 161^ in Miller 

 Leazes. This area was re-allotted to five copyhold " farmes," 

 each containing 53 acres, but the former relation of these farms 

 to the fields is not indicated. Such relationship is stated only 

 for certain old freeholds, which are, however, not very satisfac- 

 torily described.* In them something is usually allotted to West 

 field and to Miller Leazes, but there is considerable obscurity 

 about North field; it will be noticed that, of the many rood par- 

 cels that were " next the Rake," only one is located in that field. 

 For the most part the strips are assigned to such areas as Dikan 

 Dubb or the Long Dike, and it is impossible to group them by 

 fields. If terriers Hke these be typical of the Northumberland 

 surveys which were made in such considerable numbers prepara- 

 tory to the re-allotment of holdings in the early seventeenth cen- 

 tury, the surveys either contain little useful information about 

 fields or show the acres of the holdings irregularly distributed. 



It may be urged, however, that we are here deaHng with rela- 

 tively late field arrangements, that in Northumberland the old 

 system, whatever it was, had by this time begun to decay. The 

 very ease with which a re-allotment of parcels was brought about, 

 as at Long Houghton before 1567, testifies, one may say, to the 

 laxity of the old ties. Laxity there pretty clearly was, and it 



^ For three of them the details run as follows, the areas being in roods: — 



