224 ENGLISH FIELD SYSTEMS 



were adjacent to the waste, it might be replaced by another 

 contiguous to the field in such way that the integrity of the 

 latter would in a measure be maintained. But if the furlong 

 lay in a field remote from the waste, how could it be replaced 

 without destroying the compactness of the field in question ? 

 Furthermore, the abandonment of furlongs within the arable 

 area would under any circumstances make impossible the per- 

 sistence of compact arable fields. Any field would always con- 

 tain " decayed " areas, and the term " field " could at best be 

 appHed only to one-third of the entire area of the township, 

 composed in turn of certain furlongs under cultivation and of 

 others abandoned for a series of years. Since such a field would 

 be very different in appearance and in mode of tillage from a 

 midland field — would, in short, be a " seisona " — there is no 

 reason why the term " field " should have been used in North- 

 umberland with its midland significance. Its non-appearance in 

 the documents, or its use in them merely to indicate topograph- 

 ically a part of the township or to designate one of the furlongs, 

 at once becomes explicable. The infrequent use of the term 

 in early charters, furthermore, is a guarantee that the field 

 arrangements of the midlands did not extend to Northumber- 

 land. 



That a system of Celtic type long persisted in the county is 

 apparent from certain evidence offered before chancery in a suit 

 relative to lands in North Middleton as they were prior to 

 their enclosure in 1805. The fourteen ancient farms, which 

 comprised about iioo acres of arable, meadow, and pasture, were 

 thus described: " These farms are not divided or set out, the 

 whole township lying in common and undivided. . . . The 

 general rule of cultivating and managing the lands within the 

 township has been for the proprietors or the tenants to meet 

 together and determine how much and what particular parts of 

 the lands shall be in tillage, how much and what parts in 

 meadow, and how much and what parts in pasture, and they 

 then divide and set out the tillage and meadow lands amongst 

 themselves in proportion to the number of farms or parts of farms 

 which they are respectively entitled to within the township, and 



