CELTIC SYSTEM IN ENGLAND 253 



there was any grouping of butts within this field we do not 

 learn. 



Sixteenth-century arrangements at Tilston and at Chester 

 thus seem to have been like those of the Denbighshire hamlets 

 round Wrexham. ^ SeHons in the possession of any tenant were 

 few — seldom more than a half-dozen — and were located without 

 any indication of grouping by fields. Often the entire open 

 arable area was undifferentiated, being merely assigned to a 

 hamlet. Such a " town field " must have been small and situated 

 near the hamlet or village. Though one cannot in Cheshire, 

 as in Denbighshire, compare total areas of townships with the 

 areas of their open fields, the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century 

 surveys of the former county, so far as they are extant, show 

 fully as much enclosure as do those of the latter. In the char- 

 acter and extent of its open field the Dee valley was at that 

 time a unit. 



Thirteenth-century testimony regarding unenclosed fields in 

 this part of Cheshire is not wanting. It is to be found largely 

 in the cartulary of St. Werburgh, written soon after 1300,^ and it 

 accords with the sixteenth-century evidence. To sharpen our 

 conception of a somewhat puzzling field system, it may be well 

 to summarize and illustrate the features that appear in the 

 charters. 



The grants were usually made in selions, " lands," or butts, 

 the areas of which were not estimated in acres,^ a procedure 



In the same fylde . . . the clere pyett' ' 



In the same fylde Another butt . . . 



In the same fylde other thow . . . 



Another in the same fylde 



A butt lyeing in a fylde called the newe close ... a hadland another butt . . . 



another butt lyeing in a fylde called unerbroke . . . 



other thow butt' lyeng in a fylde called the longe fylde . . . 



in the same fylde ... a hadland ... a rpughst." 



I Cf. above, pp. 179-182. * Harl. MS. 2062. 



* Cf. Add. Chars. 50008, 50040, 50304, cited below. In one instance, however, 

 a lay transaction of 1322 refers to ten acres in Aston [iuxta Mondrum], which 

 lay " in le quytenacres, le oldefeld, Ruycedyche, Aldecrofte et in le Wallefeld " 

 (Add. Char. 49805). Once also Abbot Simon of St. Werburgh exchanged two 

 messuages, two crofts, two lands, and two butts in " le hedfeld " for " iii acras et 

 i rodam iacentes inter landas suas et unum assartum continens v acras et unam 

 rodam " (Harl. MS. 2062, f. 226). 



