CELTIC SYSTEM IN ENGLAND 265 



the ferling was said to contain from 4 to 5 acres, the Cornish 

 acre being only four times as great; ^ but in a rental of 6 

 James I the Cornish acre was larger, three-fourths of it con- 

 taining 70 Enghsh acres.2 Thus, at different times and in 

 different places the ferling varied in extent between 4 and 30 

 Enghsh acres. 



Whatever may have been its size, the important question as 

 regards field systems is whether it was a compact area or was 

 composed of scattered strips. The best evidence on this point 

 is from certain descriptions contained in a fifteenth-century 

 cartulary of Torre abbey. At one time we discover that a 

 half-ferUng of unknown size is completely bounded as one block; ^ 

 again a ferhng is said to lie " propinquior ad orientem terre pre- 

 dictum canonicorum " ; elsewhere a half-ferhng hes "in hoc- 

 rigge," and another half-ferhng " in parte orientah de Chinrigge 

 iuxta aquam";^ finally we hear of a half-ferling " unde una 

 clawa [close] vocatur Dodemmannesland et alia clawa vocatur 

 Wluesland." '" In an early fine twelve ferlings of the manor 

 of Coombe are so described as to imply that they were blocks in 

 different parts of the village floor, and that with them were trans- 

 ferred the resident villein households. In Coleford there was a 

 ferling and a half, at Tocumbe a ferhng and a half, at Fostefelde 

 two ferlings, at Haldestane four, at Fishull one, at Blakewille one, 

 at la Grutte one.^ In Limerick, in 22 Henry III, two ferlings 

 were " in Lange furlang " and " in Sholdedune." ^ Nowhere 



1 Sir John Maclean, The Parochial and Family History of the Deanery of Trigg 

 Minor (3 vols., London, 1873-79), iii. 45 sq. 



2 Rents, and Surv's., Portf. 2/33. 



3 Exch. K. R., M. B. 19, f. 256: " Illud dimidium ferlingum terre . . . que se 

 ■extendit a fossato . . . usque magnum iter . . . quod ducit versus Teyngnewike 

 . . . et iacet iuxta terram ecclesie de Hanok et se extendit usque regale iter quod 

 -ducit versus hywis et iacet iuxta terram W. de Ferndon . . . et iterum iuxta 

 pratum sub Asselonde . . . et iterum iuxta cornerium curtUIagii ubi facte sunt 

 divise." 



* Ibid., f. 576. 



' Ibid., f. 336. 



^ Joseph Hunter, Fines sive Pedes Finium (Record Com., 2 vols., 1835-44), ii. 

 46 (10 Rich. I). Coombe and Coleford are two adjacent Devonshire hamlets, but 

 the other names are not applied to hamlets in this neighborhood. 



^ Ped. Fin., 40-12-239. 



