THE KENTISH SYSTEM 275 



Full and convincing testimony to the existence of open-field 

 arable in Kent appears in certain early seventeenth-century 

 surveys relating to St. Margaret at Cliffe, Guston, Deal, and 

 Sutton, all situated in the southeastern part of the county. 

 A terrier of the glebe of St. Margaret at Cliffe, dated 1645, de- 

 scribes it as lying in 31 furlongs, in each of which were from two 

 to five small parcels, each parcel lying between the lands of other 

 proprietors.^ In Limvine furlong, for example, were four separate 

 strips of glebe containing respectively i acre and 22 perches, 3 

 roods and 10 perches, i rood and 3 perches, i^ acres and 15 perches. 

 An earUer account of 161 6 explains that the same glebe " lyeth 

 in severall Shotts or furlongs of land . . . lying intermixed with 

 the lands of the Tenants of the manner of Reach." ^ Elsewhere 

 we learn that the " manor of Reach doth consist of demesnes and 

 services and lyeth in the parish of St. Margaretts at Cliffe neere 

 Dover. . . . The demesnes are of three sorts — Inclosed 

 Lands, Outlands or Downe Lands, and Commons. . . . These 

 open fields and downe do incompasse the inclosed lands and 

 mansion house. . . . " ^ Clearly the so-called " outlands " con- 

 sisted of intermixed arable strips lying in open field. 



In 1616 the demesne lands of the manor of Guston near Dover 

 were of '' two sortes. Inclosed or lying in parcells in open fielde. 

 The inclosed lands some ly contiguously one to another and the 

 rest lye severed amongst other mens lands." The contiguous en- 

 closed demesne comprised 96 acres; the severed but enclosed, 

 i6| acres; the unenclosed, 38 acres in 18 parcels. Of the tenants' 

 holdings 54 acres were enclosed (whether in contiguous parcels is 

 not stated) and 63 acres lay in 72 parcels in open field, the open 

 fields bearing such names as the Chequer End, the Butts, Church 

 field, and " Le Shott sive Furlong iuxta Banke." ^ In contrast 

 with this estate, another " reputed " manor called Frith in the 

 same parish was " onely in Demesne . . . and the whole de- 

 mesne lands lye all together in an obHque lyne and no man hath 

 any lands intermixed with the lands of the same manour." ^ 



1 Rents, and Survs., Portf. 9/55. 



2 Exch. K. R., M. B. 40, f. 47. 



3 Ibid., f. 6 (1616). * Ibid, ff. 2 sq. " Ibid., f. 14. 



