THE EAST ANGLIAN SYSTEM 32I 



Wynter comes sowen at Michaelmas and at Ascension 565 \ ^ 1 

 Messylen sowen at Michaelmas 4f / ^ 



1584 

 W; 

 Ml 



Wynter corne stubble to sowe barlye on [40! ] 1 ^ 



Ollands broken upp befoer Xrmas to sowe barlie on . . [13!]/ ^ 

 Somerlie pro anno 1585 [48] 



1588. 



Wynter Corne growing in Maye 5Si 



Barlie, otes, pease, and fetches god bless them sowen in Maye 545 

 [Somerlie not given] 



1589 (July 15). 



Wynter corne nowe growinge [32] 



Barlie, pease, otes, sowen '89 64I 



Somerlie pro anno 89 et pro siligne 90 48 " 



The only divergence from symmetry here occurred in the year 

 1589, when the area under spring corn was increased at the 

 expense of the winter-corn crop. So relatively exact was the 

 division of the other years as strongly to suggest a three-course 

 husbandry, and the suggestion becomes a certainty if the par- 

 cels sown together at any time be followed from year to year. 

 Although the group which, for example, was under winter corn in 

 1584 was not precisely the same group that was under spring corn 

 in 1585 and again in 1588, it was nearly the same. Perhaps one- 

 third or one-fourth of the parcels changed during the period; but 

 enough remained constant to establish the important fact that a 

 three-course husbandry was to a large extent employed on tenants' 

 land in Norfolk open fields at the end of the sixteenth century. 



If it were true that a three-course husbandry implied a three- 

 field system, we should at this point declare Norfolk fields akin to 

 those of the midlands. Since, however, the one does not neces- 

 sarily involve the other, ^ and since certain features about the 

 Weasenham descriptions are unusual, it is desirable to locate, if 

 possible, the three groups of parcels into which Elmdon's open- 

 field arable was roughly but pretty continuously divided. This 

 we may do approximately by comparing the names and descrip- 

 tions of his parcels with the excellent map of 1600. The result 

 is shown on the accompanying plan.^ 



1 Cf. above, p. 45. 



2 Although most of the furlongs of the original map are named, certain of them 

 are not, a fact which renders the exact location of a few of the parcels problematic. 



