THE EAST ANGLIAN SYSTEM 323 



consideration of the totals of the field-books of Weasenham and 

 Castle Acre, the conclusion namely that in Norfolk a tenant's 

 arable acres were likely to be concentrated within a particular 

 precinct or field of the township. 



Holdings so constituted can be reconciled with the existence 

 of a two- or three-field system only on the assumption that a 

 township had groups of two or three fields and that the parcels 

 concentrated lay in one of these groups. Of Elmdon's three 

 groups of parcels that were assigned successively to winter corn, 

 spring corn, and fallow, two, those near Overgate and Milstye, 

 were each distinctly segregated; and the two may conceivably 

 be thought of as having lain in two compact fields. These fields 

 would, however, have constituted only about one-fourth of the 

 total unenclosed arable, an excessive concentration implying 

 that there were five or six other similar fields. Apart from 

 the attribution of so large a number of fields to Weasenham in 

 the sixteenth century, a difficulty arises regarding Elmdon's 

 third group of parcels. This, instead of being compact, broke 

 into three sub-groups, one lying in the southwest of the township 

 near the Overgate group, the others in the Northern precinct 

 widely removed one from the other. What we actually have, 

 then, is a concentration of two groups of parcels and part of the 

 third within a relatively circumscribed portion of the township's 

 arable. Such locations preclude a six-field arrangement, and one 

 of eight fields does not comport with three-course husbandry. 

 Despite the three-course rotation of crops at Weasenham, there- 

 fore, the distribution of Elmdon's parcels conflicts with the 

 assumption that the township was one of three or of six fields. 



Other features of Elmdon's notes emphasize this conclusion. 

 The writer never says, as he so easily might have done had the 

 system been simple, " Sown with winter corn, all parcels in X 

 field." On the contrary, he nearly always assigns his strips to 

 furlongs, with only an occasional mention of fields. The area 

 round Westgate is at times, to be sure, vaguely referred to as 

 Westgate field or South field, but in it lay parcels devoted to 

 different crops. In it, too, lay at least two-thirds of Elmdon's 

 holding. Since for these reasons it cannot be thought of as 



