338 ENGLISH FIELD SYSTEMS 



From the table it is clear that the holding of no " former tenant " 

 was divided equally between the two fields, and this is true 

 whether land of all tenures be considered or, as is more to the 

 point, whether attention be confined to villein land. Even in the 

 midlands free land was not always very evenly apportioned 

 among fields. That the Norfolk villein eriung, however, the unit 

 which corresponded with the evenly-divided midland virgate, 

 should show an indifference to equal division between " fields," 

 and an inclination to lie largely in one of them, is significant. 

 It implies that the East and West fields had no agrarian impor- 

 tance at the time when the eriung took form. 



To know just how the parcels of an eriung lay in relation to 

 one another would be information well worth having. Unfor- 

 tunately, they are described in the Martham survey as they had 

 come to appear in the hands of the numerous tenants of 1291. 

 How many there were and how related when the " former 

 tenants " held them we are left to puzzle out from the incom- 

 plete boundaries that are given. The description of one of the 

 half-eriungs which lay entirely in the West field is substantially 

 as follows : — 



Wm Godhey tenuit quondam vi acras de vilenage pro dimidio 

 Eriung. De quibus sunt nunc xi tenentes, viz. : ^ 



Robert Koc, messuage and two tofts; i| roods next Osbertus 

 Harald on the north; i|, Simon Koc N; 2, Walter de 

 Scoutone W^; 2, Thomas Mome W. 

 Robert de Hyl li Alan de Syk W. 



Richard Mercator i , John clericus E; i, Thos. 



Mogge W; ^, Robert Koc S. 

 Simon Koc 5, Roger Mercator S. 



Osbertus Harald 2 , Robert Koc S; 25 poles, Rob't 



KocS. 

 Beatrix Harald 25 poles, Osbertus Harald S. 



Simon Cok i , Robert Koc S. 



Walter de Scoutone 2f , Robert de HiU E. 



* The neighbor on one side of each parcel is specified, as, for example, " iuxta 

 Osbertus Harald ex parte aquilonari," but the parcel is not completely bounded. 

 The abbreviated locations which follow should all be read in this way, the areas 

 being in roods unless otherwise specified. 



