372 ENGLISH FIELD SYSTEMS 



each of these townships is described in sixteenth- or early seven- 

 teenth-century documents, all of them imj)lying the existence 

 of open fields but never the existence of a two- or three-field sys- 

 tem. At times the amount of open field was very slight. In 

 1636 " a coppie of the Survey of Little Ayott " (probably relat- 

 ing to demesne) took account of 83 acres of woodland, 64 acres of 

 park land, and twenty-three closes containing together 329 acres, 

 while in Church field there were but 19 acres in twelve parcels 

 and in Nellwyn field but 24 acres in nineteen parcels. Only one- 

 ninth of the tillable lands here still lay open.* 



From Kings Walden the field detail contained in three ter- 

 riers is far more expHcit. The latest, dated 1654, rehearses the 

 " particulers of the landes liing in the Common Feildes belonging 

 to the Berry and Parsonage Farme taken out of former notes 

 with some additions";- another of 1568 relates to all the 

 ''copyehold londes of John Camfyld holden of the manor of 

 Kings Waldon ";^ the third is a valuation, in an Elizabethan 

 hand, of the possessions of Sir WilHam Burgh, knight.* The 

 Burgh estate comprised a manor house, 266 acres of enclosed 

 land, 80 acres of woodland, and '' clxx Acres of Arable lande 

 lieing in sondrie peeces in divers fieldes of Kinges Walden, 

 Powles Walden, and Polletts." These open-field acres (except 

 the ten in Powles Walden and Polletts) , together with the parcels 

 of the two other terriers, are shown in the table on the next page. 

 No uniformity is perceptible in these terriers, except in the two 

 larger holdings, which show a preponderance of acres in Mill 

 field. Since in both holdings the acres in question comprised 

 more than one-third of the total but less than one-half. Mill 

 field can hardly have been one of three fields. Especially would 

 its slight representation in Camfyld's holding tell against such 

 an hypothesis, while the location of one- third of this copyhold in 

 Howcroft once more precludes any simple three-field arrange- 

 ment. 



On the top of the Hertfordshire hills is situated the parish of 

 Weston, the northern slope of which, constituting Lannock 



1 Add. MS. 33575> ^- 23. ^ Ibid., f. 242. 



» Ibid., f. 141. " Ibid., f. 4. 



