3/8 ENGLISH FIELD SYSTEMS 



Of three Hertfordshire townships to the north of the summit 

 of the hills, one thus lay in two fields in the thirteenth century, 

 another probably in three, while the Kensworth evidence stops 

 short with showing us a three-course rotation upon demesne 

 lands. 



South of the crest of the hills the early evidence changes, two 

 fractional virgates being so described as to imply that parcelling 

 out of virgates among fields was not there usual. A line of 9 

 John relative to Wheathamstead transfers " illam quartam par- 

 tem unius virgate terre cum pertinentibus que iacet versus aus- 

 trum et occidentem a via que tendit de molendino de B[atford] 

 usque ad mesuagium ipsius Rogeri." ' If it be urged that this 

 quarter- virgate may have been demesne, the same objection will 

 not apply to the description of a half-virgate at Tewin. The 

 account is contained in a charter, copied into an early fifteenth- 

 century cartulary of St. Albans, by which " Adam filius Walteri, 

 parsone de Aete, [conveys to] Sanson de tebreg pro homagio et 

 servicio suo dimidiam virgatam terre in thebreg, illam, videlicet, 

 dimidiam virgatam terre que iacet inter terram predicti San- 

 sonis et terram Roberti de thebreg' sub parco de Aiete versus le 

 su . . . Reddendo inde annuatim . . . duos solidos."^ Hom- 

 age, service, and rent imply customary land, and the whole de- 

 scription, like the one preceding, suggests that the plots of land 

 in question were undivided. 



It should by no means be assumed that all Hertfordshire vir- 

 gates or fractions thereof were at an early time compact areas. 



" Thomas Affrith tenet x acras "terre arabilis divisim iacentes in campis de 

 Kenesworth, [scilicet], 



iv acras apud le Greneway ducens a Kenesworth versus le Down 

 i acram . . . apud Gatepath 



i acram et dimidiam . . . super Stokynghill . . . super terras Willielmi Flyndey 

 i acram super easdem terras 



dimidiam acram iacentem iuxta terram domini la Zouche 

 ii acras . . . iuxta terram Johannis Movell 

 dimidiam acram in Crouchedene et est forera et extendit super Croucheway. 



" George Ingleton tenet [libere] xi et dimidiam acras terre divisim iacentes, unde 

 V acre similiter iacent iuxta le Spitleway 

 iv acre iacent super Aldreht 

 ii acre similiter iacent ibidem 

 dimidia acra iacet in le Galowfurlong." 



1 Ped. Fin., 84-7-18. 2 Cott. MS., Jul. D III, f. 64. 



