THE LOWER THAMES BASIN 387 



one another, are summarized in Appendix VI. In all four open 

 field largely predominated. The number of fields, however, 

 varied from township to township, and the acres held by indi- 

 vidual tenants were nowhere evenly divided among the fields. 

 Ewelm perhaps approached most closely to the midland arrange- 

 ment. Three open fields. Grove, Middle, and Church, frequently 

 recur, and in three or four instances the tripartite division of the 

 open-field acres of a holding was nearly achieved. In many cases, 

 however, one or more of these fields are disregarded, while as 

 many as a dozen others are mentioned. At both Wathngton and 

 Bensington there were about a dozen fields, in from one to seven 

 of which the acres of a tenant might lie. No group of three 

 fields stood prominently forth in either township, nor can a six- 

 field arrangement be discovered. The fourth of the townships, 

 Warborough, did to be sure, have six fields; but here too, if we 

 try to combine any three with any other three, we shall get such 

 improbable apportionments of tenants' acres as 4, i^, 8|. Since 

 there are several such inequahties for each equitable division, we 

 are forced to consider the open fields intractable like those of 

 the other townships. It may be added that nineteenth-century 

 enclosure plans and awards concerned with these four places 

 evince no regularity in field arrangements. To judge, then, from 

 all the instances noticed above, it seems probable that the irregu- 

 lar fields of Surrey and Middlesex extended into the Chiltern 

 region of the three counties to the west, and came to an end only 

 when they reached the plain of southeastern Oxfordshire. 



Essex 



The early field system of few English counties is so difficult to 

 describe as that of Essex. At the time when records of it were 

 first made, much of the county was already enclosed. The earliest 

 evidence thus assumes peculiar importance, but since it is of a 

 fragmentary nature it forbids any but tentative conclusions. 



Like Kent, Essex was referred to in the sixteenth century as one 

 of those counties " wheare most Inclosures be." ^ A descriptive 



' John Hales, A Discourse of the Common Weal of this Realm of England (1549, 

 ed. E. Lamond, Cambridge, 1893), p. 49. 



