THE LOWER THAMES BASIN 39 1 



that there can be no hesitation in assigning this corner of the 

 county to the province of open field. Its open fields, however, 

 were not of the midland type, but resembled those of Hertford- 

 shire. So far as can be seen, parcels were not arranged with a 

 view to a two- or three-course husbandry accompanied by pas- 

 turage of the fallow. The terminations dene, dune {done), and 

 lee suggest, further, furlongs in a woodland area; and it is possible 

 that a township's arable arose from the continued assarting of 

 the waste, with an adaptation, but no adoption, of midland 

 arrangements. 



Throughout all of the county except the northwestern corner 

 traces of open-field husbandry are slight. Seldom, even in the 

 early fines or charters, do we meet with the series of small parcels 

 which betray the presence of intermixed arable strips. Since 

 these fines are both numerous and specific and do not fail to 

 ascribe small parcels to the northwest,^ their failure to record 

 similar phenomena in the remainder of the county becomes a 

 telHng negative argument against the existence of open arable 

 fields there. 



Later Essex surveys and terriers have the objectionable habit 

 of merely reciting the parcels of the tenants' holdings without 

 grouping or describing them in any way. The sixteenth-century 

 documents referred to at the beginning of this chapter are useful 

 in that they go so far as to indicate which parcels were closes. 

 What we should hke to know, however, is the character and ap- 

 pearance of the primitive villein holding. Inspection of the 

 fines and extents reveals the fact that the Essex unit was often the 

 virgate or yardland.^ It appears as such on three of St. Paul's 

 manors in 1222,^ and on many Waltham manors tenants held 

 virgates.'* There were at Bocking in the thirteenth century 22 1 

 virgates, 10 " forlands," and 7 half-forlands, each forland doing 



^ Cf., in addition to instances already cited, 6 acres in 13 parcels at Heydon, 

 and sJ acres in 4 parcels at Birchanger (Kirk, Essex Fines, i. 41, 61, 9 John, no. 228, 

 and 6 Hen. Ill, no. 91). 



^ Ibid., 9 sq. passim. 



^ Beauchamp, Wickham, Tidwoldington : W. H. Hale, Domesday of St. Paul's, 

 Camden Soc, 1858, pp. 27, 33, 52. 



* E.g.,Woodford,Nettleswell (13th century): Cott.MS,,Tiber.CIX,ff.205&-2io. 



