THE LOWER THAMES BASIN 395 



Conclusion 



Before summarizing the results of this chapter we may profit- 

 ably give a little attention to another group of early sources 

 which has elsewhere been of some value in determining the char- 

 acter of early field systems. This is the series of extents con- 

 tained in the inquisitions post mortem. By explaining whether 

 the acres of demesne lands lay one-half or one-third fallow and 

 in common, these extents have heretofore supplemented the evi- 

 dence got by locating in the fields the parcels of the holdings.^ 

 Fourteenth-century records of this kind from the midland coun- 

 ties have frequently assured us that the demesne was thus fallow 

 and common ; others from East Angha, while they have revealed 

 the same three-course rotation as prevailed on common lands in 

 the sixteenth century, have not forced us to conclude that a three- 

 field system was existent at the earUer period any more than at 

 the later one, when, as we know, it did not prevail. Kentish ex- 

 tents, on the other hand, have in our examination of them not 

 admitted the possibihty that demesne lands in Kent ever lay one- 

 third fallow and in common. If, as occasionally happens, one- 

 third of them are said to have lain fallow, the value put upon 

 the pasturage of these shows that during the fallow season they 

 were not open to common use.^ Furthermore, we have found 

 Kentish demesne sown yearly and valued as high as 12 d. the 

 acre, an undoubted indication of superior agriculture. 



It is time now to inquire whether any information, relative 

 either to improved tillage of the demesne or to the distribution of 

 demesne acres between two or three common fields, is available 

 from the extents of the counties of the lower Thames valley. Al- 

 though, like the other documents from this region, these extents 

 are annoyingly noncommittal, those of the decade 7-16 Edward 

 III, which have hitherto been referred to, give testimony of a 

 general character. In the first place, it is noteworthy that the 



' Cf. above, p. 46, pp. 301-302. 



2 " Sunt ibidem ciii'^'' acre terre arabilis que valent per annum quando seminan- 

 tur iiii li. pretium acre vid. et quando non seminantur pastura cuiuslibet acre valet 

 ii d. De quibus seminabantur ante mortem predicti Willielmi de semine yemali et 

 quadrigesimali v'^x acre " (C. Inq. p. Mort., Edw. Ill, F. 65 (11), Throwley). 



