396 ENGLISH FIELD SYSTEMS 



highl\'-valuc{I demesne acres of Kent nowhere appear. Valua- 

 tions of the arable do not differ particularly from those of the 

 mitllands or of East Anglia. but range, like them, from 4c?. to ^d. 

 the acre. In the second place, statements, usual in the midland 

 or East Anglian extents, to the efTect that one-half or one-third 

 of the demesne acres were without value because each year they 

 lay fallow and in common, seldom occur in similar documents 

 from the counties of the lower Thames. Surrey furnishes no such 

 declarations in the extents of the decade referred to; Middlesex 

 contributes the curious information that one-third of certain de- 

 mesne acres were intermixed fallow and yet retained a consider- 

 able value; ^ the Hertfordshire instances, of which there are four, 

 relate to townships near the northern border of the county ;2 and 

 in the numerous Essex extents only once does the phrase charac- 

 teristic of the midlands occur.' Not that there are in the extents 

 of the decade in question no other traces of common usages or of 

 the three-course rotation of crops. On the contrary, demesne 

 acres are sometimes said to lie in common from the end of harvest 

 till Januar>',^ and a three-course rotation was at times practiced 



xz 



^ C. Inq. p. Mort., Edw. Ill, F. 66 (32), Parva Greenford: " Sunt ibidem vi 

 acre terre pretium cuiuslibet acre de iiii^ iiii d. et residue xxxx acre iacent frisce inter 

 friscas aliorum hominum que valent per annum quelibet acra ii d." 



* Ibid., F. 42 (18), OfFley: " Et residuum predicte terre, viz., cc acre iacent in 

 communi et valent per annum quum seminantur xxxxis. viiid. . . . et quum non 

 seminantur nihil valent per annum quia per totum annum iacent in communi." 



Ibid., F. 52 (7), Berkhamstead : " Sunt ibidem ccc acre terre arabilis quarum 

 duo partes seminabantur ante mortem predicte Johannis et tertia pars iacet ad 

 warectam et in communi . . . et quando non seminatur nihil valet quia iacet in 

 communi." 



Ibid., F. 64 (20), Reed: " Sunt ibidem c acre terre arabilis que valent per annum 

 XXX s. iiii d. . . . Et inde seminantur ante mortem predicti Thome iii^'x acre et 

 residuum iacet in communi." 



Ibid., F. 64 (20), Widdiall: " Sunt ibidem ccc acre terre quarum cc valent per 

 annum bcvis. viiid. . . . Et inde seminabantur hoc anno semine yemali et quad- 

 ragesimali cxxxx acre. Et residuum iacet ad warectam et in communi." 



' Ibid., F. 61 (10), Tolleshunt: " Sunt ibidem cciiii^v acre terre arabilis de 

 quibus due partes possunt seminari per annum et tunc valet acra per annum 

 quando seminatur iiii d. . . . et totum residuum nihil valet quia iacet ad warectam 

 et in communi per totum annum." 



* Ibid., F. 38 (i), Moulsey, Surrey: " Sunt Ix acre terre arabilis que valent 

 per annum xxs. . . . et non plus quia iacent in communi a festo sancti Petri ad 

 vinculos usque ad festum Purificationis beate Marie." 



