SCATTERED STRIPS IN OPEN-FIELDS 25 



is, pieces broken off, " pightels," " gores," l " f others," 2 and 

 " pykes," because, as Fitzherbert explains, they were " often brode 

 in the one ende and a sharpe pyke in the other ende." 



The arable fields were fenced against the live-stock from seed- 

 time to harvest, and the intermixed strips were cultivated for the 

 separate use of individuals, subject to the compulsory rotation by 

 which each of the three fields was cropped. On Lammas Day 

 separate user ended, and common rights recommenced ; hence 

 fields occupied in this manner were, and are, called Lammas Lands 

 or " half-year lands." After harvest the hay ward removed the 

 fences, and the live-stock of the community wandered over the 

 fields before the common herdsman, shepherd, or swineherd. The 

 herdsman, in the reign of Henry VIII., received 8d. a year for 

 every head of cattle entrusted to his care, and the swineherd 4d. 

 for every head of swine. When sheep were folded on the cultivated 

 land, each farmer provided, during the winter months, his own 

 fold and fodder for his flock. Richard Hooker, while he held the 

 country living of Drayton Beauchamp in Buckinghamshire, was 

 found by two of his former pupils, " like humble and innocent Abel, 

 tending his small allotment of sheep in a common field." That 

 no occupier might find all his land fallow in the same year, every 

 one had strips in each of the three arable fields. If the holding 

 of the open-field farmer consisted of thirty acres, there would thus 

 be ten acres in each field. In other words, he would have ten 

 acres under wheat and rye, ten acres under spring crops, and ten 

 acres fallow. The same care was taken to make the divisions equal 

 in agricultural value, so that each man might have his fair pro- 

 portion of the best and worst land. To divide equally the good 

 and bad, well and ill situated soil, the bundle of strips allotted in 

 each of the three fields did not lie together, but was intermixed 

 and scattered. 



In the lowest part of the land if possible along a stream lay 

 the " ings," " carrs," " leazes," or meadows, annually cut up into 

 lots or doles, and put up for hay. These doles were fenced off to 

 be mown for the separate use of individuals either from Candlemas 

 (February 2), or, more usually, from St. Gregory's Day (March 12) 



1 As in Kensington Gore. 



1 Cf. Chaucer (Prologue, 530) : 



** A ploughman was his brother, 

 That hadde y-lad of dong ful many a f other," 

 where the word is generally taken to mean a load. 



