AGRICULTURE IN BRITAIN. 425 



breeding horses and cattle. Besides enclosing and draining a 

 great extent of country, he embanked the river Wielland, which 

 used every year to overflow the neighboring fields, in a most 

 substantial manner. He built many houses and cottages upon 

 the banks, which increased so much that, in a little time, they 

 formed a large town, called Deepiny, from its low situation. 

 Here he planted orchards, cultivated commons, converted deep 

 lakes and impassable quagmires into fertile fields, rich meadows, 

 and pastures ; in a word, rendered the whole country about it a 

 garden of delight." From this description, it appears that this 

 nobleman, who was chamberlain to William the Conqueror, was 

 not only fond of agriculture, but also that he conducted his 

 improvements with skill and success. 



The Norman clergy, and particularly the monks, were still 

 greater improvers than the nobility, and the lands of the 

 Church, especially of the convents, were conspicuous for their 

 superior cultivation ; for the monks of every monastery retained 

 in their own possession such of their lands as lay most con- 

 venient, which they cultivated with great care, under their own 

 inspection, and frequently with their own hands. It was so 

 much the custom of the monks to assist in the cultivation of 

 their lands, especially in seed-time, harvest-time, and hay-time, 

 that the famous Thomas a Becket, after he was Archbishop of 

 Canterbury, used to go out into the field, with the monks of the 

 monasteries where he happened to reside, and join them in 

 reaping their grain and making their hay. This is indeed 

 mentioned by the historian as an act of uncommon condescen- 

 sion in a person of his high standing in the Church, but it is 

 sufficient proof that the monks of those times used to work 

 with their own hands, at some seasons, in the labors of the 

 field ; and, as many of them were men of genius and inven- 

 tion, they no doubt made various improvements in the art of 

 agriculture. 



The twenty-sixth canon of the General Council of Lateran, 

 A.D. 1179, affords a further proof that the protection and en- 

 couragement of all who were concerned in agriculture were 

 objects of attention in the Church ; for, by that canon it is 

 decreed : " That all presbyters, clerks, monks, converts, pilgrims, 

 and peasants, when they are engaged in the labors of husbandry, 



