AGRICULTURE IN BRITAIN. 427 



have been the common practices of the English farmer of this 

 period ; for Giroldus Cambernsis, in his description of Wales, 

 takes notice of it as a great singularity in the husbandry of that 

 country, "that they plowed their lands only once a year, in 

 March or April, in order to sow them with oats, but did not, like 

 other farmers, plow them twice in summer and once in winter, in 

 order to prepare them for wheat." On the border of one of the 

 compartments of the famous tapestry of Bayeux, we see the 

 figure of one man sowing, with a sheet about his neck, contain- 

 ing the seed under his right arm, and scattering it with his left 

 hand ; and of another man harrowing .with a harrow drawn by 

 one horse. 



Agriculture in Scotland seems to have been in a very imper- 

 fect state during this period ; for, in a parliament held in Scone, 

 by King Alexander II., A.D. 1214, it was enacted that such 

 farmers as had four oxen or cows, or upwards, should labor their 

 lands by tilling them with a plow, and should begin to till fifteen 

 days before Candlemas ; and that such farmers as had not so 

 many as four oxen, though they could not labor their lands by 

 tilling, should delve as much with hand and foot as would pro- 

 duce a sufficient quantity of grain to support themselves and 

 their families. But this law was probably designed for the 

 highlands, the most uncultivated parts of the kingdom ; for, in 

 the very same parliament, a very severe law was made against 

 those farmers who did not extirpate a pernicious weed called 

 guilde out of their lands, which seems to indicate a more 

 advanced state of cultivation. Their agricultural operations, as 

 far as can be gathered from old tapestries and illuminated mis- 

 sals, were similar to those of England. Threshing appears to 

 have been performed by women, and the reaping by men, which 

 is the reverse of the modern practice in that and in most coun- 

 tries. Such is the account of Henry. 



The field culture of the vine, which had been commenced by 

 the monks for their own use, was more extensively spread by 

 the Normans. William of Malmsbury, who flourished in the 

 early part of the twelfth century, says there was a greater num- 

 ber of vineyards in the vale of Gloucester than anywhere else, 

 and that from the grapes was produced a wine very little infe- 

 rior to that of France. Orchards and cider were also abund- 



