154 NOTES ON THE MANOR OF FORDINGTON. 



for building, &c., of late years, with the glebe and the Liberty of 

 Bindon, is co-extensive with the parish. The Liberty of Bindon 

 consists of Fordington Mill and part of Mill-street. There are 

 curious particulars connected therewith, but we cannot speak of 

 them now. Nor can we, within the bounds of a paper on the 

 Manor, make any attempt to master the obscure history of those 

 isolated freeholds, such as Loop's Land, Mayne Land, and 

 Cistercian Land. The last, at least, probably a possession of 

 Bindon, was tithe free. On the other hand these freeholds carried 

 no pasture rights like those inherent in the copyhold. This mere 

 word must suffice on this curious bye-subject. 



In " The Mayor of Casterbridge " Mr. Thomas Hardy likens 

 three-parish Dorchester, within its rectangle, its Roman rectangle, 

 of regular " walks " of trees, to a box-edged garden bed. Round 

 this garden bed Fordington Manor may be in like fancy called a 

 wide encircling grass plot a 4,000, or more exactly 3,097 acre 

 plot. It gave occupation to a good many gardeners, that grass plot. 

 It is not certain, as far as I know, but certainly likely that each 

 " tenement or living " had in early times its separate copyholder. 

 These would number 65, according to Hutchins. But Mr. Hayne 

 tells me that these tenements consisted of the following : 

 * Whole Places, each containing 40 to 60 acres 15 

 Half Places 20 to 25 - 31 



Farthing Holds 13 to 15 21 



making 67 in all. As was sure to come to pass, however, these 

 small properties, like leaves floating in a stream, had a mutual 

 attraction. For instance, the late Mr. Hayne possessed three 

 whole places, five half places, and three farthing holds. On the 

 other hand some copyholders, or tenants of copyholders, to the last 

 held quite small acreages. Mr. T. Sibley thus held a single half 

 place. And in my boyhood it was a tenant who, in white smock 

 and with the yoke on his shoulders, used to bring us our milk. I 

 have called the tenants copyholders and thereby defined their 



* Mr. Legg's recollection slightly differs as to these numbers. He 

 makes the numbers : 8, 30, and 21 respectively. 



