156 NOTES ON THE MANOR OF FORDINGTON. 



lapse of lives in the rest, the Manor fell into hand completely in 

 1874, and was, as above-said, divided into a small number of farms 

 let in the usual way. 



I have now to ask you to picture to yourselves, if you can, the 

 extraordinary way in which the 3,097 acres, arable, simple pasture, 

 and water meadow were shared out among the holders, whether 67 

 as perhaps of old, or 1 2 more recently. The arable land consisted 

 of Fordington " Great Field," containing, roughly, 1,500 acres. It 

 was divided in theory, not by fences, into four regions in some 

 degree coinciding with the present farms. The regions were 

 Poundbury, Middle, Castle, and Lower Fields. We have said that 

 in old times, pre-railroad times, there was not an inch of fence 

 throughout this expanse, roadsides or anywhere ; nor, indeed, was 

 it fenced from the down which bounded it on the west. How was 

 it marked out, then, among the many farmers ? Was it cen- 

 turiated as past doubt it was far back by the methodical Roman 

 agrimensores for the Italian coloni 1 Was it squared out, as then, 

 into solid blocks of land with a limes, a boundary road, bordering 

 each 1 Far enough from that. Yet it seems not impossible that 

 the very different and far more minute division done away with in 

 1 874 may have grown out of the Roman centuriation without any 

 actual break. Sub-divided truly it was. The Great Field was 

 parted into an infinity of " lawns" varying from 17 acres down to 

 27 perches, or perhaps even less. The tithe map gives the number 

 as upwards of 2,000 in the whole Manor. Some idea may be 

 formed from the lawns possessed by Mr. Legg's grandfather. His 

 three half places and farthing hold comprised more than 90 lawns, 

 which must have averaged hardly an acre each, it would seem. 

 The lawns were separated by "walls," not fences in any sense, 

 but banks, or rather strips about 1ft. wide left unploughed. 

 What was the use of that may be asked, for, of course, that 

 90-lawn farm lay all in one place 1 The fact was as different from 

 this as it could possibly be. The lawns of a farm might be, and 

 usually were, scattered all over the Great Field from Loud's Road 

 right away to Maiden Castle and round to Poundbury. The 



