ii I The Demesne* 1.270 1307. 



surrounded by ditches, which, used as pasture, were a rable 



souree of income 1 . These lidds and live or six of the smaller p;< 

 of tin- demesne \\vrc also ineloM-d 'ad defeiisi< nein hladi eomitis ' by 

 'fnssat[a|' annually erected and removed by the , ii^tomary tenants'. 



The arable demesne WAS about 300 acres in extent, or about 

 one-ninth of the total ,i < >f the manor . 



Probably Foincett was a three-course manor, but the rolls 

 contain no clear indications that there were within the vill three 

 great fields, cultivated in rotation 4 . ' Campi ' are mentioned; but 

 they were numerous and small. 



It is somewhat surprising to find that the area of the demesne in 

 cultivation in different years was, as a rule, considerably more than 

 two-thirds of its total acreage. In the Account Rolls returns are made 

 of the number of acres sown with each kind of grain, and of the 

 (same) number of acres harvested. The figures are as follows : 



Year Number Year Number 



1273 205 



1275 232 



1278 232 



1279 202 



1280 232 



I284 5 216 



1286 210 



1290 241 



1293 249 



1300 206 



1303 I8 9 



1304 l82 (i 

 1306 208 



1308 161 



The large number of acres sown in 1293 and other years cannot, 

 apparently, be accounted for by any increase in the amount of land 

 in the lord's hands. It seems to have been the case that, as the 

 language of the rolls implies, some of the demesne was cultivated 



1 Cf. p. 32. In 1286, 30-y. 4^. were spent 'in i. fossato circa Bone Welleridingg faciendo 

 de longitudine clxii. perticatarum.' In the same year only 3^. were received from the sale of 

 the herbage of the ditches about the ridding, 'et non plus pro fossatura impediente herbagium 

 ibidem.' In 1 290, 5^. ^d. were received, which seems to be somewhat above the average amount. 



2 Appendix VIII., xxxix., and the later Min. Acc'ts. 



3 In the Account Rolls of 1376-8 it is stated that the arable demesne consisted of 166^ acres 

 l>esides Westwood Ridding. From a Court Roll of 1406, it appears that Westwood Ridding 

 was 1 20 acres in extent. This would make the total arable 286i acres. By adding together 

 the areas of all the pieces described as former arable demesne in the conveyances of the 

 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries up to 1565, a total is obtained of about 175 acres plus the 

 i 20 acres of the Ridding or a grand total of about 300 acres. The inquisition post-mortem nf 

 1270 gives 1 80 acres as the area of the arable demesne, but this doubtless refers only to the 

 acreage under cultivation in that year. If two-thirds of the demesne were cultivated in 1 270 

 its total area must have been 2 70 acres. 



4 For an account of the three-field system, see Cunningham, Industry and Coinn; 

 4th ed., i. 74, and Walter of Henley, 6, 8 et passim. 



5 The account for 1282 is too much damaged for the number to be ascertained. 



6 Cf. below, p. 48, n. i. 



