Ancient Fields 



29 



They have the appearance sometimes of shallow ter- 

 races raised one above the other, rising with the slope of 

 the down. This terrace formation is perhaps occasionally 

 artificial; but in some cases, I think, the natural con- 

 formation of the ground has been taken advantage of, 

 having seen terraces where not the faintest trace of culti- 

 vation was visible. It is not always easy either to dis- 

 tinguish between the genuine enclosures of ancient days 

 and the trenches left after the decay of comparatively 

 modern fir-plantations, which it is usual to surround with 

 a low mound and ditch. Long after the fir trees have 

 died out the green mound remains ; but there are rules 

 by which the two, with a little care, may be distinguished. 

 The ancient field, in the first place, is generally very 

 much smaller ; and there are usually three or four or more 

 in close proximity, divided by the faint green ridges, some- 

 times roughly resembling in ground-plan the squares of a 

 chess-board. The mound that once enclosed a fir-plantation 

 is much higher, and would be noticed by the most casual 

 observer. It encircles a wide area, often irregular in shape, 

 oval or circular, and does not present the regular internal 

 divisions of the other which, indeed, would be unnecessary 

 and out of place in a copse. 



It has become the fashion of recent years to break up 

 the sward of the downs, to pare off the turf and burn it, 

 and scatter the ashes over the soil newly turned up by the 

 plough ; the idea being mainly to keep more sheep by the 

 aid of turnips and green crops than could be grazed upon 

 the grass. In places it answers in many others not; 

 after two or three crops the yield sometimes Mis to next 

 to nothing. There is a ploughed field here right upon the 

 ridge of the down, close to the ancient earthwork, where in 

 dry summers I have seen ripening oats barely a foot high, 



