NORTH DURHAM AND BERWICKSHIRE. 317 



We may now take an equally rapid survey of the progress of 

 Agriculture in the district. At the time of the Roman invasion, 

 the soil of Britain, we are told, yielded " corn in great plenty," 

 an observation applicable undoubtedly only to the southern parts 

 of the island. The Anglo-Saxons, in the fifth century, found our 

 district very little cultivated ; and for the five or six centuries 

 following, agriculture made no progress. About the twelfth cen- 

 tury, however, according to CHALMERS, it became " the univer- 

 sal object of pursuit from the prince to the peasant ;" the grains 

 being oats, wheat, barley, pease, and beans. Oats were most 

 sown ; wheat was much cultivated throughout the south and east 

 of Scotland ; less barley was raised, and pease and beans * in still 

 smaller quantities, while rye seems to have been scarcely attended 

 to. An estimate of the relative proportions of the corns grown 

 may be formed from the tithes paid in those times. Thus, in 

 1326, " the tithes (corn) of Fenham, Fenwick, and Beale, are 

 collected in the chapel at Fenham, and, by valuation, consist of 

 90 quarters of wheat at 4s. L. 18 ; 80 quarters of barley at 3s. 

 L. 12; 120 quarters of oats at 2s L. 12." And thus, in 1339, 

 at Fenham, 48 acres were sown with wheat, 19 with barley, and 

 50 with pease and oatsf. Lint, though not mentioned in these 

 entries, was certainly, says CHALMERS, in cultivation as early as 

 the twelfth century ; but the artificial grasses were unknown. 

 " The vast woodlands which every where skirted the arable 

 grounds, gave a shelter to the crops that gieatly promoted their 

 growth, and amply augmented their produce. The woodlands 

 were still more important, for the warmth which they afforded to 

 a bleak country, and for the pasturage that they supplied nume- 

 rous herds. Thus, the universal woods enabled the husbandmen 

 to raise larger quantities of corn, and to rear greater numbers of 

 swine, cattle, and horses, than modern prejudice will easily be- 

 lieve." CHAL MERS. 



Immediately after this time the agriculture of the district ap- 



* "At the siege of the castle of Dirleton in East Lothian, about the beginning 

 of July 1298, the English soldiers were reduced to great scarcity of provisions; 

 they subsisted on the pease and beans which they picked up in the fields. This 

 circumstance presents us with a favourable view of the state of agriculture in East 

 Lothian as far back as the 13th century." Lord HAILES' Annals. This extract I 

 owe to the attention of Mr WEDDKLL, to whom I am also indebted for much 

 other curious information relative to the subjects of this essay. 



t RAINE'S Durham, pp. 82 and 84. 



