182 PREFACE 



who had succeeded Mr. French, and who practically secured 

 another year's income by his tenacity. 



As the work of drainage proceeded, and land which had formerly 

 been used for pasturage came to be employed for tillage, the ques- 

 tion of tithe again became the subject of litigation. 



In 1780 the tenants of Soame Jenyns, who owned the undertakers 

 land in Cottenham, took a crop of oats, and Dr. Ward, the Rector 

 claimed the tithe, though this was in excess of the tithe allowed 

 in Lord North's award. 1 His attempt in 1811 2 to set the award 

 aside altogether was unsuccessful; and when the claim to the tithe of 

 crops on the Undertakers piece was brought into court by the next 

 rector, Dr. Sparke, it was disallowed in 1821. The award of 1596 

 proved to be the corner stone of village economy both in regard to 

 manorial and ecclesiastical claims. 



The story of the maintenance of common right by legal pro- 

 cedure has in some ways less interest than belongs to the Orders 

 which remain in the parish chest at Cottenham with regard to the 

 manner in which the common rights should be exercised. The 

 lords had had days of drift, when they took account of all the 

 cattle, and saw that no persons, who could not claim common 

 rights, fed their cattle on the waste. The risks of infection and 

 damage were reduced by insisting that the cattle should be properly 

 sorted out, and rules were laid down as to the times at which they 

 might feed in different parts of the common waste. 



In the seventeenth century this practice survived at Stretham 

 where the orders were issued in the court leet, though powers were 

 given to the commoners of Stretham and Thetforcl respectively to 

 make by-laws for their separate cow-pastures. 3 But the case of 



1 Article XXVI and schedule. 



* The only record of this dispute which I have seen among the papers in the 

 parish chest is a draft of the pleadings in the Rector's favour in 1810. 



3 Vancouver, writing in 1794, commends the Stretham Fen Reeves for their 

 attention to drainage, (Op. Cil. 150). Further details of the working of a similar 

 system are to be found at Willingham where the accounts o!" the Fen Reeves 

 during several years in the reign of Elizabeth have been preserved. Compare 

 also the sustom of Whittlesea. W. Nelson, Lex Manerionun, Ap. 79. 



