THE PROBLEM OF LYNCHETS. 67 



Vol. XXII., p. XXV.), that "the Dorset hill-terraces in the chalk 

 were produced by the forces of denudation acting on the hard 

 and soft strata, which alternated in that formation." A similar 

 result may be expected from the existence of cherty bands in 

 Purbeck and Portland Beds, from the varied and rapid succes- 

 sion of the Oolite layers, and from the masses of concretionary 

 matter with a calcareous cement that step up the hills of 

 Widford Sands. 



2. It must not, however, be overlooked that farmers of a 

 certain bent or training, driven perhaps by economic require- 

 ments, would be apt to use these ledges, whether incipient or 

 complete, for any cultural purpose. And those which are known 

 to have been so cultivated may be usefully compared with 

 terraces that have never been tilled. 



3. Theorists have dogmatised as usual, and have complacently 

 generalised on insufficient data. Scrope was of opinion that all 

 lynchets were produced by ploughing to and fro along a hillside, 

 the moved earth falling ever downwards until arrested by a 

 lower hedge. He was sure of this, because he had seen a 

 lynchet so wrought on his own estate. Let it be noticed that 

 the present race of farmers endeavour to plough out and 

 obliterate all such ledges, however produced. 



4. Seebohm (Eng. Vil. Communities, p. 381), observes that 

 furlongs were divided into strips or acres by turf balks left 

 in the ploughing. On hillsides, in consequence of turning 

 earth down the incline, the strips became terraces, and 

 the balks became steep banks, called linces (A. S.) or ranes 

 (Ger.). 



5. Gomme, in his well-known work (Village Communities), 

 has propounded a much more extended and detailed explanation. 

 He observes that the common meadows of the Teutonic settle- 

 ments adjoined the river, where clustered the houses and 

 homesteads. Beyond were the arable fields, which stretched 

 upward until the sloping land became too steep, or too thin, for 

 the plough. The so made undesigned lynchets were always far 

 away from and much higher than the village ; and by this fact 



