THE PROHLE^vI OP LYNCHETS. 85 



Portland Sand. The formation of terraces was thus favoured, 

 and their outer edges where the soil has accumulated indicate a 

 former cultivation. Those who pass by ma}^ notice in places 

 where these edges are broken down that the sand}' earth has a 

 green tinge. This colour is due to the presence of glauconite, 

 which is essentially a silicate of iron and potash, but contains 

 also alumina, magnesia, and lime. Here, then, hemp and flax 

 could be grown to advantage. 



24. An interesting map of the year 1765'^' shows that these 

 lynchets had been distributed amongst various tenants who, that 

 they might fulfil the law, were driven here, as we may suppose, 

 from unsuitable places. 



The purpose of the map was to place on record how the land 

 was re-arranged when terrace cultivation was abandoned. The 

 re-arranged portions are named allotments — a term that has 

 lately acquired a very different meaning — and the abandoned 

 terraces are called lanchards. This word is not in Barnes's 

 glossary, and Wright, who assigns it to Dorset, gives only one, 

 and that a very late reference, namely, to \l^.xdys Remedies, i8q6. 

 It is there stated of certain land that it was " difficult to cultivate 

 on account of the outcrop thereon of a large bed of flints called 

 locally alanch or lanchct." There can be little doubt that lanch 

 and lanchet, or, in this case, lanchard, are a recent corruption of 

 lynch and lynchet, the true significance of the word having lost 

 its precision. By modern methods the land at Waddon has 

 certainly been difficult to cultivate on account of these very 

 lynchets ; but they have no flints, nor were flints used in their 

 construction. 



25. Flax was grown near Winterborne Abbas within the 

 memory of living inhabitants, and 35 years ago hemp and flax, 

 both probably going by the name of flex, were cropped at 

 Abbotsbury. Here, too, lived gangs of men who went about 

 the country dressing this product. Wright quotes from a 

 document of the year 1817 that "the management of flax is 



* Described iu the appendix. 



