History of Agricultural Rent in England 7 



In a typical manor the estate consisted of 

 a certain amount of arable land, a large 

 tract of waste or common, and some 

 natural meadows. The most interest lies 

 in the arable. Some of it formed the 

 home farm or demesne, and some was 

 held by the serfs. The whole of the 

 arable land was, as a rule, in three large 

 open fields — that is, without any fences or 

 enclosures. 



The ordinary holding of a serf was 

 thirty acres ; but the peculiarity of the 

 system was that it consisted of scattered 

 strips, and the demesne land was also 

 interspersed with the serf land. 



Each villein or serf with a full or normal 

 holding had ten acres in each of the great 

 fields, and even the ten acres were all 

 separate — never two together. The acres 

 were also of a peculiar shape called long 

 acres. The normal length was a furlong — 



