CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES. 435 



commons, heaths, bogs, &c. These main divisions should be clearly 

 distinguished on the map so that they stand out above all subdivisions. 

 In villages, with which alone I am dealing, three common divisions are the 

 village street, the farms, and the park or mansion. Commonly the village 

 street is very ancient, being at a ford or the beginning of a heath or in 

 some part of the road where the mediaeval traveller would wish to spend 

 the night without going farther, or it grew up round some sacred spot, 

 or on a slight elevation surrounding wet ground, like the numerous leys 

 in the Eastern Counties, Holbeach and other places in Lines, or where 

 water could easily be obtained, as illustrated in the villages below the 

 chalk escarpment. In general there was a definite reason why the village 

 street grew up where it did, and that reason should appear from the 

 survey. 



The position of the farmhouses is determined partly by physical and 

 partly by human factors. Water supply was always a dominating 

 necessity, also shelter from wind and storm ; accessibility was probably 

 less important. But there was the human element as well. The Celtic 

 settlements of the west are scattered over the land, this being the con- 

 venient arrangement for cattlemen using grass or natural herbage for 

 their animals ; while the Saxon settlements of arable farmers in the east 

 and south tend for technical reasons to be more compact, the farmhouses 

 being near the village ; in Hertfordshire the outlying farms are called 

 ' Ends,' e.(j. Hammond's End, Mackery End, &c. 



The park or mansion, if it is old, commonly grew out of the manor 

 house, and its position frequently has some relation to hunting ; it may 

 be near or in a warren or near wooded glades where deer could be 

 hunted ; usually the park land cannot be cultivated easily if at all, so 

 that it was not enclosed in mediseval times.* 



The permanent grassland falls into three groups : first-class land with 

 great capacity to carry live stock, some being of such value for fatting 

 that it would never be laid in for hay ; second-class land so useful to the 

 farmer that he spends money on manures, cultivation, and the maintenance 

 of hedges and fences ; and third-class land used for rough grazing which 

 receives little manure or other attention. The divisions are necessarily 

 conventional, but a reasonable basis is the number of animals the land 

 will carry or fatten per acre. I suggest the following : — 



First Class. — Land fattening without additional cake one bullock 

 per H acres, or six sheep. 



Second Class. — Land on which some cake or com is commonly needed, 

 carrying one bullock or six sheep per 1|- acres, but not usually finishing 

 them for the butcher without some supply of cake or corn. 



Third Class. — Land suitable only for breeding purposes or for young 

 animals growing into ' stores.' 



The grazing characteristics of the land should be recorded ; its 

 healthiness ; any diseases to which animals are specially liable ; whether 



* It is a common fallacy to suppose that parks absorb land that might be producing 

 food. I have had occasion to survey a number of them, including Richmond, Hampton 

 Court, Chartley, and many others, but have rarely found any important area of land 

 suitable for cultivation or for anything more than the grazing for which it is at 

 present used. There are often possibilities for improving the grass, but not to any 

 sensational extent. 



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