l6o OLD ENGLISH VILLAGE LIFE. 



Each holder possessed a strip of plough land x\ acres in extent, 

 one large furrow being the separating line. He held three acres 

 of mowing grass, distinguished from that of his neighbours by 

 a row of upright stakes ; and he had the right of pasturage in 

 the " Sich " grazing field, payment being made in this case 

 according to the number of " cowgates " — the number of cows 

 admitted into this enclosure. It was an experiment, lasting for 

 about thirty years, the good effects of which we can trace in 

 that expressive title, " The Happy Meadows," a phrase of the 

 villagers' own creation. There is many a labouring man in 

 this district who sighs for the return of these golden days. 



Soon after the Domesday Survey the Manor of Barrow passed 

 into the hands of the Bakepuze family, and was probably, as 

 Dr. Cox has pointed out, part of the possessions of Robert 

 Bakepuze, the benefactor of Abingdon Abbey. The members of 

 this family were generous in their benefactions to the churches 

 here in Derbyshire and elsewhere. Throwing themselves into the 

 religious movements of those times, they were ardent supporters 

 of the Crusades. Influenced by that semi-religious, semi-warlike 

 temper, and possibly by the encouragement and example of 

 Roger de Clinton, the soldier Bishop of Lichfield, who died on 

 a crusade towards the end of the reign of Stephen, Robert de 

 Bakepuze gave the church at Barrow to the Priory of S. John 

 of Jerusalem, otherwise known as the Knights Hospitallers. 

 With the church would be handed over the rectory and its lands, 

 and either then, or shortly afterwards, a Preceptory house was 

 built at Arleston, and other lands, distinct from the rectory 

 estate, were attached to it. It was in the reign of Henry II. 

 that the Hospitallers, encouraged by the Bull of Pope 

 Innocent II., assumed a distinctly military character, and not 

 only attended the sick and oppressed, but actively fought against 

 the infidel. It was natural, therefore, that, at such a period, there 

 should be many traces of the crusading spirit. It was strongly 

 felt in Barrow. There was the person of the bailiff, who farmed 

 the estate, always in evidence ; and, no doubt, there would be the 

 presence of many knights, or would-be knights, from time to 



