High Buston. By J. C. Hodgson. 333 



their description more or less exactly corresponds with the 

 system which then prevailed ; and that in the Hide of land as 

 defined by Kemble, and in the eight tenants recorded by Clarkson, 

 we have the key to the real meaning of the word 'farm,' on 

 which principle lands were divided, the land tax, and poors' rate 

 and Church rates levied — the latter in this township being 

 assessed by the ' farm ' until 1826.^" 



We do not know the date of the division between the lord and 

 the freeholders of the open and undivided township, but the 

 Threap Moor remained in common until 1815. Its preservation 

 was doubtless owing to its being stinted by the tenants of three 

 townships, who jealously watched each other and safeguarded 

 their respective rights. In 1600, at a Court held at Alnwick, a 

 presentment was made " that the Tenants of Wowden and 

 Buston do pretend title to a parcell of land on the Common of 

 Bilton wrongfully. "21 



In 1807 an Act of Parliament was procured, and in accordance 

 therewith, an award was made 28th August 1815, and enrolled 

 11th January 1816. It recites that the common contained 120 

 acres, 3 roods, 29 perches, and was divided as under, a public 

 bridle and proprietors' carriage road having been set off from 

 the Threap Moor lane to Wooden. 



^ Warkworth Parisli Clerk's Book. Compare this with Sir Geo.Nicholl's 

 account of the agricultural system in the Western Islands of Scotland. 

 " Many of the lands formerly held by tacksmen came afterwards to be 

 held directly of the proprietor by joint tenants, who grazed their stock in 

 common, and cultivated the arable land in alternate ridges or rigs, hence 

 called ' run-rig.' Each person thus got a portion of the better, and a 

 portion of the worse land ; but no one held two contiguous ridges or the 

 same ridge for two successive years. Since the early part of the present 

 century, however, the arable land has mostly been divided into fixed 

 portions among the joint tenants, who thus became ' crofters,' the grazing 



remaining in common as before Whilst the land was held by 



joint tenants, no one could appropriate to himself any particular share or 



portion, his co-tenants have a concurrent right over the whole 



Once established on his small farm, the crofter does not expect to be removed 

 so long as his rent is paid, and the occupation of the croft becomes in fact 

 hereditary, the son succeeding the father as a matter of course. The Crofts 

 appear to have been originally apportioned with a view to the maintenance of 

 a single family, etc." — Sir Geo. NichoU's History of Scotch Poor Law, 1856, 

 p. 244. An excellent illustration of the ancient Northumbrian ' farm.' 



2^ Tate's Alnwick, vol. i., p. 351. 



