272 KALM'S ENGLAND. 



same way as the fields are laid out in Westmanland and 

 Nerike in Sweden. Each 'rigg ' was here so large that 

 it contained a whole or a half tunnelands land, 

 ' Townland's land.' The breadth of each ridge or rygg 

 was 20, 24, 28, 32, or more feet.* The perpendicular 

 height of these ridges in the middle above the plane of 

 the bottom of the water-furrows, midt pa, mot det de 

 voro i botten af vattu-faren, was 18 inches, 2 feet, 

 or 2 feet 6 inches ; for some ridges were higher than the 

 others. They were obliged to lay out their fields in this 

 way, because they lie so low and are very favourably 

 placed for wet, och aro mycket benagne for vata, 

 and because there are not here used any [T. I. p. 270] 

 other ditches than water-furrows, vattu-farar, between 

 these broad ridges. Thence also it comes that the land 

 which stands nearest the water-furrow has been entirely 

 drowned and ruined by the water. These low places were 

 last year sown with beans.f All the ryggs and water- 

 furrows were drawn from the highest part of the fields 

 down to the hollows so that the water might run off so 

 much faster. Down at the bottom of the valley, there 

 flowed a little beck, scarcely larger than an ordinary ditch. J 

 Flints seldom appeared on these fields, much less any 

 other kind of stone. The fields this summer lay fallow, 



* The breadth of each ridge. On Sept. 21, 1886, I measured five of these. 

 They are very high, and there is a furrow along the summit of each — not 

 for water, but for the reason that the plough started at the bottom on both 

 sides and finished at the top of each ridge last time it was ploughed — which 

 must have been very many years ago. The field is now old pasture. The 

 following are the breadths in feet :— 



Furrow to Ridge, and Ridge to Furrow : 25, 24, 23, 19, 25, 21, 23, 25, 



17, 26. 

 Furrow to furrow : 49, 42, 46, 48, 43. 

 This kind of ploughing is still called "Ridges." [J. L.] 

 f Grassland, 1886. [J. L.] 

 % That running from Ivinghoe N.E. to Ivinghoe Aston. [J. L.] 



