558 MR. W. G. CLARKE ON BRECKLAND CHARACTERISTICS. 
to be agriculturists, and old documents prove that land now 
for the most part absolutely barren, was in the 13th, 14th, 
and 15th centuries profitably cultivated. As an instance of 
the changes which have taken place it may be mentioned 
that in 1272 there were in the Suffolk part of Rushford at 
least 15 farmers of from 15 to 40 acres of arable land, with 
rights of sheep-feeding extending over 500 or 600 acres. It 
was then all occupied by small holders ; to-day it forms a small 
corner of an estate covering some 18 square miles. In the 
days of the open-field system of cultivation the manurial 
value of marl was well-known, and some of the pits whose 
existence in the middle of heathy tracts is now almost inex- 
plicable, were originally dug to obtain marl for the adjacent 
arable land. There was in 1338 a Lampythowe on Thetford 
Warren (marked Lambpit Hill on the O.S. map), and the 
original loam-pit to which the name refers is still a scene of 
occasional activity in the middle of that waste. Beyond the 
borders of the fields were heaths and rabbit warrens, the 
district having always been noted for its rabbits. The open- 
field system was fruitful of disputes between the manorial 
lords and the owners of common rights, and the following 
plaint is but typical of many. Writing to Lord William 
Howard in 1595, Robert Buxton of Shadwell said : “ The 
fold courses about Thetford be 100 markes by year worse than 
of late they were, for where the township were wont to keep 
but twenty milch neat and three or four horse, they have now 
above one hundred of the one sort and four score of the other,, 
and daily spoil the ling and furze, and the longer they be 
suffered, the worse and harder to be reformed, so as the grounds 
that were before several are now common.” This is interest- 
ing as indicating that the fold courses consisted of ground on. 
which heather and furze abounded. 
Early in the 17th century this district became a favourite 
resort of King James I., for hunting and hawking, and in 
1605 some notice appears to have been issued forbidding 
interference with game in the neighbourhood, for Lord 
Cranborne (in a letter to Sir Thomas Lake) thought malicious 
people might make bad use of it, “ as tho. he claimed all 
