CHAPTER X. FOOTNOTES.
[554.] 'Die Territorien in Bezug auf ihre Bildung und ihre Entwicklung,' Hamburg and Gotha, 1854.
[555.] Dr. Hanssen's various papers on the subject are collected in his Agrarhistorische Abhandlungen, Leipzig, 1880.
[556.] Jena, 1879.
[557.] 'Georg Hanssen, als Agrar-Historiker.' Von August Meitzen, 1881. Tübingen.
[558.] See Hanssen's chapter, 'Die Feldgraswirthschaft deutscher Gebirgsgegenden,' in his Agrarhist. Abhandl., pp. 132 et seq.
[559.] Landau, pp. 16–20.
[560.] See the interesting examples given in Meitzen's Ausbreitung, with maps.
[561.] See Hanssen's chapter on the 'Einfeldwirthschaft,' Agrarhist. Abhandl. pp. 190 et seq.
[562.] Hanssen, p. 496.
[563.] As to this part of the question, see especially Meitzen's Ausbreitung.
[564.] Landau, 'Die Territorien,' pp. 32 et seq.
[565.] Sometimes in Germany, as in England, there were two or more. See Hanssen's chapters on the 'Zwei-, Vier-und Fünffelderwirthschaft.'
[566.] Tusser, 'February Abstract.'
[567.] Id. 'February Husbandry.'
[568.] Id. 'October Abstract.'
[569.] Id. 'October Husbandry.'
[570.] Halliwell, sub voce.
[571.] 'Campis Sationalibus' Charter, A.D. 704. B. M. Ancient Charter, Cotton MS. Augustus, ii. 82. 'Tuican hom' (Twickenham, in Middlesex).
[572.] Landau, 53.
[573.] Guerard's Polyp. d'Irminon. 'Arat inter tres sationes perticatres,' pp. 134, &c.; and see Glossary, p. 456.
[574.] Landau, p. 54.
[575.] Landau, p. 54. 'Die alte Form dieses Wortes ist ezzisc, ezzisca, ezzisch (gothisch atisk), und wird in den Glossen durch segetes erklärt.'
[576.] Hanssen's chapter, 'Zur Geschichte der Feldsysteme in Deutschland,' in his Agrarhistorische Abhandlungen, p. 194.
[577.] 'Si illum sepem eruperit vel dissipaverit quem Ezzisczun vocant,' &c. Textus Legis Primus, x. 16. Pertz, p. 309. In id. x. 21 the words 'Semitæ convicinales' are used of open fields. In the Burgundian Laws 'Additamentum Primum,' tit. 1, 'Agri communes.'
[578.] Landau, pp. 54–5.
[579.] Passau received its name from a Roman legion of Batavi having been stationed there.—Mon. Boica, xxx. p. 83. Landau, p. 49.
[580.] In East Friesland, under the one-field system, the word 'flaggen' is used for 'furlongs.' Hanssen, p. 198.
[581.] Landau, p. 32.
[582.] There are great numbers to be seen from the railway from Ems as far as Nordhausen on the route to Berlin.
[583.] Thus Rainbalken is the turf balk left unploughed as a boundary.
[584.] Halliwell. 'Räin,' a ridge (north). See also Studies, by Joseph Lucas, F.G.S., c. viii., where there is an interesting description of the 'Reins' in Nidderdale. These terraces occur in the neighbouring dales of Billsdale, Bransdale, and Furndale; and also in Wharfdale and the valley of the Ribble, &c.
[585.] Pennant's Tour in Scotland, p. 281. 'Observed on the right several very regular terraces cut on the face of a hill. They are most exactly formed, a little raised in the middle like a firm walk, and about 20 feet broad, and of very considerable length. In some places were three, in others five flights, placed one above the other, terminating exactly in a line at each end, and most precisely finished. I am told that such tiers of terraces are not uncommon in these parts, where they are called baulks.'
[586.] See Pugh's Welsh Dictionary:
- Balc, a break in furrow land.
- Balcia, a breaking of furrows.
- Balcio, to break furrows.
- Balciog, having irregular furrows.
- Balciwr, a breaker of furrows.
And see supra, p. 4.
[587.] So in the St. Gall charters, quoted above. Thus also Dronke, Traditiones et Antiq. Fuldenses, p. 107, 'xx. diurnales hoc est quod tot diebus arari poterit.'—Landau, 45.
[588.] Varro, De Re Rustica, i. 10; and see Plin. Hist. Nat. 18. 3. 15.
[589.] See supra, chapter viii.
[590.] I have found it in use on the coast opposite the Isle of Skye. Several crofters will take a tract of land, divide it first into larger divisions, or 'parks,' and then divide the parks into lots, of which each takes one.
[591.] I am indebted for this information to Professor Meitzen, who informs me that he doubts whether it was a feature of the old purely German open fields. In undisturbed old German districts the 'Gewanne' and strips are of irregular and arbitrary size, and are not separated by permanent turf 'raine' or balks.
[592.] Hanssen, p. 198.
[593.] In the Engadine, in reply to the question what the flat strips between the linches were called, the driver answered, 'acker.' When it was pointed out that they were grass, the reply was, 'Ah! but a hundred years ago they were ploughed.'
[594.] M. Guérard's Introduction to the Polyptique d'Irminon, p. 641.
[595.] Id. p. 641; and Appendix, i. p. 285. The Irish acre is of the same form as the English—4 rods by 40—but the rod is 21 feet. See the Cartulaire de Redon in Brittany, No. cccxxvi. (p. 277), where a church is given to the abbey 'cum sedecim porcionibus terræ quæ lingua eorum "acres" nominantur' (A.D. 1061–1075). In Normandy, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, there were acres of four roods, 'vergées.' Id. p. cccxi. Compare also the form of the Welsh erw.
[596.] Pertz, 278. Lex Baiuwariorum textus legis primus, 13.
[597.] The Agrimensores reckoned 3 modii of land to the jugerum. Gromatici Veteres, i. p. 359 (13). In general 5 modii of wheat seed was sown on the jugerum, but the 'lawful andecena,' being only about three-fifths of a jugerum, would require only 3 modii of wheat seed to sow it.
[598.] Herod, ii. 168
[599.] According to Suidas it was equal to four ἄρουραι, and Homer mentions τετράγυον as a usual field representing a day's work. (Od. xviii. 374.) Hence τετράγυον = 'as much as a man can plough in a day.'
[600.] 'Sulcum autem ducere longiorem quam pedum centumviginti contrarium pecori est.'—Col. ii. 11, 27.
[601.] The Rev. W. Denton, in his Servia and the Servians, p. 135, mentions Servian ploughs with six, ten, or twelve oxen in the team. See also mention of similar teams of oxen or buffaloes in Turkey—Reports on Tenures of Land, 1869–70, p. 306.
[602.] 'Der älteste Anbau der Deutschen.' Von A. Meitzen, Jena, 1881.
[603.] Zimmer's Altindisches Leben, p. 237.
[604.] There are two other points which bear upon the Roman connexion with the acre.
(1) If the length of the furrow was to be increased, it would be natural to jump from one well-known measure to another. The stadium, or length of the foot race, was one-eighth of a mile, and was composed of ten of the Greek ἅμμα. The 'furlong' is also the one-eighth of a mile, and contains ten chains. But the stadium contained 625 Roman feet or 600 Greek feet—about 607 English statute feet. How does this comport with its containing 40 rods? The fact is, the rod varied in different provinces, and the Romans adopted probably the rod of the country in measuring the acre. 'Perticas autem juxta loca vel crassitudinem terrarum, prout provincialibus placuit videmus esse dispositas, quasdam decimpedas, quibusdam duos additos pedes, aliquas vero xv. vel x. et vii. pedum diffinitas.'—Pauca de Mensuris, Grom. Vet., Lachmann, &c., p. 371. Forty rods of 10 cubits, or 15 feet each, would equal the 600 feet of the Greek stadium. In fact, the English statute furlong is based upon a rod of 1612 feet. There is also the further fact that the later Agrimensores expressly mention a 'stadialis ager of 625 feet' (Lachmann, Isodorus, p. 368; De Mensuris excerpta, p. 372). So that it seems to be clear that the stadium, like the furlong, was used not only in measuring distances, but also in the division of fields.
(2) We have seen that the acre strips in England were often called 'balks,' because of the ridge of unbroken turf by which they were divided the one from the other. We have further seen that the word 'balk' in Welsh and in English was applied to the pieces of turf left unploughed between the furrows by careless ploughing. There is a Vedic word which has the same meaning.
The Latin word 'scamnum' had precisely this meaning, and also it was applied by the Agrimensores to a piece of land broader than its length. The 'scamnum' of the Roman 'castrum' was the strip 600 feet long and 50 to 80 feet broad—nearly the shape of the English and Bavarian 'acre'—set apart for the 'legati' and 'tribunes.' The fields in a conquered district, instead of being allotted in squares by 'centuriation,' were divided into 'scamna' and 'striga;' and the fields thus divided into pieces broader than their length were called 'agri scamnati,' while those divided into pieces longer than their breadth were called 'agri strigati.' Length was throughout reckoned from north to south; breadth from east to west. Frontinus states that the 'arva publica' in the provinces were cultivated 'more antiquo' on this method of the 'ager per strigas et per scamna divisus et assignatus,' whilst the fields of the 'coloniæ' of Roman citizens or soldiers planted in the conquered districts were 'centuriated.' See Frontinus, lib. i. p. 2, and fig. 3 in the plates, and also fig. 199; and see Rudorff's observations, ii. 290–298. The whole matter is, however, very obscure, and it is difficult to identify the 'ager scamnatus' with the Romano-German open fields. Frontinus was probably not specially acquainted with the latter.
[605.] The meaning of 'hub' is perhaps simply 'a holding,' from 'haben.'
The term 'yard-land,' or 'gyrd-landes,' seems to be simply the holding measured out by the 'gyrd,' or rod; just as gyrd also means a 'rood.' Compare the 'vergée' of Normandy.
The Roman 'pertica' was the typical rod or pole used by the Agrimensores, and on account of its use in assigning lands to the members of a colony, it is sometimes represented on medals by the side of the augurial plough. By transference, the whole area of land measured out and assigned to a colony was known to the Agrimensores as its 'pertica' (Lachmann, Frontinus, pp. 20 and 26; Hyginus, p. 117; Siculus Flaccus, p. 159; Isodorus, p. 369).
The Latin 'virga,' used in later times instead of 'pertica' for the measuring rod, followed the same law of transference with still closer likeness to the Saxon 'gyrd.' Both 'virga' and 'gyrd' = a rod and a measure. Both 'virga terræ' and 'gyrd landes' = (1) the rood, and (2) the normal holding—the virgate or yard-land. The word 'virgate,' or 'virgada,' was used in Brittany as well as in England. In the Cartulaire de Redon it is, however, evidently the equivalent of the Welsh 'Randir.' See the twelve references to the word 'virgada' in the index of the Cartulary.
[606.] Du Cange, under 'Huba.'
[607.] Landau, p. 36.
[608.] Id. 37–8.
[609.] In the will of Perpetuus. Meitzen, Ausbreitung, &c., p. 14.
[610.] The practice was long continued in what was called the 'steel bow tenancy' of later times.
[611.] Juris Prov. Alemann. c. 2. Schilteri editio.
[612.] Otfried, v. 4, 80; ii. 14, 215.
[613.] Notger, Psalm xliii. 14; lxxviii. 4; lxix. 7.
[614.] Compare Cod. Theod. IX. tit. xlii. 7: 'Quot mancipia in prædiis occupatis . . . quot sint casarii vel coloni,' &c.
[615.] See Ancient Laws of England, Thorpe, p. 79, under wer-gilds, s. vii., where 'hiwisc' = 'hide.' See also 'hiwiski,' 'hiwischi,' for 'familia,' in 'St. Paules Glossen,' sixth or seventh century. Braune's Althochdeutsches Lesebuch, p. 4.
[616.] B. M. Ancient Charters, ii. Cotton MS. Aug. ii. 42, A.D. 837. The Welsh short yoke was that of two oxen, i.e. a fourth part of the full plough team.
[617.] Columella, ii. 12. The calculation in this passage, how many opera or day-works a farm requires shows striking resemblance to the later manorial system.
[618.] Du Cange, 'Jugatum.'
[619.] See Marquardt, ii. 225 n.
[620.] Meitzen, Ausbreitung, pp. 21 and 33.
[621.] Fœd. vol. i. p. 31. Robertson's Historical Essays, p. 133.
[622.] Diez, p. 150. 'Gabella,' Portuguese, Spanish, and Provençal = tax. French gabelle = salt-tax. Italian 'gabellan,' to tax, from v. b. gifan, Goth. giban.
[623.] See Guérard's Polyptique d'Irminon, i. chap. viii. Also Lehuérou's Institut. Meroving. liv. ii. c. 1; and M. Vuitry's Etudes sur le Régime Financier de la France, Première Etude.
[624.] So Cicero asserted against Verres. The seed, he argued, was fairly to be taken at about a medimnus to each jugerum. Eight medimni of corn per acre would be a good crop; ten would be the outside that under all possible favour of the gods the jugerum could yield. Therefore the tithe ought not to exceed at the highest estimate one medimnus per jugerum. But the tax-gather had taken three medimni per jugerum, and so by extortion had trebled the tithes.—In Verrem, act. ii. lib. iii. c. 47, 48, 49.
[625.] Hygini de Limitibus Constituendis, p. 204.
[626.] Tit. lxii.
[627.] Lex Salica, tit. xxxviii. 'De homicidiis servorum et ancillarum. v. Si quis homo ingenuus lidum alienum expoliaverit,' &c. See also tit. xvi. See also tit. xxvi. 'De libertis extra consilium Domini sui dimissis' (xxxv. 'De libertis dimissis ingenuis'). 'Si quis alienum lætum ante rege per dinarium ingenuum demiserit,' &c.
[628.] 'Soll die Dreifelderwirthschaft nach England importirt sein, so bliebe wohl nur übrig an die Periode der römischen Okkupation zu denken, wie ich eine ähnliche Vermuthung, die sich freilich auch nicht weiter begründen lässt, für Deutschland ausgesprochen habe (p. 153). Einfacher ist es den selbstständigen Ursprung der Dreifelderwirthschaft in ganz verschiedenenen Ländern als einen auf einer gewissen wirthschaftlichen Kulturstufe wie von selber eintretenden Fortschritt sich zu denken' (Agrarhist. Abhand. p. 497).
[629.] Mr. Coote has adduced apparently clear evidence of centuriation in many parts of England; but we have already seen that only the land actually assigned to the soldiers of a colonia was centuriated. There would seem to be no reason to suppose that they disturbed the generally existing open fields still cultivated by the conquered population.
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