[1291] Glastonbury Rentalia, 180, 195, 208.
[1292] Sixteen Old Maps: Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1888.
[1293] The rod, however, must have been very short; perhaps it had as few as 12 feet.
[1294] For many reasons this must not be taken as a typical map. We refer to it merely as showing the relation of ‘estimated’ (that is of ‘real’) acres to an acre-measure.
[1295] Instructive evidence about this matter was given in a Chancery suit of James I.’s reign. The deponent speaking of the fen round Ely says ‘it is the use and custom ... to measure the fen grounds by four poles in breadth for an acre, by a pole of 18 feet ... and in length for an acre of the said grounds as it happeneth, according to the length of the furlong of the same fens, which is sometimes shorter and sometimes longer.’ Quoted by O. C. Pell in Domesday Studies, i. 296.
[1296] For an explanation of this mode of ploughing, see Meitzen, op. cit. 84.
[1297] Meitzen gives 6 feet as a usual width for the beds in Germany. I think that in cent. xiii. our selions were usually wider than this.
[1298] The Gloucester Corporation Records, ed. Stevenson (1893), should be consulted. When small pieces of land were being conveyed, the selions were often enumerated. Thus (p. 124): ‘and 13 acres of arable land ... whereof one acre lies upon þistelege near Durand’s land ... an acre and a half being three selions ... half an acre being two selions ... an acre of five selions ... an acre being one selion and a gore ... four selions and two little gores ... an acre being three selions and a head-land.’ In Mr Seebohm’s admirable account of the open fields there seems to me to be some confusion between the selions and the acre or half-acre strips.
[1299] On Mr Mowat’s map of Roxton a quarter-acre strip is a yeard.
[1300] D. B. i. 364: ‘In Staintone habuit Jalf 5 bovatas terrae et 14 acras terrae et 1 virgatam ad geldum.’ This virgate is a quarter-acre. The continuous use of virgata in this sense is attested by Glastonbury Rentalia, 27. So in Normandy: Delisle, Études sur la condition de la classe agricole, 535. So in France: Ducange, s. v. virgata from a Register of the Chamber of Accounts: ‘Quadraginta perticae faciunt virgatam: quatuor virgatae faciunt acram.’ Meitzen, op. cit. i. 95: in Kalenberg a strip that is one rod in breadth is called a Gert (our yard).