[186] Ibid., pp. 131–134. “Richard Wysdon holds half a virgate of land containing 16 acres.... The same holds 63½ acres, which were in his ancient occupation, and were found to be over and above his said virgate, and (included) in many encroachments.”
[187] Ibid., pp. 122–123: “William of Southwoode holds 16 acres of encroachments and other detached pieces.”
[188] Thorold Rogers (Agriculture and Prices, vol. i. p. 34: “Not much less land was regularly under the plough than at present”) thinks otherwise. But (i.) modern agriculture has many ways of using land besides keeping it “under the plough”; (ii.) we know that in the eighteenth century large tracts now cultivated were barren heaths, and it is difficult to believe that these had been cultivated in the Middle Ages.
[189] See below, p. [189]. The instances there quoted are later than the period with which we are now dealing, but as they mostly come from Northumberland, a very conservative county, they are perhaps to the point.
[190] e.g. at South Newton in Wiltshire (see p. [74]), tithing of Swanthrop in Crondal, where the area of the tenants' holdings was in 1287 about 360 acres, and in 1567 about 607 acres, and tithing of Crondal, where the area of the tenants' holdings was in 1287 about 181, and in 1567 about 284. But these figures are not altogether satisfactory; and sometimes one finds a reduction, e.g. at Dippenhall (from about 287 acres at the earlier date to about 275 at the later date). The plague relieved the pressure of population, and thus removed one incentive for breaking up the waste; on the other hand, it left the survivors much better off, and thus more able to increase the scale of their husbandry. But until we know much more about the growth of population we shall not make much of general comparisons of this kind.
[191] e.g. at Hadleigh in 1305 (Victoria County History, Suffolk, Unwin’s article); at Crondal in 1287 (Crondal Records, p. 110); at Ormsby in 1324 (Massingberd, History of Ormsby).
[192] e.g. Scrope, Castle Combe, p. 164. Court Rolls of 1357: “Johannis filius Johannis Payn venit et finem fecit cum domino per 12d. pro ingressu habendo in illo messuagio et virgata terræ quæ Johannis le Parkare quondam tenuit.... Et dictum tenementum concessum est ei ad tam parvam finem eo quod dictum tenementum est ruinosum et decassum; et existebat in manu domini a tempore pestilentiæ pro defectu emptorum.” Massingberd, Ingoldmells Court Rolls for years 1349–1352. Gasquet, The Great Pestilence. Page, The End of Villeinage in England.
[193] The view that the equality of holdings was the creation not of the communal needs of the peasantry but of deliberate arrangement by the authorities, seems to be untenable in face of the evidence of early records showing that freeholders as well as the servile peasantry held roughly equal shares (see Vinogradoff, Villainage in England, Essay II., chap. iv. and chap. vi). On the other hand, the apportionment of services to holdings tended to stereotype the existing arrangement. A late example which displays both elements, that of authoritative pressure and that of communal organisation, is supplied by the Customary of High Furness (R.O. Duchy of Lancs. Special Commissions, No. 398): “As heretofore dividing and portioning of tenements hath caused great decay, chiefly of the service due to her Highness for horses, and of her woods, and has been the cause of making a great number of poor people in the lordship, it is now ordered that no one shall divide his Tenement or Tenements among his children, but that the least part shall be of the ancient yearly rent to her Highness of 6s. 8d.” See below, p. [101].
[194] Edict of October 9, 1807, Clause 1.
[195] Compare a document, temp. Hen. VIII., quoted by Gonner, Common Land and Enclosure, p. 155 n., which states that whereas landlords at one time could not find tenants, now the case is altered and tenants want landlords.