------------------------------------------------------------------------- FURLONG A. | FURLONG B. ac. ro. po. | ac. ro. po. 1. Will Yelverton, | 1. Rob. Clemente, Freeholder. | Freeholder. 2. Demesne 2 1 31 | 2. Demesne 0 2 4 3. Demesne 0 1 7-1/2| 3. Demesne 1 0 3 4. Will Yelverton, | 4. Demesne 1 0 39 Freeholder. | 5. Demesne 0 2 7 | 5. Demesne 0 1 24 6. Demesne 1 3 0 | 6. Demesne 1 0 38 7. Demesne 0 1 11 | 7. Demesne 0 1 22 8. Demesne 0 2 10 | 8. Demesne 1 2 19 9. Demesne 0 2 28 | 9. Will Lee, Freeholder. 10. Glebe. | 10. Will Gell, Copieholder. 11. Demesne 1 2 12 | 11. Demesne 1 1 39 12. Demesne 3 0 0 | 12. Demesne 2 3 39-1/2 13. Glebe. | 13. Demesne 2 1 25
These furlongs, though the predominance of demesne land in them makes them not quite typical, illustrate sufficiently the awkward way in which the great farmer's stretch of land is interrupted by the little property of a freeholder or copyholder. The strips of Will Yelverton, Robert Clement, Will Lee, and Will Gell must have been a constant eyesore to the manorial authorities. Buy them out or evict them, and then the two furlongs will consist of nothing but demesne land and glebe. They will be two fields of quite a modern pattern and quite ready for enclosure. Leave these tenants where they are, and they are a permanent obstacle to unified management, all the more annoying because they are so petty. They may even insist on the farmer observing the same course of cultivation as themselves, and on turning their beasts to common on his land after harvest! Is it not inevitable that, as soon as the lord is pushed by economic forces into making his estate yield the maximum money return irrespective of a numerous tenantry or of the ancient methods of tillage, he should try in any way he can to get rid of what to him are troublesome excrescences, that he should begin questioning titles, screwing up rents, turning copyhold to leasehold?
If our hypothesis is correct we ought to be able to find manors where the strips formerly held by tenants have been merged in the demesne, so as to form a continuous expanse, in the hands of the lord or his farmer, out of what was formerly a collection of fragments of separate holdings. To see it verified, let us turn to another manor in the same county, that of Walsingham,[442] which was surveyed in the reign of Henry VIII. Here is a statement of the land which is "in the hands of the lord" in the west field--