, partly wood, partly
heather and grass, which were owned by the king, and were especially
brought under the harsh forest laws of the Norman sovereigns.

Some of our field-names remind us of the existence of these old forests
where corn now grows, and also of swamps and islands where everything
now is dry and far removed from water. Sometimes they tell us of the
old common lands which used to be farmed by the villeins and borderers,
and of the strange way in which they used to manage their farming. Each
man used to keep one or more oxen for the village plough until they
made up the team into eight; then they ploughed the land in strips of
an acre or half-acre each, divided by a bit of unploughed turf called
a balk. Each strip was a furlong, _i.e._ a "furrow long," _i.e._ the
length of the drive of a plough before it is turned. This was forty
rods, or poles, and four of these furrows made up the acre. These
pieces of land were called "shots," and there were "headlands," or
common field-ways, to each shot; and "gored acres," which were corners
of the fields which could not be cut up into strips, and odds and ends
of unused land, which were called "No Man's Land," or "Jack's Land." It
is curious, too, that all the strips belonging to one man did not lie
together, but were scattered all over the common land, which must have
been a very inconvenient arrangement for farming purposes. There were
also in each village community a blacksmith, whose duty it was to keep
in repair the ironwork of the village ploughs, a carpenter for the
woodwork, and a pound-keeper, or punder, who looked after the stray
cattle. Many of the "balks" still remain on the hillsides where these
old common lands existed, and the names of the fields bear witness to
the prevalence of this old field system.

They tell us, too, of the way in which attempts were made to force the
growth of particular crops, and in many parishes you will find a "flax
piece," which reminds us of a foolish Act of Henry VIII. ordering the
cultivation of that plant. Metals, too, which have long ago been
worked out, and trades which no longer exist, have left their traces
behind in the names of our lanes and fields. Also they speak of the
early days when the wolf or the bear might be seen in our woods or
fields, or of the beaver which loved the quietude of our streams, of
the eagle which carried off the lambs undisturbed by sound of the
keeper's gun. Sometimes he was disturbed in hi