the old church. A great deal of harm has been done to the old features of many churches by so-called “restoration," carried out by men ignorant of architecture and antiquities. But we have learnt better now, and if the old church in your parish has been recently restored, the architect will have taken care to make it as much like the church as it stood in the time of the Normans as possible. It is impossible to say as much as I could wish in this chapter about your church; but I ask you to inquire into the subject for yourselves, and you will not find your time wasted. CHAPTER VIII. WISH to call your attention to a subject very familiar to you to the names by which the fields in your parish are known. These are full of interest, and often tell us about matters which would be entirely forgotten. Some names tell us of the great forests which used to exist all over the country, when kings and noblemen, outlaws and poachers, used to hunt the deer and the wild boars in many a successful run. William the Conqueror, was very fond of hunting, and it is recorded of him in the Saxon chronicles that "he made large forests for deer and enacted laws therewith, so that whoever killed a hart or a hind should be blinded. As he forbade killing the deer, so also the boars; and he loved the tall stags as though he were their father." It is a pity that he did not care more for his people and less for his stags, for he is said to have laid waste the country in Hampshire for an extent of thirty miles, expelling the poor people from their houses, seizing their property, even pulling down churches, in order to make a new deer-park for his hunting. These forests did not consist of large trees growing together; but were large tracts of country in its natural state, 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 villans 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, ¿.e. a "furrow long," ie. 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 G 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 wood-work, 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 his thefts by the flight of a good strong English arrow, which came from a sturdy English bow, drawn by a good strong English arm. The English archers were famous everywhere, and many a battle has been won by their valour and their skill. A law was passed in the reign of Edward IV., that every Englishman should have a bow of his own height, and that butts for the practice of archery should be set up in every village; and every man was obliged to shoot up and down on every feast-day, or be fined one halfpenny. Consequently, in some villages you will find a field called "the Butts," where this old. practice took place. * The manor-house in your village is probably still standing, possibly surrounded by a moat, or trench of water, to protect its inhabitants from enemies. The drawbridge, which could be raised when they expected troublesome guests, has long since disappeared; and, happily, we do not need such defences. nowadays but these old, pleasant, half-timbered granges and manor-houses tell us of the wealth and comforts of the yeomen and squires of past ages. These houses often contained secret rooms and underground passages, which were used as places. of refuge in troublous times; for example, there is a subterranean vault under an old house at Hurley, in which the bones of monks were found, where the supporters of William of Orange used to meet to plan his succession to the English crown. The walls of many of the manor-houses and halls in Lancashire * In many cases the name Butts" refers to the fact of the land, under the common. field system, abutting on meadows, or roads; e.g. "Butt-close," in the parish of St. Mary Bourne, |