← Table of contents
A Short History of English Agriculture

Note 569 — Chapter XVIII

Reading edition

Cf. Marshall's account of the common-field townships in Hampshire at the end of the eighteenth century. Each occupier of land in the common fields contributed to the town flock a number of sheep in proportion to his holding, which were placed under a shepherd who fed them and folded them on all parts of the township. A similar practice was observed with the common herd of cows, which were placed under one cowherd who tended them by day and brought them back at night to be milked, distributing them among their respective owners, and in the morning they were collected by the sound of the horn.—Rural Economy of Southern Counties, ii. 351.

Explore with AITake your curiosity a little further.

Reading settings