Note 607 — Chapter XI · FOLCLAND. BÓCLAND. LǼNLAND.

“Tres acras precum et duas de herbagio: þreo æceras tó béne ⁊ twá tó gærsyðe.” If requested he shall do three acres; but only two if a meadow is to be broken up? This is always much harder work than ploughing on old arable. But it is difficult to reconcile this with the next sentence. The Saxon says, “Gif he máran gærses beþyrfe, earnige ðæs swá him man þafige:” the Latin, “Si plus indigeat herbagio, arabit proinde sicut ei permittatur.” From the word arabit, Thorpe suggests erige instead of earnige. The two readings are however consistent if we consider the expression gærsyðe as having no connection with the gærs of the following sentence. I suppose the meaning to be this: on extraordinary occasions, he might be called upon by the lord to plough three acres instead of one, or in old meadow-land, two acres. If now he himself should want more grass-land than he already possessed, he might make a bargain with the lord, and earn it by this labour with the plough. He was bound to give one day’s ploughing every week from the commencement of the ploughing season till the 11th of November: but on pressing emergency, and on request of the lord, he must give three days (for an acre a day was the just calculation) or in old meadow two. If his services at the plough were still further required, he was to make a bargain with his lord; and a common case is supposed, viz. that he required more grass-land than he had. In this way all seems intelligible.