The year 1789 was a comparatively important date in the agricultural history of Stratton during the eighteenth century. At the Court held on October 9th, it was agreed that “the tenants shall meet in the West Field on the 14th inst. between 9 and 10 in the morning, to bound out the several lands, and afterwards each shall leave a lanchett of a furrow between his and the adjoining land under penalty of a fine of 20_s._ And no tenant shall turn his plough on his neighbour’s land after the 21st of November.” It would appear that the scrupulous observance of the “walls” dividing one man’s land from another, which was such an exceptional feature of Stratton and Grimstone Common Fields, dates from this meeting. Fordington parish, until the extinction of the copyholds, had many features which compare curiously with those of Stratton and Grimstone. It is very much larger; for whereas Stratton and Grimstone together have an area of only about 1200 acres, the area of Fordington is 2749 acres, of which, up to 1876, nearly 1800 acres was common field and common meadow, and 618 acres commons adjoining the common field. Fordington is also peculiarly divided into three portions: the arable field and common pastures lying immediately south of Dorchester, the meadows forming a detached area by the side of the River Frome, and the village itself a third detached area. The copyholds in Fordington were known, some as “whole-places,” “half-places,” as in Stratton and Grimstone, but others as “farthing holds.” One cannot help asking what were the original meanings of these terms, and how they are related to the “virgates” of Domesday, and to the “yardlands” of the Midlands, and the “broad” and “narrow oxgangs” of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. Concerning these terms it appears to be established that a “yardland” or “virgate” was originally one quarter of a “carucate,” or ploughland, _i.e._, the amount of arable land (about 120 acres in average soil) which a plough team of eight oxen could plough in a year, together with its due share of meadow and common pasture. A broad oxgang was about 24 acres of arable land, and therefore apparently the northern representative of a yardland or virgate; and a narrow oxgang was about 12 acres of arable, or half a broad oxgang. In Stratton, as we have seen, every “whole place” or “whole living” had common rights for two horses, four cows, and eighty sheep; every half-place common rights for one horse, two cows, and forty sheep. The areas of land attached to the three whole places were respectively 18 a. 3 r. 35 p., 19 a. 2 r. 3 p., 22 a. 0 r. 11 p., averaging just 20 acres; the half-places varied from 9 a. 0 r. 19 p. to 13 a. 2 r. 25 p., the smaller half-places having an advantage in quality of soil, and the average being almost exactly 11 acres. In Grimstone the common rights as well as the area of land belonging to particular whole or half-places varied somewhat. The half-places consisted respectively of--