[302] The following appeared in the _Athenæum_, March 3, 1883, under the signature of Mr. G. L. Gomme:--'The 312 acres in possession of the Corporation of Kells (co. Meath) are divided into six fields, and thus used. The fields are broken up in rotation one at a time, and tilled during four years. Before the field is broken the members of the Corporation repair to it with a surveyor, and it is marked out into equal lots, according to the existing number of resident members of the body. Each resident freeman gets one lot, each portreeve and burgess two lots, and the deputy sovereign five lots. A portion of the field, generally five or six acres, is set apart for letting, and the rent obtained for it is applied to pay the tithes and taxes of the entire. The members hold their lots in severalty for four years and cultivate them as they please, and at the expiration of the fourth year the field is laid down with grass and a new one is broken, when a similar process of partition takes place. The other five fields are in the interim in pasture, and the right of depasturing them is enjoyed by the members of the Corporation in the same proportion as they hold the arable land; that is to say, the deputy sovereign grasses five heads of cattle (called "bolls") for every two grazed by the portreeves and burgesses, and for every one grazed by the freemen; with this modification, however, that the widow of a burgess enjoys a right of grazing to the same extent as a freeman, and the widow of a freeman to half that extent. The widows do not obtain any portions of the field in tillage. I should note that the first charter of incorporation to Kells dates from Richard I.' [303] _Celtic Scotland_, iii. c. x. See also 'Account of Improvements on the Estate of _Sutherland_.' By James Loch. London, 1826. [304] _Ancient Laws, &c., of Wales_, p. 165. [305] The _Venedotian Code_. _Ancient Laws, &c._, p. 86. [306] See the last clause in the '_Statuta de Rothelan_.' _Record of Carnarvon_, pp. 128–9, and _Ancient Laws_, p. 872. [307] The pound of 12 ounces of 20 pence used in codes of South Wales seems to have been the pound used in Gaul in Roman times. 'Juxta Gallos vigesima pars unciæ denarius est et duodecim denarii solidum reddunt . . . duodecim unciæ libram xx. solidos continentem efficiunt. Sed veteres _solidum_ qui nunc _aureus_ dicitur nuncupabunt.' _De mensuris excerpta. Gromatici Veteres._ Lachmann, i. pp. 373–4. [308] _Ancient Laws, &c._, p. 781. [309] This presents a curious analogy to the method followed by 'adoptive' Roman emperors. [310] See the surveys in the _Record of Carnarvon_, and compare the Statute of Rothelan. [311] See the surveys in the _Record of Carnarvon_. The _tunc pound_ in some districts of Wales is still collected for the Prince of Wales. _Id._ Introduction, p. xvii.