THE MEADOWS 55
First, the meadows. These lay near the village, and generally
adjacent to the great open fields, but unlike them were fenced
about or protected by a ditch. The Lammas lands, as they are
often called, were a vital part of the village economy, and were
carefully enclosed soon after Christmas until the crop had been
taken off them in the summer.1 They were under the special pro-
tection of the hayward, whose job it was to see the fences were
not broken down, or that the villagers' cattle did not get into the
growing grass, to impound straying animals and to present their
owners as offenders at the Manor Court.2 The meadows, like the
other fields, were held in common, and each man had his por-
tion allocated to him, either by a system of rotation or by the
drawing of lots. Unfortunately, no early account of this custom
appears to have survived, although we constantly read of the
"lot-meadows ", and hear of the sale of lands "lying at Middel
dole as the lot geuyth", and so on.3 The custom itself, however,
survived to within living memory, and we have a number of
detailed accounts of the way in which the meadows were divided.
In most cases it was by lot: either small pieces of stick were
drawn out of a pocket, as in Sussex,4 or a number of apples with
distinctive marks cut on them were distributed from a hat by a
boy, as in Somerset,5 or pieces of wood were cut from an arrow
and marked to correspond with the landmarks in the field, as in
Northamptonshire.6 *
Imagine that the crop has been gathered. At once the meadows
become common land once again. Both here and in the arable
this principle applied, and was of the greatest importance. Of
course the occupier alone had any right to the crop (whether of
grain or of hay), but once that had been lifted the fields reverted
to the whole community. This was a wellnigh inevitable con-
sequence of the whole common-field arrangements, for any other
system would have been unworkable. On the one hand let us
1 Generally this period was from Candlemas (z Feb.) until Lammas
(i Aug.), but local custom varied these dates.
2 The term hayward comes from the Middle English, "haye=a hedge".
For details concerning the hayward and the court, see p. 178.
3 See, for example, Godstow Cart. (E.E.T.S.), 220, 446, 447.
4 Sussex Arch. Soc. Coll. rv, 307.
5 Collinson, History of the Antiquities of Somerset, in, 586.
6 Bridges, History of Northants, I, 219. See also Gomme, The Village
Community', 268-71; Oxford Hist. Soc. XXiv, 308-11.