SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY Only one of the smaller tenants holds on a yearly tenancy. John Berye's holding is described as ' a close of pasture in five different pieces ' at 3J. an acre, and it is rented with an acre of fen at 2s. SJ. (the usual price of fen land) under a forty years' lease dating from Henry VIII, at the rent of 40J. and two capons."* The surveyor comments on the bad repair of the tenements and farms, although the tenants are bound to keep them in good and sufficient repara- tion, at their own charges, in all things except timber. Speaking generally, an examination of the component parts of the various farms and holdings shows them to be in the main compactly and conveniently arranged, made up of various adjacent inclosures, and in most cases including a dwelling- house. Traces of the older system are few, and in course of disappearing, as is clear from a reference to ' various bits of arable land newly inclosed,' which form part of one holding. As might be expected from the comparative poverty of the soil, and the prevalence of sheep-farming, as well as from the greater distance from con- venient waterways, and proximity to the fen-country with its poverty- stricken population dependent entirely upon fishing and fowling, agri- cultural progress in the western part of the county is less marked than in the east. A survey of an estate at Lidgate,'* at a date of twenty years after the Mettingham survey, shows the existence of a much more primitive con- dition of things. The manor is divided for the most part into full yard-lands of 16 acres, held by copy of court roll and heritable at a rent of ioj. (in a few cases js. to 8s., or 13J. with a dwelling). It will be remembered that arable in Mettingham, even in the open field, was worth is. ^d. an acre. Each tenement bears the name of some previous owner ; the names of its holders for two or three generations back are also given, so that a process of consolidation which is in progress is clearly of very recent date. For many of the holdings are no longer confined to a single person. For example, Edmond Halles holds six separate parcels of land : — 1. A copyhold tenement heritable, called Gyll's with 16 acres of ground, late William Cator's and sometime William Gyll's, and before Adam Gyll's ; rent 1 3J-. 2. A full yard of copyhold land heritable, called Griggs', sometime knit with the tenement Griggs', late William Cator's, and sometime William Griggs' ; rent ioj. 3. A copyhold cottage with a garden adjoining, containing by estimation half a rood, and one piece of land in Oakefield ' at . . . gappe,' containing one acre and a half late in the tenure of Steven Halles ; rent is. d. 4. A copyhold pightell of pasture called Morryes pightell containing 2 roods, late Steven Halles' ; rent td. 5. A full yard of copyhold land called CoUers Knights, containing 16 acres, late in the tenure of John Webbe ; rent 8j. 6. One tenement and a half yard of copyhold land called Fletcher's, with a cottage called a three-acre-ling thereto annexed, containing together 1 1 acres, and one piece of land called a way, long 6 poles, broad 1 1 poles, late William Aimer's, before John Fuller's ; rent 9/. "* B.M. Add. MSS. 14850, fol. 159. " Ibid. 22058, fol. 32. 663
