The late M. Fustel de Coulanges, whose death has cut short a series of remarkably able historical studies, had no difficulty in tracing the growth of the manorial system by working back from these and other records from different parts of France, through the indirect evidence of still earlier documents, into the Merovingian epoch, and back from it to Roman times, whilst of the early prevalence of the open field system M. de Coulanges declared himself to me unable to find distinct traces in the documents.
I propose to inquire how it is that there is this apparent silence of the documents as to the open field system, and to show that, after all, this silence is by no means conclusive negative evidence.
Let us take the Chartrain as the central and typical corn-growing district in France. The communal maps and their terriers show that the holdings on the vast plain were bundles of scattered strips early in the century, as they are to a great extent still. The Usages Locaux of commune after commune testify to the immemorial prevalence till recent periods if not till the present time of the vaine pâture and hi some districts of the droit de parcours.[1] In the light of this evidence of the former prevalence of the open field system in the Chartrain let us turn to the surveys of the ninth century.
The Abbey of St. Germain at Paris was possessed of, inter alia, estates scattered over the Chartrain. For the purpose of management and the collection of the revenues these scattered estates were arranged in separate groups under proper officers, who had to make official returns.
The record of one group may be taken as a specimen:—
Polypticum Irminonis Abbatis.
XIII.—Breve de Buxido.
De Dorgasino.
- ↑ Usages Locaux du Département d'Eure-et-Loir, Chartres, 1889.
