A manor naturally varied in size, according to the wealth
of its lord. In England perhaps six hundred acres represented the extent of an
average estate. Every noble had at least one manor; great nobles might have
several manors, usually scattered throughout the country; and even the king
depended on his many manors for the food supply of the court. England, during
the period following the Norman Conquest, contained more than nine thousand of
these manorial estates. [17]
[17] According to Domesday Book (see page 499) there were
9250 manors, of which William the Conqueror possessed 1422. His manors lay in
about thirty counties.
COMMON CULTIVATION OF THE ARABLE LAND
Of the arable land of the manor the lord reserved as much
as needful for his own use. The lord's land was called his "demesne,"
or domain. The rest of the land he allotted to the peasants who were his
tenants, They cultivated their holdings in common. A farmer, instead of having
his land in one compact mass, had it split up into a large number of small
strips (usually about half an acre each) scattered over the manor, and
separated, not by fences or hedges, but by banks of unplowed turf. The
appearance of a manor, when under cultivation, has been likened to a vast
checkerboard or a patchwork quilt. The reason for the intermixture of
strips seems to have been to make sure that each farmer had a portion both of
the good land and of the bad. It is obvious that this arrangement compelled all
the peasants to labor according to a common plan. A man had to sow the same
kinds of crops as his neighbors, and to till and reap them at the same time.
Agriculture, under such circumstances, could not fail to be unprogressive.
