33 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Parr I.

205. The Norman clergy, and particularly the monks, were still greater improvers than the nobility; and the lands of the church, especially of the convents, were conspicuous for their superior cultivation. For the monks of every monastery retained such of their lands as lay most convenient in their own possession, which they cultivated with great care, under their own inspection, and frequently with their own hands._ It was so much the custom of the monks of this period to assist in the cultivation of their lands, especially in seed-time, hay-time, and harvest, that the famous Thomas Becket, after he was Archbishop of Canterbury, used to go out to the field, with the monks of the monasteries where he happened to reside, and join with them in reaping their corn and making their hay.(Chron. Gervas. col. 1400.)‘This is indeed mentioned by the historian as an act of uncommon condescension in a person of his high station in the church; but it is sufficient proof that the monks of those times used to work with their own hands, at some seasons, in the labors of the field: and as many of them were men of genius and

invention, they no doubt made various improvements in the art of agriculture. The< i twenty-sixth canon of the general council of Lateran, held A.D. 1179, affords a further

proof that the protection and encouragement of all who were concerned in agriculture, we was an object of attention to the church. For by that canon, it is decreed,‘* That all Q presbyters, clerks, monks, converts, pilgrims, and peasants, when they are engaged in the labors of husbandry, together with the 293 cattle in their ploughs, and the seed which they carry into the field, shall enjoy perfect security; and that all who

molest or interrupt them, if they do not I 1

desist when they have been admonished, io

shall be excommunicated.”’(Jd. col. ye Bi L

1456.) see ANI 206. The implements of husbandry, in j a, ¢

this period, were of the same kind with ,—<4 dle

those that are employed at present; but: aS a

some of them were less perfect in their i

construction. One sort of plough, for ex- ample, had but one stilt or handle, which the ploughman guided with one hand, having in his other hand an instrument which served both for cleaning and mending his plough,(fig. 23.) and breaking the clods. This implement was probably intended for breaking up strong lands; for such a purpose the wheels would contribute much to its steadiness, which would render two handles unnecessary, and thus leave the holder with one hand at liberty to use his axe- like instrument in clearing away roots and clods, or otherwise aiding the 4

operation of the plough. Another plough(fig. 24.) seems to haye been without SH it A wheels, and was probably intended for light soil.(See Struté?s Complete View&

of the Manners,&c. of England, vol. ii. ps 12.) The Norman plough had twe wheels; and, in the light soil of Nor- if

zy mandy, was commonly drawn by one TI=e 24 yn: us

ox, or two oxen; but in England a greater number, according to the nature of the soil,- was often necessary.(M. Montfaucon, Monumens de Monarchie Francois, tom. i. plate 47. Gvrald. Cambrens. Descript. Cambria, ¢.17.) In—-= Wales, the person who conducted the. oxen in the plough, walked backwards. dea 2 a (Id. ibid.) Their carts, harrows, scythes, sickles, and flails, from the figures of them still appear to have been nearly of the same construction with those that are

On

now used,(Strutt’s View, vol. 1. plate 26. 32. 33. and= our fig. 25.) In Wales, they did not use a sickle in reaping their corn, but an instrument like the blade of a knife, with a wooden handle at each end.(Girald. Cam., ibid.) Water-mills for grinding corn were very common, but they had also a kind of mills turned by horses, which were chiefly used in their armies, and

remal ning,

\ Je at sieges, or in places where running water was scarce. et (Gaufrid Vinisauf. iter Hierosolymit.|. i. c. 33. M. oe Paris. Vit. Abbot. p. 94. col. 2.) 5 i 207. The various operations of husbandry, as|| yi. manuring, ploughing, sowing, harrowing, reaping,‘ Ny threshing, winnowing,&c. are incidentally mentioned by the writers of this period; x ws:

but it is impossible to collect from them a distinct account of the manner in which