WHEN THE LAND WAS CURSED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 302, 21 December 1935, Page 14 (Supplement)

WHEN THE LAND WAS CURSED.

Wandering over English commons, moorland, or mountain sides, it may at times have been noticed that the ground had a furrowed appearance; as though it had once been ploughed. In many, country districts there is a belief that these faint plough-marks date from the time when England was interdicted by the Pope. King John, who occupied the throne, had quarrelled with the Church. As a reprisal, the Pope ordered his legates to lay a general interdict on England. This meant not only that the Churches were to be closed, but that all cultivated land was cursed. Superstitious farming folk at once proceeded to cultivate commons, moors, and similar stretches of inferior land, thinking that if those were cursed it wouldn't matter, and hoping that the land which normally produced crops—if they abandoned it while the interdict was in force —would escape becoming barren. Another view —which is probably more correct —is that the furrows were originally made by the Romans, who are thought to have cultivated a considerable amount of land <whjclij-lfiter r -2as*le^2to-gra*^!?r