Laine

local. A name given to certain tracts of arable land at the foot of the Sussex Downs.

1794.  Ann. Agric., XXII. 219. Rent of the arable, including the laines, is 15s. per acre. Ibid., 230. The laines or bottoms … Laine land or arable. Ibid. (1797), XXVIII. 124. His course is what is called in Sussex three laines, that is, wheat once in three years.

1881.  Sawyer, Land Tenure Brighton, in Proc. Incorp. Land Soc., 95. [Outside the boundaries of Brighton] were five large tracts of land, known as the Tenantry Laines, and called the East Laine, Little Laine, Hilly Laine, North Laine, and West Laine…. These Laines were again divided into furlongs…. The ‘Tenantry flock’ was … when taken from the Down, invariably kept in the fallow lands or grattens in the ‘Tenantry Laines.’

1893.  F. W. Bourdillon, Sursum Corda, 48 (Cent.).