E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Goodman’s Croft.
A strip of ground or corner of a field formerly left untilled, in Scotland, in the belief that unless some such place were left, the spirit of evil would damage the crop.
1
“Scotchmen still living remember the corner of a field being left for the goodman’s croft.”—Tylor: Primitive Culture, ii. 370.
