318
THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND.
[book i.
day. I have already stated that this may be the
old charge on folcland : it was a grant from the
monks to the bishop, probably negotiated by Ead-
weard. All parties were satisfied : the monks pro-
bably got from the land as much as they could ex-
pect from any other tenant, or what, if folcland,
they would themselves have had to pay ; the bishop
got the land into his own hands, to dispose of at his
pleasure, and the king was rewarded for interven-
tion with all the benefits to be derived on his anni-
versary from the prayers of the grateful fathers at
Winchester.
At the close of the ninth century, WerfriS bishop
of Worcester claimed land under the following cir-
cumstances. Milred a previous bishop had granted
an estate in Sopbury, on condition that it was to
be always held by a clergyman, and never by a
layman, and that if no clergyman could be found
in the grantee’s family, it should revert to the see.
By degrees the family of the grantee established
themselves in the possession, but without perform-
ing the condition. At length WerfriS impleaded
their chief EadnoS, who admitted the wrong and
promised to find a clergyman. The family however
all refused to enter into holy orders. EadnoS then
obtained the intercession of ÆSelred duke of Mer-
cia, the lady ÆSelflæd, and ÆSelnoS duke of
Somerset ; and by their persuasion, AVerfriS (in de-
fiance of his predecessor’s charter) sold the land to
EadnoS for forty mancuses, reserving a yearly rent
of fifteen shillings, and a vestment (or perhaps some
CH. kl.]
LÆ'NLAND.
319
kind, of hanging) to be delivered at the episcopal
manor of Tetbury1.
Ealdwulf bishop of Worcester leased forty acres
of land and a fishery for three lives to Leofena¾>,
on condition that they delivered yearly fifteen sal-
mon, and those good ones too, during the bishop’s
residence in Worcester, on Ashwednesday2.
Eadric gafeled (gafelian), i. e. paid yearly rent or
gafol for twcrhides with half a pound, or thirty shil-
lings, and а дате, a word I do not understand3.
In 835, the Abbess Cyneware gave land to Hun-
berht, a duke, on condition that he paid a gablum,
gafol or rent of three hundred shillings in lead
yearly to Christchurch Canterbury4.
The ceorlas or dependent freemen who were set-
tled upon the land of Hurstbourn in the days of
Ælfred, had the following rents to pay ; many of
these are labour rents, many arise out of the land
itself, viz. are part of the produce.
From each hide, at the autumnal equinox, forty
pence. Further they were to pay, six church-
mittan of ale, and three sesters or horseloads of white
wheat. Out of their own time they were to plough
three acres, and sow them with their own seed, to
house the produce, to pay three pounds of gafol-
barley, to mow half an acre of gafolmead and
stack the hay, to split four fo1δer orloads of gafol-
wood and stack it, to make sixteen rods of gafol-
l Cod. Dipl. No. 327.
a Ibid. No. 695. I have rendered “forme fæstenes dæg” as if it were
Cuput j<∙jnnii.
3 Ibid. No. 699. * Ibid. No. 1043.