38
THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND.
[book I.
the Anglosaxons. These are the incunabula, first
principles and rudiments of the English law1 ; and
in these it approaches, and assimilates to, the sy-
stem which the German conquerors introduced into
every state which they founded upon the ruins of
the Roman power.
As land may be held by many men in common,
or by several households, under settled conditions
it is expedient to examine separately the nature
and character of these tenures : and first to enquire
into the forms of possession in common ; for upon
this depends the political being of the state, its
constitutional law, and its relative position towards
other states. Among the Anglosaxons land so held
in common was designated by the names Mark, and
Ga or Shire.
The smallest and simplest of these common di-
visions is that which we technically call a Mark or
March (mearc) ; a word less frequent in the Anglo-
saxon than the German muniments, only because
the system founded upon what it represents yielded
in England earlier than in Germany to extraneous
influences. This is the first general division, the
next in order to the private estates or alods of the
Markmen : as its name denotes, it is something
marked out or defined, having settled boundaries ;
something serving as a sign to others, and distin-
guished by signs. It is the plot of land on which
a greater or lesser number of free men have set-
tled for purposes of cultivation, and for the sake
of mutual profit and protection ; and it comprises a
1 u Incunabula et rudimenta virtutis.” Cie. de Off.
CH. ∏∙]
THE MARK.
37
portion both of arable land and pasture, in propor-
tion to the numbers that enjoy its produce ɪ.
However far we may pursue our researches into
the early records of our forefathers, we cannot dis-
cover a period at which this organization was
unknown. Whatever may have been the original
condition of the German tribes, tradition and his-
tory alike represent them to us as living partly by
agriculture, partly by the pasturing of cattle2. They
had long emerged from the state of wandering
herdsmen, hunters or fishers, when they first at-
tracted the notice, and disputed or repelled the
power, of Kome. The peculiar tendencies of vari-
ous tribes may have introduced peculiar modes of
placing or constructing their habitations ; but of
no German population is it stated, that they dwelt
in tents like the Arab, in waggons like the Scy-
thian, or in earth-dug caverns like the troglodytes
of Wallachia : the same authority that tells of some
who lived alone as the hill-side or the fresh spring
pleased them 3, notices the villages, the houses and
even the fortresses, of others.
x “Agri, pro numéro cultorum, ab universis per vices occupantur, quos
mox inter se, secundum dignationem, partiuntur ; facilitatem partiendi
Camporum spatia praestant.” Tac. Germ. 26.
2 “ Sola terrae seges imperatur,” they raise corn, but not fruits or
vegetables. Tac. Germ. 26. “ Frumenti modum dominus, aut pecoris,
aut vestis, ut colono, iniungit ; et servus hactenus paret.” Ibid. 25.
Hordeum, and frumentum. Ibid. 23.
.3 “ Colunt discreti ac diversi, ut fons, ut campus, ut nemus placuit.
Vicos locant, non in nostrum morem, connexis et Cohaerentibus aedifi-
Cus ; suam quisque domum spatio circumdat.” Tae. Germ. 16. When
Tacitus speaks of caverns dug in the earth, it is as granaries (which
May to this day be seen in Hungary) or as places of refuge from sud-
den invasion.