90
THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND.
[book I.
its members are sharers in the arable, the forest and
the marsh, the waters and the pastures : their bond
of union is a partnership in the advantages to be
derived from possession of the land, an individual
interest in a common benefit.
The district occupied by a body of new settlers
was divided by lot in various proportions ɪ. Yet it
is certain that not all the land was so distributed ;
a quantity sufficient to supply a proper block of
arable2 to each settler, was set apart for divi-
sion ; while the surplus fitted for cultivation, the
marshes and forests less suited to the operations of
the plough, and a great amount of fine grass or
meadow-land, destined for the maintenance of cat-
tle, remained in undivided possession as commons.
At first too, it is clear, from what has been said in
the second chapter, that considerable tracts were
left purposely out of cultivation to form the marches
or defences of the several communities. But those
alone whose share in the arable demonstrated them
1 The traces of this mode of distribution are numerous. Hengest
forcibly occupying the Frisian territory, is said to do so, elne, unhyltme,
violently and without casting of lots. Beow. 1. 2187,2251. The Law
of the Burgundians calls hereditary land, “terra sortis titulo acquitta,”
in contradistinction to chattels taken by purchase. Lex Burg. Tit. 1.
cap. 1, 2. Eichhorn, i. 360, 400, note a. Godred, having subdued the
Manxmen, divided their land among his followers by lot. “ Godredus
sequenti die obtionem exercitui suo dedit, ut si mallent Manniam inter
se dividere, etin ea Iiabitare; Velcunctamsubstantiam terrae accipere,
et ad propria remeare.” Chron. Manniae. (Cott. MS. Jul. A. VII. fol.
32.) Upon the removal of St. Cu^δberht⅛ ιelics to Durham, the first
care was to eradicate the forest that covered the land ; the next, to dis-
tribute the clearing by lot : “ eradicata itaque silva, et unicuique man-
sionibus sorte distributis,” etc. Simeon. Hist. Dunelm. Eccl. § 37.
2 Words denoting measures of land have very frequently reference
to the plough : thus geoc, furlang, sulung, aratrum, carucata, etc.
сн. г?.]
THE EDEL, HI1D OR ΛLOD.
91
to be members of the little state, could hope to par-
ticipate in the advantages of the commons of pas-
ture : like the old Roman patricians, they derived
from their Jiaeredium benefits totally incommensu-
rate with its extent. Without such share of the
arable, the man formed no portion of the state ; it
was his franchise, his political qualification, even
as a very few years ago a freehold of inconsider-
able amount sufficed to enable an Englishman to
vote, or even be voted for, as a member of the
legislature,—to be, as the Greeks would call it, in
the τroλtτeιa,—a privilege which the utmost wealth
in ,copyhold estates or chattels could not confer.
He that had no land was at first unfree : he could
not represent himself and his interests in the courts
or assemblies of the freemen, but must remain in
the mund or hand of another1,—a necessary con-
sequence of a state of society in which there is
indeed no property but land, in other words, no
market for its produce.
From the mode of distribution it is probable
that each share was originally called Hlyt (sors,
κληpoc), it derived however another and more com-
mon name from its extent and nature. The ordinary
Anglosaxon words are Higid2 (in its contracted
and almost universal form Hid) and Hiwisc. The
Latin equivalents which we find in the chronicles
and charters axe, familia, cassatus, mansus, mansa,
’ ιrpoσraτov γeγρaφθaι, to be enrolled under some one’s patronage :
^be in his mund and borh. ωσ^r ov Kpeovros πpoστaτoυ γeγpaψoμar.
2 Cod. Dipl. No. 240.