104
THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND.
[book i.
he who cannot find subsistence at home must seek
it abroad ; if the family estate will not supply him
with support, he must strive to obtain it from the
bounty or necessities of others : for emigration has
its own heavy ctιarges, and for this he would re-
quire assistance ; and in a period such as we are de-
scribing, trade and manufacture offer no resources
to the surplus population. But all the single hides
or estates are here considered as included in the
same category, and it is only on the large posses-
sions of the noble that the poor freeman can hope
to live, without utterly forfeiting everything that
makes life valuable. Some sort of service he must
yield, and among all that he can offer, military
service, the most honourable and attractive to
himself, is sure to be the most acceptable to the
lord whose protection he requires.
The temptation to engage in distant or dangerous
warlike adventures may not appear very great to
the agricultural settler, whose continuous labour
will only wring a mere Sufiiciency from the soil he
owns. It is with regret and reluctance that such
a man will desert the land he has prepared or
the crops he has raised, even when the necessity
mentis, trahendae famis superesset auxilium, Aggone atque Ebbone
auctoribus, plebiscite provisum est, ut senibus et parvulis caesis, oɪɪɪ-
nique demum imbelɪi aetate regno egesta, robustis duntaxat patria
donaretur; nee nisi aut arnιis, aut agris colendis habiles domestici laris
paternorumque penatium habitacula retinerent.” By the advice how-
ever of Gambara, they cast lots, and a portion of the people emigrate.
“ Igitur omnium fortunis in sortem coniectis, qui designabantur, ex-
torres adiudicati sunt.” Saxo Gram. p. 159. Under similar circum-
stances, according to Geoffiy of Monmouth, Hengest came to Britain.
сн. v∏∙]
THE NOBLE BY SERVICE.
165
of self-defence calls the community to arms. far
otherwise however is it with him who has no means
of living by the land, or whom his means place
above the necessity of careful, unremitting toil. The
prince, enriched by the contributions of his fel-
low-countrymen, and the presents of neighbouring
states or dynasts, as well as master of more land than
he requires for his own subsistence, has leisure for
ambition, and power to reward its instruments. On
the land which he does not require for his own
cultivation, he can permit the residence of freemen
or even serfs, on such conditions as may seem ex-
pedient to himself or endurable to them. He may
surround himself with armed and noble retainers,
attracted by his liberality or his civil and military
reputation1, whom he feeds at his own table and
houses under his own roof ; who may perform even
servile duties in his household, and on whose aid
he may calculate for purposes of aggression or de-
fence. Nor does it seem probable that a community
would at once discover the infinite danger to them-
selves that lurks in such an institution: far more
frequently must it have seemed matter of congra-
tulation to the cultivator, that its existence spared
him the necessity of leaving the plough and harrow
to resist sudden incursions, or enforce measures of
internal police ; or that the strong castle with its
“ Erat autem rex Oswini et aspectu venustus, et statura sublɪmis,
et affatu iucundus, et moribus civilis, et manu omnibus, id est nobi-
ɪibus simul atque ignobilibus, Iargus : unde contigit ut ob regiam eius et
anɪɪnɪ, et vultus, et meritorum dignitatem, ab omnibus diligeretur, et
undique ad eius ministerium de cunctis prope provinciis viri etiani
Uobilissimi concurrerent.” Bed. H. E. iii. 14.