L. Book I. AGRICULTURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

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1e 200. Our Anglo-Saxon ancestors derived their origin and manners from the ancient te Germans, who were not much addicted to agriculture, but depended chiefly on their or flocks and herds for their subsistence.(Strabo, 1. vii. Cesar de Bel. Gal.\. vi.) These ilg restless and haughty warriors esteemed the cultivation of their lands too ignoble and lar laborious an employment for themselves, and therefore committed it wholly to their women and slaves.(Tacit. de Morib. German. c. 15.) They were even at pains to con- Was trive laws to prevent their contracting a taste for agriculture, lest it should render them his less fond of arms and warlike expeditions.(Jd. c. 26.) and 201. The division of landed estates into what are called inlands and outiands, originated 2 in with the Saxon princes and gr¢at men, who, in the on of the conquered lands, ob- ired tained the largest shares, and are said to have subdi d their territory into two parts, ant. which wereso named.‘The inlands were those which lay most contiguous to the mansion- rent house of their owner, which he kept in his own immediate possession, and cultivated by iters, j his slaves, under the direction of a bailiff, for the purpose of raising provisions for his Ss on family. The outlands were those which lay at a greater distance from the mansion- MN its house, and were let to the ceorls or farmers of those times at a certain rent, which was ny of very moderate, and generally paidin kind.(Relique Spelmaniane, p. 12.)

202. The rent of land in these times was established by law, and not by the owners of eriod the land. By the laws of Ina, king of the West Saxons, who flourished in the end of xony, the seventh and beginning of the eighth century, a farm consisting of ten hides or plough ee lands was to pay the following rent, viz. ten casks of honey, three hundred loaves of ch are bread, twelve casks of strong ale, thirty casks of small ale, two oxen, ten wethers, ten than geese, twenty hens, ten cheeses, one cask of butter, five salmon, twenty pounds of tries forage, and one hundred eels.(Wilkins, Leges Saxon, p. 25.) The greatest part of the ~aninot crown lands in every county was farmed in this manner by ceorls or farmers, who in

general appear to have been freemen and soldiers. ~ 203. Very little is known of the implements fa 22 tury. or operations of husbandry during this period.& a, abi In one of Strutt’s plates of ancient dresses, i lected. entitled, Saxon Rarities of the Eighth Cen- a él tury, may be seen a picture of a plough and ti ploughman.(fig. 22.) This is sufficientiy ae, rude, though it has evidently undergone some siti improvement by the art of the delineator.

The laborers were no doubt slaves, and the

animals of draught, oxen. The lands be- istt), oF longing to the monasteries were by much the s best cultivated; because the secular canons who possessed them, spent some part of their time in cultivating their own lands.‘The venerable Bede, in his life of Easterwin Abbot of Weremouth, tells us,‘* That this abbot, being a strong man, and of a humble disposition, used to assist his monks in their rural labors, sometimes guiding the plough by its stilt or handle, sometimes winnowing corn, and sometimes forging instruments of husbandry with a hammer upon an anvil.”(Bede, Hist. Abbat. Weremath. p. 296.) For in those times the husbandmen were under a necessity of making many implements of husbandry with their own hands.

History, 5 seized, 0 follow the great ces of all

and for

5 Saxon,

stances, Supsect. 2. Ofthe State of Agriculture in Britain after the Norman Conquest, or from laws res the Eleventh to the Thirteenth Centuries. Leges

204. That the conquest of England by the Normans contributed to the improvement of agriculture in Britain is undeniable.‘‘ For by that event many thousands of husband- men, from the fertile and well cultivated plains of Flanders, France, and Normandy, settled in this island, obtained estates or farms, and employed the same methods in the

hich need it owners, ith propet

isive. cultivation of them that they had used in their native countries. Some of the Norman , or cots barons were great improvers of their lands, and are celebrated in history for their skill been very in agriculture.”‘* Richard de Rulos, lord of Brunne and Deeping,” says Ingulphus, 9 guide a“¢ was much addicted to agriculture, and delighted in breeding horses and cattle. Be-

of twisted

sides inclosing and draining a great extent of country, he imbanked the river Wielland ohs Ww ere,

(which used every year to overflow the neighboring fields) in a most substantial manner, building many houses and cottages upon the bank; which increased so much, that in a little time they formed a large town called Deeping, from its low situation. Here he planted orchards, cultivated commons, converted deep lakes and impassable quagmires into fertile fields, rich meadows, and pastures; and, in a word, rendered the whole country about it a garden of delights.””(Hist. Ingulphi. Oxon. edit. 1684, tom. i.

a out one ei This is t state of

cut down p- 77, 78.) From the above description, it appears that this nobleman(who was e of agri chamberlain to William the Conqueror) was not only fond of agriculture, but also that 7 hatcand siege:: i

fect state he conducted his improvements with skill and success

. Dis =™—= i lg ee sen te ee AAD art on a anicatica Cae.=

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