FROM THE EAi;Ln:ST TIMES. 7 



tenure as had obtained on the Continent extended into Britain. 

 Although some details were derived from the Saxons who 

 settled on the east coasts, there is little doubt that the native 

 Britons copied from the Koman colonists their laws and customs 

 in regard to land. As before noticed, Germany differs in its 

 demesne and distant estate cultivation, and the inland and 

 outland of the Saxon are from the Roman model. It is, how- 

 ever, tolerably clear that the slaves, servi or iiativi, predominated 

 in numbers over the ceorls or freemen, afterwards called /irr/iarw, 

 from the Saxon feormc. The demises noted by Madox in his 

 Formulare Anglicanuvi' (1020-1038) prove the existence of free- 

 men with leases from Churchmen, and resembling those of the 

 Continent. Although it is considered that the numbers of free- 

 men were reduced by the Normans, the evidence of their 

 existence becomes clearer after the Conquest. The slaves were 

 divided into several classes of not well-defined difference in con- 

 dition ; but all may be distinguished from the free farmer as 

 bondsmen. Some of the villeyns could be sold, — some were ad- 

 scripti (jlcbce ; while it is not likely the free farmer provided 

 ought but corporeal capital. But as feudal lords found that free 

 farmers better served the purpose when they required to reside 

 away from their estates, and pay more attention to court and 

 parliament, leases became more common. Glanville speaks of 

 expulsion for non-payment of rent ; and Bracton, in his treatise 

 of a later date (the reign of Henry III.), in treating of location 

 in accordance with Roman law, discusses the right of the fir- 

 marius to a brieve to recover possession, if he should be ejected 

 within his term. 



In the Formulare Anglicanum are to be found leases in 

 Latin, French, and English, from the Conquest up to the time 

 of Henry VIII. It is not important that these should be 

 minutely examined ; but, at the same time, a few particulars 

 regarding the lease of the time may be noted. Churchmen here 

 as elsewhere were leading the van in improvements, and the 

 king and lay proprietors followed their example in gran ting- 

 leases. A lease of the time of Henry IV. marks by schedule 

 the quantities, numbers, and descriptions of the steelbow goods. 

 The schedule is in English, the first connection of the language 

 with the contract of lease. The greater portion of early leases 

 were iiidentura (by two or more parties), while deed-poll by one 

 party only was also known. Coke considered forty years the 

 limit of a lease by common law, but at tliis time from four to 

 fourscore years was known as the duration. The first for eighty 

 years, given by Madox, is in 1429. Tlie rent was in money, 

 produce, and in services. The covenants vary according to tlie 

 nature of the subject, but clauses to preserve from waste and to 

 repair, with forfeiture in default, were mostly inserted. The law 



