•232 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



in some cases to the present day. There are many indications 

 that the land held by the Gonsiieiudinarii of these manors were 

 subject to certain of the obligations of the community. The 

 equal size of the estates — the virgate, or half or quarter virgate 

 — is a proof of something organized and regular in the assign- 

 ment of the estates. In one case the estate is a virgate, " in 

 -utroque campo " ' — another indication of regularity and organ- 

 ization, and undoubtedly a reference to the custom of having 

 the arable lands in two or three fields, which were alternately 

 .cultivated and fallow. There are still clearer indications of 

 this " three-field culture " in other manors.^ 



In saying that the Consuetudinarii were the representatives 

 of the village communities, I would not be understood to im- 

 ply that they all had their origin in such communities, or that 

 all such communities had kept up their compact organization 

 down to the thirteenth century. As Mr. Maine says : ^ ''it 

 €annoi be supposed that each of the new Manorial groups 

 takes the place of a village group which at some time or other 

 consisted of free allodial proprietors. Still, we may accept the 

 belief of the best authorities, that over a great part of England 

 there has been a true succession of one group to the other." 

 And at any rate, the " compact and organically complete as- 

 fiemblage of men, occupying a definite area of land,"* can be 

 identified with nothing but the viY/ant of the eleventh century, 

 and the consuetudinarii of the thirteenth. 



My object in this paper, has been to trace one of the steps 

 in the social history of the English peasantry. Several ques- 

 tions have presented themselves, in the course of this enquiry, 

 which I have not been able to answer ; I think, however, that 

 the facts and arguments here brought forward, are sufficient to 

 establish the essential identity of the most important class of 

 the peasantry during the period between the Norman Con- 



tExtenta de Duntesburne, p. 194. 



2 Extenta dc Lutlethone, p. 36. Linkholte, p. 43. 



3 Village Communities, p. 135. 

 ■*id., p.133. 



