LOCKERBIE IN ITS ORIGIN. 161 
wolf still roamed in the woods around the village, and badgers, 
wild cats, foxes, and eagles were rife. 
The condition of the people under the Bruces, that is, of the 
masses of the people, was rapidly changing for the better. At 
one time the poorest of them were known as “ villeins,’’ from the 
fact that they huddled together in vills or villages. They were 
practically in the position of slaves, bound to serve the owner of 
the land on which they lived, brought back and punished if they 
ran away, and changed hands along with the land itself. 
The clause in the grant of the lands was “ Cum bondis et 
bondagiis ’’——with bondmen and their holdings and services. Mr 
Cosmo Innes in his lecture on Ancient Charters says :—“ I cannot 
pretend to distinguish with any accuracy the bondman from the 
neyf. It is not improbable that the neyf or serf by descent was 
distinguished from the bond labourer, but we cannot tell to what 
extent or in what manner.”’ 
After the settling of the Bruce in the district the position of 
matters appears rapidly to have changed for the better. Instead 
of their being at the constant call of their owner, their services 
became first fixed and definite, and then commuted to a pay- 
ment, sometimes, though rarely, in money, generally by a share 
of the produce of the ground. From being actual slaves they 
were, through the kindly influences of the Norman customs and 
methods, transformed into free farmers or freeholders, giving a 
fixed and definite return for the land they cultivated to the feudal 
Lord as also rendering military services when required. 
The only means by which the people could live was, of 
course, by cultivating the soil. Lockerbie, therefore, would 
not then be a collection of houses so much as of small farms. 
Each house or booth sat in a little croft or toft, extending to 
perhaps half-an-acre, which was fenced. The rest of the land, 
whether arable or pastoral, was unfenced, which necessitated 
constant herding. The land was cultivated on a system of 
co-partnership. A plough, which was a cumbersome, unwieldy, 
wooden instrument, required eight oxen to draw it. Each 
villager possessed but two. One plough, therefore, called into 
requisition the stock of four husbandmen. 
Mr Cosmo Innes, in his “ Early Scottish History ’’ (page 
188-189), states: —“ We must not judge a plough of the monks 
by our modern notions, or fill it in fancy with a pair of quick- 
