Chap. VIII. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 303 



every landholder took this oath of fealty ; for at that time we had 

 got from England the Norman feudal law. Now, by that law, there 

 were, as I have fhown *, many fmall proprietors of land, fuch as 

 held their lands by Soccage tenure, by Villa'tJis tenure, and fuch as 

 they called Bordarii, Such men in Scotland were faid to hold their 

 lands per fervile fervitiuni : And there can be no doubt that there 

 were very many fuch in Scotland at the time when this oath of feal- 

 ty to Edward the I. was taken, but which we cannot fuppole would 

 be required of fuch low men, bat only of gentlemen, who held 

 their lands of the crown for military or fome other honourable fer- 

 vice. But even of thefe 2000, which, as i have fhown, were not 

 the gentlemen of all the Ihires of Scotland, and cannot even be fup- 

 pofed to have comprehended all. the landholders of the feveral fhires 

 from which the account is taken, there are very many names, (it is 

 computed about 0//^ //6/V^) which are not now to be found in Scotland: 

 So that the race of thefe men mull either have died out^and their fuc- 

 ceffion have gone to collaterals, who probably poflcifed other eftates^ 

 or they muft have been fucceeded by heirs female, who were married 

 into other families j or, lajily^ they muft have done, what is now fo 

 frequently done, run into debt and fold their eftates. In whichever 

 of thefe v^ays a change of the names happened, it is evident that the 

 number of landholders muft; have been diminiihed. 



The laft way I mentioned (by which the fmaller gentry are, as it 

 were, devoured by the greater,) is fo much increafed in Scotland, of 

 late years, that if it is not put a ftop to by fome kind of Agrariaa 

 law, the land of Scotland is in hazard of being monopolifed by a 

 few great proprietors. 



What T regret the moft: *n th's deftm<Stion of our nobility and gentry, 

 is the extindion of fo many of our antient families, which, whether they 



be 



* Page 295. of this vol. 



