22 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE 



were free men, and are so described in Domesday Book. 

 Below these military and other free farmers were 

 (2) the men of the old agricultural class, whose prede- 

 cessors for some generations had been true peasant 

 farmers, taking little part in righting. Such men might 

 be expected to be farming a ' yardland,' more or less, 

 a holding consisting of some thirty acre strips in the 

 open arable fields, with the corresponding meadowland 

 and common rights. These men would render tribute 

 in food to the estate-holder and might be bound by the 

 obligation of working one or even two days a week 

 on his home farm. In some cases they no longer 

 owned stock, but hired it from the holder of the estate. 

 The peasant farmers were not so free as the military 

 farmers, though only serfs in the sense that they were 

 forced to work. It was on these two sections of 

 society that king's taxes fell. Below the peasant 

 farmers were cotters, with five or so acres in the 

 common fields, forced at that time, if agriculturists, to 

 work on the home farm, if artisans, to render other 

 labour services connected with their trade, such as 

 making ploughshares or ox-yokes. Below the cotters 

 were a few slaves. 



Though these conditions were widespread, they were 

 not universal. Life was somewhat differently organized 

 in the East of England. The estates there often consisted 

 of a small central property to which were attached 

 rights of a varied character, extending over many 

 independent men who might be living in many differ- 

 ent villages. Moreover, in that part of England, a 

 general state of freedom prevailed. This was largely 

 due to the influence of the Danes, who, after some 

 generations of fighting, had, by that time, settled down 

 and colonized a large part of East Anglia. 



