AUGUST 139 



Our parish in those days, though of course co- 

 terminus with several other parishes, had little 

 communication with them. Beyond its practicable 

 limits lay a lonely waste. In the centre was the 

 ham, with the lord's wooden hall, the church, and 

 rude hovels made of wattle and daub. Around 

 this was the cultivated land and grass yards for 

 rearing; calves and other animals the common 



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farmstead, in fact. Then came the pastures in 

 which the people had rights after the lord had 

 made his hay. And outside all were the woods 

 and marshes and uncultivated land, generally termed 

 the waste. From this waste the public supplied 

 themselves with firebote, hedgebote, and housebote, 

 and also found what sustenance for their oreese and 



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cattle and other stock the more restricted pasture 

 areas could not yield. But although sometimes 

 portions of this waste were taken over and tilled, 

 and came thus gradually under cultivation, this was 

 not the only means by which waste land was 

 reclaimed. Occasionally the portionless younger 

 son of a lord would break away from his family 

 and penetrate into the waste with a few followers, 

 build dwellings, and cultivate the hitherto virgin 

 soil, and thus a new lordship would be gradually 

 formed, with powers over its adherents, and in 

 time recognised suzerainty over all who dwelt 

 within its boundaries. 



At the time of the Norman Conquest most of 

 the twenty thousand Saxon manors were taken over 

 by new lords. In some counties, as over the 

 border in Hampshire, the passion of the King 

 and his court for hunting caused the afforesting 



