The Lasting Effects of Feudalism. 1 1 



attention to Scotland, we must be careful to distingutsh that 

 line which, separates the hilly districts occupied by Celtic 

 tribes from the lowlands, where a Teutonic element is clearly 

 discernible. In the soil of Southern Scotland, Feudalism, when 

 once it found root, took a firmer and more lasting grip than 

 ever it did below the Tweed. The laws of Anglo-Saxon kings, 

 and charters dating as far back as the seventh century, afford 

 us sufficient evidence of its early appearance and rapid pro- 

 gress on English ground; but there is no Scottish Statute Book 

 before the reign of David I., and no charters before the time 

 of Malcolm III., to afford us the same information regarding its 

 growth in Scotland.^ It is probable, however, that the laws 

 of Malcolm really formulated some existing sj^'stem of a feudal 

 tendency, which had blended itself with a patriarchal economy 

 both north and south of the Grampians. To Malcolm, then, 

 fell the task of converting allodial into feudal lands. Like 

 his contemporary, William the Conqueror, he distributed the 

 Crown's seignorial rights amongst the more influential of his 

 subjects in exchange for their homage, thereby creating the 

 same class of king's vassals as had by now replaced the Anglo- 

 Saxon allodialist on the southern side of the Border. The 

 same species of feudal tenures, which we have already described 

 as obtaining amongst the Normans in England, now made 

 its appearance among the Scotch ; and the latter, less able 

 to resist and more liable to invasion than their powerful 

 Southern neighbours, were obliged to prolong such incidents 

 of Feudalism as were most closely associated with a military 

 system, long after we English had rendered them applicable 

 to peaceful pursuits. The burdens, however, of ward and 

 marriage were not so necessary among the Scotch as among 

 the English, and were therefore presently commuted for a 

 moderate sum under the new term of " Taxt Ward." By this 

 incident a vassal was liable for a certain amount of military 

 service, as well as for the payment in money usually associ- 

 ated with soccage tenures. Thus, while in England the 

 military service had gone out of the tenure in chivalry and the 



* Dalrymple's Essays, Feudal Tenures, 2nd ed., p. 20. 



