The Lasting Effects of Feudalism. 15 



cause either by promises of plunder or other equally sordid 

 motives. 



Before the introduction of feudal tenures the free tribesmen 

 pastured their flocks on the mountain commons, and distributed 

 what little arable land there might be amongst themselves. 

 The hereditary chieftains alone possessed individual owner- 

 ship and cultivated their lands on the English villeinage 

 system. The payments in kind were distinguished under the 

 heads " can" and " conveth," the former resembling the Roman 

 system of the vectigal, the latter the Anglo-Saxon hidage 

 charge, only it was payable for the support of the chief instead 

 of the defence of the nation. The feacht and sluaged were 

 somewhat similar to the knight service of the Norman, and, 

 like the latter, became eventually converted into a money tax 

 on each davoch of Scottish land.^ 



In these few features we may trace the first incipient growth 

 of a feudal polity. Long after, even to this very day, we can 

 see how very partial must have been its adoption even during 

 those years when it flourished most. Whether we picture the 

 Highlander's formation in battle array, — as, for instance, in the 

 onslaught of the clans at Killiecrankie, — or the miniature court 

 life enacted in every fastness which constituted the head- 

 quarters of a separate Highland chief, or the farmer cultivating 

 his land under the still existing usage of the steel bow, we 

 find proofs that the clansman, in peace or in war, in the cot- 

 tage as well as in the castle, had never entirely dissociated 

 himself from the primitive civilisation of tribal days. 



The results of our investigation would seem, then, to be that 

 the Teutonic family, though more capable of adaptation to 

 Feudalism than the Celtic, is not so wedded to it as to be 

 absolutely inseparable. When altered circumstances, such as 

 a freer range of country and complete immunity from outside 

 molestation, do not require the union, the Antipodean Teuton 

 shakes himself free from feudal influences, and regards the old 

 system with much the same sentiment as his kinsman of the 

 parent country regards old oak furniture or the ornamental 

 pottery of a bygone century. 



' Coch. Patrick's Mediczval Scotland. 



