Book I. AGRICULTURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 37 



200. Our Anglo-Saxon ancestors derived their origin and manners from the ancient 

 Germans, who were not much addicted to agriculture, but depended chiefly on their 

 flocks and herds for their subsistence. [Strabo, 1. vii. Ccesar de Bel. Gal. 1. vi.) These 

 restless and haughty warriors esteemed the cultivation of their lands too ignoble and 

 laborious an employment for themselves, and therefore committed it wholly to their 

 women and slaves. \Tacit. de Morib. German, c. 15.) They were even at pains to con- 

 trive laws to prevent their contracting a taste for agriculture, lest it should render them 

 less fond of arms and warlike expeditions. {Id. c. 26.) 



201 . The division of landed estates into what are culled inlands and outlands, originated 

 with the Saxon princes and great men, who, in the division of the conquered lands, ob- 

 tained the largest shares, and are said to have subdivided their territory into two parts, 

 which were so named. The inlands were those which lay most contiguous to the mansion- 

 house of their owner, which he kept in his own immediate possession, and cultivated by 

 his slaves, under the direction of a bailiff, for the purpose of raising provisions for his 

 family. The outlands were those which lay at a greater distance from the mansion- 

 house, and were let to the ceorls or farmers of those times at a certain rent, which was 

 very moderate, and generally paid in kind. (Reliquee Spelmaniance, p. 12.) 



202. The rent of land in these times was established by law, and not by the owners of 

 the land. By the laws of Ina, king of the West Saxons, who flourished in the end of 

 the seventh and beginning of the eighth century, a farm consisting of ten hides or plough 

 lands was to pay the following rent, viz. ten casks of honey, three hundred loaves of 

 bread, twelve casks of strong ale, thirty casks of small ale, two oxen, ten wethers, ten 

 geese, twenty hens, ten cheeses, one cask of butter, five salmon, twenty pounds of 

 forage, a'nd one hundred eels. {WUkins, Leges Saxon, p. 25.) The greatest part of the 

 crown lands in every county was farmed in this manner by ceorls or farmers, who in 

 general appear to have been freemen and soldiers. 



203. Very little is known of the implements 

 or operations of husbandry during this period. 

 In one of Strutt's plates of ancient dresses, 

 entitled, Saxon Rarities of the Eighth Cen- 

 tury, may be seen a picture of a plough and 

 ploughman, {fig. 22.) This is sufficiently' 

 rude, though it has evidently undergone some 

 improvement by the art of the delineator. 

 The laborers were no doubt slaves, and the 

 animals of draught, oxen. The lands be- 

 longing to the monasteries were by much the 

 best cultivated; because the secular canons 

 who possessed them, spent some part of their 

 time in cixltivating their own lands. The venerable Bede, in his life of Easterwin 

 Abbot of Weremouth, tells us, " That this abbot, being a strong man, and of a humble 

 disposition, used to assist his monks in their rural labors, sometimes guiding the plough 

 by its stilt or handle, sometimes winnowing corn, and sometimes forging instruments 

 of husbandry with a hammer upon an anvil." {Bedce, Hist. Abbat. Weremath. p. 296.) 

 For in those times the husbandmen were under a necessity of making many implements 

 of husbandry with their own hands. 



SuBSECT. 2. Of the State of Agriculture in Britain after the Norman Conquest, or from 

 the Eleventh to the Thirteenth Centuries. 



204. That the conquest of England by the Normans contributed to the improvement of 

 agriculture in Britain is undeniable. " For by that event many thousands of husband- 

 men, from the fertile and well cultivated plains of Flanders, France, and Normandy, 

 settled in this island, obtained estates or farms, and employed the same methods in the 

 cultivation of them that they had used in their native countries. Some of the Norman 

 barons were great improvers of their lands, and are celebrated in history for their skill 

 in agriculture." " Richard de Rulos, lord of Brunne and Deeping," says Ingulphus, 

 " was much addicted to agriculture, and delighted in breeding horses and cattle. Be- 

 sides inclosing and draining a great extent of country, he imbanked the river Wielland 

 (which used every year to overflow the neighboring fields) in a most substantial manner, 

 building many houses and cottages upon the bank ; which increased so much, that in a 

 little time they formed a large town called Deeping, from its low situation. Here he 

 planted orchards, cultivated commons, converted deep lakes and impassable quagmires 

 into fertile fields, rich meadows, and pastures ; and, in a word, rendered the whole 

 country about it a garden of delights." {Hist. Ingulphi. Oxon. edit. 1684, torn. i. 

 p. 77, 78.) From the al?ove description, it appears that this nobleman (who was 

 chamberlain to William the Conqueror) was not only fond of agriculture, but also that 

 he conducted his improvements with skill and success. 



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