RESULTS AND CONJECTURES 409 



while, the fact cannot be escaped that field systems, either as 

 cause or as manifestation, were associated with agricultural de- 

 velopment. For this reason the preceding chapters have a bear- 

 ing upon the history of English farming. 



If the influence of divergent field systems upon the progress 

 of the enclosure of open arable fields is reasonably clear, there is 

 more doubt about the interpretation of this diversity in relation 

 to the history of the early settlement of England. The tradi- 

 tional account of the Anglo-Saxon occupation, as gleaned from 

 Bede and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, has by modern scholars 

 been brought into connection with other evidence. Most opposed 

 to it and most suggestive is Seebohm's theory of a Roman 

 origin of the manor, its fields, and its class distinctions. ^ Meitzen 

 and Maitland have pointed to the contrast between nucleated 

 and scattered settlements, with an intimation that the latter 

 were of Celtic origin. ^ Chad wick has done much to abolish the 

 distinction between Angles and Saxons, concluding that only 

 Kent, the Isle of Wight, and the southern coast of Hampshire 

 were occupied by a distinct branch of the invaders.^ Turner, 

 finally, has sketched a theory which discerns Roman elements 

 in the five-hide manor, and possibly in the rod of southern 

 England.* 



All students of Anglo-Saxon England agree upon the dominance 

 which the new-comers of the fifth century exercised upon insti- 

 tutions. Legal, military, and political organization became Ger- 

 manic. The spoken language retained few Celtic words, while 

 villages and towns assumed names which in their terminations at 

 least are Teutonic. If any Roman or Celtic influence survived, 

 it was in matters connected with the lowest stratum of society, 

 the stratum engaged primarily in the cultivation of the soil. 

 By enslaving a considerable mass of the British population, itself 

 already Romanized, the conquerors could, it is clear, have created 



1 English Village Community, pp. 409 sq. 



2 Meitzen, Siedelung und Agrarwesen, ii. 118 sq., and Anlage 66a; Maitland, 

 Domesday Book and Beyond, p. 15. 



' H. M. Chadwick, Origin of the English Nation, p. 88. 



* G. J. Turner, Calendar of the Feet of Fines relating to the County of Huntingdon, 

 pp. Ixx, cix. 



