OWNERSHIP AND TENANCY. 117 



practically the same and that in 1871 the conditions in parts of 

 Germany were almost the same as they were in England in 1086, 

 when William the Conqueror was compiling the great Survey 

 known as Domesday Book, or that the tenure in Ireland in the 

 reign of Queen Elizabeth was almost identical with that which 

 prevailed in England a thousand years before. In England the 

 system grew and developed by slow stages. It never stood still 

 for long. Elsewhere it remained unaltered for centuries, only 

 to be swept away by a revolution. With all its anomalies and 

 apparent paradoxes the English system is the result of growth, 

 and consequently is a living system, capable of further growth 

 and of bearing valuable fruit. 



In order to understand the causes of this vitality and vigour 

 we must jump back about thirteen hundred years or so, and take 

 a walk through Kent or Middlesex, as it was soon after the first 

 settlement of the English in this country. Of course, the country- 

 side will look very different, not only will all the houses have 

 disappeared but we shall miss the well-made roads and the hedges 

 by their sides, with which we are familiar. For the most part 

 the country will be moor and swamp, or covered with dense 

 forests of oak and beech, in which all sorts of wild animals, 

 including wild oxen and wolves, are roaming. Except for the 

 great Roman roads which traverse England, there are merely a 

 few bridle paths, and we must make our way over the land as 

 best we can. There is very little sign of real agriculture. Large 

 droves of swine under the charge of a herdsman are feeding in 

 the forest, and in the more fertile meadows, especially those by 

 the river-side, known as hams, there are some oxen, or more 

 probably cows, grazing. As we pass on we see in the distance 

 some signs of human habitation, and we are evidently approaching 

 a village. We must be careful to blow a horn as we walk up to 

 it or we shall be mistaken for outlaws and robbers and get short 

 shrift, but having established our bona fides in this way we can 

 move on. We pass over the meadows and approach the huts 

 which appear to be long one-storied houses capable of holding 

 a number of persons, probably very similar to those houses 

 occupied by the Red Indians of North America at the time of 

 the first European colonisation. These are known as " man- 

 sions," a technical expression which has a long history, and 

 the whole village does not contain more than half a dozen of 

 them for the whole family father, mother, children, brothers, 

 sisters, cousins the whole family in its widest sense lives under 

 one roof. Not far off a field is being ploughed for wheat. The 

 plough is an immensely heavy wooden instrument and drawn by 

 eight oxen, four abreast, and the ploughman walks backward in 

 front of them, holding their bridles and taking care that each 

 does its fair share of work. The furrows are drawn for about a 



