XIV 



PREFACE, 



tlie language, and were in frequent communication with 

 Gaul. They stored the hay in ricks ^ and mows,- where 

 it was less likely to get mouldy than in the half close 

 lofts of the Romans. 



But according to the Roman system little hay was 

 prepared thus, there were legal impediments to ex- 

 tending widely the formation of inclosed pasturage^, and 

 we read often enough of feeding the cattle upon leaves, 

 or rather on foliage.^ The man employed in procuring 

 small boughs for his cattle was called Frondator.^ The 

 greater part, by far, of Italian pasture land was common, 

 overspread by bushes and trees, where the employment 

 of herdsmen and shepherds was indispensable, and im- 

 provement was almost impossible. 

 Cattle thieves. In the same way, in early England, a grass fiekP is 

 rarely heard of, while the law books are full of pre- 

 cautions against cattle thieves, whose bad business was 

 made easy by the threadmg commons and wide moors, 

 along which a stolen herd could be driven, j)icking up 

 subsistence on its way, and evading observation by 

 keeping off the great roads. So much were the farmers 

 pestered with cattle thefts, that the legislature required 

 responsible witnesses to the transfer of such property, 

 and would have it transacted in open market; it also 

 invented a team ; that is to say, when Z, who has lost 

 his oxen, found them and identified them in possession 

 of A, the said A was bound by trustworthy witnesses 

 to show that he had them lawfully from B ; B was 

 then compelled to go through the same process, and to 



' This word is not in the Saxon 

 dictionaries, and I will not at pre- 

 sent indicate the passage where it is 



to he found. Sa^ l^jL^juie^ eicXia. 

 •-.x.'J / ...'I. /> ^ . hre^c , Oi^t^d. £ 



■"^'Mugan, Exodus xxii. 6 





" Quid maiora sequar ? Salices 

 " humilesque genistae 



" Aiit ilia; pecori frondem aut 



" pastoribus umbram 

 " SufEciunt." 



Virgil. Georgic. II. 434. 

 " Hie ubi densas agricola; strin- 

 " gunt frondes." 



Id. Eel. ix. 60. 

 ' Virgil. Eel. I. 57. 

 ^ Gaejjj^un. 



