Hnolo^Sayon pcnob. 



CHAPTEE VII. 



LAXD TENUEE AND AGEICULTUKE. 



In the preceding chapter we attempted to show the relation- 

 ship between the lord, the people, and the land. We must 

 keep in mind that the land, theoretically at any rate, some 

 time or other belonged to the people, but that the people some- 

 how or other came to belong to a lord. The next and conse- 

 quent step was for the land to come into the lord's possession. 



It is very clear that proprietary powers over either people 

 or land would be useless so long as they included the one 

 without the other. Directly the overlord was called upon to 

 perform national service for his proprietary rights, he began 

 to keep a jealous eye on both people and land. The State 

 recognised his right thus to protect his interests, and this 

 recognition afterwards took the form of the labour laws. 



But in the days following immediately upon the Anglo-Saxon 

 invasion there was no trade to tempt the people off the land, 

 and a superabundance of soil, far in excess of all agricultural 

 requirements, which remained outside the limits of individual 

 ownership, and came to be technically known as the Folcland. 

 In the earliest stages of our present subject it is therefore 

 permissible to divide the soil of England under three heads : 

 viz. (1) that constituting the area still belonging to the nation 

 as a whole ; (2) that over which the nation retained part pos- 

 session ; and (3) that entirely appropriated by private persons. 



There was a natural tendency for the two first-mentioned 

 portions to diminish, and for the last-named to increase. This 

 is evidenced both by the innovation of Bocland charters and 



