Land Tenure and Agriculture. 89 



commoner of the Mark. As we shall shortly come to see, the 

 landowner of both nationalities was a Miles in virtue of his 

 being a holder of seignorial rights, and in this manner can be 

 traced the connecting link between politics and agriculture in 

 the community of the township. 



It is difficult to see how, in such a system of land tenure and 

 agriculture as we have thus briefly described, an able-bodied 

 pauper could exist. Within the wide fringe of waste which 

 isolated the lord and his people from neighbouring lords and 

 their peoples, there was enough work for every one. He who 

 had no part nor lot in the lands of the district was at any rate 

 a household slave, and so in some way dependent upon his lord 

 for livelihood. 



The latter 's capital was the thews and sinews of the people, 

 by aid of which he obtained his own and their food, dwell- 

 ings, implements, and utensils of everj^day use, as well as all 

 other luxuries or necessaries of life. From the people's point 

 of view, their labour was, as it is now, their sole capital. So 

 long as the land was sufficient to employ their whole stock 

 of energy and yield life's necessaries, they felt secure. Any 

 addition to their numbers signified extra mouths to feed, and 

 consequently a diminution in the common food supply ; and 

 was to be dreaded as greatly as is competition in the labour 

 market at the present day. We may well believe, therefore, 

 that the people would strongly resent the intrusion of strangers, 

 whatever their lord might desire on the subject. Thus we find 

 that whoever traversed that essentially people's portion of the 

 district, the outer rim of wooded waste, had, as late as King 

 Ina's days, to shout or blow a horn in order to attract attention. 

 The lord, on the other hand, would scarcely brook any dimi- 

 nution in his labour supply; but there was little fear at this 

 period of any individual skulking off only to find similar pre- 

 cautions observed on the other side of the waste bordering on 

 the next village. It was later on, after the Norman Conquest, 

 when landlords had to guard against this form of depletion of 

 their labour supply. 



Such then was the famous agricultural system, which, at the 

 period now reached, was universal, and was to continue so for a 



