g6 History of the English Landed Interest. 



when birds died in the bushes from, want of berries, and fishes 

 in the frozen ponds from want of air ? ^ Imagination must 

 furnish each reader's answer, for history does not tell us much 

 beyond the bare facts ; though absence of united action, the 

 want of some central authority to organise relief measures, 

 and the total cessation of all foreign corn trade, may explain 

 the frequency of famine, and (since starving men and cattle 

 fall easy victims to any ailment) the frequency of pestilence too. 



The most noticeable features of the country in Saxon times 

 were vast areas of forest lands, such as Andred wood in- Kent, 

 the Bruneswald in Lincolnshire, or Sherwood in Notts. Wolds 

 of sheep pasturage, favoured wheat-bearing uplands ; firm and 

 verdant horse fens, on which fed mares and colts, cattle, sheep, 

 and geese ; brown marshes and peaty bogs encircling ponds 

 and meres, and here and there clusters of mud and wood- 

 battened dwellings grouped around the holder's house, broke 

 the monotony of the tree-covered landscape. The forests 

 teemed with life, such as deer, hares, badgers, and pheasants, 

 and in their open glades might be seen partridges and plovers, 

 whilst in their thickets lurked the wolf and wild boar. The 

 game was preserved by forest laws, severe enough in Canute's 

 reign, but mild in comparison with the laws to come, when 

 the woods were to echo the "recheate" or " morte " of a 

 Norman horn. The timber itself was almost worthless, but 

 its pannage,^ in the form of mast, supported large herds of 

 tame swine and formed a noticeable feature in the agriculture 

 of that period. 



The lord lived in his square hall of unplaned wood,* with 



1 The daily papers, diiring the severe December frost of 1890, were full 

 of piscatorial advice as to the making of holes in the ice to give the fish 

 air and a chance for life. 



2 " This port (Limenmouth) is in the eastern part of Kent, at the east 

 end of the great wood which wo call Androd ; the wood is in length from 

 east to west 120 miles or longer, and 30 miles broad." — Awjlo-Saxon 

 Chronicle, a.d. 893. 



^ In Domesday Boole pannage is returned for 1G,535 hogs in Middlesex, 

 and in Essex (then entire forest) for 92,991. One nobleman left in his 

 will 2,000 swine to his two daughters. 



* See the description of Gatacro Hall in Shropshire, A^'chcBologia, vol. 

 iii., p. 112. 



