1 66 History of the English Lattded Interest. 



portant legal distinctiou, because theoretically tlie latter, as his 

 lord's personalty, could be bequeathed by will ; but the former, 

 as part of the lord's realty, could only be demised. Vinogradoff ^ 

 has been at pains to show that the two terms represented a 

 technical difference only, and might easily be applied to one 

 and the same individual. Every villein was a villein re- 

 gardant, but a small minority of the class were chattels of the 

 lord. In the eyes of the Norman lawyer, however, there was 

 no distinction amongst the villeins, who were considered 

 slaves in the Roman sense of that word. The villein of the 

 Norman period was the geueat ~ or ceorl ^ of the preceding 

 Anglo-Saxon era, but even the geneat, without the privileges 

 as well as the obligations of the oath of fealty, was in no sense 

 the chattel of his lord, and was a superior person to the theow. 

 Above that class which was actually enslaved, we maj'' there- 

 fore expect to find steps of social rank even under the 

 generic term of villein. Among the terms that do not appear 

 in Domesday Book is Astrier, which seems to have been 

 applied to any individual attached to the hearth of a 

 seignorial homestead. But setting aside such general nomen- 

 clature as socman, villein, and Astrier, we come next to a list 

 of terms partly in Domesday Book, partly in Manor Rolls, 

 which distinguish the various grades in the social status of the 

 rural population. Perhaps the highest of any would be the 

 Drench,"* who seems to have been some privileged tenant, 

 enfranchised either in the pre-Conquest days, or subsequently, 

 on account of certain moneys paid annually as quit rent. 

 Posssibly the Saxon prototype of the Drench would have been 

 the huscarl, who was the military retainer of his lord, and in 

 close attendance on his person at board, war, and the chase. 

 The Radmanni and Radchenistres were mounted individuals 

 of the same class. They appear in the records about the 

 same time that military service was most in requisition, 

 and they vanish when the want for such service was less 



^ P. Vinogradoff, Villeinage in England, p. 52. 



'' Id., Ibid., ch. v., p. 144. 



^ Stubbs, Constit. Hist. 



* Kelham, Domesday Bk., Glossary. 



