VIL] DISTRIBUTION OF LAND IN ENGLAND. 25 



VII 



THE FIRST TAXATION OF LAND. THE HIDE. 



I HAVE already mentioned that the hide of land 

 appears to have been the quantity held sufficient to 

 support a freeman and his family. Familia in 

 Bede is rendered Nida. 1 An estate consisting of a 

 hide must have comprised a residence for the owner 

 and the buildings required for the cultivation of the 

 land. It is also clear, from numerous authorities, 

 that a hide contained as much arable as a plough 

 could conveniently cultivate in a year, the Saxons 

 being familiar with the greatest of all the inventions 

 which have been made in agriculture, the applica- 

 tion of animal labour to the tillage of the soil. The 

 hide contained also a small quantity of meadow, to 

 provide hay for the oxen of the plough, and it com- 

 prised sufficient pasture for the cattle and sheep, 

 which seem always to have formed an important 

 adjunct in English husbandry. Pastura ad pecu- 

 niam villce pasture for the animals of the villa 

 1 Bed. Hist. Ecc. 3, 24 ; 4, 13, 16, 19. 



