VIIL] DISTKIBUTTON OF LAND IN ENGLAND. 31 



There can be little doubt that the manor, both of 

 the Norman and Saxon days, was not simply a house 

 where the landowner resided, or might reside, but a 

 homestead as well, with the buildings necessary for 

 storing agricultural produce. 



The same remark will apply to the owner of a 

 single hide of some 240 acres. 



The villein also must have had accommodation for 

 his two beasts of the plough and provisions during 

 the winter, as well as a house or cottage for 

 residence. 



Each of these holdings, the manor, the hide, and 

 the virgate, was an agricultural unit, which could not 

 be actually divided without considerable difficulty. 



At the present day, the owner of an estate will 

 not readily divide a farm of ordinary extent, as he 

 will hesitate, even if it be too large for a single 

 tenant, in view of the expense which must be 

 incurred in providing another farm-house and other 

 farm-buildings. Now the ancient manor could not 

 be divided without even greater difficulty than a 

 modern farm, and the succession of several children, 

 however equitable, would in numerous instances be 

 highly inconvenient. The difficulty of actually 

 dividing the land, might, it is true, be avoided by a 

 sale and division of the proceeds : but in the times 

 we are considering, few persons would have saved 

 money enough to purchase any considerable property. 

 In the absence of any other plausible theory to 



