32 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE [vm. 



account for the prevalence in Kent of the custom 

 which gave the land to all the sons equally, perhaps 

 I may be permitted to conjecture that it may have 

 proceeded from the superior wealth of this county, 

 produced by the stream of foreign commerce which 

 passed through it from purchasers of land being 

 readily found, and actual division therefore generally 

 unnecessary. 



I am disposed to think, therefore, that in Saxon 

 times, actual division was the exception rather than 

 the rule that if there were sons, one would generally 

 succeed to the exclusion of the others ; the choice 

 of the successor depending, partly on fitness to 

 perform the duties attached to the land, partly on 

 the will of the superior lord : and this opinion is, 

 I think, confirmed, by the most ancient exposition of 

 the English law of succession which we possess, 

 and which is found in the treatise of Glanville ; since 

 from his statement it appears, that the rule of 

 descent of non-military lands was, in his time, 

 dependent on ancient custom. 1 



1 Glanville, vii. 3. 



