ii.] DISTRIBUTION OF LAND IN ENGLAND. 



II. 



AGRICULTURE AFTER THE CONQUEST. VILLENAGE. 

 COPYHOLDERS. CONTINENTAL SERFS. 



IT appears from the authorities to which I have 

 referred, that both before and after the Conquest, at 

 least a large portion of the agricultural population 

 of England, was organised in the same manner, as 

 that which prevailed over the greatest part of the 

 Western European Continent, during the middle 

 ages, and in some countries, as in Prussia, Poland 

 and Hungary, almost to the present day; whilst in 

 England, on the other hand, all traces of villenage 

 have disappeared for centuries. 



The main cause which occasioned the discontinuance 

 of villenage in England, at a much earlier period than 

 that at which it ceased to exist in foreign countries 

 was probably economical. 



The services due to the lord from the villein, peasant, 

 bauer, or serf, as he was usually termed on the Con- 

 tinent, often a source of vexation to both parties, 

 were, in England, at an early period, for the most 



