i.] DISTRIBUTION OF LAND IN ENGLAND. 3 



is to be supplied with two oxen, one cow, and six 

 sheep, and seven acres of his land are to be sown 

 for him. After the first year he must perform the 

 duties attached to his condition. In some places he 

 must work two days in each week, in harvest (rendered 

 in the Latin text Augustus) three days. He is to 

 plough one acre a week from the time when plough- 

 ing begins till Martinmas. He also makes small 

 payments in money and kind. If he departs (dies), 

 all that he has belongs to his lord. 



These general rules were subject (as appears by 

 the same document) to some variation, dependent 

 on the custom of the district in which the lands 

 were situate. 



There can, I think, be no question that the 

 cultivation of the soil, when the JRectitudines were 

 written, was mainly carried on by the geneats and 

 geburs. They were evidently not slaves whose 

 duties depended absolutely on the will of their lord. 

 Their work was defined by the general custom, as 

 described in the Rectitudines, subject to variation 

 by the local custom of the district. Of these two 

 classes the geneats were legally unfree ; and the 

 geburs, by their poverty, must have been practically 

 in a servile condition, even if not unfree according 

 to law. 



If we turn now to the Great Record, we shall, I 

 think, find that the course of husbandry had suffered 

 little alteration from the change in regard to the 



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