HISTOEICAL SKETCH 



OF THE 



DISTRIBUTION OF LAND IN ENGLAND, 



I. 



ANGLO-SAXON AGRICULTURE. GENEATS AND GEBURS. 

 VILLANI. 



THE changes that take place in the terms on 

 which land is held, and the manner in which it is 

 cultivated, are usually so gradual that they escape 

 the notice of contemporaries. The causes of such 

 changes thus become at a subsequent period matters 

 of conjecture, giving rise not unfrequently, as we 

 shall have occasion to point out, to most extravagant 

 theories. 



The first period at which we obtain any detailed 

 account of the agricultural condition of England is 

 that which succeeded, at no great interval, the 

 Norman Conquest. The admirable survey made 



B 



