22 THE MANORIAL SYSTEM 



Maitland considers to have been " the land of a household," was 

 treated as the area which a team of eight oxen could plough in a 

 working year. Its extent may have varied. But, if the size was 

 120 acres, then each hide consisted of four portions of 30 acres, 

 called " virgates," or 8 portions of 15 acres, called " bovates." 

 Thus the eighth part of the hide, or " bovate," was the land of one 

 ox ; the fourth part of the hide, or " virgate," was the land of 

 two oxen ; and the whole hide was the land of the complete team 

 of eight oxen. It was on this basis that the tenemental land, in 

 theory, and sometimes in practice, was divided. The typical 

 holding of the villein was regulated by his capacity to furnish one 

 or two oxen to the team. In other words, it was the " virgate " 

 or " yardland " of 30 acres, though one-ox holdings or " bovates " 

 of 15 acres, and even half-ox holdings, were frequent. 



Villeins of the higher grade were generally distinguished from 

 inferior orders of the semi-servile classes of the peasantry by the 

 size of their holdings in the village farm, by the certainty of their 

 agricultural services on the demesne, and by the obligation to do 

 team-work rather than manual labour. The smaller the holding, 

 the vaguer the labour obligations, the more manual the work, 

 the lower was the grade of the villein. Besides the villeins there 

 were other orders of bondmen such as the rural handicraftsmen 

 who were specially provided with land, and the bordars and cottars, 

 who rented particular cottages and garden ground, which often 

 carried with them from two to five acres of arable land, together 

 with common rights. The two latter classes, besides their obligatory 

 manual services, probably eked out their subsistence either as hired 

 labourers on the demesne or by supplying the labour for which 

 their wealthier neighbours were responsible. At the bottom of the 

 social ladder were the serfs, to whom strict law assigned no rights, 

 though there were many varieties in their grades and position. 

 Their chief badge of serfdom was the indeterminate character of 

 their services the obligation to labour in the manner, at the 

 time, and for the wage, if any, which the lord directed. But 



holding of the common-field farmer. It was in fact as much as two oxen 

 could plough in the working year. There were, however, also " one-ox men," 

 whose holdings of 15 acres were an eighth of a carucate, and were called in 

 Domesday Book " bovates," and at later stages " narrow oxgangs," or 

 " half places." Smaller holdings consisting of half bovates, like the " farthing 

 holds" of Dorsetshire, "fardels" of Somersetshire, or " farrundells " of 

 Gloucestershire, were by no means uncommon, and in practice there was no 

 fixed area for the arable holdings of open-field farmers. 



