AGRICULTURE IN BRITAIN. 423 



and that the driver should make of twisted willows the ropes 

 with which it was drawn. Hence the names still in use, such 

 as ridge-withy, wanty, whipping-trees, tail-withes, etc. But 

 slight as these plows were, it was usual for six or eight persons 

 to form themselves into a society for fitting out one of them, 

 and providing it with oxen and everything necessary for plowing, 

 and many curious and minute laws were made for the regulation 

 of such societies. This is a sufficient proof, both of the poverty 

 of the husbandman and of the imperfect state of agriculture 

 among the ancient Britons, at that period. Certain privileges 

 were allowed to any person who laid dung on a field, cut down 

 a wood, or folded his cattle on another man's land for a year. 



Such was the state of agriculture during this period, in Wales : 

 it was probably in a still more imperfect state among the Scots 

 and Picts, but this we have no means of ascertaining. Our 

 Anglo-Saxon ancestors derived their origin and manners from 

 the ancient Germans, who were not much addicted to agricul- 

 ture, but depended chiefly upon their flocks and herds for their 

 subsistence. These restless and haughty warriors esteemed the 

 cultivation of their lands too ignoble and laborious an employ- 

 ment for themselves, and therefore committed it wholly to their 

 women and slaves. They were even at pains to contrive laws 

 to prevent their contracting a taste for agriculture, lest it should 

 render them less fond of arms and warlike expeditions. 



The division of landed estates into what is called inlands and 

 outlands, originated with the Saxon princes and great men, who, 

 in the division of the conquered lands, obtained the largest 

 shares, and are said to have subdivided their territory into two 

 parts, which were so named. The inlands were those which lay 

 most contiguous to the mansion-house of the owner, which he 

 kept in his own immediate possession, and cultivated by his 

 slaves, under the direction of a bailiff, for the purpose of raising 

 provisions for his family. The outlands were those which lay 

 at greater distance from the mansion-house, and were let to the 

 farmers of those times, at a certain rent, which was very mod- 

 erate, and generally paid in kind. 



The rent of lands in these times was established by law, and 

 not by the owner of the land. By the laws of Ina, king of the 

 West Saxons, who flourished in the end of the seventh and 



