COUNTRY LIFE. 121 



and the means of making money, are to be found. Among 

 the Germans, and especially in England, the manners of 

 the people are different. The Englishman is less sociable 

 than the Frenchman ; he still retains something of the 

 wild race from which he is descended ; he has a repug- 

 nance to being shut up within the walls of towns ; the 

 open air is his natural element. 



When the barbarian tribes poured in from all sides 

 upon the Eoman Empire, they spread themselves over 

 the country, where each chief, and almost every soldier, 

 set about securing his own position. From this inherent 

 disposition the feudal system took its rise, and in no 

 country is this system more strongly marked than in 

 England. The first care of the conquerors was to secure 

 to themselves a great extent of land, where they could 

 live without constraint, as in their native forests, adding 

 to the pleasures of the chase that wealth which was derived 

 from the cultivation of the land. The barbarian kings 

 differed from their vassals only in the extent of their 

 domains. Even in France the kings of the two earliest 

 races were just large proprietors, living on extensive farms, 

 as proud of the number of their cattle and the extent of 

 their crops as of the host of armed men who marched at 

 their command. The greatest of them all, Charlemagne, 

 was no less remarkable for the administration of his coun- 

 try possessions than as chief of an immense empire. 



This tendency, which is common among all northern 

 races, was much more prevalent in England, when that 

 country was less populous, less civilised, and not so much 

 under the influence of Roman domination. As there 

 was no learning among the people, there w^as nobody 

 to contend for a town life ; and the towns being only 

 wretched villages, giving no inducement for pillage, rural 

 possessions alone were envied. The only wealth of these 



