THE VILL AND THE MANOR 45 



same mansion." 1 In this case the two terms are perhaps 

 synonymous, although it is possible to translate " mansio " by 

 "tenement." Another colourless term is "land," which is 

 applied indiscriminately to all properties. 



But while " mansio " is only exceptionally used, other 

 terms are constantly employed to denote tracts of land 

 " vill," " manor," " berewick " of which " vill " is the oldest. 

 It is always found in the pre-Conquest charters, and was 

 used by Bede. Its English equivalent is shown by King 

 Alfred's translation of the Ecclesiastical History to have been 

 " tun " or town ; the meaning of " town " as an urban district 

 is modern ; Chaucer's " poore persoun of a toune " was clearly 

 a village priest. From the charters we deduce that "vill" 

 implies a tract of territory, greater or smaller, as the case 

 may be, bearing a name of its own, and defined by certain 

 well-known boundaries. But the vill was more than a tract of 

 land : it was the home of an organized community, into which 

 the latter fitted as a snail fits into its shell. Of the nature 

 of this community much has been written ; but here it is 

 sufficient to say that its members were bound to follow the 

 same rules for the cultivation of their land, and for the 

 regulation of the pasture and the wood. Whether the vill 

 was a two-field or a three-field vill, every landholder was 

 obliged to observe the same rotation of crops, and to use 

 his strips of land in exactly the same manner as his neigh- 

 bours. A vill thus constituted was a fiscal and administrative 

 unit. The laws of Henry I. provide that each vill shall be 

 represented at the hundred moot by the priest, the reeve, and 

 six of the villans. 



Professor Maitland has pointed out that there were two 

 kinds of vills the nucleated vill and the vill that was composed 

 of a number of hamlets. The latter type is to be found 

 chiefly in those western counties in which was left a large 

 proportion of the conquered Britons, where the vill the 

 1 D. B., II. 96 b. 



