340 = 74 
English hand Law. 
it at pleasure on attaining the age of fifteen. Bjr " gavelkind 
land " was meant originally land held on condition of the pay- 
ment of gavel, a Saxon word signifying " rent," or " a customary 
performance of husbandry works." It was thus clearly dis- 
tinguishable from land held on the feudal system, by tenants 
bound only to render certain military services in return, and a 
different rule of inheritance was applied to it. Among other 
incidents of gavelkind tenure may be mentioned the immunitv 
of the land affected by it from forfeiture or escheat for felony 
or treason, expressed in the old maxim, " The father to the 
bough, the son to the plough," and showing that the duty of 
cultivating the soil was anciently considered paramount even 
to the rights of the Sovereign or chief. The law of primo- 
geniture was indeed unknown to the ancient English, as it was 
to the Romans, the Germans, the Hindoos, and even to the 
patriarchs. In all these communities the land of which a mar. 
died possessed was divided among his children, generally ir 
equal shares ; and it was the requirements of the feudal systen 
that first firmly established in England the right of the eldes 
son to his father's possessions, as being the person in genera 
most able to discharge the military and other obligations whicl 
were attached to them. The custom of primogeniture was in 
deed fostered and diffused by every successive conquest am 
occupation of the soil. Though no part of the Roman lai 
originally, it became so in many of the conquered province 
from the peculiar character of the military tenure by whic 
privileged veterans of the army obtaineel allotments of the soi 
Romans, Saxons, and Normans in turn granted to their follower 
and in some cases even to the native possessors of the conquere 
territory, fiefs or holdings in return for certain definite servici 
in time of need ; and no other law but that of primogenitu 
was found applicable to the tenures thus called into existenc j 
or adaptetl to ensure the fulfilment of the obligations which weS 
inseparable from their maintenance. It was not, indeed, un<l 
the middle of the thirteenth century that the rule V^fas general B 
accepted in England, nor did its operation ever in fact becoofl 
universal. The law of gavelkind still lingers in the shape of 
recognised custom in Kent and some other parts of the counti^ 
but its rarity has caused it to have now little more than an antiqu 
rian interest. With the exception, however, of these very limit] 
districts, the law of primogeniture, first introduccel at the till 
of the Conquest, has for six hundred years <at least been esli 
blished as the common law of the country, and has given foil 
and colour to almost every phase of its history and developmel 
Liiinted opei;i- fjjg extent of its actual and direct operation at the present dj 
tion of iinino- ., . ai i <'i iI 
geiiituie law ^s, liowever, very trifling. An absolute owner of land jdI 
