Landmarks in British Farming. 
5 
In the twelfth century, the soil of England was still culti- 
vated by similar associations of agricultural partners. They had 
altered few of their external characteristics. Each group was 
isolated and self-sufficing. With the outside world, except for 
the purpose of salt, iron, millstones, and tar, it held little or no 
communication. The fields and live-stock provided the neces- 
sary food and clothing ; the wastes supplied timber for building, 
fences, or fuel ; each manor had its mill, its bakehouse, and its 
brewery. Women spun wool into coarse cloth ; men tanned 
their own leather. Highway rates were unknown ; wheeled 
carriages were scarcely ever used ; and, except the great main 
tracks, roads hardly existed. The drift lanes, more or less im- 
passable, which communicated between the village and the cul- 
tivated land, and ended when the bounds were reached, could 
only be called roads by courtesy. One important change had, 
however, taken place. Each village, in the normal state of 
things, formed, with its adjoining land, a manor. In other 
words, one individual, called the lord, possessed valuable rights 
over all the other inhabitants, and over all the soil, of the dis- 
trict. The benefits of the new relations were reciprocal. 
Feudal society was organised on the basis of local jurisdiction ; 
neither central power nor law secured independence for the 
weak. Dependence was the strength and protection of agricul- 
tural labourers. Tenants were rarely introduced from the 
outside. From father to son the same families cultivated the 
village fields. The manor courts provided for the maintenance 
of order, the transfer of land, the administration of justice. 
The land of the manor was divided into two parts. One 
third consisted of the demesne land, or lord’s farm ; two thirds 
were lands allotted to the free tenants, villeins, and cottars. 
Upon the demesne lands a few slaves were the only permanent 
labourers. But over the whole estate there existed an elaborate 
system of joint labour, by which the soil was cultivated. At 
the present day money payments constitute the whole of the 
rent of the land. In the twelfth century they formed a subor- 
dinate part. Labour-dues were the chief conditions b}^ which 
land was occupied. They differed in each manor. But they fall 
under three main heads ; firstly — precarious, uncei’tain — week- 
day services throughout the year ; secondly — fixed, certain — 
annual services of spring and winter ploughings, and of harvest- 
ing ; thirdly, payments in money or in kind. In all probability 
the lord’s demesne was almost universally thrown into the 
common farm. The whole was tilled together. The lord’s 
interests were protected by the bailiff, whose duty it was to 
know exactly the services which were due from each tenant — 
