SEEBOHM-ENGLISH VILLAGE COMMUNITY.

123

supposition that the village community, as found in this island, did not originate with these immigrating English settlers.11 But instead of ascribing the township organisation of agriculture to the Romans, many have recently thought that it originated in the relationship which existed between the Celts and the pre-Aryan aborigines of these islands before the Romans appeared on the scene; and that Rome left the village communities of Celtic Britain as England would leave the village communities of the India of to-day untouched in their inner life, but crystallized in their form by pressure from without, and that the after-arrival of the Teutons affected the inner life of those communities, but did not affect their outer shell.'12

The importance of the customs of these ancient communities to students of history and of social science has only been fully realised during the latter half of the present century. The study of the subject was started in Germany by Maurer and Nasse,13 was continued in England by Sir Henry Maine11 (who brought to bear on the subject his knowledge of similar communities in India), in France by Fustel de Coulanges, 15 and in Russia by Kovalesky16 and Vinogradoff. 17

'They cull for the historic page,

The truths of many a doubtful age,
Thus are their useful labours shewn,

New lights on darkling times are thrown,
And knowledge added to our own.'s

The clear and exhaustive investigations of Mr. Seebohm, narrated in his English Village Community, and the descriptions of other modern writers, 19 have made us now well acquainted with the general outlines

11 Hanssen, quoted by Seebohm, 372, 373, and Ashley's Economic History, 15. 12 Gomme's Village Community, 292, and see Lewis's Ancient Laws of Wales, 201, 236. From an article by Mr. Seebohm on Villeinage in England' contained in the Royal Historical Review for July, 1892, it would appear that he himself is now modifying towards this direction the views on the subject which he expressed in his main work in 1883. See also the account of the early land tenures of the Celtic inhabitants of Scotland contained in Skene's Celtic Scotland, vol. iii.

A list of the principal German works on the subject is set out in Appendix II. to Maine's Village Communities in the East and West. See also Sir R. Morier's description of the German Communities in his report to the Government in 1869, republished by the Cobden Club in a work entitled Systems of Land Tenures in various Countries, p. 243.

"Village Communities in the East and West.

The Origin of Property in Land.

England's Social Organization at the Close of the Middle Ages (in Russian). Modern Customs and Ancient Laws of Russia (London, 1891).

Villainage in England.

18 Death and the Antiquaries.

6

19 For the latest accounts see especially Ashley's Economic History, vol. i. pp. 5-68; Vinogradoff's Villainage in England, p. 224 et seq.; Prothero's Landmarks in British Farming,' Agricultural Soc. Journ. vol. iii. 3rd series, pt. I.

of the open field system of husbandry: a system which prevailed in this country from pre-historic times down to the end of the middle ages and lingered in many parts of England well into the present century.20

Whilst the main features of the system generally have now become so well known as to need no further explanation, a desire still exists for information as to its prevalence in particular localities, and as to local variances in custom and nomenclature which may possibly throw new light on the subject as a whole.

Workers in every county are utilizing the information which may be gathered from local records with regard to the characteristics of the village life of its former inhabitants; and it is with the view of placing before the notice of those interested in such matters in Northumberland the materials which Mr. Woodman has collected upon this subject, that he has asked me to write upon it a paper to be read before this Society.

In doing this I must, for the sake of making myself plain, go over much ground that has been trodden before, both upon the subject generally and upon its local application. Although many of our members have interested themselves in the topic, very few papers have been read and very few discussions have taken place upon it. To some members it may even be new in some of its elementary propositions. If, therefore, I can pave the way for future original papers and discussions founded on fresh local knowledge there will be reason as well as excuse for my taking but little for granted in presenting the subject to your notice.

Whether the village communities of which we have been speaking were formed of originally free or originally servile cultivators, and whether their system of husbandry was organized under compulsion or by voluntary effort may be doubtful, but there is no doubt that the vast majority of the tillers of the soil were in a state of serfdom at the commencement of the time covered by extant written records in England. The villans, or customary tenants of the village lands, laboured not only for themselves but for a lord in authority over them.

20 Nasse's Agricultural Communities of the Middle Ages, pp. 6, 84. Interesting particulars of the somewhat similar communal system of co-operative agriculture still existing at the present day in Russia will be found in Wallace's Russia, 4th edition, vol. i. pp. 144 and 179-209.

FURLONGS, SELLIONS, RIGS.

125

In Northumberland, as elsewhere, the township in the middle ages almost invariably possessed the following characteristics. There were in the village the houses of the cultivators with little garths adjacent to them. As yet there were no isolated farmhouses, such as we see in these days scattered here and there among the fields. They belong to a later period, for their establishment and erection followed upon the subsequent enclosure of the open fields and commons.

Near the clustered houses of the cultivators stood the village church (if the township was also a parish), the village mill, and the hall or castle of the lord or chief landowner or of his bailiff. This hall or castle was the maenor or plas of the Celts,21 the aula of the Romans, the hall of the English, and the manoir of the Normans.22

Beyond and around the village was the arable land, divided into great fields or flats, usually three in number. In that case they were worked on a three field rotation of crops, one being appropriated for autumn sown corn (i.e., wheat or rye), one for spring sown corn (i.e., barley or oats), or for peas and beans, and one was left fallow. 23 These fields were again sub-divided into furlongs or squares or shots, placed very often at right angles to each other, with headlands or headriggs between them, on which the plough turned, and by which access was gained to these smaller areas. Each furlong was divided into acre or half acre strips, separated from each other by balks of unploughed turf,24 and these acre or half acre strips were usually known in the south as sellions25 or stitches,26 and in Northumberland, Scotland, and Ireland, as rigs.

6

21 Lewis, 230-233. The address Manor Hall Place,'. not unfrequently met with, is a pleonasm similar to that contained in the name 'Derwent-water Lake.' 22 Le manoir, maison, masure, avec la cour & jardin doit de relief trois sols pourvû qu'il ne contient plus d'une acre; & s'il en contient moins, il doit pareillement trois sols. Coûtumes de Normandie, 1585. Article 159. Le vieux manoir de Turdy, édifice élégant dans sa force. George Sand's Mademoiselle de Quintinie, p. 7.

Canon

23 A two field system is also found very often, Vinogradoff, 255. Taylor in the Ploughland and the Plough' (Domesday Studies, 144) and Mr. Prothero (Landmarks of Farming, p. 10) think that the two field course was the more ancient. In the manor of Milton in Cambridgeshire there were four common fields. The three field system was the prevailing one in Northumberland, at any rate in the late middle ages.

24 In a terrier for the manor of Milton the furlong is used as a superficial measure, each furlong containing 20 acres. These furlongs were therefore oblong in shape, as a square furlong would contain 10 acres.

25 Milton terriers of 1599, 1637, and 1707. Penes J. P. Baumgartner, esq. 28 Lewis, 493.