[Illustration: BEATING ACORNS FOR SWINE Cotton MS., _Nero_, c. 4]
Around the whole colony lay the woods and uncultivated land, which was left in its natural wild state, where the people cut their timber and fuel, and pastured their pigs in the glades of the forest. The cultivated land was divided into three large fields, in which the rotation of crops was strictly enforced, each field lying fallow once in three years. To each freeman was assigned his own family lot, which was cultivated by the members of his household. But he was obliged to sow the same crop as his neighbour, and compelled by law to allow his lot to lie fallow with the rest every third year. The remains of this common-field system are still evident in many parts of the country, the fields being termed "lot meadows," or "Lammas lands." Our commons, too, many of which remain in spite of numerous inclosures, are evidences of the communal life of our village forefathers.
How long the Saxon villages remained free democratic institutions, we do not know. Gradually a change came over them, and we find the manorial system in vogue. Manors existed in England long before the Normans came, although "manor" is a Norman word; and in the time of Canute the system was in full force. The existence of a manor implies a lord of the manor, who exercised authority over all the villagers, owned the home farm, and had certain rights over the rest of the land. How all this came about, we scarcely know. Owing to the Danish invasions, when the rude barbarous warriors carried fire and sword into many a peaceful town and village, the villagers found themselves at the mercy of these savage hordes. Probably they sought the protection of some thane, or _eorl_, with his band of warriors, who could save their lands from pillage. In return for their services they acknowledged him as the lord of their village, and gave him rent, which was paid either in the produce of these fields or by the work of their hands. Thus the lords of the manor became the masters of the villagers, although they too were governed by law, and were obliged to respect the rights of their tenants and servants.
Saxon society was divided into two main divisions, the _eorl_ and the _ceorl_, the men of noble birth, and those of ignoble origin. The chief man in the village was the manorial lord, a _thane_, who had his demesne land, and his _gafol_ land, or _geneat_ land, which was land held in villeinage, and cultivated by _geneats_, or persons holding by service. These villein tenants were in two classes, the _geburs_, or villeins proper, who held the yardlands, and the _cottiers_, who had smaller holdings. Beneath these two classes there were the _theows_, or slaves, made up partly of the conquered Britons, partly of captives taken in war, and partly of freemen who had been condemned to this penalty for their crimes, or had incurred it by poverty.