III. CONCLUSION.

The Hitchin district hardly exceptional.

It would be impossible here to pursue the question in detail in other parts of England. Perhaps it will be sufficient to call attention to the many cases[p436]mentioned in Mr. C. Roach Smith's valuable 'Collectanea,'650in which Roman remains have been found in close proximity to the churches of modern villages, and to his remark that a long list of such instances might easily be made.651

The number of such cases which occur in Kent is very remarkable, and Kent was certainly not a late conquest.

I will only add a passing allusion to the remarkable case at Woodchester, in Gloucestershire, where the church, present mansion, and Roman villa are close together,652and mention that in two of the hamlets on the manor of Tidenham—Stroat and Sedbury (or Cingestun)—Roman remains bear testimony to a Roman occupation before the West Saxon conquest.653

The fact seems to be that the archæological evidence, gradually accumulating as time goes on, points more and more clearly to the fact that our modern villages are very often on their old Roman and sometimes probably pre-Roman sites—that however much the English invaders avoided the walled towns of Roman Britain, they certainly had no such antipathy to the occupation of its villas and rural villages.[p437]

Economic result.

The economic result of the inquiry pursued in this essay may now be summed up in few words.

Its object was not to inquire into the origin of village and tribal communities as the possible beginning of all things, but simply to put English Economic History on true lines at its historical beginning, viz.: the English Conquest.

Two rural systems throughout—the village community in the east, and the tribal community in the west.

Throughout the whole period from pre-Roman to modern times we have found in Britain two parallel systems of rural economy side by side, but keeping separate and working themselves out on quite different lines, in spite of Roman, English, and Norman invasions—that of thevillagecommunity in the eastern, that of thetribalcommunity in the western districts of the island.

Community and equality in both.

Each had its own open-field system.

Both systems as far back as the evidence extends were marked by the two notes of community and equality, and each was connected with a form of the open or common field system of husbandry peculiar to itself. These two different forms of the common field system also kept themselves distinct throughout, and are still distinct in their modern remains or survivals.

Both pre-Roman.

Neither the village nor the tribal community seems to have been introduced into Britain during a historical period reaching back for 2,000 years at least.

The English village community in serfdom, and its

three-field system.

A step out of slavery towards the freedom of the new order of things.

On the one hand, the village community of the eastern districts of Britain was connected with a settled agriculture which, apparently dating earlier[p438]than the Roman invasion and improved during the Roman occupation, was carried on, at length, under that three-field form of the open-field system which became the shell of the English village community. The equality in its yard-lands and the single succession which preserved this equality we have found to be apparently marks not of an original freedom, not of an original allodial allotment on the German 'mark system,' but of a settled serfdom under a lordship—a semi-servile tenancy implying a mere usufruct, theoretically only for life, or at will, and carrying with it no inherent rights of inheritance. But this serfdom, as we have seen reason to believe, was, to the masses of the people, not a degradation, but a step upward out of a once more general slavery. Certainly during the 1,200 years over which the direct English evidence extends the tendency has been towards more and more of freedom. In other words, as time went on during these 1,200 years, the serfdom of the old order of things has been gradually breaking up under those influences, whatever they may have been, which have produced the new order of things.

The tribal community and its 'run-rig' system.

opposed to the new order of things.

On the other hand, the tribal community of the western districts of Great Britain and of Ireland, though parallel in time with the village community of the eastern districts, was connected with an earlier stage of economic development, in which the rural economy was pastoral rather than agricultural. This tribal community was bound together, perhaps, in a unique degree, by the strong ties of blood relationship between free tribesmen. The equality which followed the possession of the tribal blood involved an equal division among the sons of tribesmen, and was[p439]maintained in spite of the inequality of families by frequent redistributions of the tribal lands, and shiftings of the tribesmen from one homestead to another according to tribal rules. We have traced the curious method of clustering the homesteads in arithmetical groups mentioned in the ancient Welsh laws, and still practised in Ireland in the seventeenth century, and we have found many survivals of it in the present names and divisions of Irish townlands. We have found the simple form of open-field husbandry used under the tribal system, and suited to its precarious and shifting agriculture, still surviving in the 'rundale' or 'run-rig' system, by which, to this day, is effected in Ireland and western Scotland that infinite subdivision of holdings which marks the tenacious adherence to tribal instincts on the part of a people still fighting an unequal battle against the new order of things.

The new order opposed to community and equality.

The new order has, no doubt, arisen in one sense out of both branches of the old, but neither the manorial village community of the eastern district, nor the tribal community of the west, can be said to be its parent. Its fundamental principle seems to be opposed to the community and equality of the old order in both its forms. The freedom of the individual and growth of individual enterprise and property which mark the new order imply a rebellion against the bonds of the communism and forced equality, alike of the manorial and of the tribal system. It has triumphed by breaking up both the communism of serfdom and the communism of the free tribe.

Belongs to a wider range of

economic development.

Nor, it would seem, can the new order be regarded with any greater truth as a development from the[p440]germs of any German tribal or 'mark' system imported in the keels of the English invaders. It would seem to belong to an altogether wider range of economic development than that of one or two races. Its complex roots went deeply back into that older world into which the Teutonic invaders introduced new elements and new life, no doubt, but, it would seem, without destroying the continuity of the main stream of its economic development, or even of the outward forms of its rural economy.

This, from an economic point of view, is the important conclusion to which the facts examined in this essay seem to point. These facts will be examined afresh by other and abler students, and the last word will not soon have been said upon some of them. They are drawn from so wide a field, and from lines reaching back so far, that their interest and bearing upon the matter in hand will not soon be exhausted or settled. But if the conclusion here suggested should in the main be confirmed, what English Economic History loses in simplicity it will gain in breadth. It will cease to be provincial. It will become more closely identified with the general economic evolution of the human race in the past. And this in its turn will give a wider interest to the vast responsibilities of the English-speaking nations in connexion with the progress of the new order of things and the solution of the great economic problems of the future.

The communism of the old order a thing of the past,

What are the forces which have produced, and are producing, the evolution of the new order, and to what ultimate goal the 'weary Titan' is bearing the 'too full orb of her fate,' are questions of the[p441]highest rank of economic and political importance, but questions upon which not much direct light has been thrown, perhaps, in this essay. Still the knowledge what the community and equality of the English village and of the Keltic tribe really were under the old order may at least dispel any lingering wish or hope that they may ever return. Communistic systems such as these we have examined, which have lasted for 2,000 years, and for the last 1,000 years at least have been gradually wearing themselves out, are hardly likely—either of them—to be the economic goal of the future.

like the open-field system.

The reader of this essay may perhaps contemplate the few remaining balks and linces of our English common fields, and the surviving examples of the 'run-rig' system in Ireland and Scotland, with greater interest than before, but it will be as historical survivals, not of types likely to be reproduced in the future, but of economic stages for ever past.

Go to:Contents.Appendix.CHAPTER XI. FOOTNOTES.630.There are undoubtedly manors and yard-lands in some districts, but of later and English introduction.631.The 'one-field system'ofpermanent arablemust not be confused with the improvement of the early Welsh and Irish 'co-aration of the waste,' by which the land was cropped perhaps two or three or four years before it wasleft to go back into grass. This resembles the GermanFeldgraswirthschaftand not the German one-field system.632.Amm. Marc. xvi. c. ii.633.Evans'Ancient British Coins, p. 220et seq.634.Ibid.p. 284et seq.635.I am indebted to the Rev. W. G. F. Pigott for this information.636.See the paper on 'The Campaign of Aulus Plautius,' in Dr. Guest'sOrigines Celticæ, vol. ii.637.Compare supra, p. 161: the change of 'Hisse-burn' or 'Icenan-burn' into 'Itchin River,' and of 'æt Icceburn' into 'Ticceburn,' and 'Titchbourne.' May not Icknild Way, or 'Icenan-hild-wæg,' mean highway 'by the streams,' and Ricknild Way mean highway 'by the ridge'? See map,supra, ch. v., s. v. They are sometimes parallel as an upper and lower road.638.Formerly 'Alton.' See Survey of the Manor of Hitchin. 1650, Public Record Office.639.In Hampshire the old Celtic or Belgic names of rivers in many cases gave their names to places upon them. The 'Itchin' to Itchin Stoke, Itchin Abbas, Itchbourne, &c. The 'Meona' (Cod. Dip.clviii.) to Meon Stoke, East and West Meon, &c. The 'Candefer' (Cod. Dip.mcccix.) to three 'Candovers.' So also theTarrantgives its names to several places.640.Now part of the garden of Mr. W. T. Lucas, in whose possession many of them now remain. Three skeletons, one of them of great size, were found near the urns.641.For permission to reproduce this map I am indebted to the present lord of the manor, C. W. Wilshere, Esq., of the Fryth, Welwyn.642.Mr. William Ransom, of Fairfield, near Hitchin.643.As regards Roman cemeteries, as placed in the extreme corner of a holding,seeLachmann, pp. 271–2;De Sepulchris Dolabell. p. 303.644.Archæologia, vol. xxvi. p. 376.645.Journal of British Archæological Association, iv. 356, and v. 54.646.Archæologia, xxxii. p. 350.647.Id., p. 352.648.SeeMr. Gomme's interesting work onPrimitive Folkmotes, c. ii.649.A remarkably fineglassfuneral urn was found about half a mile below the Meppershall Hills in 1882 by the tenant of the neighbouring farm.650.Vol. i. pp. 17, 66, 190; vol. iii. p. 33; vol. iv. p. 155; vol. v. p. 187; vol. vi. p. 222.651.Collectanea, v. p. 187. The recently discovered Roman villa on the property of Earl Cowper, at Wingham, near Canterbury, is a striking instance. See Mr. Dowker's pamphlet thereon. See alsoArchæologia, xxix. p. 217, &c., where Mr. C. Roach Smith mentions several other instances.652.Account of the Roman Antiquities at Woodchester, by S. Lysons. Lond.:MDCCXCVII.653.See Mr. Ormerod'sArchæological Memoirs.

Go to:Contents.Appendix.

630.There are undoubtedly manors and yard-lands in some districts, but of later and English introduction.

631.The 'one-field system'ofpermanent arablemust not be confused with the improvement of the early Welsh and Irish 'co-aration of the waste,' by which the land was cropped perhaps two or three or four years before it wasleft to go back into grass. This resembles the GermanFeldgraswirthschaftand not the German one-field system.

632.Amm. Marc. xvi. c. ii.

633.Evans'Ancient British Coins, p. 220et seq.

634.Ibid.p. 284et seq.

635.I am indebted to the Rev. W. G. F. Pigott for this information.

636.See the paper on 'The Campaign of Aulus Plautius,' in Dr. Guest'sOrigines Celticæ, vol. ii.

637.Compare supra, p. 161: the change of 'Hisse-burn' or 'Icenan-burn' into 'Itchin River,' and of 'æt Icceburn' into 'Ticceburn,' and 'Titchbourne.' May not Icknild Way, or 'Icenan-hild-wæg,' mean highway 'by the streams,' and Ricknild Way mean highway 'by the ridge'? See map,supra, ch. v., s. v. They are sometimes parallel as an upper and lower road.

638.Formerly 'Alton.' See Survey of the Manor of Hitchin. 1650, Public Record Office.

639.In Hampshire the old Celtic or Belgic names of rivers in many cases gave their names to places upon them. The 'Itchin' to Itchin Stoke, Itchin Abbas, Itchbourne, &c. The 'Meona' (Cod. Dip.clviii.) to Meon Stoke, East and West Meon, &c. The 'Candefer' (Cod. Dip.mcccix.) to three 'Candovers.' So also theTarrantgives its names to several places.

640.Now part of the garden of Mr. W. T. Lucas, in whose possession many of them now remain. Three skeletons, one of them of great size, were found near the urns.

641.For permission to reproduce this map I am indebted to the present lord of the manor, C. W. Wilshere, Esq., of the Fryth, Welwyn.

642.Mr. William Ransom, of Fairfield, near Hitchin.

643.As regards Roman cemeteries, as placed in the extreme corner of a holding,seeLachmann, pp. 271–2;De Sepulchris Dolabell. p. 303.

644.Archæologia, vol. xxvi. p. 376.

645.Journal of British Archæological Association, iv. 356, and v. 54.

646.Archæologia, xxxii. p. 350.

647.Id., p. 352.

648.SeeMr. Gomme's interesting work onPrimitive Folkmotes, c. ii.

649.A remarkably fineglassfuneral urn was found about half a mile below the Meppershall Hills in 1882 by the tenant of the neighbouring farm.

650.Vol. i. pp. 17, 66, 190; vol. iii. p. 33; vol. iv. p. 155; vol. v. p. 187; vol. vi. p. 222.

651.Collectanea, v. p. 187. The recently discovered Roman villa on the property of Earl Cowper, at Wingham, near Canterbury, is a striking instance. See Mr. Dowker's pamphlet thereon. See alsoArchæologia, xxix. p. 217, &c., where Mr. C. Roach Smith mentions several other instances.

652.Account of the Roman Antiquities at Woodchester, by S. Lysons. Lond.:MDCCXCVII.

653.See Mr. Ormerod'sArchæological Memoirs.

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