lowest class were _servi_, slaves; the class
corresponding with the Saxon _theow_. By a degradation in the condition
of the villani, and the elevation of that of the servi, the two classes
were brought gradually nearer together; till at last the military
oppression of the Normans, thrusting down all degrees of tenants and
servants into one common slavery, or at least into strict dependence,
one name was adopted for both of them as a generic term, that of
_villeins regardant_.

Of the subdivisions of these great classes, the _Register_ of 1085
affords us some particulars. We find that some of the nobles are
described as _milites_, soldiers; and sometimes the milites are classed
with the inferior orders of tenantry. Many of the chief tenants are
distinguished by their offices. We have among these the great regal
officers, such as they existed in the Saxon times--the _camerarius_ and
_cubicularius_, from whom we have our lord chamberlain; the _dapifer_,
or lord steward; the _pincerna_, or chief butler; the constable, and the
treasurer. We have the hawkkeepers, and the bowkeepers; the providers of
the king's carriages, and his standard-bearers. We have lawmen, and
legates, and mediciners. We have foresters and hunters.

Coming to the inferior officers and artificers, we have carpenters,
smiths, goldsmiths, farriers, potters, ditchers, launders, armorers,
fishermen, millers, bakers, salters, tailors, and barbers. We have
mariners, moneyers, minstrels, and watchmen. Of rural occupations we
have the beekeepers, ploughmen, shepherds, neatherds, goatherds, and
swineherds. Here is a population in which there is a large division of
labor. The freemen, tenants, villeins, slaves, are laboring and deriving
sustenance from arable land, meadow, common pasture, wood, and water.
The grain-growing land is, of course, carefully registered as to its
extent and value, and so the meadow and pasture. An equal exactness is
bestowed upon the woods. It was not that the timber was of great
commercial value, in a country which possessed such insufficient means
of transport; but that the acorns and beech-mast, upon which great herds
of swine subsisted, were of essential importance to keep up the supply
of food. We constantly find such entries as "a wood for pannage of fifty
hogs." There are woods described which will feed a hundred, two hundred,
three hundred hogs; and on the Bishop of London's demesne at Fulham a
thousand hogs could fatten. The va