anor there was first the
land held in demesne, the "in-land"--this was the perquisite of the lord
himself; it was farmed by him directly. Only when modern methods began
to push out the old feudal concepts do we find this portion of the
estate regularly let out to tenants, though there are evidences of its
occasionally having been done even in the twelfth century. But besides
what belonged thus exclusively to the lord of the manor, there was a
great deal more that was legally described as held in villeinage. That
is to say, it was in the hands of others, who had conditional use of it.
In England these tenants were chiefly of three kinds--the villeins, the
cottiers, the serfs. The first held a house and yard in the village
street, and had in the great arable fields that surrounded them strips
of land amounting sometimes to thirty acres. To their lord they owed
work for three days each week; they also provided oxen for the plough.
But more than half of their time could be devoted to the farming of
their property. Then next in order came the cottiers, whose holding
probably ran to not more than five acres. They had no plough-work, and
did more of the manual labour of the farm, such as hedging,
nut-collecting, &c. A much greater portion of their time than was the
case with the villeins was at the disposal of their master, nor indeed,
owing to the lesser extent of their property, did they need so much
opportunity for working their own land. Lowest in the scale of all
(according to the Domesday Book of William I, the first great land-value
survey of all England, they numbered not more than sixteen per cent. of
the whole population) came the slaves or serfs. These had almost
exclusively the live stock to look after, being engaged as foresters,
shepherds, swineherds, and servants of the household. They either lived
under the lord's own roof, or might even have their cottage in the
village with its strip of land about it, sufficient, with the provisions
and cloth provided them, to eke out a scanty livelihood. Distinct from
these three classes and their officials (bailiffs, seneschals, reeves,
&c.) were the free tenants, who did no regular work for the manor, but
could not leave or part with their land. Their services were
requisitioned at certain periods like harvest-time, when there came a
demand for more than the ordinary number of hands. This sort of labour
was known as boon-work.

It is clear at once that, theoretically at le