arable fields divided up into narrow
strips, of which each household possessed several, next of the
almost equally prized meadow, which was hedged off into
appropriated lots in summer, but thrown back into common in winter,
and lastly of the undistributed waste, from which the whole
community would draw its wood supply, and on which it would pasture
its swine, or even turn out its cattle for rough grazing at some
seasons.

The normal method of agriculture was the "three-field system," with
a rotation of wheat, barley, or oats, and in the third year,
fallow--to allow of the exhausted soil regaining some measure of
its fertility. In the last year the field was left unfenced and the
cattle of the community picked up what they could from it, when
they were neither on the waste, nor being fed with the hay that had
been mowed from the meadow. There seem to have been exceptional
cases in which the strips of the arable were not permanently
allotted to different households, but were distributed, by lot or
otherwise, to different holders in different years. But this was an
abnormal arrangement; usually the proprietorship of the strips in
each field was fixed. And the usual arrangement would be that the
fully endowed ceorl's household had just so much arable in its
various strips as a full team of oxen could plough.

Then explain the origin of the names "Eorl" and "Thegn" (_P.S. Hist. of
Eng._, pp. 34 and 37); the idea of protection (_P.S. Hist. of Eng._, p.
37), and of sharing in the produce of the land, and the payment of
necessary fees to the King. Emphasize the ownership of the land by the
freeman.

2. _The Courts_: The _Witan_, which could displace the king for certain
reasons, the _Shire_ or _folk-moot_, and the _Tun-moot_; their powers;
the people looked to these courts for justice.

3. _Change_ brought about by Danish raids--small freeholders sought
protection from the greater lords; the shifting of ownership from small
landowners to "eorls."

STEP III

_The Feudal System in France:_ (Read Scott's _Quentin Durward_.) Barons
too powerful for the king for various reasons:

1. Their property was large and compact.

2. They administered justice, issued coinage, etc.

3. Vassals swore allegiance to their immediate superior.

By means of problem-questions develop from the pupils what William would
probably do