n-in-Lindsey, in Lincolnshire)
there existed the identical arrangement which has been found at
Braunton, in Devon. This equal division between daughters Mr. Shore
regards as an "intermediate stage between Borough English and
Gavelkind." The latter is distinctively the "custom of Kent," and
signifies that the land was "partible," and inherited by the sons in
equal shares, the youngest son retaining the homestead, and making
compensation to his brethren for this addition to his share. Borough
English and gavelkind, therefore, though not the same, are near akin;
and it is an interesting question which of the two was prior to the
other. It may be that gavelkind is the older, and that Borough English
is a remnant or distortion of what appears, on the face of it, a more
equitable condition of things. On the other hand, gavelkind may have
been, so to speak, grafted on a more simple usage which the community,
through change of circumstances, had outgrown, and had ceased to possess
the same justification as at first.

Why should the youngest son take the inheritance? One explanation is
that he was presumed to be least able to provide for himself. This,
however, expresses only half the truth. The other half has, we think,
been furnished by Mr. Peacock:

"The most popular explanation in the last [eighteenth] century was the
calumny known as _mercheta mulierum_, now known as a malignant fable
popularized by novelists and playwrights. Another suggestion is that it
is a custom that has survived from some prehistoric race; a third that
it has grown up at different points...." Mr. Peacock regards the last as
the most likely. "It is only when the population becomes relatively
dense that land, apart from what it produces, is of any value. A time,
however, would soon be reached when land would have a value of its own.
The good soil would soon be taken up, and in the days of a primitive
mode of culture third-rate land would be valueless. Then the
house-father would be forced by circumstances to make provision, ere his
death, for the sons sharing the ancestral domain between them.

"Here we have the origin of gavelkind--a form of devolution more widely
spread than even ultimo-geniture or Borough English. Gavelkind, however,
could be but a temporary provision. As the population grew, so it would
be absolutely necessary that the young men of the household should make
new settlements for themselves. This fact accounts in its measure for
the