Celtic Scotland : $b A history of ancient Alban. Volume 3 (of 3), Land and peopleSkene, W. F. (William Forbes)
History
Celtic Scotland : $b A history of ancient Alban. Volume 3 (of 3), Land and people
Skene, W. F. (William Forbes)
Celts -- Scotland; Civilization, Celtic; Scotland -- Antiquities, Celtic; Scotland -- History -- To 1603
This system of land-measures was not, however, uniform, for we are told
that Bleddyn, a prince of Gwynedd and Powis, altered the size of the
_Tyddyn_ or smallest holding from four _Erws_ to twelve _Erws_ when held
by an _Uchelwr_, eight _Erws_ when held by an _Aillt_, and four when
held by a _Godaeog_ or superior _Taeog_,[229] and in the Laws of Dyved
we find a still greater variety. In these laws the _Tref_ or township in
the free manors is to consist of four _Randirs_, instead of sixteen as
in the Laws of Gwynedd, and the Randir is to contain three hundred and
twelve _Erws_, ‘so that the owner may have in the three hundred _Erws_
arable pasture and fuel wood and space for buildings on the twelve
_Erws_.’ The _Erw_, however, is smaller than that in the Laws of
Gwynedd, for while it is of the same breadth, viz., the long yoke of
sixteen feet, it is only sixteen times as long in place of thirty.
Again, in place of the _Maenawl_ containing a uniform quantity of four
_Trefs_, the lowland _Maenawl_, where the land is more fertile, is to
consist of seven _Trefs_, and the upland _Maenawl_ thirteen.[230] The
land-measures as given in the Code of Gwent are very similar, but with
some variations. There is the same direction that there are to be four
_Randirs_ in the _Tref_ and three hundred and twelve _Erws_ in the
_Randir_, but the _Erw_ contains eighteen rods of eighteen feet in place
of sixteen yokes in the length, and there are to be thirteen _Trefs_ in
every _Maenawl_, except those of the _Taeog Trefs_, which contain only
seven. Of the four _Randirs_ in the free _Tref_ three are for occupancy
and the fourth pasturage for the three; but in the _Taeog Tref_ there
are only three _Randirs_, the third being pasturage for the other
two.[231]
The original rights of the free members of the tribe, on which their
possession of the register land is based, are thus defined in the Triads
of the Social State:—‘There are three original rights of every native
Welshman (_Cymro Cynwhynawl_),—first, the possession, without
restriction, of five _Erws_ of land; second, a right of determining the
constitutional law of the country under protection and in right of the
_Pencenedl_; and third, a right to the freedom of the country in
general, that is to say, that he be free to go whither he will without
loss of privilege or verdict, unless when in actual service of the
country, or of a court of law.’[232]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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