Returning to the services of the gebur, stress must be laid upon their double character. Like the later _villanus_ he paid a double debt to his lord in respect of his yard-land and outfit, or '_setene_'--(1) _gafol_; (2) week-work. «Laws of King Ine.» This is a point of great importance at this stage of the inquiry; for it gives us the key to the meaning of an otherwise almost unintelligible passage in the laws of King Ine[170], which bears directly upon the matter in hand. «Geset-land.» This passage immediately follows those already quoted, requiring one-half or more of the land of the absentee landlord to be 'gesettes land.' It follows in natural order after this requirement, because it evidently relates to the process of increasing the number of tenants on the gesettes land, so introducing new geburs or villani, with new yard-lands or virgates, into the village community. The clause is as follows: «Yard-land.» «_Gafol_ and _weorc_.» BE GYRDE LONDES. Gif mon geþingað gyrðe lander oþþe mære to pæðe-gafole. ⁊ geereð. gif se hlaforð him pile ꝥ lanð aræran to weorce ⁊ to gafole. ne þearf he him onfón gif he lum nan botl ne selð. . . . OF A YARD OF LAND. If a man agree for a yard-land or more at a fixed _gafol_ and plough it, if the lord desire to raise the land to him _to work and to gafol_, he need not take it upon him, if the lord do not give him a dwelling. . . . [p143] The meaning of it apparently is that if a man agree for a yard-land or more to 'ræd-gafol' (_i.e._ at such gafol payments as have been described), and plough it, still the lord cannot put the new holding '_to weorce_ and _to gafole_,' that is, make the holder completely into a _gebur_ or villanus, owing both gafol and week-work to his lord, unless the lord also supply the homestead ('botl'). That the 'botl' or homestead was looked upon as the essential part of a man's holding is shown by another law of King Ine:-- LXVIII. Gif mon gesiðcundne monnan adrife. fordrife þy botle. næs þære setene. ► 68. If a gesithcund man be driven off, it must be from the _botl_, not the _setene_. «The manor and serfdom in seventh century.» Now the importance of these passages can hardly be exaggerated; for, if we may trust the genuineness of the laws of King Ine,[171] they show more clearly than anything else could do, that in the seventh century--400 years before the Domesday Survey--the manor was already to all intents and purposes what it was afterwards. They show that at that early date part of the land was in the lord's demesne and part let out to tenants, who when supplied by the lord with everything--their homestead and their yard-land--owed, not only customary tribute or _gafol_, but also '_weorc_' or service to the lord; and how otherwise could this 'weorce' be given then or afterwards [p144] except in the shape of labour on the lord's demesne, as is described in the '_Rectitudines_'?