Now, if the system of gwestva payment or food-rent described in this passage of the laws of King Ine be evidence of the survival of the Welsh custom after the Saxon conquest, it is at the same time equally clear documentary evidence of the seventh century that the system of gwestva or food-rents was prevalent outside Wales in the west of Britain before the Saxon conquest.[274] FOOTNOTES: [203] _Liber Landavensis_, p. 545. _Ordericus Vitalis_, ii. 190. It may have been conquered in 1049, after Gruffydd and Irish pirates had, according to Florence, crossed the Wye and burned 'Dymedham' (see Freeman's _Norman Conquest_, ii. App. P); but most likely shortly before A.D. 1065, under which date is the following entry in the Saxon Chronicle:-- 'A. 1065. In this year before Lammas, Harold the Eorl ordered a building to be erected in Wales at Portskewith _after he had subdued it_, and there he gathered much goods and thought to have King Edward there for the purpose of hunting; but when it was all ready, then went Cradock, Griffin's son, with the whole force which he could procure, and slew almost all the people who there had been building.' [204] _Domesday_, i. 162 _a_. [205] _Ibid._ 162 _a_ _et seq._ [206] 185_b_. See also Freeman's _Norman Conquest_, ii. App. SS, p. 685. [207] _Domesday_, i. 179 _a_. [208] See _Leges Wallice_, p. 812. 'De qualibet villa rusticana debet habere ovem fetam vel 4 denarios in cibos accipitrum.' The 54 villæ at 4d. each would make xviii s. (? whether xxviii. by an extra x. in error). [209] _Domesday_, i. 162 _a_. [210] _Domesday_, i. 162 _a_ (last entry). [211] F. 179 _a_. [212] F. 181 _a_. [213] So f. 185_b_: 'In Castellaria de _Carlion_ . . . iii. Walenses _lege Walensi viventes_ cum iii. car. et ii. bord. cum dim. car. et reddunt iiii. sextar. mellis.' [214] _Ancient Laws of Wales_, p. 373. [215] _Description of Wales_, chap. cxvii. [216] C. x. [217] C. viii. The district of Snowdon afforded the best pasturage and Anglesey the best corn-growing land. [218] C. viii. and xvii. In the Isle of Man four oxen were yoked abreast to the plough, Train's _Isle of Man_, ii. p. 241. [219] C. viii. [220] C. xvii. [221] _Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales._ Record Commission, 1841. See preface by _Aneurin Owen_. [222] _Venedotian Code. Ancient Laws of Wales_, pp. 81–2, and see pp. 644–6 (_Welsh Laws_). Mr. Skene, in his chapter on _The Tribe in Wales_ in his _Celtic Scotland_, iii. pp. 200, 201, does not seem to have grasped fully the distinction between the _free tribesmen_ and their _family land_ on the one hand and the Aillts and Taeogs with their _geldable_ or _register_ land on the other. Everything, however, turns upon this. Compare _Welsh Laws_, xiv. s. 31 and s. 32 (pp. 739–741), where the distinction is again clearly stated. [223] _Ancient Laws of Wales_, p. 638 (s. 45). [224] _Id._ 651 (s. 83). [225] P. 639 (s. 51). [226] Pp. 81–2.