This general geographical conclusion is very important. But before we can fairly assume either a Roman or South German origin, the similarity of the English and South German systems must be examined in their details and earliest historical traces. Further, the examination must not be confined to the shell. It must be extended also to the serfdom which in Germany as in England, so to speak, lived within it. In previous chapters some of the resemblances between the English and German systems have incidentally been noticed, but the reader will pardon some repetition for the sake of clearness in the statement of this important comparison. [p375] II. THE BOUNDARIES, OR 'MARCHÆ.' «The boundaries, or marchæ.» _First_ as to the whole territory or ager occupied by the village community or township. This, by the presentment of the homage of the Hitchin Manor, was described in the record by its _boundaries_--from such a place to such a place, and so on fill the starting-point was reached again. In the '_gemæru_' of the Saxon charters the same form was used. In the '_marchæ_' of the manors surrendered to the abbey of Lorsch in the seventh and eighth centuries, the same form was used in the Rhine valley. It is, in fact, as we have seen, a form in use before the Christian era, and described by the Roman 'Agrimensores' as often adopted in recording the '_limites_' of irregular territories, to which their rectangular centuriation did not extend. Now, when we consider this method, it implies permanent settlements close to one another, where even the marshes or forests lying between them have been permanently divided by a fixed line, or it implies that a necessity has arisen to mark off the occupied territory from the _ager publicus_. It may have been derived from the rough and ready methods of marking divisions of tribe-land during the early and unsettled stages of tribal life. But the German settlements described by Tacitus seem to have been without defined boundaries. 'Agri' were taken possession of according to the number of the settlers, _pro numero cultorum_. Not till some outside influence compelled final _settlement_ would the necessity for [p376] well-marked boundaries of territories arise. And we have seen that the evidence of local names strongly points to the Roman rule as this settling influence. In the Lorsch charters the districts included within the 'marchæ' are often, as we have seen, called 'marks.' III. THE THREE FIELDS, OR 'ZELGEN.' «The three fields.» Next as to the division of the arable land into fields--generally _three_ fields[565]--representing the annual rotation of crops. The homage of the Hitchin Manor presented that the common fields within the township had immemoriably been and ought to be kept and cultivated in three successive _seasons_ of-- (1) Tilth-grain, (2) Etch-grain, and (3) Fallow. The three fields are elsewhere commonly known as the-- (1) Winter corn, (2) Spring corn, and (3) Fallow.