And further, these holdings of the villani were indivisible bundles passing with the homestead which [p077] formed a part of them by re-grant from the lord from one generation of serfs to another in unbroken regularity, always to a single successor, whether the eldest or the youngest son, according to the custom of each individual manor. They possessed all the unity and indivisibility of an entailed estate, and were sometimes known apparently for generations by the family name of the holders.[104] But the reason underlying all this regular devolution was not the preservation of the family of the tenant, but of the services due from the yard-land to the lord of the manor. «Bordarii, or cottiers.» Below the villani proper were the numerous smaller tenants of what may be termed the cottier class--sometimes called in the 'Liber Niger,' as it is important to notice, _bordarii_[105] (probably from the Saxon 'bord,' a cottage). And these cottagers, possessing generally no oxen, and therefore taking no part in the common ploughing, still in some manors seem to have ranked as a lower grade of villani, having small allotments in the open fields,--in some manors 5 acre strips apiece, in other manors more or less. «Slaves.» Lastly, below the villeins and cottiers were, in some districts, remains, hardly to be noticed in the later cartularies, of a class of _servi_, or slaves, fast becoming [p078] merged in the cottier class above them, or losing themselves among the household servants or labourers upon the lord's demesne. «Open field the shell of serfdom.» Thus the community in villenage fitted into the open field as into its shell--a shell which was long to survive the breaking up of the system of serfdom which lived within it. The _débris_ of this shell, as we have seen, still remains upon the open fields of some English villages and townships to-day; but for the full meaning of some of its features, especially of the scattering of the strips in the yard-lands, we have to look still farther back into the past even than the twelfth century. «Analysis of the services.» Passing from the shell to the serfdom which lived within it, we have found it practically alike in the north and south and east and west of England, and from the time of the Black Death back to the threshold of the Domesday Survey. Complicated as are the numerous little details of the services and payments, they fall with great regularity under three distinct heads:-- «Week-work.» 1. _Week-work_--_i.e._ work for the lord for so many days a week, mostly three days. «Boon-work.» 2. _Precariæ_, or _boon-work_--_i.e._ special work at request ('ad precem' or 'at bene'), sometimes counting as part of the week-work, sometimes extra to it. «Gafol.» 3. Payments in money or kind or work, rendered by way of rent or 'Gafol'; and various dues, such as _Kirkshot_, _Hearth-penny_, _Easter dues_, &c.