The power of disposal over this land lay in the nation itself, or the state; that is, in the king and his witan; but in what way, or by what ceremonies, it was conferred, we no longer know. Still there is great probability that it was done by some of those well-known symbols, which survived both at home and abroad in the familiar forms of livery of seisin,—by the straw, the rod or yard, the _cespes viridis_ and the like[544]. We may however distinctly assert that it was not given by book or charter, inasmuch as this form was reserved to pass estates under very different circumstances. ----- Footnote 544: Perhaps in a case of this sort, even Ingulf may be trusted: he tells us, with some reference however to the Norman forms of livery, with which he was familiar, “Conferebantur etiam primo multa praedia nudo verbo, absque scripto vel charta, tantum cum domini gladio, vel galea, vel cornu, vel cratera; et plurima tenementa cum calcari, cum strigili, cum arcu, et nonnulla cum sagitta.” Hist. Croyl. p. 70. ----- The very fact that folcland was not the object of a charter causes our information respecting it to be meagre: it is merely incidentally and fortuitously that it is mentioned in those documents from which we derive so much valuable insight into the antiquities of Saxon England. But even from them we may infer that it was not hereditary. Towards the end of the ninth century, Ælfred, who appears to have been ealdorman or duke of Surrey, devised his lands by will. He left almost all his property to his daughter; and to his son Æðelwald (perhaps an illegitimate child,) he gave only three hides of hereditary land, bócland, expressing however his hope that the king would permit his son to hold the folcland he himself had held. But as this was uncertain, in order to meet the case of a disappointment, he directed that if the king refused this, his daughter should choose which she would give her brother, of two hereditary estates which he had devised to her[545]. ----- Footnote 545: Cod. Dipl. No. 317. ----- Again, shortly before the Conquest, we find Abbot Wulfwold thus informing Gisa bishop of Wells, Ægelnoð the abbot, Tofig the sheriff, and all the thanes in Somerset[546]: “Eádweard the king, my lord, gave me the land at Corfestige which my father held, and the four farms at Æscwíc, and the fields of meadow-land thereunto belonging, and in wood and field so much that I had pasture for my cattle and the cattle of my men; and all as free in every respect as the king’s own demesne, to give or sell, during my day or after my day, to whomsoever it best pleases me.” ----- Footnote 546: Members of the scírgemót or county-court: hence the instrument is of a solemn and legal description. Cod. Dipl. No. 821. ----- In both these cases it is clear that the land was holden as a benefice; that the tenant had only a life interest, which Wulfwold however succeeded in converting into a _fee_.