“Tres acras precum et duas de herbagio: þreo æceras tó béne ⁊ twá tó gærsyðe.” If requested he shall do three acres; but only two if a meadow is to be broken up? This is always much harder work than ploughing on old arable. But it is difficult to reconcile this with the next sentence. The Saxon says, “Gif he máran gærses beþyrfe, _earnige_ ðæs swá him man þafige:” the Latin, “Si plus indigeat herbagio, _arabit_ proinde sicut ei permittatur.” From the word _arabit_, Thorpe suggests _erige_ instead of _earnige_. The two readings are however consistent if we consider the expression gærsyðe as having no connection with the gærs of the following sentence. I suppose the meaning to be this: on extraordinary occasions, he might be called upon by the lord to plough three acres instead of one, or in old meadow-land, two acres. If now he himself should want more grass-land than he already possessed, he might make a bargain with the lord, and earn it by this labour with the plough. He was bound to give one day’s ploughing every week from the commencement of the ploughing season till the 11th of November: but on pressing emergency, and on request of the lord, he must give three days (for an acre a day was the just calculation) or in old meadow two. If his services at the plough were still further required, he was to make a bargain with his lord; and a common case is supposed, viz. that he required more grass-land than he had. In this way all seems intelligible. ----- I can only add the expression of my opinion, that a careful study of the condition of the peasantry in the eastern parts of Europe will assist in throwing much light upon these ancient social arrangements in this country. Hard as in some respects the condition of the dependent freeman appears, it must be borne in mind that the possession of land was indispensably necessary to life, unless he was to become an absolute serf. In a country that has little more manufacture than the simple necessities of individual households require, no wealth of raw material and consequently little commerce,—where households rejoice in a sort of self-supporting, self-sufficient autonomy, and the means of internal communication are imperfect,—land and its produce are the only wealth; land is the only means whereby to live. But the Saxon peasant knew his position: it was a hard one, but he bore it: he worked early and late, but he worked cheerfully, and amidst all his toils there is no evidence of his ever having shot at his landlord from behind a stone wall or a hedge. CHAPTER XII. HEATHENDOM.