CHAP.
XI.

burghers or burgesses. In these burgs and towns they appear to have occupied houses, paying him rent, or other occasional compensations, and sometimes performing services for him. Thus, in Canterbury, Edward had fifty-one burghers paying him gafol, or rent, and over two hundred and twelve others he had the legal jurisdiction. In Bath, the king had sixty-four burghers, who yielded four pounds. In Exeter, the king had two hundred and eighty-five houses, paying eighteen pounds a year." In some other places, we find such compensations as these mentioned : “ Twelve sheep and lambs, and one bloom of iron, from every free man." $ These individuals and all such were so many men released from the tyranny of the great. For toll, gafol, and all customs, Oxford paid the king twenty pounds a year, and six sextaria of honey.' At Dover, when the king's messenger arrived, the burghers had to pay three-pence for transporting his horse in winter, and two-pence in summer. They also provided a steersman and helper.

In the burgs, some of the inhabitants were still under other lords. Thus in Romenel twenty-five burghers belonged to the archbishop. In Bath, after the king's burghers are mentioned, it is said that ninety burghers of other men yielded sixty shillings. In the same place, the church of Saint Peter had thirty-four burghers, who paid twenty shillings." At Romenel, besides those who were under the archbishop, one Robert is stated to have

10

5

Domesday-book, fo. 2. 7 Ibid. p. 100. 9 Ibid. Com. Oxf. 1] Ibid. fo. 10.

6 Ibid. p. 87.
8 Ibid. fo. 87. 92. 94.
10 Ibid. fo. 1.

VII.

BOOK had fifty burghers, of whom the king had every

service; but they were freed, on account of their service at sea, from every custom, except robbery, breach of the peace, and forestel.12

In these places, the services and charges were sometimes most rigorously exacted. It is stated of Hereford, that if any one wished to retire from the city, he might, with leave of the gerefa, sell his house, if he found a purchaser who was willing to perform in his stead the accustomed services; and in this event the gerefa had the third penny of the sale. But if any one, from his poverty, could not do the regular service, he was compelled to abandon his house to the gerefa without any consideration. The gerefa had then to take care that the house did not remain empty, that the king might not lose his dues. 13

In some burgs, the members had been so wealthy as to have acquired themselves a property in the burg. Thus, at Canterbury, the burghers had forty-five mansuras without the city, of which they took the gafol and the custom, while the king retained the legal jurisdiction. They also held of the king thirty-three acres of land in their gild.14

But this state of subjection to gafols, customs, and services, under which the people of the burgs and towns continued, had this great advantage over the condition of the servile, that the exacted burdens were definite and certain, and though sometimes expensive, were never oppressive. Such a

12 Domesday-book, fo. 87.

13 These customs are excerpted by Gale out of Domesday-book. Hist. iii. p. 768.

14 Domesday-book, fo. 2.

XI.

a

state was indeed an independence, compared with CHAP. the degradation of a theow; and we probably see in these burghers the condition of the free part of the community, who were not actually freeholders of land, or who, though freed, had not wholly left the domestic service of their masters.

By slow degrees the increasing numbers of society, or their augmented activity, produced a surplus property beyond the daily consumption, which acquired a permanent state in the country in some form or other, and then constituted its wealth. Every house began to have some article of lasting furniture or convenience which it had not before; as well as every tradesman goods laid in store, and every farmer corn, or cattle, or implements of tillage more numerous than he once possessed. When this stage of surplus produce occurs, property begins to multiply; the bonds of stern necessity relax; civilization emerges; leisure increases, and a great number share it. Other employments than those of subsistence are sought for. Amusement begins to be a study, and a class of society to provide it becomes desired. The grosser gratifications then verge towards the refinements of future luxury. The mind awakens from the lethargy of sense, and a new spirit, and new objects of industry, invention, and pursuit, gradually arise in the advancing population. All these successions of improvement become slowly visible to the antiquarian observer as he approaches the latter periods of the Anglo-Saxon dynasty. But they were not the accompaniments of its first state; or, if they at all existed, they were confined to the court, the castle, and the monastery; and were not indeed to be found among the inferior thegns or the poorer cloisters. Some of these

a

BOOK
VII.

had so little property that they could not afford to allow meat, and others not wheaten bread, as an article of their food. In such miserable abodes the comforts of surplus property could not be obtained ; and where these are not general, the nation is poor. This epithet was alone applicable to the AngloSaxon octarchy.

Both war and agriculture want the smith. Hence one of the most important trades of the AngloSaxons was the smith, who is very frequently mentioned. Aldhelm takes the trouble to describe the “ convenience of the anvil, the rigid hardness of the beating hammer, and the tenacity of the glowing tongs ;” and to remark, that “the gem-bearing belts, and diadems of kings, and various instruments of glory, were made from the tools of iron.” 15 The smiths who worked in iron were called isernsmithas. They had also the goldsmith, the soelfersmith (silversmith), and the arsmith or coppersmith. In the dialogues before quoted, the smith says, “ Whence the share to the ploughman, or the goad, but from my art? whence to the fisherman an angle, or to the shoe-wyrhta an awl, or to the sempstress a needle, but from my art?” The other replies, “Those in thy smithery only give us iron fire-sparks, the noise of beating hammers, and blowing bellows.” 16 Smiths are frequently mentioned in Domesday. In the city of Hereford there were six smiths, who paid each one penny for his forge, and who made one hundred and twenty pieces of iron from the king's ore. To each of them three-pence was paid as a custom, and they

XI.

were freed from all other services. In a district CHAP.

" of Somerset, it is twice stated, that a mill yielded two plumbas of iron. 18 Gloucester paid to the king thirty-six dicras of iron, and one hundred ductile rods, to make nails for the king's ships. 19

The treow-wyrhta, literally tree or wood workman, or, in modern phrase, the carpenter, was an occupation as important as the smith's. In the dialogues above mentioned, he says he makes houses and various vessels and ships.

The shoemaker and salter appear also in the dialogues: the sceowyrhta, or shoemaker, seems to have been a comprehensive trade, and to have united some that are now very distinct businesses. He says, “My craft is very useful and necessary to you.

I buy hides and skins, and prepare them by my art, and make of them shoes of various kinds; and none of you can winter without my craft.” He subjoins a list of the articles which he fabricates : viz.

Ankle leathers,
Shoes,
Leather hose,
Bottles,

Bridle thongs,
Trappings,
Flasks,
Boiling vessels,

Leather neck-pieces,
Halters,
Wallets,
Pouches.

The salter, baker, cook, and fisherman, have been described before.

Besides the persons who made those trades their business, some of the clergy, as we advance to the age preceding the Norman conquest, appear to us as labouring to excel in the mechanical arts. Thus Dunstan, besides being competent to draw and paint the patterns for a lady's robe, was also a