ur English yeomen. They were free tenants, who
have by their independence stamped with peculiar features both our
constitution and our national character. Their good name remains;
English yeomen have done good service to their country, and let us hope
that they will long continue to exist amongst us, in spite of the
changed condition of English agriculture and the prolonged depression in
farming affairs, which has tried them severely.

[Illustration: WHEEL PLOUGH
From Bayeux Tapestry]

Besides the _geburs_ and _socmen_ there were the _cottiers_, who had
small allotments of about five acres, kept no oxen, and were required to
work for the thane some days in each week. Below them were the _theows_,
serfs, or slaves, who could be bought and sold in the market, and were
compelled to work on the lord's farm.

Listen to the sad lament of one of this class, recorded in a dialogue of
AElfric of the tenth century:--

"What sayest thou, ploughman? How dost thou do thy work?"

"Oh, my lord, hard do I work. I go out at daybreak, driving the oxen to
field, and I yoke them to the plough. Nor is it ever so hard winter that
I dare loiter at home, for fear of my lord, but the oxen yoked, and the
ploughshare and the coulter fastened to the plough, every day must I
plough a full acre, or more."

"Hast thou any comrade?"

"I have a boy driving the oxen with an iron goad, who also is hoarse
with cold and shouting."

"What more dost thou in the day?"

"Verily then I do more. I must fill the bin of the oxen with hay, and
water them, and carry out the dung. Ha! Ha! hard work it is, hard work
it is! because _I am not free._"

Evidently the ploughman's want of freedom was his great hardship; his
work in ploughing, feeding, and watering his cattle, and in cleansing
their stable, was not harder than that of an ordinary carter in the
present day; but servitude galled his spirit, and made the work
intolerable. Let us hope that his lord was a kind-hearted man, and gave
him some cattle for his own, as well as some land to cultivate, and then
he would not feel the work so hard, or the winter so cold.

Frequently men were thus released from slavery; sometimes also freemen
sold themselves into slavery under the pressure of extreme want. A man
so reduced was required to lay aside his sword and lance, the symbols
of the free, and to take up the bill and the goad, the implements of
slavery, to fall on his knees and place his head, in token of