, the great tract of Selwood
in Wessex, the larger part of Warwickshire, the entire Peakland, the
central dividing ridge between the two seas from Yorkshire to the Forth,
and other wide regions elsewhere, were covered with primaeval woodlands.
Arden, Charnwood, Wychwood, Sherwood, and the rest, are but the relics
of vast forests which once stretched over half England. The bear still
lurked in the remotest thickets; packs of wolves still issued forth at
night to ravage the herdsman's folds; wild boars wallowed in the fens or
munched acorns under the oakwoods; deer ranged over all the heathy
tracts throughout the whole island; and the wild white cattle, now
confined to Chillingham Park, roamed in many spots from north to south.
Hence hunting was the chief pastime of the princes and ealdormen when
they were not engaged in war with one another or with the Welsh. Game,
boar-flesh, and venison formed an important portion of diet throughout
the whole early English period, up to the Norman conquest, and long
after.

The king was the recognised head of each community, though his position
was hardly more than that of leader of the nobles in war. He received an
original lot in the conquered land, and remained a private possessor of
estates, tilled by his Welsh slaves. He was king of the people, not of
the country, and is always so described in the early monuments. Each
king seems to have had a chief priest in his kingdom.

There was no distinct capital for the petty kingdoms, though a principal
royal residence appears to have been usual. But the kings possessed many
separate _hams_ or estates in their domain, in each of which food and
other material for their use were collected by their serfs. They moved
about with their suite from one of these to another, consuming all that
had been prepared for them in each, and then passing on to the next. The
king himself made the journey in the waggon drawn by oxen, which formed
his rude prerogative. Such primitive royal progresses were absolutely
necessary in so disjointed a state of society, if the king was to govern
at all. Only by moving about and seeing with his own eyes could he gain
any information in a country where organisation was feeble and writing
practically unknown: only by consuming what was grown for him on the
spot where it was grown could he and his suite obtain provisions in the
rude state of Anglo-Saxon communications. But such government as existed
was mainly that of the