all the demands of society in a simple and early stage of development: for example, to have been an union for the purpose of administering justice, or supplying a mutual guarantee of peace, security and freedom for the inhabitants of the district. In this organization, the use of the land, the woods and the waters was made dependent upon the general will of the settlers, and could only be enjoyed under general regulations made by all for the benefit of all. The Mark was a voluntary association of free men, who laid down for themselves, and strictly maintained, a system of cultivation by which the produce of the land on which they settled might be fairly and equally secured for their service and support; and from participation in which they jealously excluded all who were not born, or adopted, into the association. Circumstances dependent upon the peculiar local conformation of the district, or even on the relations of the original parties to the contract, may have caused a great variety in the customs of different Marks; and these appear occasionally anomalous, when we meet with them still subsisting in a different order of social existence; but with the custom of one Mark, another had nothing to do, and the Markmen, within their own limit, were independent, sufficient to their own support and defence, and seised of full power and authority to regulate their own affairs, as seemed most conducive to their own

1 For example in Manors, where the territoria jurisdiction of a lord has usurped the place of the old Markmoot, but not availed entirely to destroy the old Mark-rights in the various commons.

On the continent of

advantage. The Court of the Markmen, as it may be justly called, must have had supreme jurisdiction, at first, over all the causes which could in any way affect the interests of the whole body or the individuals composing it and suit and service to such court was not less the duty, than the high privilege, of the free settlers. Germany the divisions of the Marks and the extent of their jurisdiction can be ascertained with considerable precision; from these it may be inferred that in very many cases the later courts of the great landowners had been in fact at first Markcourts, in which, even long after the downfall of the primæval freedom, the Lord himself had been only the first Markman, the patron or defender of the simple freemen, either by inheritance or their election'. In this country, the want of materials precludes the attainment of similar certainty, but there can be no reason to doubt that the same process took place, and that originally Markcourts existed among ourselves with the same objects and powers. In a charter of the year 971, Cod. Dipl. No. 568, we find the word Mearcmót, which can there mean only the place where such a court, mót

1 Numerous instances may be found in Grimm's valuable work, Die Deutschen Weisthümer, 3 vols. 8vo. These are the presentments or verdicts of such courts, from a very early period, and in all parts of Germany. It is deeply to be lamented that the very early customs found in the copies of Court Roll in England have not been collected and published. Such a step could not possibly affect the interests of Lords of Manors, or their Stewards; but the collection would furnish invaluable materials for law and history. We shall have to refer hereafter to the Advocatus or Vogt, the elected or hereditary patron of these and similar aggregations.

or meeting was held: while the mearcbeorh, which is not at all of rare occurrence, appears to denote the hill or mound which was the site of the court, and the place where the free settlers met at stated periods to do right between man and man1.

It is not at all necessary that these communities should have been very small; on the contrary, some of the Marks were probably of considerable extent, and capable of bringing a respectable force into the field upon emergency: others, no doubt, were less populous, and extensive: but a hundred heads of houses, which is not at all an extravagant supposition, protected by trackless forests, in a district not well known to the invader, constitute a body very well able to defend its rights and privileges.

Although the Mark seems originally to have been defined by the nature of the district, the hills, streams and forests, still its individual, peculiar and, as it were, private character depended in some degree also upon long-subsisting relations of the Markmen, both among themselves, and with regard to others. I represent them to myself as great family unions, comprising households of various degrees of wealth, rank and authority: some, in direct descent from the common ancestors, or from the hero of the particular tribe: others, more distantly connected, through the natural result of increasing population, which multiplies indeed the members of

Mearcbeorh, the Mark-hill, seems too special a name to express some hill or other, which happened to lie in the boundary. A Kentish charter names the gemótbeorh (Cod. Dipl. No. 364. an. 934), but this is indefinite, and might apply to the Shiremoot.

the family, but removes them at every step further from the original stock: some, admitted into communion by marriage, others by adoption; others even by emancipation; but all recognizing a brotherhood, a kinsmanship or sibsccaft1; all standing together as one unit in respect of other, similar communities; all governed by the same judges and led by the same captains; all sharing in the same religious rites, and all known to themselves and to their neighbours by one general name.

The original significance of these names is now perhaps matter of curious, rather than of useful enquiry. Could we securely determine it, we should, beyond doubt, obtain an insight into the antiquities of the Germanic races, far transcending the actual extent of our historical knowledge; this it is hopeless now to expect: ages of continual struggles, of violent convulsions, of conquests and revolutions, lie between us and our forefathers: the traces of their steps have been effaced by the inexorable march of a different civilization. This alone is certain, that the distinction must have lain deeply rooted in the national religion, and supplied abundant materials for the national epos. Much has been irrecoverably lost, yet in what remains we recognize fragments which bear the impress of former wealth and grandeur. Beówulf, the Traveller's Song, and the multifarious poems and traditions

1 Refer to Caesar's expression cognatio, in a note to p. 39. It is remarkable that early MS. glossaries render the word fratrueles by gelondan, which can only be translated, "those settled upon the same land;" thus identifying the local with the family relations.

of Scandinavia, not less than the scattered names which meet us here and there in early German history, offer hints which can only serve to excite regret for the mass which has perished. The kingdoms and empires which have exercised the profoundest influence upon the course of modern civilization, have sprung out of obscure communities whose very names are only known to us through the traditions of the poet, or the local denominations which record the sites of their early settlements.

Many hypotheses may be formed to account for these ancient aggregations, especially on the continent of Europe. Perhaps not the least plausible is that of a single family, itself claiming descent, through some hero, from the gods, and gathering other scattered families around itself; thus retaining the administration of the family rites of religion, and giving its own name to all the rest of the community. Once established, such distinctive appellations must wander with the migrations of the communities themselves, or such portions of them as want of land and means, and excess of population at home, compelled to seek new settlements. In the midst of restless movements, so general and extensive as those of our progenitors, it cannot surprise us, when we find the gentile names of Germany, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, reproduced upon our own shores. Even where a few adventurers-one only-bearing a celebrated name, took possession of a new home, comrades would readily be found, glad to constitute themselves