hedge or enclosure, and secondarily the spot that is enclosed: the
modern German _zaun_, a "hedge," preserves the original meaning. But
traces of the mark in England are not found in etymology alone. I have
already alluded to the origin of the "common" in English towns. What is
still more important is that in some parts of England cultivation in
common has continued until quite recently. The local legislation of the
mark appears in the _tunscipesmot_,--a word which is simply Old-English
for "town-meeting." In the shires where the Danes acquired a firm
foothold, the township was often called a "by"; and it had the power of
enacting its own "by-laws" or town-laws, as New England townships have
to-day. But above all, the assembly of the markmen has left vestiges of
itself in the constitution of the parish and the manor. The mark or
township, transformed by the process of feudalization, becomes the
manor. The process of feudalization, throughout western Europe in
general, was no doubt begun by the institution of Benefices, or "grants
of Roman provincial land by the chieftains of the" Teutonic "tribes
which overran the Roman Empire; such grants being conferred on their
associates upon certain conditions, of which the commonest was military
service." [6] The feudal régime naturally reached its most complete
development in France, which affords the most perfect example of a Roman
territory overrun and permanently held in possession by Teutonic
conquerors. Other causes assisted the process, the most potent perhaps
being the chaotic condition of European society during the break-up of
the Carolingian Empire and the Scandinavian and Hungarian invasions.
Land was better protected when held of a powerful chieftain than when
held in one's own right; and hence the practice of commendation, by
which free allodial proprietors were transformed into the tenants of a
lord, became fashionable and was gradually extended to all kinds of
estates. In England the effects of feudalization were different from
what they were in France, but the process was still carried very far,