the theory became general that every man must have a lord. The noble
himself lived upon his manor, accepted service from his churls in
tilling his own homestead, and allowed them lands in return in the
outlying portions of his estates. His sources of income were two only:
first, the agricultural produce of his lands, thus tilled for him by
free labour and by the hands of his serfs; and secondly, the breeding of
slaves, shipped from the ports of London and Bristol for the markets of
the south. The artisans depended wholly upon their lord, being often
serfs, or else churls holding on service-tenure. The mass of England
consisted of such manors, still largely interspersed with woodland, each
with the wooden hall of its lord occupying the centre of the homestead,
and with the huts of the churls and serfs among the hays and valleys of
the outskirts. The butter and cheese, bread and bacon, were made at
home; the corn was ground in the quern; the beer was brewed and the
honey collected by the family. The spinner and weaver, the shoemaker,
smith, and carpenter, were all parts of the household. Thus every manor
was wholly self-sufficing and self-sustaining, and towns were rendered
almost unnecessary.

Forests and heaths still also covered about half the surface. These were
now the hunting-grounds of the kings and nobles, while in the leys,
hursts, and dens, small groups of huts gave shelter to the swineherds
and woodwards who had charge of their lord's property in the woodlands.
The great tree-covered region of Selwood still divided Wessex into two
halves; the forest of the Chilterns still spread close to the walls of
London; the Peakland was still overgrown by an inaccessible thicket; and
the long central ridge between Yorkshire and Scotland was still shadowed
by primæval oaks, pinewoods, and beeches. Agriculture continued to be
confined to the alluvial bottoms, and had nowhere as yet invaded the
uplands, or even the stiffer and drier lowland regions, such as the