border of woodland, heath, or fen was jealously guarded as a frontier
and natural defence for the little predatory and agricultural community.
Whoever crossed it was bound to give notice of his coming by blowing a
horn; else he was cut down at once as a stealthy enemy. The marksmen
wished to remain separate from all others, and only to mix with those of
their own kin. In this primitive love of separation we have the germ of
that local independence and that isolated private home life which is one
of the most marked characteristics of modern Englishmen.

In the middle of the clearing, surrounded by a wooden stockade, stood
the village, a group of rude detached huts. The marksmen each possessed
a separate little homestead, consisting usually of a small wooden house
or shanty, a courtyard, and a cattle-fold. So far, private property in
land had already begun. But the forest and the pasture land were not
appropriated: each man had a right from year to year to let loose his
kine or horses on a certain equal or proportionate space of land
assigned to him by the village in council. The wealth of the people
consisted mainly in cattle which fed on the pasture, and pigs turned out
to fatten on the acorns of the forest: but a small portion of the soil
was ploughed and sown; and this portion also was distributed to the
villagers for tillage by annual arrangement. The hall of the chief rose
in the midst of the lesser houses, open to all comers. The village moot,
or assembly of freemen, met in the open air, under some sacred tree, or
beside some old monumental stone, often a relic of the older aboriginal
race, marking the tomb of a dead chieftain, but worshipped as a god by
the English immigrants. At these informal meetings, every head of a
family had a right to appear and deliberate. The primitive English
constitution was a pure republican aristocracy or oligarchy of
householders, like that which still survives in the Swiss forest
cantons.