they took to be agriculturists and landmen. In the towns, indeed, they
did not settle; and most of these continued to bear their old Roman or
Celtic titles. A few may have been destroyed, especially in the first
onset, like Anderida, and, at a later date, Chester; but the greater
number seem to have been still scantily inhabited, under English
protection, by a mixed urban population, mainly Celtic in blood, and
known by the name of Loegrians. It was in the country, however, that the
English conquerers took up their abode. They were tillers of the soil,
not merchants or skippers, and it was long before they acquired a taste
for urban life. The whole eastern half of England is filled with
villages bearing the characteristic English clan names, and marking each
the home of a distinct family of early settlers. As soon as the
new-comers had burnt the villa of the old Roman proprietor, and killed,
driven out, or enslaved his abandoned serfs, they took the land to
themselves and divided it out on their national system. Hence the whole
government and social organisation of England is purely Teutonic, and
the country even lost its old name of Britain for its new one of
England.

In England, as of old in Sleswick, the village community formed the unit
of English society. Each such township was still bounded by its mark of
forest, mere, or fen, which divided it from its nearest neighbours. In
each lived a single clan, supposed to be of kindred blood and bearing a
common name. The marksmen and their serfs, the latter being conquered
Welshmen, cultivated the soil under cereals for bread, and also for an
unnecessarily large supply of beer, as we learn at a later date from
numerous charters. Cattle and horses grazed in the pastures, while large
herds of pigs were kept in the forest which formed the mark. Thus the
early English settled down at once from a nation of pirates into one of
agriculturists. Here and there, among the woods and fens which still