here to say that this custom continued to exist in Wales; and on
its conquest Edward I. ordained, "Whereas the custom is otherwise
in Wales than England concerning succession to an inheritance,
inasmuch as the inheritance is partible among the heirs-male, and
from time whereof the memory of man is not to the contrary hath
been partible, Our Lord the King will not have such custom
abrogated, but willeth that inheritance shall remain partible among
like heirs as it was wont to be, with this exception that bastards
shall from henceforth not inherit, and also have portions with the
lawful heirs; and if it shall happen that any inheritance should
hereafter, upon failure of heirs-male, descend to females, the
lawful heirs of their ancestors last served thereof. We will, of
our especial grace, that the same women shall have their portions
thereof, although this be contrary to the custom of Wales before
used."

The land system of Wales, so recognized and regulated by Edward I.,
remained unchanged until the reign of the first Tudor monarch. Its
existence raises the presumption that the aboriginal system of
landholding in England gave each son a share of his father's land,
and if so, it did not correspond with the Germanic system described
by Caesar, nor with the tribal system of the Celts in Ireland, nor
with the feudal system subsequently introduced.

The polity of the Romans, which endured in Gaul, Spain, and Italy,
and tinged the laws and usages of these countries after they had
been occupied by the Goths, totally disappeared in England; and
even Christianity, which partially prevailed under the Romans, was
submerged beneath the flood of invasion. Save the material evidence
of the footprints of "the masters of the world" in the Roman roads,