[A.D. 1290]. The result of all the sub-division that
been going on had been that the number of what we now call _landed
estates_ had largely increased, each of them administered on the
model of the larger _fiefs_ originally granted to the tenants
_in capite_. There was a capital mansion in which the _lord_
resided, or was supposed to reside, and sub-tenants holding
their land under the lord, and paying to him periodically certain
small money rents and rendering him certain _services_. The
_estate_ comprehended the capital mansion with its appurtenances
and the domain lands in the lord's occupation, the common lands over
which the tenants had certain common rights, and the lands in the
occupation of the tenants, which they farmed with more or less
freedom for their own behoof,--the whole constituting a manor
whose owner was the lord. At certain intervals the tenants were
bound to appear before their lord and give account of themselves;
bound, that is, to show cause why they had not performed their
_services_; bound to pay their quit rents, whether in money or
kind; bound to go through a great deal of queer business; but above
all, as far as our present purpose is concerned, _to do fealty_
to the lord of the manor in every case where the small patches of
land had changed hands, and pay a fine for entering upon land
acquired by the various forms of alienation or by inheritance.
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