therefore retained in his own hands a parcel of land near his house,
which in the Saxon times was called inland, and afterwards his demesne,
which served to keep up his hospitality: and this land was cultivated
either by slaves, or by the poorer sort of people, who held lands of him
by the performance of this service. The other portion of his estate he
either gave for life or lives to his followers, men of a liberal
condition, who served the greater thane, as he himself served the king.
They were called Under Thanes, or, according to the language of that
time, Theoden.[56] They served their lord in all public business; they
followed him in war; and they sought justice in his court in all their
private differences. These may be considered as freeholders of the
better sort, or indeed a sort of lesser gentry therefore, as they were
not the absolute dependants, but in some measure the peers of their
lord, when they sued in his court, they claimed the privilege of all the
German freemen, the right of judging one another: the lord's steward was
only the register. This domestic court, which continued in full vigor
for many ages, the Saxons called Hall mote, from the place in which it
was held; the Normans, who adopted it, named it a Court-Baron. This
court had another department, in which the power of the lord was more
absolute. From the most ancient times the German nobility considered
themselves as the natural judges of those who were employed in the
cultivation of their lands, looking on husbandmen with contempt, and
only as a parcel of the soil which they tilled: to these the Saxons
commonly allotted some part of their outlands to hold as tenants at
will, and to perform very low services for them. The differences of
these inferior tenants were decided in the lord's court, in which his
steward sat as judge; and this manner of tenure probably gave an origin
to copyholders.[57] Their estates were at will, but their persons were
free: nor can we suppose that villains, if we consider villains as
synonymous to slaves, could ever by any natural course have risen to