- 6* THE HISTORY Bq<* h
former to t&e latter aitfl to the? common family of feuds. Th$ % ciifFerence is ftriking enough to demonftrate the defcent of the former by a line abfclutsly diftinft from the latter. The Brir tifh i6- certainly prior in its origin to th© Norman, becaufe it i$ much left complicated and dilutive than it. The tenures, of pure and free villainage correfpo&ding with great enaftnefs tQ th* fame holdings of later ages, the knights fervice among the $ritc>|p was a&ually compounded of the mixt tenures of the barony awj the free foccage among the Normans * Thefe feudal tenures muft liave been derived from a very an* tient and primitive Origin, and muft have exifted coeval with die firft plantation of the ifland. They were plainly the joint refok of a colonizing and a military ipirit. The former provi r <dentially animated the firft ages of the Noachidae, was conftant> ly profecuted under the difcipline of regular order and the co»- troul of regal authority, and had whole region* to partition among the members of the colony. The latter was excited by the frequent migrations of colonifts and the numerous invafkms of fettlements in the fame ages, and naturally provided for the
- fecwity of the infant colony by the inftitution of a military
eftablifhment. Nearly all the lands in the kingdom therefore -muft naturally have been charged with the feudal observance*, and the only allodial lands within it muft have been fuch as be- longed to the relations of' the royalty * The word Ailed or Al- lodium has effe&ually baffled all the torturing difquifitions <Jf etymology to the prefent moment. Like many of the kindred terms of feudalifm, it has been vainly explored, I apprehend, in languages to which it never bore any relation. Like many of the kindred terms of feudalifm, h is, I apprehend, neither Saxon nor Norman in its origin, but actually and abfo- .lutely Britifh. Britifh certainly is the chara&eriftic term of the whole fyftem, Feod or Feud, occurring particularly in the laws of Howel Dha, Fyd or Fud, and fignifying literally and .dire&ly an eftate 4S . Britifh certainly is the remarkable Heriot of the feudal fyftem, the Daered of Howel Dha, the Haered of Anglefry, and the pronounced Hared of Lancashire, as the plain unwrefted
