fordshire, Godelminge and Godelei in Surrey, Estrei in Kent, Wandelmestrei and Bexelei in Sussex, Honeslaw in Middlesex, Salemanesberie in Gloucestershire, Wederlai in Cambridgeshire, Normanecros in Huntingdonshire, Weneslai and Wilga in Bedfordshire, Hocheslau in Northamptonshixe, Wensistren and Angre in Essex, Caninga in Somerset, and Hunesberge in Devon. In addition to these, whose names have apparently a connection with old tribes which we can identify, there are many others whose names, ending in -ga or -ges, seem to denote various clans or kindreds. Of such are Hapinga, Lothninga and Dochinga in Norfolk; Blidinga and Ludinga in Suffolk; Clauelinga and Rodinges in Essex; Wochinges in Surrey; Brachinges in Hertfordshire; and Mellinges and Staninges in Sussex.
We are not without evidence of the existence, even in the later Saxon time, of agricultural communities that were their own lords, nor without traces of the existence of these lordless villages to our own time. They existed apparently here and there within the Danelaw. or among settlers of Scandinavian origin. Thus, Domesday Book tells us, concerning Goldentone in Bedfordshire. that the land there was held by the men of the village in common, and that they had the power to sell it.[1] Similarly, at the present time in another Scandinavian district, at Ibthorpe, a manor in the parish of Hurstbourn Tarrant, in Hampshire, the inhabitants are lords of the manor, and have territorial jurisdiction over a rather extensive common.
In the time of the Empire one fact concerning Celtic, German, and Wendish tribes alike, which appears to have interested the Roman observer, who could find no parallel to it in his own country, was the custom of cultivating land in common.[2] Wendish immigrants would therefore bring with them, like their much more numerous Teutonic neighbours, a common system of agriculture.
