military eſtabliſhment, as the tenure in chivalry was. And here alſo we have again an inſtance, where a tenure is confeſſedly in ſocage, and yet could not poſſibly have ever been held by plough-ſervice; ſince the tenants muſt have been citizens or burghers, the ſituation frequently a walled town, the tenement a ſingle houſe; ſo that none of the owners was probably maſter of a plough, or was able to uſe one, if he had it. The free ſocage therefore, in which theſe tenements are held, ſeems to be plainly a remnant of Saxon liberty; which may alſo account for the great variety of cuſtoms, affecting theſe tenements ſo held in antient burgage: the principal and moſt remarkable of which is that called Borough-Engliſh, ſo named in contradiſtinction as it were to the Norman cuſtoms, and which is taken notice of by Glanvil[1], and by Littleton[2]; viz. that the youngeſt ſon, and not the eldeſt, ſucceeds to the burgage tenement on the death of his father. For which Littleton[3] gives this reaſon; becauſe the youngeſt ſon, by reaſon of his tender age, is not ſo capable as the reſt of his brethren to help himſelf. Other authors[4] have indeed given a much ſtranger reaſon for this cuſtom, as if the lord of the fee had antiently a right to break the ſeventh commandment with his tenant's wife on her wedding night; and that therefore the tenement deſcended not to the eldeſt, but the youngeſt, ſon; who was more certainly the offspring of the tenant. But I cannot learn that ever this cuſtom prevailed in England, though it certainly did in Scotland, (under the name of mercheta or marcheta) till aboliſhed by Malcolm III[5]. And perhaps a more rational account than either may be fetched (though at a ſufficient diſtance) from the practice of the Tartars; among whom, according to father Duhalde, this cuſtom of deſcent to the youngeſt ſon alſo prevails. That nation is compoſed totally of ſhepherds and herdſmen; and the elder ſons, as ſoon as they are capable of leading a paſtoral life, migrate from their father with a certain allotment of cattle; and go to ſeek a new habitation. The youngeſt ſon
