256 EVERYDAY LIFE
son inherited. No convincing reasons have been given for this
curious state of affairs, and its history is still obscure. " Borough
English", as it came to be called by an accident—the succession
of the youngest son—was widespread, but not universal,1 except
in Kent, where all conditions of land-holding were peculiar.
1 For full discussion and references, see Pollock and Maitland, op. cit. n,
279. A useful article in Suff. Inst. Arch, n, 227ff., notes and analyses the
variations of this custom, and says that Borough English (or Gavelkind) was
law on 84 Suffolk manors, 28 Surrey manors and 135 Sussex manors.