12 English and Continental Backgrounds
Not only was there lack of uniformity in the first Anglo-
Saxon settlements in Britain, but in the years following
there was constant opportunity for innovation. Colonies
were being formed in the newer districts, and men were
adopting that mode of life which seemed to suit best the
particular time and place, there was little accumulated
property, things were in no sense stable, and wars, famines,
or pestilences easily broke up existing conditions and gave
rise to new ones. " Agrarian history becomes more catas-
trophic as we trace it backwards/'1 and surely early
Anglo-Saxon society and institutions were extremely sub-
ject to change. Although, taking the country as a whole,
the number of Celts that survived was large, yet, owing
to their subordinate condition, they contributed little in
language or institutions to the period that followed.2
Thus as little that was Roman outlasted the period of
Roman occupation, so little that was either Roman or
Celtic survived the centuries of Anglo-Saxon conquest
and colonisation. The slowness of the invasion and the
resulting bitterness of the conflict3 prevented the adop-
tion by the conquerors of the manners and customs of the
conquered, while it gave every chance for change and inno-
vation in the conquerors' own institutions.
2. The Local Government.4—a. The Classes of Men.
—Perhaps there is no subject in early English history in
which one's modern notions are so likely to lead him astray
as in this matter of the classes of men. We have here one
of the best examples of the general distinction between the
clear-cut ideas of modern times and the vague ideas of
the past.s This is especially the case in dealing with the
1 Maitland, Domesday Book and Beyond, p. 365.
2 Seebohm (Tribal Custom in Wales) believes that tribal custom, both
Celtic and Anglo-Saxon, contributed to the manorial idea; that the tribal
"chief," for example, had in him things which suggest and things which
actually helped touring forth the later lord of the manor.
* Continental history at this time teaches that sudden and overwhelm-
ing invasion often resulted in little bloodshed or displacement of existing
populations.
4 In this subject, the author is under constant obligation to the work of
Maitland, especially the Domesday Book and Beyond.
s See above, p. 3.