Page:Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race.djvu/404

390 among all the sons. This, however, was not a final division. On the death of the last of these brothers, the land was again divided among all their sons per capita, each first-cousin taking an equal share. On the death of the last of these first-cousins, the land was again divided as before, each second-cousin taking an equal share. Land could be inherited, consequently, only by direct descent. There was no inheritance by daughters. There was no widow’s dower. No man was his brother’s heir. If a man left sons, they inherited; if he left none, the land was shared according to the tribal custom. This is of interest in reference to the custom of Dymock in west Gloucestershire, which was apparently left as an ethnological island of Welsh people. Its name is Welsh, and its custom was Welsh, for the land at Dymock passed on the death of the holder to the heirs of the body only; otherwise it reverted to the community or the lord.

The place-names Welsh Hampton, east of Ellesmere, and Welsh Bicknor and Welsh Newton, near Monmouth, tell the same story of mixed settlements. There was both an Englecheria and a Walecheria, of ancient origin, at Clun and at Cherbury in west Shropshire. There were English landholders and Welsh subtenants of ancient date in the great district of Archenfeld, west of the river Wye. It was owing to such conditions as these that the blending of race between the Old English and Old Welsh people went on. Then, as generations passed, English folk arose along the Welsh border who were partly of Welsh descent, having complexions somewhat darker than their forefathers—a physical characteristic they have transmitted to their descendants at the present day.