Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/123

 perhaps fifty acres each of arable land, are densely inhabited; because the seasons for preparing the ground, sowing, and reaping, are so brief, that all husbandry work must be performed in the shortest possible time, and consequently at the expense of supporting, all the year, a great many hands on the farm to perform it; and the fishing in the fiord, river, or lake, the summer pasturage for cattle in the distant fielde-glens attached to each little estate in the inhabited country, and a little wood-cutting in the forest, afford subsistence to many more people than the little farm itself would require for its cultivation in a better clime, or could support from its own produce. The extent of every little property has been settled for ages, and want of soil and space prevents any alteration in the extent, and keeps it within the unchangeable boundaries of rock and water. It is highly interesting to look at these original little family estates of the men who, in the 9th and 10th centuries, played so important a part in the finest countries of Europe,—who were the origin of the men and events we see at this day, and whose descendants are now seated on the thrones and in the palaces of Europe, and in the West are making a new world of social arrangements for themselves. The sites, and even the names, of the little estates or guards on which these men were born, remain unchanged, in many instances, to this day; and the posterity of the original proprietors of the 9th century may reasonably be supposed, in a country in which the land is entailed by udal right upon the family, to be at this day the possessors—engaged, however, now in cutting wood for the French or Newcastle market, instead of in conquering Normandy and Northumberland. Some of our great English nobility and gentry leave their own splendid seats, parks, and estates in England, to enjoy shooting and fishing in Norway for