Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol II).djvu/73

 Ch. 5. man, to perform; as to erve under his lord in the wars, to pay a um of money, and the like. Bae ervices were uch as were fit only for peaants, or perons of a ervile rank; as to plough the lord's land, to make his hedges, to carry out his dung, or other mean employments. The certain ervices, whether free or bae, were uch as were tinted in quantity, and could not be exceeded on any pretence; as, to pay a tated annual rent, or to plough uch a field for three days. The uncertain depended upon unknown contingencies; as to do military ervice in peron, or pay an aement in lieu of it, when called upon; or to wind a horn whenever the Scots invaded the realm; which are free ervices: or to do whatever the lord hould command; which is a bae or villein ervice.

the various combinations of thee ervices have arien the four kinds of lay tenure which ubited in England, till the middle of the lat century; and three of which ubit to this day. Of thee Bracton (who wrote under Henry the third) eems to give the cleared and mot compendious account, of any author antient or modern ; of which the following is the outline or abtract. "Tenements are of two kinds, frank-tenement and villenage. And, of frank-tenements, ome are held freely in conideration of homage and knight-ervice; others in free-ocage with the ervice of fealty only. And again, "of villenages ome are pure, and others privileged. He that holds in pure villenage hall do whatoever is commanded him, and always be bound to an uncertain ervice. The other kind of villenage is called villein-ocage; and thee villein-ocmen do villein ervices, but uch as are certain and determined." Of which the ene eems to be as follows: firt, where the ervice was free, but uncertain, as military ervice with homage, that tenure was called Rh