There were, then, these two kinds of holdings—those of the free tribesmen, of 'family land,' and those of the taeogs, of 'register land.' There remains to be considered the system on which the holdings were clustered together.
The holdings grouped for payment of the food-rent or tunc pound.
The principle of this it is not very easy at first to understand, and the difficulty is increased by a confusion of terms between the codes. But there is one fact, by keeping hold of which the system becomes intelligible, viz., that the grouping seems to have been based upon the collective amount of the food-rent. The homesteads, or tyddyns, each containing its four free erws, were scattered over the country side. But they were artificially grouped together for the purpose of the payment of the food-rent, or tunc pound in lieu of it. And by following the group which pays the [p200] 'tunc pound' as the unit of comparison, the at first conflicting evidence falls into its proper place.
In the Venedotian Code the maenol is this unit. In the Dimetian and Gwentian Codes this unit is the trev.
In North Wales the maenol the unit for food-rent.
According to the Venedotian Code of North Wales,[250]
- 4 erws = 1 tyddyn.
- 4 tyddyns = 1 randir.
- 4 randirs = 1 gavael.
- 4 gavaels = 1 trev.
- 4 trevs = 1 maenol.
- 12 maenols and 2 supernumerary trevs = 1 cymwd (or comote).
- 2 cymwds = 1 cantrev (100 trevs).
The cymwd or half-hundred of twelve maenols.
The cymwd was thus a half-hundred, and each cymwd had its court, and so was the unit of legal jurisdiction. At its head was a maer and a canghellor, the two officers of the chief who had jurisdiction over it.
The twelve maenols in the cymwd were thus disposed:—