[Husbandry]
[CHAPTER VII.]
Husbandry.
The influence of the Norse has been felt in terms connected with land. "God speed the plough" has been the toast of many a cup at many a merry meeting for many a century past in this realm. Yet we seem not generally to know by whom the name of the plough was introduced amongst us. The Anglo-Saxon knew nothing of such an implement and its uses ere they settled in the land. This is apparent from their not having a term for it in their own tongue. Even when they were accustomed to the use of the so-called plough of the Romans, which they found in the hands of the British at their settlement in the country, they so confounded the terms of husbandry that they gave the name of "syl" or "suhl" to the Roman-British implement, from the furrow "sulcus," which it drew, without attending in the least to the Roman-British name. The work of one such plough during a season they have called a "sulling" or furrowing.
This so-called plough, from the figures left of it in the Anglo-Saxon MSS., seems to have been but a sorry kind of an article, not fit to be brought into comparison with the worst form of our plough in the neglected districts of England. We owe both the framework and the origin of the modern plough to the Northerners. We meet with the word in the old Norse "plogr." In Swedish it is "plog"; while in Danish it occurs both as "plov" and "ploug," as in English, and it was in all probability introduced by that people during the eleventh century, at the latter part of their dynasty within the island. There is no root either in the Teutonic or Scandinavian tongues from which it is deducible. The British name for their plough was "aradr," their mode of pronouncing the Latin "aratum," the word for the Roman plough. The sort of agriculture which was known in the very early times must have been extremely simple, if we are to judge it by the terms which have reached our times.
Ulphilas, in his translation of the Greek Testament construes the word for plough with the Gothic word "hôha," the origin of our modern term "hoe." We may therefore surmise that in these primitive times natives hoed the ground for their crops for want of better implements to turn up the soil.
While we owe to the Norse the name for plough, we are also indebted to them for the term "husbandry." Among the Scandinavians, the common name for the peasantry was "bondi," the abstract form of "buondi," dwelling in, or inhabiting a country. As intercourse with more civilised nations began to civilise the inhabitants of these northern climes, certain favoured "bondi" had houses assigned to them, with plots of ground adjoining for the use of their families. As the culture of such private plots was distinct from the common culture of other land, the person so favoured, separated from the general herd, obtained the name of "husbondi," and the culture of their grounds "husbondri." When such families obtained settlements in England, they brought over with them the habits and names of the North; and from mingling with the Anglo-Saxon natives, with whom adjuncts to introduced terms and titles were common, the suffix of "man" was applied to the name of "husbondi," who thus became "husbandmen," a term still kept up in the northern counties for labourers on farms, who are styled husbandmen to this day.
Names from trades and handicrafts were given to persons employed therein both by Danes and Anglo-Saxons. Such names keep up their distinction to the present day. The general name of artizans of every kind was Smith. Simple "Smiths" are Anglo-Saxon, "Smithies" are Norse. "Millars," from the trade of millers, are Anglo-Saxon. "Milners" for the same reason are Norse. "Ulls," "Woolley" is Anglo-Saxon, "Woolner" is Norse; "Fullers" and "Towers" are Anglo-Saxon; "Kilners" and "Gardners," Norse. Some names derived from offices as "Gotts" from "Gopr," a priest, or one who had charge of a "hof," or heathen temple in the north. "Goods" comes from "Gopa," and "barge" from "bargr."