Excerpt from The Growth of the Manor Altogether, the clash of opinions and arguments seems to call for harmonising combinations, for a summing up of results, for estimates of the manner in which recent researches counteract and limit, or supplement and support each other, for attempts to trace the general course of social evolution. Such attempts are especially needed, not so much by scholars engaged in current controversies, who have their hands full with their particular investigations, as by students of general history and the public at large, who have a right to know what the labour of searchers has achieved in the way of results. Such are the considerations that have prompted the present work. I have tried to present an outline of the growth of the Manor, as a social institution passing through all the stages of English history. Dwelling only on the main facts and the decisive moments, I do not pretend to start an entirely new theory on the subject, but I have had to choose my way between conflicting theories and argu ments and to set forth as clearly as possible the leading ideas to which, according to the best of my knowledge, details have to conform. I shall address myself primarily to students of general history and try to make my sketch intelligible to them, but it would be misleading not to state shortly the reasons for taking up this or the other position, and I hope the notes at the close of each chapter may be deemed sufficient for this purpose. It is hardly necessary to dwell on the importance and interest of the subject, and I will merely venture to state the chief reasons for the personal fascination it has exercised over me. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.