Another feature is the number of widows holding land, and in some instances it is expressly stated that they hold their tenements for life, so that it must have been by customary right. These circumstances point to small tenants who were free and, as mentioned in many instances, paid small rents, in lieu of personal services. On some manors parceners are mentioned. In the town of Cambridge, Domesday Book tells us of lahmen, which shows that officers originally Danish survived there. The burgesses also had the power of devising their tenements by will. These customs indicate that in the earlier or later Scandinavian or Danish settlements a large number of free tenants were located in this county, and retained their personal freedom and privileges. In Cambridgeshire the frequency of the lordless village type is a prominent feature of the Domesday record, as pointed out by Maitland.
As regards the dialect of the eastern counties, one of the most interesting circumstances is that stated by Ellis, who says: ‘It is remarkable that in the American colonies, afterwards the United States, a distinctly East Anglian character was introduced.’[1] There was, as is well known, a large emigration from East Anglia. Ellis also says: ‘In intonation, the “drant” of Norfolk and the “whine” of Suffolk are well known, but, like other intonations, are difficult to understand, and practically impossible to symbolize.’[2] The Suffolk is the broader and more drawling intonation, the speaker’s voice running up and down half an octave of sharp notes. Whatever may be the origin of these intonations, we may probably conclude from their variations that there were some tribal differences in the original settlers from whom the people of the two counties are descended.
Mackintosh, half a century ago, expressed his opinion that ‘a considerable proportion of the inhabitants of
