Primogeniture, aided by legal powers and by the strong necessities of feudal polity, has become in this country the dominant form of succession to title and estate, and has consequently thrust out of consideration many other forms which exist here and there. Two of these other forms, Gavelkind and borough-English (so called), have received some attention from lawyers and legal antiquaries, and they obtain in many localities as the legal form of succession; but there are other customs which have been altogether neglected, and which obtain in only a few isolated localities. The lawyer at the bidding of statesmen has striven for the furtherance of the right of primogeniture, and every other custom has had to prove its case before it could obtain recognition. Therefore, in a certain sense the law has never recognised any other form of succession than primogeniture. But what I shall have to point out in the following pages is that in the annals of rural England there are many conceptions attached to the holding of property, which, though succumbing in law to primogeniture, have left a history behind which is well worth examining. Before Mr. Elton dealt with primogeniture and junior-right as common descendants from one parent, an examination of the right of primogeniture never led the inquirer beyond the area bounded by feudal history. But by examining the two forms of succession together it has been shown that we arrive at the archaic family.