Note 169 — Chapter IV · LANDED POSSESSION. THE EÐEL, HÍD OR ALOD.

The great fertility of Thanet is noticed by the ancients. Solinus (cap. xxii.) calls it “frumentariis campis felix et gleba uberi.” But corn is of no value without a market; and unless London or the adjacent parts of the continent supplied one, I must still imagine that the islanders did not keep so great an amount in arable. It is true that at very early periods a good deal of corn was habitually exported from Britain: “annona a Britannis sueta transferri.” Ammian. Hist. xviii. 2.