The cities of Italy and Provence had preserved the municipal institutions of their Roman past; the German towns had been founded by Henry the Fowler with the purpose of sheltering industry from the feudal oppression around them; the communes of Northern France sprang into existence in revolt against feudal outrage within their walls.

But in England the tradition of Rome passed utterly away, while feudal oppression was held fairly in check by the Crown.

The English town therefore was in its beginning simply a piece of the general country, organized and governed precisely in the same manner as the townships around it.

Its existence witnessed indeed to the need which men felt in those earlier times of mutual help and protection.

The burh or borough was probably a more defensible place than the common village; it may have had a ditch or mound about it instead of the quickset-hedge or "tun" from which the township took its name.