Old family; or, The Setons of Scotland and America

iooo] PI COT. 5
of the Normans, both social and political, as a historical prob-
lem, it has to be noted that we have no social phenomena in
later times with which this one could be measured and com-
pared. Coming from the rude North into the centre of Latin
civilization, they at once took up all the civilization that was
around them, and then carried it into higher stages of devel-
opment. "
CHAPTER II.
The sword and spear, or lance, were the offensive weapons
of the early Normans. They were called Free Arms, as being
peculiarly appropriate to men of valor and high degree. The
first of our family of whom there is any record bore the war-
rior-like name of PICOT, the Pikeman. We next find Picot,
which is a name of profession, a descriptive name, associated
with a place-name, Avenel — as though to say Oatlands — be-
cause the portion allotted to him in the distribution of territory
among the followers of Rollo was rich agricultural land pro-
ducing oats (avena, Lat. ; avoine, Fr. ), the strengthening food
of that fine breed of horses for which Normandy was famous.*
Avenelle is in the immediate neighborhood of the Pays de
Perche, which has given a name to those magnificent draught
horses called Percherons, which have been so largely imported
into the United States; and it is interesting to note, in this
connection, that my father was the first American to introduce
them for breeding purposes, sending two brood-mares and
a stallion from near Chartres, in Eure et Loire, in August,
1856, to my brother William, who then owned property at
Dixon, Lee County, Illinois.
* Thus, also, we find such place-names in Normandy as ./vzz/erolles,
Fav&rA, Fav&xy (Jules Janin : La Normandie), derived from /aba, Lat.,
Jive, Fr. , a bean, the b and v being — as in Spanish — interchangeable.