(Bordarii.) Of the three sorts of inferior people here mentioned, these were the meanest; and little, if any, better than the present negroes. They received their name from an old word, bord, which signified a poor-house, a cottage, and also the edge, boundary or limit of any thing. At present the day-labourers approach nearest to this class.

These various classes did not enjoy the same privileges in those days, as the same classes in society do in ours. Some of the lords had power over the lives of their vassals; could punish their offences with the utmost severity; and when of a tyrannical disposition, could deprive them not only of the poor pittances they had acquired under them, but of their lives. This arbitrary power, to the honour of England, has long since been taken away on the south side of the river Tweed; and, since the rebellion in 1745, has by Act of Parliament, been taken away from the highland lords, in the north part of Great Britain.

(Sex Caruce.) Six ploughs. The ancient Britons had their cars or chariots, whence the French charrue, the Roman carrus, the word caruca, for a plough or team, and our carl and churl, for a country clown or a ploughman, may all be derived. It took nineteen men to manage six ploughs, in the Conqueror's days.

(Dimidium leuvælonge.) Half a mile long. This word is written four ways, leuva, leuca, leuga and lega. The Normans brought it hither; and Ingulphus, one of their historians, says, that in his country it was used for two miles; but here, in England, and in Domesday-book, it always signifies one mile; although the taxors, when they made this book, did not take notice of any odd measure, when it exceeded a mile; and that the king and court were content, and allowed it to be so.

(Et tres quarentenas lata.) Three furlongs broad. Twelve of these, Sir Henry Spelman tells us, made one leuca or mile; that each of them contained forty perches, and each perch

sixteen feet.

(Canonici.) In the fourth century, some men of gloomy thoughts and melancholy tempers, began in Egypt to separate themselves from the rest of the world, to live in caves and deserts, and principally to avoid the conversations of women, as a thing most abominable and sinful, though the first precept in the Old Testament, is to be fruitful and multiply. The Pope of Rome soon became sensible that he might derive great advantage in giving encouragement to this whimsical humour of the people. Whenever, or wherever a man or woman (for the latter soon caught the infection) was found to exceed the rest of their neighbours in austerity, moroseness and bodily punishment, denying themselves the use of almost every thing which God had given them freely to enjoy, the Pope canonized and made saints of them. By these means, the whole world was overrun with these enthusiasts in a few centuries, who went under the general name of monks and nuns. Many ages did not elapse before a reformation was required among these bodies of christians, as they committed many irregularities and enormities. In England there were three of these most remarkable personages, according to Sir William Dugdale, at the time when Domesday-book was written, viz.: St. Cuthbert, St. Dunstan, and Alp Lanfranc, who had great power in the church. Some of these saints either wrote rules and orders for their followers to walk by, or such at least, after their deaths, were published in their names, among which none here were so famous as St. Bennet and St. Austin. Those who undertook to live in monasteries and colleges, by these rules, were called canonici, from a Greek word, signifying rule, order, law, &c. and were either secular or religious. The former, called in Domesday-book presbyteri, priests, took the care of souls upon them, preached and visited the sick; and the latter lived within their own walls, and might properly be said to consume the fruits of the earth only. Every convent had this rule or canon, belonging to their order, fairly transcribed, and frequently read publicly before the whole house. They had also three other books, called, a Missale, a Martyrology, and an Obituarium or Necrologium. The first contained all their public prayers and offices of devotion; the second a register of all the christian saints and martyrs, with the place and time of their passion; and in the third, the deaths of their founders and benefactors were entered, that they might observe the days of commemoration for them. Their income arose from lands, given them by the great men, for the good of whose souls they were obliged to pray, more or less, according to the value of the donation. (Sacham or Socham.) These two words are frequently joined together in old writings, and seem to be the same meaning: differing only in the degree of power; for by them is meant the holding courts in manors, to try petty causes among the lord's tenants, and to make a final end of them by fines and amercements, to be paid to the lord. Saca or sacha, in the Saxon tongue, signifies the same as causa, in Latin; and so we at this day must be understood, when we say, for God's sake, for my sake, &c.; soka, soca or socha, in the same language, means a plough sometimes, and at others an immunity; and the power, liberty and privileges belonging to a barony or manor, of holding a court, and punishing small offences among tenants; and lastly, rent.

(Geldum.) The Saxon words, geld or gild, mean a tax or payment of money to the king; and in this book, what our historians call danegeld or danegelt, or that payment which was first laid on the nation by the Danes. By the advice of archbishop Siric, in 991, king Ethel

So called, because they lived alone in caves, &c. or in a state of celibacy.
These were under an oath and vow to admit no man among them,

red agreed to pay them £10,000. to be quiet, and not plunder his subjects, as appears by the Saxon Annals; and the same book likewise tells us, that in 38 years the Danes received £171,957. from the people of this nation; a prodigious and almost incredible sum in those days. Some authors say, this money was raised at first by one shilling from every hide of land, and afterwards double that sum. King Edward took off this land-tax, but the Conqueror laid it on again, and so did his successor, but not perhaps in a manner so oppressive: because some lands seem not to be charged with it, and the earl had a third part given him by the king. It appears from Ralph de Diceto, that fifteen counties, whereof Derbyshire was one, were charged with this tax.

(De feudo suo.) The word fædum or feudum was brought into this island by the Normans, the Saxons having no such word among them for an estate of inheritance. Mr. Sumner and others, however, derive it from their language, in which feoh or fee, signifies a gratuity, reward or wages, for work done; and thus we talk of doctor's fees, lawyer's fees, court fees, &c. The pay of the old Roman soldiers, was first, the lands of those they had conquered: and, afterwards, money. This they called Stipendia and beneficia; and in like manner, as has been observed before, William the Norman divided the lands of those Saxons who had been in arms against him, among his soldiers; but not to every man a share, as they did, but among his officers and generals, and called them fæda or feuda, or fees. These being settled by a writing on them and their heirs for ever, they were said to hold them of the king in capite, for he reserved some small payments and privileges to himself and his successors. These great men had liberty to grant part of these lands to others, under such limitations and reserves as they thought proper; and by this means it has so happened, that there are no allodia, or lands that are absolutely free from some kind of payment or acknowledgment of a superior, in any part of England, except such as belong to the crown. Those lands, however, that belong to a man and his heirs, are called freehold lands, and a fee simple. (In suo domino.) Dominium or dominicum, is now called domain, demain or demesne, from dominus, lord. By it our lawyers understand such lands as the lord of the manor kept in his own hands, and occupied by his own servants for the use of his family. All other lands, as opposed to these, were called terræ assisæ: i. e. rented, farmed, let for such an assize or rent, of money or provisions, or both.

(Vastas mansiones.) Here we see two sorts of houses, the burgenses and mansiones ; so that as the former were inhabited by the privileged people, the latter must belong to such as had no right to the laws and advantages of the incorporated body; and those are said to be vastæ, which were empty at the time of the survey. It is certain that the earls, Edwin and Algar, caused Mercia to take up arms against the Conqueror, and that he laid waste many houses and lands on this occasion, in this and other counties.

(De honore comitum or comitatus.) Sir H. Spelman thinks, the word honor was never used for an estate, feudal, patrimony or barony, by the Saxons, but that the Normans first introduced it in this sense; that it is seldom to be met with from the time of Richard II. to that of Henry VIII. who about the year 1540, revived the use of it; for about that time, Hampton court, and six other places, acquired the title of honors; in so many years, for by Stat. 37, ch. 18, of that king, he was empowered to erect by letters patent four honors, and as many more as he pleased. By this word is now meant a large seignory or estate, consisting of several lordships, manors, knight's fees, with all their customs and privileges. Such estates were anciently called beneficia, and little differed from baronies, being held of the king in capite.

Division of Property at the Time of the Domesday Survey.

At the time this book was compiled, the King held twenty-one manors in this county in demesne, and one was held under the crown; the Bishop of Chester had two; the Abbot and Convent of Burton had six; Roger de Poictou four, and one was held under him; Henry de Ferrars, ancestor of the Earls of Derby of that name, held forty-nine manors in demesne, and forty-one were held under him; William Peverel held six in demesne, and six others were held under him; Walter Deincourt held six in demesne; Geoffry Alselin had four in demesne, and two were held under him; Ralph Fitzhubert held eleven in demesne, and eight were held under him; Ralph de Burun, ancestor of the celebrated Poet, Lord Byron, had four in demesne, and one was held under him-this family resided at Horestan (now Horsley) Castle; Ascoit Musard held five in demesne; two manors were held under Gilbert de Gand, the Conqueror's nephew; Nigel de Statford held nine in demesne; Robert Fitzwilliam, one; Roger de Busli had four in demesne, and four were held under him; and the King's Thanes held twenty-two manors immediately of the crown. The following Table will show more particularly who were proprietors of the several manors and lands both at the time of the Survey and in that of Edward the Confessor.