DEPARTMENT OF LETTERS. 



THE RURAL POPULATION OF ENGLAND, 



AS CLASSIFIED IX DOMESDAY BOOK. 



BY WILLIAM F. ALLEN, A. M., 

 ProfesEor of Latin and History in the Univej-sity of WieconsiR. 



Domesday Book is the record of a survey of the landed 

 property of England, made b}" William the Conqueror, when 

 he had been about twenty years on the throne ; it was com- 

 pleted in 1086. It contains a nearly complete census of the 

 rural population and property of the whole country, with the 

 exception of a few of the northern counties, which were in too 

 disorderly a condition to be reported in detail. For some parts 

 of the country there remain also the pieliminary memoranda, 

 which are considerably more detailed than the final report ; 

 these are the "Exeter Domesday," for the western counties, 

 and the "Ely Inquest," for the estates depending upon the 

 abbey of St. Ethelred of Ely. For the counties of Norfolk, 

 Suffolk and Essex, this preliminary register is all that is 

 extant. 



These documents give us a more exact and detailed knowl- 

 edge of the condition of England at this early date, than we 

 possess for any other country of Europe. And, nevertheless, 

 such are the inherent difficulties in the way of understanding 

 the social condition of a period so far removed from our own, 

 and so meagre is our collateral knowledge of the matters 



