94 



THE DOMESDAY SURVEY OF HEREFORDSHIRE. 



By the Rev. C. J. ROBINSON. 



The favour with which Lord Derby's proposal for a new Domesday Book 

 was received by the Houses of Parliament and the nation at large may per- 

 haps be accepted as sufficient evidence of the general interest that is felt in 

 such undertakings. In its object as well as in the cii'cumstances under which 

 it is being executed the new survey forms a curious contrast to that great in- 

 Huisitiiin which was held throughout England nearly eight centuries ago. The 

 present survey goes on about us without our cognisance. The rate books and 

 the Board of Trade returns with the official papers of the Excise and other 

 Government Departments supply all the requisite information, and I do not 

 suppose that any whom I have the honour of addressing to-day have consciously 

 contributed a single item to the statistics that are in course of preparation. 

 Under William the Conqueror matters were managed differently — bow dif- 

 ferently may be estimated by the following extract from the Saxon Chronicle 

 relating to the year 108-5 : — * 



"At mid-winter the king was at Gloucester with his 'witan' and 

 there held his court five days ; and afterwards the archbishop and clergy had 



a synod three days After this the king held a great council, and 



very deep speech with his ' witan ' about this land, how it was peopled or by 

 what men ; then sent to his men over all England into every shire and caused 

 to be ascertained how many hundred hides were in the shire, or what land the 

 king himself had, and cattle within the land, and what dues he ought to have 

 in twelve months from the shire. Also he caused to be written how much land 

 his archbishops had, and his suffragan bishops, and his abbots, and his earls ; 

 and though I narrate somewhat prolixly what or how much each man had who 

 was a holder of land in England, in land or in cattle, and how much money it 

 might be worth. So veiy narrowly he caused it to be traced out, that there 

 was not one single bide nor one yard of land, nor even— it is shame to tell this, 

 it seemed to him no shame to do — an ox, nor a cow, nor a swine was left that 

 was not set down in his writ. And all the writings were brought to him after- 

 wards." It is thought that these returns were afterwards corrected and con- 

 densed by the clerks in the exchequer, who omitted the tables of live stock, 

 which occur only in the book called Little Domesday — a record relating exclu- 

 sively to East Anglia. The object of the Commision was not merely to ascer- 

 tain for the king the value of bis newly acquired possession and to furnish him 

 with data for fiscal purposes ; it had also especial reference to the supply of 



- Arglo Saxon Chroiicle. Translated by Benj. Ihoipe ; l v. 1. H. 186. 



