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in the best manner we can from the records or the charters of the 
religious houses, most of which were founded during that period 
and had most of the lords of the subsidiary fees amongst their 
benefactors ; or from pleadings exhibited in later times, when it 
was necessary to set forth a title from an early period ; or from 
solitary and casual notices in record, chronicle or charter, under 
which head may be placed the occasional notices in the Pipe Rolls 
of the Exchequer. 
Records from which the Topographer may hope to glean notices 
of the lords of his district now come in considerable numbers. I 
may mention the “Testa de Nevill,” an inquisition of lands held 
of the crown by Knights’ service, which was made by one of the 
judges itinerant of Henry III. ; “ Kirkby’s Inquest” of the fifth of 
Edward I. ; the “‘ Nomina Villarum ” of the ninth of Edward Il. ; 
and the very valuable “ Inquisitiones Post-mortem,” which begin 
with Henry III. and are continued to the seventeenth century. 
These Inquisitions are best got at in a manuscript in the British 
Museum, called Cole’s Escheats. 
The grantees of the Conqueror often preferring a foreign 
residence, and sometimes holding lands in diverse counties at 
once, their subinfeudations became the foundation of the resident 
territorial ownership of England. A bonus was probably paid 
upon the grant from the King’s immediate tenant, and afterwards 
feudal services or rents were yielded to him ; but as these became 
by degrees of less and less value relatively to the land, and as 
they lapsed out, the new families of sub-tenants have become the 
absolute owners of the fee, paying service to the crown only, and 
so they now remain, some old families being able to trace their 
estates to those subinfeudations, while rarely, if ever, has anyone 
of William’s tenants-in-chief handed down his land to an heir now 
in possession. The intending Topographer must not, however, 
think that all is now plain sailing, for attainders, resumptions by 
the crown and alienations to the church await the manor in 
subsequent times ; but still as an experienced writer has observed, 
