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later times lay rectors became common they had usually the right 
to nominate the vicar. 
By a feudal distribution of your subject you are enabled to 
open your volume with an account of the King’s tenant, his 
descendants and his caput baroniw. This once done, repetitions 
are rendered needless. You proceed with the first great fees, 
the genera, and you go on with the atomic manor, or the species. 
Except in a few striking instances, such as the Castle at Rochester, 
the primary tenants of the King have left few or no traces of their 
life here: it is the great subinfeuded tenant or mesne lord who 
built the castles or religious houses of which you represent the 
ruins, and it is the smaller manorial lord who has built the Tudor 
hall of which you are so justly proud. Probably the mesne lord’s 
family has passed away, or possibly a cadet branch may remain 
seated upon one of its ancestors’ many manors, and genealogical 
investigation will be among your most laborious services. 
It has been justly remarked that though the deduction of 
families necessarily forms a part of topographical books, pedigrees 
should only find a place there as they serve to exhibit the descent 
of properties. The history of a family is only subsidiary to the 
history of the manor. The early history of a family is not to be 
drawn in because in later times it acquired a manor in your 
district, unless you have something original to tell which may be 
told without a washy dilution from printed matter ; nor need you 
attempt to trace the heir after you have seen the family safely off 
the premises. Such pedigrees as are necessary should by all 
means be put in a tabular form ; these diagrams catch the eye 
and are apprehended at a glance. 
There are counties of more early civilisation than others: in 
these the fees are comminuted to such an extent that one small 
parish is sometimes found to be in two manorial holdings. The 
general rule of Jater times is, however, one parish, one manor; 
one unit ; and this, the reason for which is the assignment of a 
certain tithe, is a great additional convenience to the topographer: 
