212 Some Accoicnt of the Parish of Monkton Farleigh. 



their own, would otherwise be reduced to such a state, and it will 

 minister to the sick and helpless. 



As a matter of fact there is next to no pauperism in our parish, 

 and though there is occasionally some privation, it is rarely of that 

 degree that it cannot be relieved within the parish itself; and if, at 

 a moment^s notice, inquisition were made into our cottage life, the 

 spirit of order, cleanliness, peace, and comparative comfort would 

 but in a very few instances be found wanting. 



I do not, of course, mean to say that we have no shortcomings 

 and no vices even, or that we do not need reform in many matters 

 ■ — the national beer drinking, for instance — but on the whole we are, 

 I think, an unusually sober, peaceful, and harmless community, 

 neither " alieni apjietens" nor " sui profusus." 



Our Rates and Taxes. 



I have found it quite impossible to ascertain in any sufficient 

 sequence the extent and the principles on which our parish was 

 taxed until the present time, but such traces as we have of taxation 

 had best be recorded. 



At Domesday the geld we paid was 70<s. solidi, equivalent to about 

 200#., or £10 of our money. But this was only paid for a very short 

 period, for when the Bohuns made a grant of the manor to the 

 priory there were no restrictions, not even as regards any feudal 

 service, so that so far as the King, i.e. the State, was concerned, the 

 priory would seem to have held the manor free of all State taxes. 



Again, in the Taxation of Nicholas IV., A.D. 1291, although 

 the priory would seem to have paid its decimae or tenths for Churches 

 and chapels appertaining to the priory estates generally, yet no 

 mention is made of any tenths paid by our parish in any shape. 



I should suppose, however, that whenever the monarch for the 

 time being required money for his wars or other exigencies he did 

 not spare our manor, and certainly in the year 1372, temj). Ed. III., 

 both our parsonage and our manor, as I have shewn above, paid 

 their dues of corn, wool, lambs, milk, &c,, to the then monarch. 



So again in the time of Henry VIII., c. 1533, the tenth of the 

 yearly income of our manor, after deducting certain outgoings, was. 



