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Twenty years after King William the firft had 

 compleated his conqueft of England, in 1066, he 

 caufed a furvey to be made after the manner of that 

 made in the time of Edward the Confeffor. The 

 lands were valued by carucates and hides : the former 

 related to the arable, and contained the quantum 

 tilled with one plough ; and the latter included a fuf- 

 ficient quantity of meadow, pafture, and wood with 

 it, for the ufe of the cattle and inhabitants, under 

 the denomination of Norman Great-Lords and Saxon 

 Thanes, including their vaffals, diftinguiflied as fer- 

 vants, villanes, borderers, coliberts, and cottagers. 



As the lands I am fpeaking of were in 1086 va- 

 lued at about one farthing per acre per annum, upon 

 an average, fo we find in the tax laid on by Henry 

 the firft, by way of raifing a portion for his daughter 

 Maud, on her marriage with the Emperor, that the 

 value of land increafedj and when the ranfom-tax of 

 Richard the firfl was paid by knights fees, it con- 

 tinued to increafe, infomuch, that at his death, in 

 1 1 99, it became doubled, being then efiimated at 

 one halfpenny per acre. In the Pope's tax laid on 

 in 1292, it appears, that within that lad century the 

 lands again became doubled, for tlie average efli- 

 mate at this vera, feems to have increafcd to one 

 penny per acre. Upon the death of Richard II. 

 and the accefilon of Henry IVth. in 1399, the lands 

 became worth two-pence per acre, as may be abun* 



dantiv 



