1 2 Elueidalions of Portions 



icceivcd wages from another, whether 

 of money or lanils, owed him faith and 

 obedicnec; and thus it was, that those 

 wlio were most bountifnlly rewarded 

 from the general pillage, were com- 

 pelled to distribute among those who 

 were less privileged. Captains gave 

 to their armed bands, barons to their 

 « hevaliers, the nien-of-arms to their 

 squires, or to those who, whether on 

 liorsel)ack or on foot, assisted them at 

 tlie time of battle. The squires and 

 the serjeants-at-arms gave to their own 

 .servants ; the rich provided for the 

 poor, but the poor soon became rich 

 by the spoils of the conquest; and 

 thus, among the various classes of the 

 combatants, rank and military dis- 

 tinction (which the early chronicles 

 record,) were liable to sudden fluctua- 

 tions ; not that they were confounded, 

 but because the changes of war drove 

 forward men of the lowest ranks to 

 occupy the highest situations. Men 

 who Iiad passed the sea in their quilt- 

 ed great coat,* — a foot-soldier, with 

 his blackened wooden bow, now ap- 

 peared on a proud battle-horse, deco- 

 rated with the military insignia, to the 

 astonishment of the later recruits, who 

 followed him across the ocean. Many 

 a poor knight had unfurled his own 

 banner, — to use the language of those 

 (lays,- — and conducted a numerous 

 host, who had made his name their 

 rallying cry. The hinds of Nor- 

 mandy and the weavers of Flanders,! 

 with a little valour and good fortune, 

 became the great men, the illustrious 

 barons, of England. Their valets 

 were far richer than their own proge- 

 nitors ;t and their names, which had 

 been vile and ignoble on one side of 

 the channel, became glorious on the 

 other. 



" Would you know, (says an old 

 French document,) would yon know 

 the names of tiie great people who 

 came over-sea with William the Bas- 

 tard, the man of stren"^th ! These are 

 their sirnames, as we lind them re- 

 corded, without the addition of their 

 names of baptism, for these last are 

 often wanting, and often changed, — 

 MHudeville and Dandeville ; Omfreville 

 and Domfreville ; BouUeviUe and 

 Estouiaville ; 3Iohem and Bohem; Bis. 

 set and Basset; Malin and MalvoL 



* Gambeson Wambasia. 

 t Jo. Bromjiton, l'22b. 

 j Old. Vit. J22. 



of English History. [iVb. 1, 



sin."* The crowd of names that fol- 

 low presents a similar arningement of 

 barbarous versification, to assist the 

 memory by rliyn*.- and alliteration. 

 Many lists of the same diameter, an<l 

 linked together with the same art, 

 have been |)rescrved to our own time ; 

 they were formerly inscribed on largo 

 vellum pages, deposited in the archives 

 of church( s, and adorned with the ti- 

 tle oi' Livre, or Livret dii Cunqueraiit.\ 

 Tn one of these the arrangement is in 

 groupcsof three : — Bastard, Brassard, 

 Baijnard; Bigot, Bagot, Talhol ; Tlto- 

 rct. Olivet, Bonet ; Liici/, Lacy, Percy. 

 Another catalogue of the conquerors, 

 jjrescrved for a long time amidst the 

 treasures of the Convent dc laliiitiiille, 

 oH'ers a .singular association of strange 

 and vulgar nnmcs,— as, Bonvilain and 

 Boulevilain ; Trvusscliit and Trousse- 

 boiit ; L'Enyaiae and Lotif/uc-Eph' ; 

 (Eil-de-h(riif&iu\ Fnint-de-baiif.l Other 

 autiiontic documents describe, among 

 the Norman knights in England, a 

 "\A'illiam the Carter, a Hugh the Tay- 

 lor, a William the Drumn>.er;|| and, 

 amidst this strange nobility, — tlio 

 dregs of the land of Catd, — the names 

 of the towns and provinces occur from 

 whence they issued: — St. Qisentin, St. 

 M.-mr, St. Denis, St. Malo, Vdliers, 

 Evreux, Verdun, Nismes, Chalons, 

 Cahors, Chaunes, Etampes, Kochc- 

 lord, IjH Hochelle, Montcenis, Artois, 

 Cham|)agne, Gascoigne.§ Such were 

 they who cariied into I'aigland the no- 

 vel distinctions of noblemen and gen- 

 tlemen (hommes nobles ctf/enlils /lOmines), 

 and fixed them there, by force of 

 arms, for themselves ana their de- 

 scendants. 



The servants of tlie Norman man- 



* Jos. Bronipton, 963. 



t Monast. Aiigl. 



t Nothinsr has a baser sound than these 

 names in Frencii. — Bastard and Brewer; 

 Good-slave and First-slave ; Triissie.pot 

 and Trussle end ; .Stick-thioiigh and Long, 

 sword ; Biili's-eye and Bull's-head, &c. Jxc 

 perhaps give an idea of their vulgarity. 



II Monast. Angl. 11. 



§ Hence Qiiintin and Mnore, Dennis, 

 Marlow, Villicrs, Dcvreu.v, Vernon, Cha- 

 loner, Chaworlh, Stamp, Rokeby, Moun- 

 sley, &c. Other names have wandered 

 more from tlieir derivation : — 



Sacheverell : Saut de Chevreuil, — a 

 Sallii capellae. 



Lovel: Louvet, — Lupcllus. 



Zoiich (de la 2ouch) ; fc'ouchc, ~ de 

 Stipite. 



of- 



