116 THE NORMANS IN DORSET. 



their own methods of government and husbandry. The 

 Normans, on the other hand, soon learnt the language of the 

 people they had conquered ; took to dwelling in towns, 

 applied themselves to Franco -Roman learning, and at last 

 became the greatest builders of the age. 



The re-uniting of these two vigorous streams of humanity 

 attended though it undoubtedly was by the most painful 

 social convulsions has proved hi the long run the best thing 

 that could have happened to England. 



Our task to-day is to survey briefly, with the aid of such 

 sources of information as are available, the condition of 

 things which existed in this country after Norman supremacy 

 had become an accomplished fact ; to try and picture, in our 

 minds, the social position of the Dorset folk at that period ; 

 and to speak of some relics that still remain to us of Norman 

 doings. During the reign of the Conqueror, and the early 

 part of the twelfth century, history is almost silent in regard to 

 Dorset. We know of King William's march upon Exeter, 

 but practically nothing more. 



There is, however, a source whence a vast amount of 

 information may be drawn concerning the land and the 

 people in the later years of his reign namely, the Domesday 

 Survey of 1085 ; and upon this I have to rely for my principal 

 data in regard to Dorset. I must first make one or two 

 general remarks. The Norman, to quote an authority in Enc. 

 Brit., " was not only a born soldier, but also a born lawyer." 

 And William, having won his rights by the sword, defended 

 them, and enforced them by an appeal to the Law of 

 England with (as he said) certain additions he made for the 

 benefit of the English. In the legal frame- work inherited 

 from the English kings, he found a machinery effective for 

 his purposes. 



The Norman king assumed the position of Edward's 

 lawful successor ; all that had been done by Harold was a 

 series of mutinous and invalid acts which it was his duty, as a 

 law-abiding monarch, to correct and punish. Accordingly 

 every man who had fought against him at Hastings was 



