THE NORMANS IN DORSET. 119 



" King William's man " was granted three small estates at 

 Hampreston, Wimborne, and Great Toller. Two of the old 

 landholders, Edwin and Uluric, appear to have obtained 

 commissions as huntsmen to King William, accompanied 

 by grants of land. The principal landowners who suffered 

 confiscation, besides Harold, were Brictric,* who owned over 

 15,000 acres at Evershot, Frome St. Quintin, Cranborne and 

 Ashmore ; Saul, of Hampreston ; Aluric of Tarrant Gunville 

 and other places ; and Ulviet, of Upsydling. A number of 

 thanes also fall under this category, whose names are not 

 specified in the Survey. 



The largest Norman grantee of the escheated lands in Dorset 

 was the Earl of Mortain, whose share of the county must have 

 exceeded 46,000 acres. His manors included a large part 

 of the Cerne valley, Martinstown, parts of the north-eastern 

 Winterborne, of Broadwey and Upwey, Child Ockford, and 

 many small estates scattered about the county. Our second 

 largest landholder in 1085 was a wealthy lady, the widow of a 

 baron, who bore the suggestive name of Hugh Fitz-Grip. 

 She held, in all, 27,000 acres. In regard to these vast estates, 

 we must remember that they did not bring in any very great 

 income to the tenant-in-chief, who let the various manors 

 to other men for knight's service, and reaped little benefit for 

 himself beyond the produce of the demesne lands, which 

 were worked for him by the unpaid (but by no means exces- 

 sive) labour of villeins and ceorls. 



It is very likely that the great revolution did not make much 

 difference to the dwellers in many villages. The changes 

 chiefly affected the great nobles and thanes, who held directly 

 from the King and perhaps rarely or never visited their 

 estates in the county. Although the Survey does not give 

 the names of all the mesne tenants who held under them, 

 it is certain that a large proportion of them were English, 



* This is the Domesday spelling of the name. Its English form is 

 Brihtric. 



