THE NORMANS IN DORSET. 121 



Wareham, whose 285 houses had been reduced to 135 ; and 

 Shaftesbury, with 80 destroyed out of the 257 it formerly 

 boasted. When we remember the free and traditional 

 uses of fire in the hands of ancient soldiery, there is nothing 

 surprising in these records. And once down, the houses were 

 not likely to be built again. I have seen towns in Ireland, 

 whose large proportion of houses, empty and ruinous, tells 

 tales of a decaying and dwindling population. Much worse 

 was it in England at the end of the 1 1th Century. 

 Hallam * gives the following statistics : 



In Edward's time. In Domesday. 



York . . . . 1,607 inhabited houses . . 967 



Oxford .. ..721 .. _M3 



Derby .. ..293 .. 103 



Chester .. ..487 .. 205 



It is interesting to note the small size of the Norman towns, 

 which in those days were simply settlements of traders 

 headquarters whence chapmen set out with packhorses or 

 sumpter mules to do business with the outlying manor houses 

 and villages ; and to which the villagers from the surrounding 

 country resorted on market days. Dorchester then was 

 about the size of Maiden Newton to-day. The population 

 of the whole county at the census of 1901 was 202,962 ; of 

 which number we may say (in round figures) 118,000 dwelt 

 in towns of over 2,000 people. Now if we compare this with 

 the Dorset of Domesday, I think we may estimate that there 

 are now 2,000 per cent, more town dwellers than then, 

 whilst the increase of the rural population only amounts 

 to 250 per cent. If we go back half a century earlier (King 

 Edward's time), it is probable that there were then as many 

 people in the Dorset villages as there are at the present 

 time. 



* " Middle Ages," viii., Pt. 2. 



