( 6 ) 



are admirably adapted to produce timber 

 yet the furface of it, is in general, poor; 

 and could never have admitted, even if the 

 times had allowed, any high degree of cul- 

 tivation. Upon the whole therefore, it 



does not feem pojjible, that William could 

 have fpread fo wide a depopulation through 

 this country, as he is reprefented to have 

 done. 



On the other hand, there is no contending 

 againft the ftream of hiftory : and tho we 

 may allow that William could make no great 

 depopulation > we muft not fuppofe he made 

 none. Many writers, who lived about his time, 

 unite in lamentable complaints of his devaf- 

 tations. According to them, at leaft thirty miles 

 of cultivated lands were laid wafte ; above fifty 

 parifh-churches, and many villages deftroyed ; 

 and all the inhabitants extirpated *. But it is 



to 



* In fylva, quae vocatur nova forefta, ecclefias, et villas eradi- 

 cari ; gentem extirpari ; et a feris fecit inhabitari. Hen. de 

 Huntingdon. 



Nova regla forefta, anglice Ytene, quam Gulielmus baftardus, 

 hominibus fugatis, defertis villis, et fubreptis ecclefiis per 30, 

 et eo amplius milliaria, in faltus, et luftra ferarum redigit. 

 Brompton. 



Per 



