Vitalis, Walter Mapes, and Knygliton. 25 



is doubtful whether the number of churches destroyed was 

 twenty- two or fifty- two, an amount of difference so large that 

 we might also reasonably suspect his narrative, whilst he also 

 commits the mistake of attributing the formation of the Forest 

 to Eufus. 



Now, the first thing which strikes us is that as the writers 

 are more distant in point of time, and therefore less capable 

 of knowing, they singularly enough become more precise and 

 specific. What Florence of Worcester speaks of in merely 

 general terms, Vitalis, and Walter Mapes, and Knyghton, give 

 in minute details down to the very number of the parishes 

 and churches.* 



As far as mere written testimony goes, we have nothing to 

 set against their evidence, except Domesday, and the negative 

 proof of The Chronicle. Not one word does The Chronicler, 

 who, be it remembered, personally knew the Conqueror f who 



* For the sake of brevity, let me add that William of Malmesbury 

 (Gesta Regum Anglorum, vol. ii. p. 455, published by the English Historical 

 Society, 1840), Henry of Huntingdon (Historiarum, lib. vi., in Savile's 

 Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores, p. 371), Simon of Durham (De Gestis Regum 

 Anglorum, in the Histories Anglicance Scriptores Decem, p. 225), copying 

 word for word from Florence, Roger Hoveden (Annalium Pars Prior, Wil- 

 lielmus Junior, in the Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores, p. 468), Roger of 

 Wendover (Flores Historiwum, vol. ii. pp. 25, 26, published by the English 

 Historical Society), Walter Hemingburgh {De Gestis Regum Anglice, vol. i. 

 p. 33, published by the English Historical Society), and John Ross 

 (Historia Regum Anglics, pp. 112, 113. Ed. Hearne. Oxford, 1716), 

 repeat, according to their different degrees of accuracy, the general story of 

 the Conqueror destroying villages and exterminating the inhabitants. 



t The Chronicle. Ed. Thorpe, as before quoted. Nor does the 

 writer, when another opportunity presents itself at Rufus's death, mention 

 the matter, but passes it over in significant silence. The same volume, 

 p. 364. 



E 



