The Evidence of the District. 



Such facts must be stronger than any mere history compiled 

 by writers who were not only not near the spot, but the majority 

 of whom lived a long time after the events they venture so 

 minutely to describe. 



But we have not yet exhausted the valuable evidence of 

 Domesday. The land in the Forest district is rented at much 

 less than in other parts of Hampshire, showing that it was 

 therefore poorer, and not only the land, but the mills. Further 

 and this is of great importance, as so thoroughly overthrowing 

 the common account we find in that portion of the survey 

 which comes under the title, " In Nova Foresta et circa earn," 

 only two churches mentioned, one at Milford, and another at 

 Brockenhurst, in the very heart of the Forest. Both stand 

 to this hour, and prove plainly by their Norman work that 

 William allowed them to remain. 



Such is the evidence which The Chronicle and the short 

 examination of Domesday yield. The country itself, how- 

 ever, still more plainly proves the bias of the Chroniclers. 

 The slightest acquaintance with geology will show that the 

 Forest was never fertile, as it must have been to have main- 

 tained the population which filled so many churches.* Nearly 



persons in Domesday holding lands in places which had been more or less 

 afforested, such as Godric (probably Godric Malf) at Wootton, Willac in 

 the hundred of Egheiete, Uluric at Godshill, in the actual Forest, and 

 Wislac at Oxley. See Domesday under the words Odetune, Godes-manes- 

 camp, and Oxelei, p. xxix. b. See, also, under Totintone, p. xxvii. a, 

 where Agernund and Alric hold lands which the former, and the latter's 

 father, had held of Edward. 



* Passing over the later and more highly-coloured accounts, we will 

 content ourselves with Florence of Worcester, as more trustworthy, whose 

 words are " Antiquis enim temporibus, Edwardi scilicet Regis, et aliorum 

 Angliae Regum predecessorum ejus, ha3c regio incolis Dei et ecclesiis 



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