THE DEGRADING OF THE PEOPLE 27 



to give the names of their lord and his estates, to 

 report on the area of his home farm and the number of 

 plough teams he had ; they had also to tell of the area 

 of the land held by the peasantry and of their plough 

 teams, and as to what woods, meadows, pastures, mills, 

 fisheries and markets there were. They were then 

 asked for similar information of the conditions of their 

 village in Edward the Confessor's reign. Besides this, 

 they had to give the number of unfree peasant farmers 

 (at that time as a rule called ' villeins ' and looked on as 

 serfs), of cotters (also considered as serfs), of slaves, 

 and also to report if there were freemen. The infor- 

 mation so gathered was doubtless checked by refer- 

 ence to the representatives of the hundreds and of 

 the Norman colonists, who were bound to attend the 

 meetings of the commissioners. It was then recorded 

 by the commissioners. These collected records form 

 Domesday Book. 



Three of these entries, giving a picture of three 

 properties, follow : they have been translated somewhat 

 freely. 



(1) At Limpsfield (in Surrey) there are on the home 

 farm 5 plough teams : there are also 25 villeins and 

 6 cotters with 14 teams amongst them. There is a 

 mill worth 2s. a year and one fishery, a church and 

 four acres of meadow, wood for 150 pigs and two 

 stone quarries, each worth 2s. a year, and two nests 

 of hawks in the wood, and ten slaves. In King 

 Edward's time the estate was worth 20 a year, after- 

 wards 15, now 24. 



(2) The king holds Lovecomb (in the Isle of Wight). 

 Sawin, a Saxon thegn, held it in King Edward's time, 

 free from all service except a land tax ; it was then 

 assessed for taxation as a hide, now for two-thirds of a 



