154 History of the English Laiided Intei'est. 



by pilot ozincography under the supervision of the Ordnance 

 Survey Department, and in 1872 the Local Government Board 

 undertook a general return of the owners of the land, which 

 was published in 1876. Up to 1522 the taxes were levied 

 according to the divisions in the original survey, after that 

 date according to those in the newer work. 



Except for the scant information of the chroniclers, the 

 Liber Niger of Peterborough, the Pipe Rolls, and a few char- 

 ters, this book is our only source for nearly two succeeding 

 centuries of the nation's social life. Professor Rogers, who 

 devoted upwards of a quarter of a century to research, has 

 given out as his belief that neither farm account nor manor 

 roll existed before the last twelve years of Henry the Third's 

 Reign. From Domesday Book, therefore, must be extracted 

 whatever will throw light on the land history of Conquest 

 daj's. Perhaps the most noticeable feature in the work is the 

 care bestowed on the accurate returns of the national posses- 

 sions in live stock. This excites little surprise if we bear in 

 mind that personal property in those days was far more valu- 

 able than real. The intrinsic value of flocks and herds 

 exceeded that of the pastures which contained them, almost 

 as much as the value of a banker's bullion exceeds that of the 

 strong room which holds it. This fact also explains another 

 characteristic of the age, viz, the comparative opulence of 

 younger sons, who by inheriting their father's personalty often 

 came into possession of his live stock, to which the custom 

 of primogeniture seldom extended. In fact, the bequest of 

 Norman times was often of greater value than the demise. 

 But perhaps the chief proof of the low value attached to real 

 property in the medisBval age may be sought in the inaccuracy 

 of the land measures. Hitherto a few loose and general re- 

 marks have sufficed when discussing the hide. Now, however, 

 when Domesday Book teems with statistics relating to land 

 areas, we can no longer shirk the question. What, then, was 

 meant by the terms Hide, Carucate, Mansum, ox-gang, plough- 

 land, etc., etc., which constantly crop up either in Domesday 

 Book or the earlier charters ? The latter were to the land- 

 owner what the former had been to the king, and when we 



