ix.] DISTRIBUTION OF LAND IN ENGLAND. 33 



IX. 



EFFECT OF THE NORMAN CONQUEST ON THE 

 DISTRIBUTION OF LAND. 



THE statements contained in Domesday Book do 

 not, I think, lead us to believe, that the Norman 

 Conquest occasioned any very material effect on the 

 magnitude of landed estates in England. The grants 

 made to the immediate vassals of the Crown were, 

 it is true, in many instances very extensive, but 

 probably did not comprise more manors than were 

 held by the Earls or Ealdormen and other great 

 landowners previously to the battle of Hastings. 

 Mr. Furley in his interesting and learned work on 

 the Weald of Kent, vol. i., p. 233, points out that 

 before the Conquest, there were in that county 

 eleven immediate tenants of the Crown, and after 

 the Conquest there remained the same number, 

 notwithstanding the substitution of Normans for 

 Saxons in the lay fees. 



But whether the Norman tenants in cainte held 

 greater possessions than the Saxon magnates or not, 



D 



