THE NEW DOMESDAY 245 



many others') experience that local worthies (sometimes self- 

 educated and unable to write down) pass away, and their life's 

 information, gathered at first hand, dies with them. This should 

 not (and must not) be, and the sooner we get to work on this 

 New Domesday the better. 



It is not within my province to elaborate in great detail 

 how such a regional survey should best be conducted, but it 

 may here be stated that conciseness is an ideal that should be 

 aimed at, and a series of faintly-printed one-inch maps, supple- 

 mented with notes and illustrations, should form a basis of the 

 records. The present need of the movement, as Mr Fagg points 

 out, is what may be termed a conspectus setting forth in outline, 

 and in detail, the field to be surveyed. " If," he says, " we had 

 a good general conspectus, it could be adapted to the needs of 

 any given region by the local Survey Society." 



Perhaps a few brief notes may be given by way of suggestion. 

 The first decision to be arrived at is the region, to be surveyed. 

 Maps on the one-inch scale will, as a rule, be large enough for the 

 records, but for field work the six-inch maps are the most gener- 

 ally useful. A parish basis is, perhaps, preferable to any other, 

 but these suggestive ideas are merely set out for what they may be 

 worth, and to help forward the New Domesday which I have in 

 mind, and upon which, as a matter of fact, I am now at work in 

 my own district. 



A point not to be lost sight of is to keep in view the work of 

 kindred Societies and helpers, so that there is a co -related interest, 

 and overlapping may thus be avoided. 



A good geological map of the district to be surveyed is most 

 essential, and a contour map is also of importance. Both these 

 maps should also be reproduced in transparent form so as to 

 place over other maps, as, by these comparative means, much 

 interesting information is pertinently displayed. 



Meteorological maps are essential, as also maps devoted to 

 Sources and Flow of Streams, Communications, Footpaths, 

 Railways, and Accessibility to Railway Stations, Population, 

 Civil Organisation (Past and Present), Ecclesiastical Parishes, 

 Archaeology, Buildings, Ponds, Pits, Animal and Plant Life, and 

 the rest. 



The regional study of vegetation has already made consider- 

 able progress during the twentieth century. Field botany is 

 coming unto its own, and the results already obtained have been 

 admirably summarised in " Types of British Vegetation," edited 



