NOTES ON A BOOK CALLED DOMESDAY. 35 



It is called "Domesday," not Domesday Book. Proof that 

 Domesday is the right name will appear later. Its purpose, in 

 part, like that of the Conqueror's greater and earlier book of similar 

 name, appears to have been to be a record, amounting to legal 

 evidence, of sales and bequests. It helped the deemster, the judge, 

 to arrive at his sentence, that which he deemed to be just and 

 right, the doom. The book is of parchment, 1ft. Sin. by 1ft., and 

 containing 171 leaves according to the numbering, but really about 

 nine more. The book is in thick oak boards, stamped calf, with 

 bossed scutcheons of brass, with Tudor badges on them. But for 

 want of space the binding might be more fully described. In 

 archaic picturesqueness it sets the book far above any other 

 belonging to the Corporation of Dorchester, or those of Weymouth, 

 or (I think) Bridport. The date of the book is doubtless about 

 that of the earliest entry viz., 18, Kic. II., 1394. 



We come now to the contents of this book, first generally, then 

 more specifically. Taken generally the volume begins with a code 

 of bye-laws relating to the borough and to this book. Then follow 

 several leaves containing enrolments out of order, being later than 

 those which follow. After these we come to what seems to be f. i. 

 of the original book. This part of the volume, up to about f. cliii., 

 is kept with much care and order. It contains enrolments as after 

 specified ; and at the top of each page appear the names of the 

 Borough Bailiffs for the time being, and the year of the reigning 

 sovereign. After f. cliv. there is less regularity, both in method of 

 enrolment and in the nature of the deeds recorded. We hasten 

 now to speak of the contents a little more in detail. The first 

 record, that containing the bye-laws, is a minute of a Curia 

 Legalis held on the Monday after Michaelmas, 1415, before 

 T. Wyke and W. Forde, Bailiffs. An inquisition was held "per 

 viginti quatuor probos homines et legales." They enact about 

 22 bye-laws. Nine others are added in different ink and writing, 

 and then comes another, again different. The original laws are in 

 ink of a somewhat greenish hue. Only a very few of the 

 regulations can be specified. The first orders that no carcases shall 



