POLITICAL HISTORY 



a line of wasted manors along William's route to Exeter. The Worcester 

 chronicler says, ' he harried all the land he overran.' ^ The traces of a 

 conquering army, supported by the lands it traverses, will hardly be obliter- 

 ated after twenty years, even though a January campaign will not cause the 

 same damage as one undertaken in spring or early summer. But a map of 

 the decreased or increased values of manors in 1087, as compared with the 

 T.R.E. period, is barren of geographical results. Depreciation here evidently 

 depended upon individual circumstances. Thus the lands of the widow of 

 Hugh FitzGrip (' Hugh of Wareham ' first Norman sheriff) have fallen in 

 value in most cases. No doubt the woman could not manage them as advan- 

 tageously as her husband. It is, however, only fair to add that though Hugh 

 had ' reft unjustly ' one hide of the manor of Abbotsbury from the monks of 

 that foundation, his wife ' since detained six unjustly.' ^ The lands of the 

 church have very generally doubled and even trebled in value,* probably in 

 consequence of a more progressive agriculture and an increase in applied 

 capital, both due to a new personnel. Exceptions tending to prove the rule 

 are the lands of St. Mary of Glastonbury and of Bishop Odo of Bayeux. 

 Against the former William had ever a grudge, and he seized 4 hides in 

 Bagbere, part of the manor of Sturminster Newton, belonging to this monas- 

 tery, and gave them to his cook Goscelin. The Bishop of Bayeux was under 

 forfeiture at the date of the survey.* 



Far otherwise was it with the Dorset boroughs.^ Dorchester, Bridport, 

 Shaftesbury, and Wareham suffered heavily, on the authority of Domesday 

 itself. Wareham illustrates the ' tenurial heterogeneity ' of the typical old 

 English borough. 



T.R.E. there were 143 houses of the king's, now there are only 70 houses, 73 are 

 waste. The Abbey of Fontanelle (the Norman house, S. Wandragesil) had 62 houses, 

 45 remain and 1 7 are waste. Other holders had 80 houses, of which 20 still remain, and 

 60 are destroyed.* 



It is this destruction of town houses which has given rise to the story of the 

 participation of the Dorset towns in ' the Civic League.' 



But there are at least two other causes which would account for such 

 house destruction at that date. One such was castle-building, and the 

 necessity for an open space around the castle to prevent fire or the use of 

 adjacent houses by a hostile body of troops.^ But Bridport certainly and 

 Shaftesbury probably did not so early possess Norman castles ; and though it 

 has been claimed, but without certainty, that Dorchester Castle dates from 

 this time,* the case of Wareham is beset with difficulties. The ' castellum de 

 Warham ' surveyed under Kingston ^ is undoubtedly Corfe,^" and yet the wars 

 of Stephen and Matilda and the Pipe Rolls of John " show the presence of a 

 castle at Wareham likewise, which may or may not have been built by 



' Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Sen), i, 340. 



' Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), i, 78. Hugh also took a virgate at Portisham from Abbotsbury Abbey, and the 

 manor of Tatton from the Abbey of Cerne. 



' Dugdale, Mon. Angl. (cd. 18 17), ii, 472. 



* His manor of Rampisham T.R.E. was worth ^^lo ; T.R.W. only [fi ; Dom. Bk. i, 77. 



' Round, Feudal Engl. 436, 437. ° Dom. Bk. \, 75. 



' Engl. Hist. Rev. xx, 7 1 o. 



' Hutchins, op. cit. ii, 365. It only certainly existed in 1 176. Pipe R. 22 Hen. II, m. 9 J. 



' Dom. Bk. i, 78. '" Eyton, Key to Dorset Dom. 43, iii, n. 2. ; Round, Feudal Engl. 339. 



" Pipe Rolls, 6, 8, 9, 10 John, under ' Honour of Gloucester.' 



2 129 ^7 



