THE HAMPSHIRE ANTIQUARY & NATURALIST. 



55 



but to manors. He should like to see a map of Hamp- 

 shire \vith the outlines ot manors as they existed in 

 the Doomsday Book. He did not think that beyond 

 possibility. If the Hampshire Record Society, with its 

 250 members, went on with its useful work and it 

 was now issuing its third volume he should cer- 

 tainly propose that it should produce a manorial 

 map. The unit of organised life in the county was 

 the manor. There were the old Courts Baron. 

 Besides these there were three or four distinct courts. 

 First of all was the Shire Court represented in 

 modern days by Quarter Sessions, called then 

 the Shire Gemot, meeting at stated times ; and then 

 the " Hundred" Courts them^st difficult to trace, 

 but the most interesting. In addition to these were 

 the courts of Liberties, such as the borough courts, 

 the Burgh Mote, or Court Leet as it was called 

 in Southampton. They were a relic of the ancient 

 liberties of the town. In addition, scattered over the 

 whole of Hampshire, were the old Manor courts. To 

 understand history rightly they must understand the 

 courts. The Saxon way was to make every man a 

 policeman, to look after every other man. A frank 

 pledge had to be given for every boy above a specified 

 age for his good behaviour. An interesting 

 description was given of the manner in which 

 this pledge was enforced, and Mr. Shore then 

 explained the conditions under which Courts 

 Baron and Courts Leet could be held, naming places 

 where they continued to the present day, and also 

 denning the divisions of tythings and trythings. 

 Passing on to consider the state of society in Hamp- 

 shire in the Anglo-Saxon period, and the privileges 

 of different classes of Thanes, he mentioned that before 

 the Norman Conquest there existed a relic of the old 

 Roman coloni. The existence of traces of the Coli- 

 berti in Hampshire was further dealt with, and the 

 origin of land measurement was also noticed. The 

 settlement of the Jutes in Hampshire was very in- 

 teresting, but he must pass it by. He must also pass 

 by, to a large extent, any remarks on the Danes and 

 Norsemen till they came to the days of 

 Canute. Canute impressed his individuality a 

 great deal upon this county. He was a 

 man who finally made laws which regulated 

 the action in his day of that ancient law of distress 

 and pounds. He laid down this law, amongst others 

 and no doubt it had great influence on the institu- 

 tions of the country that no man should take his 

 distress from another man till he had applied three 

 times to the Hundred Court for redress. If he got it, 

 well and good ; if not, he must appeal to the Shire- 

 gemot, meeting at Winchester. If that would not 

 give him redress, he had to get what remedy he 

 could. Former writers thought this meant appeal to 

 the king, but it was nothing of the kind. It simply 

 meant that he might put in force the extra-judicial 

 system of distress. Canute also made efforts to stamp 

 out the old paganism. They sometimes read of the 

 missionary labours of St. Augustine and Birinus, but, 



as a matter of fact, the struggle to uproot paganism was 

 as great and fierce as anything in these days in India. 

 There was abundant proof that the people in this 

 county showed a stubborn adherence to the forms and 

 ceremonies of their old forefathers. The early 

 Christianity as prevailing in Hampshire and other 

 counties must have b;en largely tinge 1 with the old 

 paganism. If he had time he would tell of the old 

 churches built on the old pagan mounds in 1 lampshire, 

 in accordance with general instructions received from 

 Rome by various Christian missionaries. The laws 

 of Canute were very severe. He ordered that all 

 groves and stones and the worship of trees and fire, 

 all these very old pagan customs, should be sup- 

 pressed. When he looked at Stonehenge, and saw 

 that wonderful old circle, no doubt of pagan origin in 

 reverence of the sun, and saw the destroyed state in 

 which the remains were in the present day, he could 

 but think that it must have been in accordance with 

 this decree of Canute issued in ail probability from 

 Southampton that they now saw it in this dis- 

 organised, partly thrown down and demolished 

 condition. Canute did his best to suppress and 

 thoroughly exterminate all pagan customs, but 

 he was not successful. There was plenty of 

 evidence that old pagan customs lived after, 

 in the nominal form of Christianity, down to the 

 time ot Henry III. The rise of feudalism was very 

 curious in England, and, indeed, in Hampshire. The 

 Norman Conquest affected Hampshire less than many 

 counties, because it did not take a great part against 

 William. After the Conquest a great number of thanes 

 were allowed to retain their land. Thanes were 

 different from Knights, the former having but three 

 obligations, and the Knights having great burdens to 

 bear. They must recognise as one of the ^reat bases 

 of Hampshire history the way in which land was held. 

 According to the Doomsday book more than half 

 Hampshire at that time was common land. There were 

 two classes : the demesne land, held by the lord ; 

 and the common land, by villeins and borderers. 

 The conditions of the land-holding were set fort li by 

 Mr. Shore, who spoke next ot the Sheriff a most 

 important man in the middle ages his duties, re- 

 sponsibilities, and jurisdiction. In this connection 

 an "exchequer tally" was shown, by means of 

 which, down to as late as 1719, the Sheriffs had 

 their receipts for the contributions conveyed by 

 them to London. The existence of local govern- 

 ment, in the form of the Shiregcmot, was next dis- 

 cussed, together with the operations of the manorial 

 courts. Having referred to certain old officials, 

 now superseded, Mr. Shore spoke of markets 

 and fairs, and of the privilege it was considered to be 

 allowed to open a shop. The matters he had referred 

 to, he continued, formed part of the basis on which 

 the history of the county rested. The administra- 

 tion of justice was another item in the later period 

 after the Norman Conquest, for all large manors then 

 seemed to have emulated each other in trying to get 



