122 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



tribes was the land, and all they had to contend for was 

 its use. The song of the Welsh bards, while sheltering 

 themselves among their mountains against the attack of 

 the Saxons, was, "Never shall we yield to our enemies 

 the fertile lands watered by the Wye." The Saxons, 

 in their turn, fought in defence of their lands against 

 the Normans, and the first result of the great conquest 

 of the eleventh century was a division of the land among 

 the victorious invaders. 



The paramount importance attached by the Normans to 

 possession of the soil is exhibited in that extraordinary 

 relic which shows the mind of the conquerors ; it is 

 unique of its kind, found only in England, and has exer- 

 cised a great influence on the subsequent development of 

 the country. I mean that general survey of properties, 

 executed about the year 1080, by order of William the 

 Conqueror, and called by the dispossessed Saxons Dooms- 

 day Book, because it established for ever the almost entire 

 dispossession of their race. This book, still preserved 

 in the Exchequer, is the starting-point of English pro- 

 perty, and to this day continues to be the great authority 

 on rights of tenure, no title being strictly legal except that 

 which may be traced back to this first source. No nation 

 can boast of the possession of a record so ancient, so de- 

 tailed, or so authentic. About fifteen years had elapsed 

 after the battle of Hastings when Doomsday Book was 

 commenced. The new proprietors had been for some 

 years settled on their estates, and most of them were 

 already engaged in agriculture. They reared a great 

 number of horses and cattle ; an old record of the time, 

 making mention of one of them, says, Multum agricul- 

 tures deditus ac in jumentorum et pecorum midtitudine 

 plurimum delectatus. The work ordered by William had 

 for its object not only the registration of the names of 



