( 6 ) 



are admirably adapted to produce timber ^ 

 yet the furface of it, is in general, poor 3 

 and could never have admitted, even if the 

 times had allowed, any high degree of cul- 

 tivation. Upon the v^hole therefore, it 



does not feem pojible, that William could 

 have fpread fo wide a depopulation through 

 this country, as he is reprefented to have 

 done. 



On the other hand, there is no contending 

 againfl: the ftream of hiftory : and tho we 

 may allow that William could make no great 

 depopulation , we muft not fuppofe he made 

 none. Many writers, who lived about his time, 

 unite in lamentable complaints of his devaf- 

 tations. According to them, at leaft thirty miles 

 of cultivated lands were laid wafte; above fifty 

 parifh-churches, and many villages deflroyedj 

 and all the inhabitants extirpated*. But it is 



to 



* In fylva, quae vocatur nova foreila, ecclefias, et villas 

 cradicari ; gentem extiipari ; et a feris fecit inhabitaii. Hen. 

 de Huntingdon. 



Nova regia forefta, anglice Ytene, quam Gulielmus baf- 

 tardus, hominibus fugatis, defeitis villis, et fubreptis ec- 

 cleiLs per 30, et eo amplius milliaria, in faltus, et luflra 

 feraium redigit. Biompton. 



Per 



