PREFACE 



IN the following pages I have attempted to provide an 

 account of Domesday Book, and the various terms used 

 therein, which will be of assistance to those who are 

 studying the history of the place in which they live, and have 

 no good library to which to turn. Domesday problems are 

 so many and have been treated by so many authorities, that 

 it is rarely that even a first-class private library contains all the 

 works to which reference should be made ; especially when it 

 is remembered that some of the most valuable studies on 

 Domesday Book are hidden away in the transactions of 

 local archaeological societies. Non cuivis attingit adire 

 Bodleianam. 



It is to help such students that I have restated the 

 elementary teaching which is the basis of all advanced study, 

 and is always presupposed in the valuable Domesday intro- 

 ductions in the various volumes of the Victoria County 

 Histories now being issued. 



The plan of this book is very simple. The statistics 

 contained in Domesday Book were compiled in answer to 

 certain questions accidentally preserved in the Ely Inquest, 



xiii 



