THE PURPOSE OF DOMESDAY BOOK 9 



rest of the week, it was not to point out the wholesomeness 

 of the law against sabbath-breaking, but because the King 

 received 40^. instead of 2os. " Murder, theft, and incontinence 

 were regarded in Domesday Book, not as moral offences, but 

 as sources of profit for the King." 



This view of Domesday Book explains both its contents 

 and its omissions. In a modern valuation list we are never 

 told the numbers of the villagers' families, nor the trades of 

 the villagers ; we must not, therefore, expect to find information 

 of this nature in the record before us. 



A well-known instance of a search in Domesday for in- 

 formation which it does not contain is given in Pepys' Diary 

 for December 21,1661: "There I spoke to Mr. Falconbridge 

 to look whether he could out of Domesday Book give me 

 anything about the sea, and the dominion thereof." Such a 

 question would have been impossible to a man who under- 

 stood that Domesday Book was merely a valuation list. But 

 mistakes of a somewhat similar nature are made to-day. In 

 the spring of 1905 a well-known firm of auctioneers advertised 

 the sale of an estate in Surrey ; among its attractions were the 

 old trees in the park, "one of which is said to have been 

 mentioned in Domesday Book." It is possible that the 

 Domesday statistics of this property mention the wood of the 

 manor, but it is perfectly safe to state that there is no passage 

 in Domesday Book referring to a specific tree. 



It is possible that the King had also other aims in his 

 mind. Under the English kings, all the inhabitants of the 

 kingdom could be called out to resist an invader ; the bulk 

 of Harold's army at Hastings was composed of a levy of 

 the southern counties ; the force which Bishop Thurstan, 

 a generation later, led to victory at the Battle of the 

 Standard was a general levy of the northern counties, to 

 which each village sent its contingent, headed by its priest. 

 The Conqueror naturally wished to know how many men 

 could be put in the field if occasion required, and hence the 



