20 THE DOMESDAY INQUEST 



The descriptions of the counties north of the Thames are 

 all (except Middlesex and Derby) modelled on the same 

 plan. At the head of each county is a long entry relating to 

 the county borough the borough which gave its name to the 

 shire. These borough entries vary in length : the account of 

 Chester fills three and a half columns, while Bedford is sum- 

 marized in seven lines. A blank sheet is inserted at the 

 beginning of the Middlesex Domesday, as if the scribes had 

 originally intended that an account of London should be there 

 inserted. Following the survey of the borough are sometimes 

 a few lines dealing with the dues paid to the King by the 

 county as a whole, and then follows an index of the landowners 

 in the shire, which in its turn is followed by the details of 

 their possessions compiled in the manner before described. 

 South of the Thames we find a difference only in the matter 

 of the county boroughs. 



With regard to the index of landowners in any county, 

 students must be warned that the order in which the names of 

 the landowners appear in the index often differs from the 

 order in which they appear in the text of the Survey. Some- 

 times this difference is very material. In the index of 

 Leicestershire owners, Hugh, Earl of Chester, is No. 13 ; but 

 in the actual Survey his name was omitted in its proper place, 

 and he appears as No. 43. 



For centuries these two volumes were kept, with the other 

 records of the Exchequer, at Winchester, under three locks 

 and keys, in the charge of the Auditor, Chamberlains, and 

 Deputy-Chamberlains of the Exchequer, until in 1698 they 

 were removed to the Chapter House at Westminster ; since 

 1857 they have been deposited in the Public Record Office in 

 Chancery Lane. 



By order of the Record Commission they were printed 

 from a specially cut fount of type, in 1783, at a cost of 

 38,000, but the type was destroyed in the fire at Mr. 

 Nicholl's printing-office in 1808. The work was carried out 



