22 THE DOMESDAY INQUEST 



But it must be remembered that statistics show society in 

 a state of rest. A rate-book gives certain statistics of the 

 present condition of a village ; it tells the names of the 

 present inhabitants who are householders, the values of their 

 houses, and the areas of their farms ; but it gives no hint of the 

 new houses that have been built, of those that have fallen into 

 decay, of the families who have left the village, or of the farms 

 that have been consolidated. From it you learn nothing of 

 the forces that are making for the depopulation of the villages 

 or for the growth of the large towns. If these changes are to 

 be studied, the rate-book of to-day must be compared with the 

 rate-book of twenty years ago. 



Domesday Book gives statistics for two periods : for " the 

 day on which King Edward was quick and dead," January 

 5, 1066, and for the time at which the inquiry was held, the 

 year 1086 ; so that something can be learnt of the forces that 

 were exerting themselves during the reign of the Conqueror. 

 But it tells of no other forces. Like a rate-book, it takes 

 existing institutions as } 'aits accomplis> and does not even hint 

 at the long, slow, and often painful processes by which these 

 institutions have been evolved. , 



The ordinary tourist, who has no knowledge of archi- 

 tecture, visits a cathedral, and pronounces it very beautiful ; 

 but he knows nothing, and can understand nothing, of the 

 generations of workmen who have contributed towards its 

 beauty. The Norman arches, the Early English windows, 

 the Perpendicular clerestory, have no meaning for him. 

 Similarly, the Norman invaders found in this country certain 

 institutions to which they gave the name of " manor," 

 "hundred," and "county." They found certain classes of 

 men, to whom they applied the terms of " villans," " bordars," 

 " freemen, and " sokemen." They accepted these institutions 

 and these classes of men, and asked no question as to the 

 manner in which they had been evolved. 



In these pages we shall follow their example, and study 



