TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 137 



between the Danes and the Northumbrian Angles, which, though it did not pre- 

 vent sanguinary struggles between them at first and great destruction of life, must 

 have made amalgamation easy, and led the natives readily to adopt some of the 

 characteristics of the invaders. 



Whatever the Danish element in Yorkshire was, it was common to Lincolnshire 

 and Nottinghamshire and to the north-eastern part of Norfolk, and it was com- 

 paratively weak in Northumberland and even in Durham. In Yorkshire itself it 

 was irregularly distributed, the local names in by, toft, and thwaite and the 

 like being scattered in a more or less patchy manner, as may be seen on Mr. 

 Taylor's map. They are very prevalent in Cleveland, as lias been shown by Mr. 

 Atkinson. Again, the long list of the landowners of the county under Edward 

 the Confessor, given in Domesday book, contains a mixture of Anglian with 

 Scandinavian names, the latter not everywhere -preponderating. Here, again, 

 Cleveland comes out very Danish. I am inclined to believe that the Anglian 

 population was, in the first fury of the invasion, to some extent pushed westwards 

 into the hill-country of the West Riding, though even here distinctly Danish 

 names, such as Sowerby, are quite common. Beverley and Holderness perhaps 

 remained mainly Anglian. 



The Norman conquest fell upon Yorkshire, and parts of Lancashire and Durham, 

 with uaexampled severity. It would seem that the statement of William of 

 Malmesbury, that the land lay waste for many years through the length of 60 miles, 

 was hardly, if at all, exaggerated. The thoroughness and the fatal effects of this 

 frightful devastation were due, no doubt, partly to the character of William, who, 

 having once conceived the design, carried it out with as much completeness and 

 regidarity as ferocity, and partly to the nature of the couatry, the most populous 

 portion of which was level and devoid of natural fastnesses or refuge — but also, in 

 some degree to the fact that the Northumbrians had arrived at a stage of material 

 civilization at which such a mode of warfare would be much more formidable than 

 while they were in a more barbarous condition, always prepared for fire and sword, 

 and living, as it were, from hand to mouth. Long ages afterwards the Scots told 

 Froissart's informants that they could afford to despise the incursions of the English, 

 who could do them little harm beyond burning their houses, which they could soon 

 build up again with sticks and tui'fj but the unhappy Northumbrians were already 

 beyond that stage. 



In all Yorkshire, including parts of Lancashire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland, 

 Domesday numbers only about 500 freemen, and not 10,000 men altogether. This 

 great destruction, or rather loss of population (for it was due in some measure to 

 the free or forced emigration to Scotland of the vanquished), did not necessarily 

 imply ethnological change. Let us examine the evidence of Domesday on this 

 point. It agrees with that of William of Malmesbury, that the void created by 

 devastation remained a void, either entirely or to a great extent. Whole parishes 

 and districts are returned as "waste." In one instance IIG freemen (sockmanni) 

 are recorded to have held land in King Edward's time, of whom not one remained; 

 in another, of 108 sokemen only 7 remained. But foreigners did settle in the 

 county to some extent, either as military retainers of the new Norman lords, as their 

 tenants, or as burgesses in the city of York, where 145 francigense (Frenchmen) 

 are recorded as inhabiting houses. 



Of the number maintained by way of garrisons by the new nobility, one can 

 form no estimate ; but considering the impoverished and helpless condition of the 

 surviving natives, such garrisons would probably not be large. But from the 

 enumeration of mesne tenants, or middlemen, some inferences may perhaps be 

 drawn. On six great estates, comprising the larger part of Eastern aud Central 

 Yorkshire, sixty-eight of these tenants are mentioned by name, besides 11 milites, 

 or men-at-arms. Only 11 of the 68 bear names undoubtedly English ; and none of 

 them have large holdings, as is the case witli some of those bearing Norman names. 

 On the lands of Drogo de Bevrere, about Holderness, several of the new settlers 

 were apparently Flemings. 



The westernpart of the county, however, or the greater part of it, had been 

 granted to two lords who pursued a more generous policy. Alan, count of Bretagne, 

 the founder of Richmond, had twenty-three tenants, besides twelve milites, men- 



1873. 10 



