130 LANDOWNING IN NORTHUMBERLAND 



the evidence of the stone and of the flint period would lead 

 us to believe that long before the advent of the Eomans 

 some rude form of agriculture must have been exercised by 

 the numerous inhabitants of the land, and that districts must 

 have been in the possession of tribes or families. 



The departure of the Eomans, a.d. 409, was followed by 

 centuries of wars and invasions, race succeeding race, as 

 they successively landed and gained a footing upon our 

 shores, until the advent of the Normans under William the 

 Conqueror in 1066 introduced a strong and settled govern- 

 ment in the land, though for some generations afterwards 

 the northern part of England remained in an unsettled and 

 only partially conquered state. 



With the Normans the military tenure was introduced 

 into England, and William parcelled out the country among 

 his chief barons and retainers, which grants constitute the 

 baronies known as such throughout the country, many of 

 which exist to this day ; while of others there remains but 

 the memory of a name, chaunted, it may be, in some old 

 song, or told in some old legend "of the good old times" — 



In days of yore, those good and golden days 

 Which all who know them not so warmly praise." 



— Service Legends. 



The Doomesday Book of 1068, which remains, even in our 

 day, as a record of the patience and industry of that age, 

 contains a wonderful account of the lands and tenures in 

 England in the time of the Conqueror. Unfurtunately the 

 northern extremity of the kingdom was in too unsettled a 

 state to admit of Northumberland being included in that 

 survey, and we have to wait the production of "The Bolden 

 Book," by Bishop Pudsey, in 1170, and "The Testa de 

 Nevil," (time of Henrj' III.) for a record of the lands and 

 holdings in this county. 



Though the county of Northumberland was not included 

 in the Doomesday Book of 1068, and only partially subdued, 

 William the Conqueror appears to have exercised sovereignty 

 over it, as we find that he granted "the seignory or fran- 



