Feb., 1890. 
PHOTOGRAPHIC SURVEY OF WARWICKSHIRE. 
41 
As in Leofric’s time the population of Coventry was only 
350, while the houses were but one storey high, with a door 
and no windows, the legend of “ Peeping Tom” is in the highest 
degree incredible. As a fact, the tale probably originated 
during the latter part of the seventeenth century. Possibly 
some future historian will find in “ Peeping Tom” the proto¬ 
type of the man who carries a detective camera. 
Many Saxon laws and customs have survived down to our 
own times ; and to the Saxon rulers, in fact, we owe the 
very outlining of our county, as indicated by the word 
“shire.” They divided the “shire” into large divisions 
called “hundreds,” and in Warwickshire we have:— 
I.—Hundred of Hemlingford, including Birmingham, 
Solihull, Atlierstone, Tamworth, etc. 
II.—Hundred of Barlichway, including Alcester, Strat¬ 
ford, Henley-in-Arden, etc. 
III.—Hundred of Kington (or Kineton), including 
Warwick and the south-east of the county. 
IY.—Hundred of Knightlow, including Kenilworth, Rugby, 
Soutliam, etc. 
V.—Coventry, with a district around it, known as the 
“ County of Coventry.” 
It is possible that these “ Hundreds ” may form con¬ 
venient sub-divisions for the purposes of our photographic 
survey ; in which case the Birmingham Photographic Society 
would naturally commence with the Hundred of Hemling¬ 
ford, whose area is about one-fourtli (say 220 square miles) of 
that of the entire county. It is somewhat unfortunate that 
our city of Birmingham should be situated on the extreme 
north-west margin of the county; but the “ county,” as a 
unit, is so much superior to any other that it must, perforce, 
be adopted. 
Mediaeval Warwickshire. —With the conquest of England 
by the Normans, in 1066, the written history of Warwick¬ 
shire may practically be said to commence. In the Domesday 
Book we have a survey of the county, which includes the 
names of all the possessors of land, with the area and value 
of their possessions. With the Normans, too, we get the 
first important building operations—they erected many 
churches and castles. 
The monuments of the mediaeval age (which extended 
from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries) include the most 
striking buildings in Warwickshire. The great castles of 
Warwick and of Kenilworth were, until the invention of 
