Archæology.

socman had or lias . All was to be triply estimated ; first , as the estate was held in the time of the Confessor ; then , as it was bestowed by King William ; and thirdly , as its value stood at the formation of the survey : and what should by no means be forgotten , the jurors were also to state whether any advance could be made in the value . It may easily be conceived that this inquisition was not very popular . The writer of the Saxon Chronicle

is hardly able to suppress his dislike of the whole proceeding , which exhibits itself in the contemptuous declaration that , shameful as it is to relate what he thought no shame to do , there was not a single hide or virgate of land—no , not an ox , or cow , or hog which did not find its place in the return . It is nevertheless undeniable that the survey was fairly and justly made , and with little or no severity , even in cases where the owners of

property refused to furnish a return . The jurors of Croyland Abbey are mentioned in terms of great commendation by Ingnlphus as ' benevoli et amentes , ' and as not making a very scrupnlons return either of the extent or value of the possessions of that house , thus anticipating and guarding against future exactions . ' The classes of tenants mentioned in the survey areafter bishops and abbotsbaronsthanesvavassoresaloarii

, , , , , , tenants in alloduins , milites , liberi , homines , socmens , radmaimi , villain ' , bordarii or cottagers , burs , servi , censorii , porcarii , homines angli or anglici—terms in general of very considerable latitude . The lands arc terra , arable land ; planum , open country ; silia and nemus , wood ; pasuagium , feeding of hogs ; pastures , pasture ; pratum , meadow land ; maresc , or mora , marsh or fen vineyards , of which the record enumerates thirty-eiht or more—indeedfew

g , of the great monasteries seem to have been without them ; mills , salt works , iron and lead , works , stone quarries , fisheries—especially of eels , herrings , and salmon—vivaria and fishpools , ad rklmn monaclwrmn . Lands are measured lry the terms hide , earucafi , solin , virgate , bovata or oxgang , acre , perca , and quarantcna , or forty of these latter . Money is computed by the libra , marc , ora , shilling , penny , halfpenny , farthing , and minuta or mite . Most

of these were computations of money , as the penny was the only coin known in England till long after the date of tlie survey ; and the halfpcmi } - and farthing were literal fractions or broken parts of the penny . It has been conjectured that the figure of the cross , which occurs so constantly on the reverse side of the pennies of a long line of sovereigns , was intended to facilitate this process of division . The customs and services mentioned as belonging to

various cities and burghs arc minute and interesting . Here arc some of these of the city of Chester : if any freeman committed burglary , and added murder to the crime , all his property was forfeited to the king , and himself made an outlaw . Airy one guilty of bloodshed between Monday morning and the ninth hour of Saturday , was to forfeit 1 . 0 s . ; if from the ninth hour of Saturday to Monday morning , 20 s . On the greater festivals manslayer ' s

forfeited Hi ; on other days , 40 * . A misbehaving widow was to forfeit 20 s . Whoever laid ' claim to land in the city , and failed to prove his right to it , forfeited 40 s . If a fire happened in the city , the person at whose house it broke out forfeited three one of 2 () i / . each . Of these forfeitures two thirds went to the king , and one third to the earl . Any man or woman giving false measure , or selling adulterated beer , forfeited Is ., or was placed in the dung chair , cathedra slcrcoris , and paid 4 s . to the bailiffs . If a trader came into the city with his packand opened it between

, the ninth hour on Saturday and Monday , or on any festival , without licence of the bishop ' s officer , he forfeited ' is . The record contains also a multitude of incidental particular in respect to markets , tenures , criminal proceedings , & c . With regard to ecclesiastical matters , it is much to lie regretted that , in the precept by which the record was directed to be made , there was no injunction to furnish a return of churches . Their mention , thereforeis accidental onl

, y . All the churches mentioned in the record do not amount to more than about 1 , 700 . This , however , is by no means even a remote approximation to the truth in this respect , as will be acknowledged when it is stated that no mention is introduced of any of the churches even in London . Of historical facts there are but few decided notices , and by far the greater number of these are accidentally introduced . Among the illustrations

of ancient manners are those of holding lands for three lives , of the ordeal , of the sport of hawking , of the custom of a widow not marrying again within a year , & c . The results which were attained by this laborious compilation fully justified the care that had been spent upon it . An exact knowledge was thereby obtained of the possessions of the Crown ; a complete list of all landowners ; a means of exactly ascertaining the military strength of the country ; a knowledge of the possibility or not of increasing the revenue ; and last , but by no means least , the possession of a register of appeal in all cases of disputed property .

Archæology.

By its means definite judgment could be given on the value , tenure , and service of all the lands in the kingdom . It does not , however , appear that any considerable result was arrived at in the way of revenue . There was a tax raised some while subsequent to its compilation of Cs . on every hide of land , but it is far from certain that we are correct in referring this impost to the previous survey . Prom what has been now advanced—and time

and our long programme will not admit of more—full though the subject is of interest , and likely , therefore , as it is to be the subject of some future communication , it is abundantly evident that the estimate entertained of it by the accomplished scholar whom I have more than once previously epioted is fully justified by the intrinsic merits of the record itself " , the study of which has occupied so long a period of his laborious and honourable life . '

Domesday Book , ' says Sir Henry Ellis , ' is a mine of information which has not yet been sufficiently wrought . Illustrations of the most important and the most certain kind upon our institutions , services , and tenures of lands , arc still to be drawn from it , and its metal cannot be exhausted by the perseverance of any single labourer . '" Mr . Bassett Smith followed with a valuable paper on the

history of the Temple and the Knights Templars . The paper traced in a graphic and lucid maimer the vise and fall of the Templars . The company then quitted the ball , and , after visiting the parliament chamber . and the library , spent a considerable time in examining the Temple church , the history of which was explained by Mr . Richardson . Leaving the church , they proceeded to the

Record Office , where , by the kind and special permission of the Master of the Rolls , "Domesday Book" was produced for their inspection . Remembering the antiquity of the volume , the visitors might have expected to find it a mass of shreds and tatters ; but , they found this old and valuable historic document as whole , as clean , and as legible as if it had been compiled yesterday . The gentlemen hi charge of the department were most courteous in

explaining all the circumstances connected with the book , the most valuable of all the valuable records in their custody . After visiting Bridewell Hospital , the day ' s proceedings were brought to a close by an inspection of Stationers' Hall , the origin , progress , and present position of which was described by Mr . J . E . Nichols , a member of the Stationers' Company , in a brief but interesting paper .

Reviews. Literature.

REVIEWS . Literature .

Before the Damn : a Tale of Italy . By KATE CKICTITOX . ( Second Edition . ) London : Charles J . Skcet , King William Street . Tn 1-: sympathy of a nation of freemen cannot but be enlisted by the recital of undeserved wrongs and cruel oppression ; and to the English reader the narrative of the sufferings of the Italians from the tyranny of their Austrian rulers is naturally fraught with the deepest interest . This feeling is shared by all classes

and by politicians of every shade of opinion , tories and liberals unite in condemning this monstrous blot upon the history of the age ; ' and with the exception of certain hoary and obstructive diplomatists , wc think that the recent liberation of Lombard } -, Parma , and the Romagna , and their amalgamation under the constitutional rule of Victor Emmanuel has been hailed by our own countrymen with universal and outspoken satisfaction . On the

other hand the disappointment of the unfortunate Venetians at the unfavourable result of negotiation and armistices as far as they are concerned , and the discontent of those inhabitants of the States of the Church who still unwillingly bear the yoke of the Holy Father , are sincerely pitied by most of us . Disguise the fact as wc may by the fine language of political disquisitions , there are few Britons who would not rejoice to hear that Venetia

had succeeded in relaxing from her throat the iron grasp of Atitsria , or that the temporal power of the Pope had been effectually abolished by a determined effort of his priestridden subjects . ' Whatever may be the actual amount of heroism displayed by the Italians when the hour of trial shall come ; and whether or not they arc at the present day possessed of sufficient national self relianceand wisdom to entitle them to

energy , , govern themselves and their own affairs according to their own discretion—still , as Christian men in civilized Europe in the nineteenth century , we cannot but acknowledge their claims to independence , nor can Ave withhold our execration at the barbarous mode in which the unrighteous dominion of the German Kaiser has been upheld by his unscrupulous satellites .