Page:Domesday Book Illustrated.pdf/17

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

[ 2 ]

afterwards[1] methodized, and formed into the record we now call Domesday; and deposited at the king's exchequer.

It is comprised in two volumes, one a large folio, the other a quarto; the first begins with Kent, and ends with Lincolnshire; is written on 382 double pages of vellum, in one and the same hand[2], in a small but plain character, each page having a double column, and containing 31 counties. After Lincolnshire (folio 373), the claims arising in the Three Ridings in Yorkshire are taken notice of and settled; then follow the claims in Lincolnshire, and the determinations of the jury upon them; (folio 375.) Lastly, from p. 379, to the end, there seems to be a re-capitulation of every wapentake or hundred in the Three Ridings of Yorkshire; of the towns in each hundred, what number of caru- cates and oxgangs are in every town, and the owners thereof placed in a very small character over them.

The other volume is in quarto, on 450 double pages of vellum, but in a single column, and in a large fair character, and contains the counties of Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk. The counties of Northumberland[3], Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Durham, are not described, neither is Lancashire, under its proper title; but Furness[4], and

  1. ↑ See note (H).
  2. ↑ Except p. 332. b. and part of 333, which contains the fee of Robert de Bruis, and is in a different character.
  3. ↑ See note (I).
  4. ↑ West's Antiquities of Furness, p. 12, 13.
I
the
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.