ELEVENTH CENTURY.
61
tun, their were opened in most of the cities of Italy and France, by qualified persons amongboth the laity and clergy. But though iheir general introduction and establishment, must be assigned to this period, yet it is certain that Charlemagne foondeaseTeiaJ in his dominions ; and long bemre his leign, St. Augustine was an usher in a school. His business was to presideover the dress,moral8, gait, Sic. of his pupils, and sit with them in a kind of anti-«chool, separated from the principal school by a curtain. Here they said their lessons to the usoer, before they went to the master ; when the curtain was drawn bkck. In the middle ages, there were distinct schools for clerks, for laymen, and for girls ; and two hundred children at a time ate represented as learning their letters. Itine- rant schoolmasters were also common. The whole of the education, however, even of those of the highest ranks, seldom went beyond reading and writing, and the more simple rules of arithmetic. — It is generally the fate of discoveries that are made prematurely, and under unfavourable cir- cumstances, either to be strangled in their birtb,or to struggle through a very short and useless ex- istence. Had the art of printing been invented during the deepest ignorance and gloom of the dark ages, its value and importance would not hare been appreciated, and it might gradually lure sunk into neglect and total oblivion. Books were indeed, excessively rare, and dear ; but very tew sought for them, for few had the curiosity or ability to read, and fewer, the money to purchase them. After thetenth century, literature Degan to lerire ; paper from linen rags was invented ; and a tendency to commerce appeared. This caused agndual accumulation of capita], and rendered necessary some attention to learning.
1086. Th« peaceable state of William's aflairs gave him leisure to finish an undertaking which pTDves his great and extensive genius, and does hononr to his memory. It was a general survey of all Eng-land ; their extent in each district, tbeir propnetors, tenures, value, the quantitr of meadow, pasture, wo«d, and arable kmd, and of all denominations who lived upon them. This valuable piece of antiquity, was called Doomtday £ooi.
The name oiDom Boe, or Doomsday Book, has most commonly been derived from the Saxon Dtm^dovmy orjndgment, alluding by metaphor, to those books, out of which the world shall be jnd«d at the last day. But although its won- derful minuteness in the survey of British pro- pettT might have made this the original of its title, yet its Latin names do not support it, since ihey signify only the Winchester Rolls, the Writings of the King's Treasury, the King's Bo(^ the Judicial Book, the Assessment of England, $cc The design of the work was to acne a^ register of the possessions of every English freeman, although it is still doubted whether it were done to record the names and divisions of England, in imitation of the Win- diester Roll of Alfred ; to ascertain what quan- tity of military service was owed by King William's chief temmts; to affix the nomage
due to the sovereign ; ot to record by what tenure the various estates of Britain were held. The survey was, however, undertaken by the advice and consent of a great council of the kingdom, whic!i met immediately after the false rumour of the Danes' intended attack upon England, in the year lOt^, as it is stated in the Saxon chro- nicle, and it did not occupy long in the execu- tion, since all the historians who speak of it vary but from the year 1083 until 1087. There is a memorandum at the end of the second volume, stating that it was finished in 1086. The man- ner of performing this survey was expeditious; — certain commissioners, called the King's Justi- ciaries, were appointed to travel throughout England, and to register upon the oaths of the sheriiTs, the lords of each manor, the priests of every church, the stewards of every hundred, the bailiffs and six villeins,* or husbandmen of every village, the names of the various places, the holders of them in the time of King Kdward the Confessor, forty years previous; the names of the possessors, the quantity of land, the nature of the tenants, and the several kinds of property contained in them. All the estates were to b« then triply rated; namely,. as they stood in the reign oi the Confessor; as they were first be- stowed by King William I. and as they were at the time of the sur\-ey.
The manuscript itself, consists of two volumes, a greater and a less. The first of these is a large fouo, containing the description of thirty-one counties, upon 382 double pages of vellum, numliered on one side only, and written in a small but plain character, each page having a double column. Some of the capiuJ letters, and principal passages, are touched with red ink, and others have red lines run through them, as if they were intended to be obliterated. The smaller volume is of a 4to size, and is written upon 450 double pages of vellum, but in a single column, and in a very large and fair character; it con- tains three counties, and a part of two others. A perfect idea of the appearance of the Doomt- day Book may be had on reference to the fac- similies engraved for the Reports of the Com- missioners of the Public Records, whence the foregoing account has been abstracted; to Re- gistrum Honoris de Richmond ; to the History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester, by John Nichols, to Collections for the History of Worcestershire, by the Rev. Threadway iiash, D. D., and to The History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey, by Uie Rev. Owen Man- ning, and William Bray.f
Tbere are, however, other manuscripts known by the name of Doomsday; as a third sur- vey was also made by the Conqueror, and a
• Villeins were tlioM. who were sold with the land, bat could not be removed, lilte the slaves., wlio could l>e sold from one person to another.
t The Doomsday Book, was, until 1699, kept under three loclcs, the keys of which were in the custody of the treasu- rer and the two chamberlains of the Exchequer ; but it is now deposited in the Chapter- house, at Westminster, where the fee for consulting it is 6*. t^d. and for transcripts from it, 4d. per line. For an account of the printing of the Doomsdajr Boolt, sec i767po$l.
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