The Psuedo-Ingulf's version runs:

It will be seen how skilfully the author of this famous forgery brings in the names of real people while confusing their connection and their dates. Richard de Rullos, for instance, was living shortly before 1130, yet is here described as living under the Conqueror, though represented as marrying the great granddaughter of a man who was himself in the prime of life in 1062. The whole account of him as an ardent agriculturist, devoted to the improvement of live-stock and the reclamation of waste, is quaintly anachronistic; but the fact of his being a friend and benefactor to Crowland is one for which the writer had probably some ground. For my part, I attach most importance to his incidental statement that the daring deeds of Hereward the outlaw, 'adhuc in triviis canuntur', an allusion, perhaps unnoticed, to a ballad history surviving, it may be, so late as the days when the forgery was compiled.

But, leaving Hereward, no entries in this list are more deserving of notice than those which bring before us the famous name of Nevile:

Gislebertus de Nevila [tenet] ii. carrucatas in Lincolnescira, et servit Abbatiæ pro ii. hidis et inde inventi i. militem (p. 171).

Radulfus de Nevila [tenet] x. carrucatas in Lincolnescira et i. hidam et dimidiam in Hamtonascira et servit se tercio milite (p. 175).

Hugh Candidus wrote of the former:

Heres Galfridi de Nevile tenet in Lincolnescire, scilicet in Waletone [sic] justa Folkingham, et Yoltorpe duas carrucatas terra et inde facit plenum servitium unius militis (p. 59).

With this clue we are enabled to detect Gilbert de Nevile in that 'Gislebertus homo Abbatis', who held of the Abbot (D.B., i. 345b) at 'Walecote' (Walcot near Folkingham). So also Hugh 'Candidus' writes of the other Nevile fee:

Heres Radulfi de Nevile tenet decem carrucatas terræ in Lincolnshire, scilicet in Scottone Malmetone; et in Norhamtonscire unam hidam et dimidiam, scilicet in Holme, Rayniltorp, et inde facit plenum servitium trium militum (p. 55).

It is, then, Ralf de Nevile that we have in that 'Radulfus homo Abbatis', who held of him at 'Mameltune', and 'Rageneltorp' with 'Holm' in Domesday (i. 345b, 346)—Manton, with Raventhorpe and Holme (near Bottesford, co. Linc.)—for Hugh, of course, has blundered in placing the two latter places in Northamptonshire.²⁰ The Testa, more exact, enables us to add Ashby to Holme and Raventhorpe as part of one estate, held as a single knight's fee. Scotton, in the same neighbourhood, was held by 'Ricardus' in Domesday, but, in the hands of Nevile's heirs, represented a fee and a third.

Between Ralf and Gilbert de Nevile on fo. 346 we find 'Gislebertus homo Abbatis' holding ten bovates at Hibaldstow. This was the 'Gislebertus Falvel' of our return, not Gilbert de Nevile.

The last Domesday name I shall identify is that of the Abbot's under-tenant 'Eustacius', who held of him at Polebrook, Clapton (Northants), and Catworth (Hunts). He was, I believe, the same as that Eustace who held land, as a tenant-in-chief, at Polebrook, Northants, and with that Eustace the sheriff ('Vice-comes') who held (at Catworth, Hunts) also in capite. Indeed the abbot's tenant is identified with the latter in the story of the foundation of Huntingdon Priory (Mon. Ang., vi. 78), where, as in our list, we find that his two knights' fees soon passed to Lovetot.²¹

We may learn from this identification that two different tenants-in-chief and at least one under-tenant may prove to be all one man, just as, on the other hand, we found three distinct Rogers among the Domesday under-tenants of the Abbot. An additional conclusion is suggested by the name 'Eustachius de Huntendune', given to this sheriff in the Inquisitio Eliensis.²² For we find Picot, the Sheriff of Cambridgeshire, similarly styled in Domesday (i. 200), 'Picot de Grentebrige'. 'Ilbert de Hertford', I think, was the Sheriff of Hertfordshire,²³ and Hamo, a contemporary sheriff of Kent, attests a charter as 'Hamo de Cantuaria'. Turold, sheriff of Lincolnshire, is found as Turold 'of Lincoln' (see p. 255), and Hugh, sheriff of Dorset, as Hugh of 'Wareham', while Walter and Miles 'of Gloucester', Edward and Walter 'of Salisbury', are also cases in point. Hugh 'of Leicester' was sheriff of Leicestershire temp. Henry I, while Turchil 'de Warwic' (D.B., i. 240b) may possibly have owed that appellation to the fact that his father Ælfwine was sheriff of Warwickshire. Enough, in any case, has been said to show that it was a regular practice for sheriffs to derive, as often did earls, their styles from the capital town of their shire.

¹ Society of Antiquaries' MS. 60.

² Ed. Camden Society.

³ Norman Conquest, iv. 219. We know aliunde that 'Picot filius Colsuani' was the son of Colswegen of Lincoln. It would seem to be of this estate that we read in the 'Clamores': 'Abbas de Burg clamat iiii. bov. terræ in Risun terra Colsuani, et Wap' testatur quod T.R.E. jacuerunt in æcclesia Omnium Sanctorum in Lincolia.'

⁴ Society of Antiquaries' MS. 60. Printed by Stapleton ut supra.

⁵ But possibly the Robert d'Oilli of our list may be the first Robert (who, as 'Robertus' in Domesday, held Cranford of the Abbot), while the tenant of that name in 1125 may be the second Robert, entered in the Pipe-Roll of 1130, and living temp. Stephen.

⁶ William Rufus, i. 571. He makes it 'Evermouth' in the Norman Conquest.

⁷ Envermeu lay on the coast some 19 miles to the east of Dieppe.

⁸ 'The legend of Hereward' (Norman Conquest, iv. [1st Ed., 805).

⁹ With its hamlet of Manthorpe and Toft with Lound.

¹⁰ Ed. Sparke Historiæ Anglicanæ Scriptores [1723].

¹¹ Professor Tout throws out the unlucky suggestion: 'the Wake, i.e. apparently the watchful one'.

¹² See the new Monasticon on Deeping Priory, and the rubric to Baldwin's charter. The true parentage of Baldwin fitz Gilbert will be shown infra in the paper on 'Walter Tirel and his wife'.

¹³ Norman Conquest (1st Ed.), iv. 455-6.

¹⁴ Norman Conquest (1st Ed.), iv. 484. Professor Tout, however, follows Mr Freeman, and accepts an earlier 'flight from England' as a fact. One must therefore insist that 'the whole story has no historical basis'.

¹⁵ I am tempted, indeed, to suggest that Hugh may have had before him that lost local 'account of Hereward's doings', which was inserted (but, according to my own view, in an abbreviated form) into the earlier chronicle, according to Professor Earle (see Norm. Conq., iv. 461, note 3). This solution would explain everything, and would, if accepted, greatly increase the importance of Hugh's chronicle.

¹⁶ Cf. William of Malmesbury in loco.

¹⁷ Dictionary of National Biography.

¹⁸ Appendix on 'the Legend of Hereward', ut supra.

¹⁹ The names of the churches he bestowed on the Priory illustrate the constituents of the Honour of Bourne.

²⁰ The name of Ralf de Nevilla occurs in full in the Lincolnshire 'Clamores' (i. 376b), annihilating the old assertion that this famous surname is nowhere found in Domesday. (See my letter in Academy, xxxvii. 373.)

²¹ It is specially interesting to trace his holding at Winwick, Hunts, which then lay partly in Northants. As 'Eustachius' he held in capite at 'Winewincle' (i. 228), as 'Eustachius Vicecomes' at 'Winewiche' (i. 206), and as 'Eustacius', a tenant of the Abbot, at 'Winewiche' (i. 221). In the first two cases his under-tenants are given as 'Widelard[us]' and 'Oilard[us]', doubtless the same man. For 'Winewincle' we should probably read 'Winewicke'. See also p. 222, infra.

²² Inq. Com. Cant., Ed. Hamilton, p. 111.

²³ Ibid., 56, 192.

THE WORCESTERSHIRE SURVEY

(Temp. Henry I)

We have, in the case of the see of Worcester, the means of testing some of the changes which took place among its tenants within a generation of Domesday. This is a survey of that portion of its lands which lay within the county of Worcester. Although printed by Hearne in his edition of Heming's Cartulary (fos. 141, 141d), it escaped notice, I believe, till I identified it myself in Domesday Studies (p. 546). As it follows immediately on the transcript of the Domesday Survey of the fief, the fact that it represents a later and distinct record might, at first sight, be overlooked.

In spite of the importance of Heming's Cartulary in its bearing on the Domesday Survey, the documents of which it contains the transcripts have been hopelessly confused and misunderstood. Professor Freeman, dealing with them, came to utter grief,¹ and as for Mr De Gray Birch, he not only took this Survey temp. Henry I to be a portion of Domesday itself, which 'should be collated with the original MS. at the Record Office',² but even repeated Ellis's blunder,³ that the names in a document temp. Bishop John [1151-7]⁴ represent 'the list of jurors for the Hundred of Oswaldeslaw' at the Domesday Survey.⁵

From a writ entered on fo. 136 we may infer that there had been some dispute between the Sheriff and the Church of Worcester as to the number of hides in the county for which the latter should be rated.⁶ This Inquest or Survey was the consequence of that dispute, and resulted in the issue of the writ. Its date is roughly determined by the facts that Urse d'Abetot was dead when it was made, while the Count of Meulan is entered as a tenant, so that we may probably date it as later (at the earliest) than 1108, and previous to the death of the Count of Meulan in July 1118.⁷

Let us now compare, Manor by Manor, the earlier with the later Survey:

Total for Oswaldslaw Hundred

Summa hidarum, quas episcopus habet in toto vicecomitatu est ccc. et quater xx. et xvii. cum his quas Abbas de Evesham tenet de Oswaldes Lauue.¹⁰

It will be seen that of these 397 hides only 393 are accounted for above. The explanation is this. Of the five hides held in 'Fepsintune' by the Church of Worcester in Domesday, only one is entered in the above list, the other four being wholly omitted, both in the list itself and in the total. These four omitted hides bring up the 393 to 397, the exact sum that we have to account for.

If the Manors in the above Survey are examined with care seriatim, it will be found that they bear manifest witness to the aggressions of Urse d'Abetot, who, we may gather from this Cartulary, was the bête noire of the Church of Worcester. The various extensions of his Domesday holdings, as at 'Fledebyrie', where twelve hides had been increased to twenty-two, were partly due to the accession of the lands he inherited from his brother, but partly also to his absorption of the lands of other tenants and of portions of the episcopal demesne. All the benefit of these accessions passed to his son-in-law and successor, Walter de Beauchamp.

But perhaps the most important information that this Survey gives us is to be found in the light it throws on the succession to Robert 'Dispensator'. That he was brother to Urse d'Abetot is, of course, generally known. His relationship to the Marmions is the crux. I deal with it under the Lindsey Survey,¹¹ which shows us his Lincolnshire fief in the hands of Roger Marmion. In the present Survey we find that of the seventeen hides and a half which Robert Dispensator had held, at the time of Domesday, from the Bishop, only seven were held by Robert (not Roger) Marmion when this document was compiled, the rest being held by Walter de Beauchamp. We thus learn that here, as in Leicestershire, the fief had been divided between the two.¹²

But this Survey further tells us—if we may trust the text—that, in this succession, Roger Marmion had been preceded by Robert. One may throw it out as a possible suggestion that, in addition to the wife of Walter de Beauchamp, Urse d'Abetot may have had a daughter who married Robert Marmion.¹³ On the forfeiture of his son Roger, such a daughter would have pressed her claim, and, though the inheritance of Urse himself may, by special favour, have been regranted to Walter, she may have obtained a share of the fief of her uncle, Robert 'Dispensator'. But this can only be conjecture.

Of the other points of family history on which this Survey throws light, one may mention that Hugh 'Puher' had succeeded Walter 'Ponther', that Osbern fitz Richard (of Richard's Castle) had been succeeded by his son, Hugh fitz Osbern; and that though, as in 1095,¹⁴ the name of Hugh de Laci supplants that of his brother Roger, yet that, if we can trust the text, Roger had in one Manor been allowed to retain his holding, in accordance with a policy which is believed to have been practised, namely, that of keeping a hold, however small, on the forfeited. The name of the Count of Meulan also, the supplanter of Grentmesnil, will be noticed, and that of a 'Nicholas', whom, as the successor in a small holding of Robert Despencer, one might perhaps be tempted to identify with the mysterious Sheriff of Staffordshire, Nicolas de Beauchamp.

There are fragments of two other early surveys relating to Worcestershire, which, as they contain the names of Walter and of William de Beauchamp respectively, may be roughly assigned to the reigns of Henry I and of Stephen. The first, which is found in an Evesham Cartulary,¹⁵ is mainly an abstract of Domesday, but contains a later and valuable analysis of Droitwich, with an important reference to the Exchequer. The other¹⁶ begins in the middle of a survey of what seems to be the Church of Worcester's fief, records the lands held, as under-tenant, by William de Beauchamp, and shows us the Domesday fief of Ralf de 'Todeni' in the hands of his heir, Roger de 'Toeni'.

Droitwich

Hee sunt x. hidæ in Wich'. De Witton' petri corbezun ii. hidas. De feodo sancti Dionysii Ricardus corvus et Willelmus filius Oueclini tenent i. hidam. De sancto Guthlaco Willelmus filius Ricardi tenet i. hidam. De Johanne de Suthlega Ricardus filius Roberti tenet i. hidam. De Pagano filio Johannis Godwi tenet dimidiam hidam. De Waltero de bello campo Theobaldus et petrus tenent dimidiam hidam. De la Berton' de Gloucestra [see Glouc. Cartu.] Randulf filius Ringulfi tenet dimidiam hidam. De monachis Gloucestrie Baldwinus et Lithulfus dimidiam hidam. De Comite Warewice Randulfus et Essulf filii Ringulf tenent iii. virgatas. De Waltero del Burc Randulf et Essulf dimidiam hidam. De Westmonasterio Theobaldus et Walterus fil' Thorald i. hidam. De Almega fil' Aiulfi et mater ejus i. hidam. De Battona Aiulfus presbyter i. virgatam. De Wichebold Rogerus de Bolles i. virgatam. De monachis fil' Grim tenet i. virgatam. De Kinefare et Douerdale i. virgatam. Alewi caure et socii ejus dimidiam virgatam.^15a

H[oc] debet computari ad Scacarium Regis vicecomiti Wirecestrie. Habes x. hidas ad Danegeld et Wasto forestæ ii. hidas.

Et in Ederesfeld vi hid[æ]. Et in happeworda i. hid[a]. Et in Biselega i. hid[a]. Et in Burlega i. hyda.

Fragment of a Survey subsequent to 1130 and perhaps circa 1150

(Cott. MS. Vesp., B. xxiv. fo. 8.)

... manerio de hambyry. Estona Ric' dimidiam hidam. In hundredo de Camele. In Waresleia v. hidæ de manerio de hertlebery. Summa quater xx. et xiii. hidæ.

In hundredo de persora habet ecclesia de Westmustier has terras quas tenet Willelmus de bello campo. Hekintona iii. hidæ et iii. virgatæ. Chaddesleia ii. hidæ. Langeduna Osmundi i. hida et dimidia. Colleduma iii. hidæ et iii. virgatæ. Graftona Ebrandi i. hida et iii. virgatæ. Flavel et pidelet v. hidæ. Newentona x. hidæ. Broctona Inardi iii. hidæ. Pidelet radulfi iii. hidæ. Berford v. hidæ. Branefford i. hida. Wicha Inardi iii. hidæ. Burlingeham ii. hidæ et i. virgata. Cumbrintona ii. hidæ. Poiwica Willelmi de bello campo i. hida. Newebolt i. hida. Medeleffeld i. hida de poiwica. Ad bergam i. hida. Olendene i. hida. Arleia i. virgata. Poiwica Inardi i. hida. Summa lx. hidæ et dimidia.

In predicto hundredo de persora feudum Abbatis persore. Belega xxi. hidæ. Branefford i. hida. Wadberga iii. hidæ et dimidia. Cumbrintona i. hida et dimidia. Lega Ricardi dimidia hida. Walecote et torendune i. hida et dimidia.

In hundredo de Leisse tenet idem Willelmus Chirchlench iiii. hidas de abbatia de Evesham. Croulega v. hidas de feudo Osberti filii hugonis.

In hundredo de Clent. Belua viii. hidæ de feudo folwi paganelli. Salawarpa v. hidæ de feudo Rogeri Comitis. Item Salawarpa i. hida de feudo episcopi Cestrie. Chaluestona i. hida de feudo Roberti filii Archembaldi. Apud Wich dimidiam hidam Gunfrei. Item apud Wich i. hidam de terra Sancti Guthlaci quam Rodbertus filius Willelmi tenet. Item ibidem dimidiam hidam de Cormell' quam Gilebertus tenet. Cokehulla ii. hidæ et dimidiam de feudo regis. Hactona iii. hidæ de feudo episcopi baiocensis. Escreueleia i. hida. Summa tocius cclxiiii. hidæ et dimidia et dimidia virgata.

Terra rogeri de toeney. Esla iii. hidæ. Bertona iii. hidæ et iii. virgatæ. Alcrintona ii. hidæ. Linda ii. hidæ et ad halac i. hida. Mora hugonis i. hida et dimidia. Werueslega ii. hidæ et dimidia. Alboldeslega ii. hidæ et dimidia. Rudmerlega i. hida et dimidia. Estlega i. hida Geldans et una hida quieta. Sceldeslega i. hida. Almelega Ricardi de portes xi. hidæ.

In the former of these two fragments we recognize in John of Sudeley the younger son of Harold, son of Earl Ralf. It would be of interest if we might identify his tenant, Richard fitz Robert, with the younger son of his brother, Robert. The succession in the tenancy of the Crowland hide (St Guthlac's) needs explanation. In Domesday (176) Urse held Dunclent of Nigel the physician, who held both here and at Droitwich under Crowland Abbey. It must have been through him at Droitwich also that William fitz Richard became tenant, for Robert fitz William (who was clearly the latter's son) held here of Walter de Beauchamp in the second fragment.

It is in tracing William de Beauchamp's succession, as under-tenant to his grandfather Urse, that we find the chief interest of the second fragment. He has succeeded him, for instance, as tenant to the Abbeys of Westminster, Pershore, and Coventry (the fief of the last having now become that of 'the Bishop of Chester'). At Wadborough, however, it was Robert 'Dispensator' whom he had succeeded as tenant of Pershore. In one case we find him holding of Robert fitz Erchembald, whose Domesday predecessor we thus learn was William Goizenboded (177b). We may also note his tenure of Madresfield (now Lord Beauchamp's seat)—the earliest mention, I think, of the place—as a limb of Powick. Fulk Paynell, of whom William held at Beoley, had now succeeded to the Domesday fief of William fitz Ansculf, whose tenant 'Robert' may have been Robert 'Dispensator'. Osbern fitz Hugh had similarly succeeded to the Richard's Castle fief held, in Domesday, by his grandfather.

I append a partial comparison of Domesday with the Henry I survey so far as concerns Droitwich, where property, owing to its value, was divided among many owners.

DROITWICH

¹ See my paper 'An early reference to Domesday' (Domesday Studies, pp. 542-4).

² Domesday Studies, p. 513; Domesday Book (S.P.C.K.), p. 305.

³ Introduction to Domesday, i. 19.

⁴ Domesday Studies, p. 547.

⁵ Domesday Book (S.P.C.K.), pp. 78, 305.

⁶ There was a similar dispute about the same time in the case of Abingdon Abbey and its possessions in Berkshire (Abingdon Cart., ii. 1600).

⁷ This, however, as I have elsewhere shown must remain a presumption, as it is possible that, owing to the youth of his heir, he may have been entered as nominal tenant for some time after his death (see p. 155).

⁸ MS. now destroyed here.

⁹ 'Non geldat.'

¹⁰ p. 116.

¹¹ Infra, pp. 149 et seq.

¹² We are enabled by this Survey, and by the division it records, to carry up the history of Elmley, the original seat of the Beauchamps, to Domesday itself. The great Manor of Cropthorne, by Evesham, was held by the Church of Worcester. In Bengeworth, one of its 'members', Urse d'Abetot, had seized an estate of five hides (Heming's Cartulary fo. 125b). His brother, Robert Despencer, had seized two other 'members', Charlton ('Ceorlatuna') and Elmley (Ibid.). In Domesday we are merely told that Robert held eleven hides in Cropthorne. But the present Survey fortunately mentions that the portion which fell to Marmion's share was seven hides in 'Charlton'. This leaves four hides for Elmley, which, added to the five hides of Urse d'Abetot in Bengeworth, makes exactly the nine hides here entered to Walter de Beauchamp. We thus learn how the Beauchamps became possessed of Elmley. And this calculation is confirmed by the entry in the Testa (p. 41): 'Willelmus de Bello Campo ... in Elmeleg in dominico iiij. hidas.'

¹³ It is worth noting that we find, in Domesday, both a Robert and a Walter holding of Urse in Worcestershire.

¹⁴ See p. 244 infra.

¹⁵ Harl. MS., 3,763, fo. 80.

^15a Harl. MS., 3,763, fo. 80.

¹⁶ Cott. MS. Vesp., B. xxiv. fo. 8.

THE LINDSEY SURVEY

(1115-18)

This 'invaluable Survey', as Mr Stevenson has termed it,¹ might be described as a miniature Domesday for each of the Wapentakes in the three trithings into which Lindsey was divided. For although drawn up, Wapentake by Wapentake, as is the Leicestershire Survey, Hundred by Hundred, the lands within each Wapentake described are grouped under the names of the holders of fiefs, instead of being entered Vill by Vill. It was doubtless compiled, like other surveys, in connection with the assessment of the 'geld'.²

Remarkable from a palaeographic standpoint, as well as from the nature of its contents, the record, which is found in a Cottonian MS. (Claud. C. 5), has been singularly unfortunate in its editors. As Mr Greenstreet truly observed:

The indefatigable Hearne, seeing that the manuscript related to a very ancient period of our history, and recognizing its great importance, printed it in the Appendix to his 'Liber Niger', but he does not appear to have properly examined either the question of the date of the writing, or the internal evidence.... As a natural consequence of his superficial examination, he associates it wrongly with the reign of Henry II.

Stapleton, of course, knew better than this, and assigned the survey at one time to circ. 1108,³ but in his Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniæ⁴ to 1106-20. It was subsequently investigated and analysed with great care by Mr Eyton, whose note-books, now in the British Museum, show that he adopted the sound method of comparing it in detail with Domesday Book. After his death Mr Chester Waters issued (1883) an annotated translation of the text, with an introduction, analysis, etc., in which the place-names were carefully identified, and the same system of comparison with Domesday adopted.⁵

It is, unfortunately, necessary to explain that Mr Waters in the table of contents described his translation as 'from the Cotton MS., Claudius C. 5', and wrote on the opposite page:

This MS. engaged the attention of Thomas Hearne, the antiquary, who has printed it amongst the additaments to his edition of the Liber Niger Scaccarii; but Hearne was one of those industrious but uncritical antiquaries who had no conception of the duties of an editor of the importance of accuracy.

Knowing the high opinion entertained of Mr Waters' works,⁶ I accepted his translation in all good faith as 'from the Cotton MS.' and was, I confess, not a little startled to discover from Mr Greenstreet's facsimiles that it was made not from the Cotton MS., but from that inaccurate edition by Hearne, which Mr Waters had mentioned only to denounce. On fo. 4b a whole line, containing three entries, was accidentally omitted by Hearne, and is, consequently, absent also from Mr Waters' version. On collating the two, however, I found, to my great surprise, that matters were even worse than this, and that Hearne's text was far less inaccurate than Mr Waters' own, the erroneous figures found in the latter being almost always correctly given by the 'uncritical' Hearne. As for the version given by Mr Waters, even in the very first Wapentake, there are three serious errors, five carucates being given as three, nine as seven, and eleven as two! And for Bradley Wapentake (p. 27), his figures are so erroneous that, according to him, 'Radulf Meschin alone had 42 cars. 6 bovs. in this Wapentake', though his real holding was only fifteen cars. three bovs. With another class of resultant errors I shall have to deal below.

To the enterprise of Mr Greenstreet scholars were indebted for an édition de luxe of the record in facsimile, which made its appearance shortly after the treatise of Mr Waters. Unfortunately, no attempt was made in the appended literal translation to identify the names of places or persons, while such a word as '[ap]pendiciis', which occasionally appears in the survey, is mistaken for a place-name 'Pendicus'. The book enjoys, however, the great advantage of an index.

The identification of places and of persons in Mr Waters' treatise shows extraordinary knowledge; but both Mr Eyton and Mr Waters had the provoking habit of making important assertions without giving their authority. I expressed a wish in the Academy, at the time, that Mr Waters would give us some clue as to his sources of information, but as he did not think fit to do so, we have to test his statements as best we can for ourselves. Now we learn from him on p. 36 that 'Walter fitz William', a tenant at South Willingham, was 'brother of Simon mentioned above', namely of 'Simon fitz William (ancestor to the Lords Kyme)'. This is impressive until we discover that the actual words in the survey (as indeed in Hearne's text) are 'Walt[erius] fil[ius] Walt[eri]i' (fo. 11 b).⁷ To an expert such a test as this will prove significant enough. But to turn from an actual misreading of the text to cases in which are incorporated interlineations, not part of the original text, but written in later times, we find Mr Waters—like other antiquaries who had followed Hearne's text—stating that 'Ranulf [Meschin] is twice styled in the Roll Earl of Lincoln, but there is no record of his creation, and no other authority for possession of the earldom' (p. 8). The difficulty vanishes when we discover that this supposed style was a mere interlineation made by a much later hand.⁸ So again we read on p. 30:

Richard, Earl [of Chester], has 6 cars. in Barnetby-le-Wold, where [William], the constable of Chester, is his tenant [as his father was Earl Hugh's in Domesday].

But on turning to Mr Greenstreet's facsimiles, we find that the survey had nothing about 'the constable of Chester', the words 'constabularia [sic] Cestrie' being only a faint interlineation by a later hand.

And even where a reference to the true text does not at once dispose of the matter, these statements of Mr Waters are, on other grounds, open at times to question. He assumes, for instance, that Hugh fitz Ranulf, who occurs as a landowner in the survey, was a younger son of Ranulf Meschin, afterwards Earl of Chester (p. 12). No such son would seem to be known; and this assumption, moreover, does violence to chronology. For the pedigree it involves is this: