"by my faith sirs, I will not leave you without a seigneur: I have a little bastard who will grow big if it please God! Choose him from this moment, and before you all I will put him in possession of the Duchy as my successor," The Normans did as duke Robert proposed, and according to the feudal practise, they one by one placed their hands between his hands, and swore fidelity to the child. Duke Robert had a presentment that he should not return, and he never did, but died as he was returning, about a year after he left home. A. D. 1034.

As the boy William advanced in years he showed an indomitable spirit, and a wonderful aptitude in learning those knightly and warlike exercises which then constituted the primary part of education. This endeared him to his partizans,and the important day on which he first put on armour, and mounted his battle steed without the aid of the stirrup, was held as a festal day in Normandy. His disposition was proud, haughty, pitiless, and revengeful. He was very delicate on the subject of illegitimacy, but in after life, when he had imposed respect or dread of himself upon the world, his pride, scorning the distinction between legitimacy and illegitimacy, put to several of his charters, "We, William the Bastard." One day when he was besieging the town of Alencon, the besieged took it into their heads to cry out from the top of the walls, The hide, the hide, have at the hide," and to shake and beat pieces of tanned leather, in allusion to the humble calling of William's maternal grandfather, but as soon as the duke was informed of it, he caused the feet and hands of all the prisoners to be cut off, and then thrown by his slingers within the walls of the town; such was the sanguinary nature of the man, who in a short period from this time poured out the vials of his fury on Nottingham.

On the 28th September, 1066, William landed his troops and military stores he had brought with him in 6000 ships, at Bulverhithe, between Pevensay and Hastings, near which place he traced a fortified camp. On the 14th of October the English gave him battle, and never fought with more noble and determined bravery, but their king and captain-the gallant and beloved Harold, who never had been conquered till then, was slain.

Lay his sword on the sable pall,
And watch when the night is dim;
Oh! how many burning tears will fall,
From the eyes that weep for him!
He shall greet our home no more,
On his bright steed from the hill;

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

For the glorious light of his noon is o'er,
And his warrior heart is still.

Lay him deep in the tomb for aye,
While the sacred strain is sung,

And, beneath the stars the flambeau's ray,

O'er the abbey walls is flung,

Lay him deep in the sunless tomb;

How holy his sleep shall be;

And oft shall the purple violet bloom,

On the turf plac'd there by thee.

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But the work of the Normans was not done, William dared not proceed to London, but kept close to the sea coast, massacreing the inhabitants of Romney and Dover, burning houses wherever he went. From Dover he proceeded through Kent, and afterward to London, but here he was repulsed, and having set fire to Southwark, marched through Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire, burning and destroying every thing in his way, even women and children found no mercy at his hands.

This done he proceeded across Buckinghamshire into Hertfordshire, leaving a wilderness behind. The inhabitants of Northumbria and Mercia prepared to resist the conqueror, having the great earls Edwin and Morcar with them, but Edgar Athelins, a son of king Edward, surnamed Ironside, was at their head, who had been proclaimed their king. London and Winchester soon after fell into the hands of the conqueror, who then caused himself to be crowned king. The English in the north and west had not been touched, and the Normans wished to have the land in these parts also given to them, therefore William, in March 1067, went over into Normandy, hoping the natives in these parts would take advantage of his absence, break out into open rebellion, and in this way furnish him with a pretext for making war upon them, and confiscating their lands.

The war of 1068 may justly be styled William's second campaign in England, and opened in the fertile province of Devonshire. Exeter was the first city that fell under his victorious arms; during the early spring of this year Devonshire, Somersetshire, and Gloucestershire were subdued by him. He made himself master of Oxford and other fortified cities; wherever his dominion was established, the mass of the lands were given to his lords and knights, fortresses and castles were erected, governed by Normans and other foreigners, the meanest of whom, thought himself entitled to treat the best Englishman with contempt, and as a slave. William had promised Edwin, earl of Mercia, his

daughter, but after all his services, when he came to ask the reward was treated with contempt; upon which he withdrew from the court, and joined his incensed countrymen in the north, for as yet no foreign soldier had crossed the Humber or Trent. The men of Derby, Leicester, and Nottingham prepared to oppose the usurper. William had knowledge of this, and burning with rage, marched his army from Oxford; he first took Warwick, then Leicester. Then crossing the Trent, which he had not seen till now, fell upon Derby, and laid siege to Nottingham: which, after much bloodshed, he forced to capitulate. But seeing the strength and knowing the importance of the place, caused a strong castle to be erected, (a) on the site of the old tower, which had stood for ages before, and when he marched his army from hence to Lincoln, left a strong garrison here, mnch more numerous than the castle could contain, of which he made a natural son of his governor, William de Peveril, to whom also he gave 162 lordships in this neighbourhood.

Many Danes residing in Nottingham and the places round, were even more inveterate in their hostility against the Normans than the natives themselves, and after Stamford, Leicester, and Derby, had been subdued by the Conqueror, it is not unlikely the Mercians would, in their struggles to arrest his march, seek the protection and advantage supplied by the strong walls of Nottingham, and if it be true that they did capitulate, it was not till they were reduced to the greatest extremities, and were obliged to submit to the hardest terms, as is evident from the fact, that not a single Saxon lord, or thane, was permitted to retain his patrimonial inheritance in any of these parts; even burgesses were forbidden to inhabit the houses they had in some parts of the borough. a line of separation was drawn from north to south, commencing at Mansfield road, along Clumber street, High street, Bridlesmith gate to Drury hill, &c. west of which no Englishman might pass. Numbers of the Normans located themselves here, and from this time the town was divided into two distinct boroughs, that on the east being the English, and that west of the line the French borough. The most partial laws were promulgated as we shall see, showing that William acted the part of a tyrant rather than conqueror; the burgesses were prohibited from fishing in the

(a) Altitudes of various places above the Leen bed:-Castle yard, 110 ft., Castle parapet, 171 St. Mary's church steeple parapets 182 ft., Park hill, and Bowling Alley hill, 188 ft., Gallows hill, 166 ft., top of Derby road, 168 ft., Sneinton hill, on foot road to Gedling. 266 ft. Mapperly hills, Bestwood park and Red hill; 340 ft.

DOOMSDAY DAY BOOK.

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water of the Trent, &c. and from William de Peveril afterwards bestowing the tithe of the fish of the fishing of Nottingham on the monks of the Priory of Lenton, it is evident that this was also given him by his father, and the English inhabitants were not only deprived of their property in houses and lands, but the means of a precarious subsistence for them and their starving families, were also taken from them by the remorseless Norman, which compelled many of the disinherited English nobles to become public robbers, having their abodes in the woods.

William de Peveril was a natural son of the Conqueror, and like his father, a bold, determined, and valiant man. Though the confiscated estates of the English given to him were large, 162 manors in all, extending over a great part of the counties of Nottingham and Derby, the castle in this town, which chiefly consisted of a strong tower, was the place of his principal residence, when not engaged in the tumults of war.

When the fortress was completed he turned the course of the Leen to pass by the castle, (see page 13,) the whole of the drudgery of this work was doubtless performed by the subdued English.

A. D. 1080, in the sixteenth year of his reign, William caused an exact survey to be taken of the lands, goods, and chattles of all his subjects in England. This survey contained the number of acres in each man's estate, and the amount of money each paid to the crown, in Saxon times, and how much they had paid to himself since the revolution in 1066. Moreover, it was required that each man should specify in the return, the number and value of his stock in husbandry, &c. the number of his horses, cows, sheep, &c. &c. also how much money he had in his house, what he owed, and what was owing to him; every item was to be set down in the most exact, true, and honest manner, in a book called Doomsday Book, that is, the book of the day of judgment, apparently to denote the means by which the English were sifted in that book, as the actions of all will be at the great day. This general register, which we term the great terror, or land book of England, was laid up in the Exchequer, or king's treasury, to be cousulted upon occasions, and was completed in six years from the commencement, 1086, and has ever since been called Doomsday Book.

The following is copied from the return made for Nottingham :1. Besides the castle which is not mentioned in Doomsday Book, it being a castle royal; William de Peveril had in this town 48 merchant's houses. The rents were 36 shillings; he had 13

U

houses of knights or horsemen, and 8 for his husbandmen, called borders, but these being for his servants, of course no rent was imposed; in all at this time the lord of the manor had 57 houses in the borough.

2. Ralph de Burun had 13 houses of knights, but in one of these lived a merchant.

3. Gulbert had four houses, of what kind is not mentioned. 4. Ralph Fitz-Hubert had 11 houses, in three of which merchants, tradesmen, or shopkeepers, resided.

5. Goisfrid de Aseline had 20 houses here.

6. Acadus the Presbyter, had 2 houses.

In the croft of the priest were 65 houses, in these the king had the royalty, called Sac and Soc.

The church of St. Mary, with all things belonging to it, had an annual rent of 100 shillings.

7. Richard Tresle had 4 houses.

8. Hugh, the Sheriff had 13 dwellings in the new borough, which were not there before, putting them in the sense or rate of the old borough.

In the Fossata, or ditch of the borough, were 17 houses, in all there were at this time in Nottingham 206 houses, the greater part of which were no doubt belonging to the military, there being only 120 burgesses; Ralph de Burun before mentioned, was a Norman, and besides his possessions in Nottingham, held eight lordships in the county, and five others in Derbyshire; of this ancient stock there is yet a noble family remaining, the Buron, or as it is now pronounced, Byron, one member of which was the celebrated poet, lord Byron, of Newstead Abbey, in this county, of whom, as an author, and his ancestors, we shall have more to speak.

Ralph Fitz Hubert was also a Norman captain, to whom William I. gave 49 lordships in England. A son of his accompanied the second William Peveril to fight for king Stephen in his war with the empress Maud. He surprised and took several places, but was at length betrayed, surprised, and taken, and for refusing to deliver the castle of Devizes to Matilda, was hanged like a thief, and the family soon became extinct.

Goisfrid Alselyn, a Norman, to whom the king gave 30 lordships in several counties, but he made Shelford, in this county, the chief seat of his barony.

Of Roger de Bushley, who had three mansions here in the Confessor's time, we now hear nothing. He had, however, many lordships in England at the time of the survey; his principal residence was at Tickhill Castle, in Yorkshire. This barony became extinct at the death of his son John, who died without male issue,