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knape of a high hill, steep up each way, partly by nature, partly by working of men's hands, as it may be evidently perceived," seems to have been followed without much consideration by Camden, and other writers on the subject. The only artificial portions of the hill, as they appeared to Camden, were the terraces and two hundred steps, by which it was ascended; and these were, certainly, of a date, some centuries posterior to the conquest.

Seal of William de Albini IV. On the reverse, a shield in the shape of a heart, sable, two chevronels, argent; surrounded by the motto (a cross) "Signum sigillum salutis." (Peck's Stamford, plate, lib. 8, p. 27.)

Todeni. The orthography of this name is almost as various as that of Belvoir. On his coffin, discovered in 1726, it was written Todnei. The other forms of writing it, are Todeni, Todenei, Toteneia, Toteneius, Toterneius, Tothenei. He is called in the deed of agreement between himself, and the Abbot of St. Albans, Robert de Belvedier. Paul, Abbot of St. Albans, who built the Abbey Church, 1080, was a friend of Robert de Todeni. It was therefore natural to have recourse to him, for the further establishment and completion of his pious design, and to place the cell under the government of a perpetual rector.

Carucate of land. A popular illustration of history being all that is attempted in this work, obsolete technical terms are for the most part omitted. But it may be useful to the reader to subjoin an explanation of the terms, constantly occuring in works, professing to give an account of ancient ecclesiastical endowments, and other property, and more especially in the domesday inquisition.

A Carucate, says Bishop Kennet, is a ploughland, or as much arable ground, as in one year, could be tilled with one plough; computed sometimes at sixty, eighty, one hundred and twelve, eight or nine score acres, different according to time or place. (Paroc. Antiq. Gloss.) The hide was the measure of land, in the Confessor's reign, the carucate, that to which it was reduced by the Conqueror's new standard. A bovate is the same as an oxgang; that is, as much land, as an ox can plow in one season. Eight of these commonly went to the hide or carucate; some contained twelve, sixteen, eighteen, or twenty acres, more or less, in different counties. A virgate, four of which made a hide, was likewise unequal, according to the difference of place and custom. They reckoned in some parts forty; in others, thirty, twenty, and

but fifteen acres. The acre was not equal, for the same reason, that the virgate and bovate were unequal. An acre was forty perches in length, and four in breadth: or, if but twenty perches in length, then eight in breadth: sixteen, eighteen, twenty, or more feet went to the perch. Arpenna, or arpent, plur. arpenz,

a measure of land introduced from Normandy, an acre or furlong of ground, is often applied to vineyards; two of which makes a jugerum. Leuca, leva, or leuva, a mile consisting of twelve quarenteins or fortylongs, (furlongs.) Pertica or Perticata a perch of twenty feet, forty of which made a furlong.

A vassal, more correctly villane from villa, a country farm, (as rustici coloni, &c.) where these men of low and servile condition, had some small portion of cottages and services allotted to them, for which they were depending on the lord, and bound to certain works, and other corporal services. They were of two sorts; first, villanes in gross, who as to their persons, their issue, and their stock, were a sort of absolute slaves, the sole property of their lord, moveable and alienable at pleasure. This slavish condition was abolished on the feast of St. Michael, 1103. Secondly, villanes regardant. or appendant to a manor, who were ascribed as members of such a fee; and as a pertinence of it, descended to the heir, or passed along to every new lord. For their service, they held some small portion of house and land in villanage. The villanes, over and above their operations, or customary labours, paid an annual rent in money. The servi or bondmen, among the ancient Germans, or Saxons, were of the kind called prædiales, who, without any determined tenure of land, were at the arbitrary pleasure of their lord, appointed to servile works, and received their wages and maintenance at his discretion. Ancillæ, or bondwomen, appear to have been under circumstances nearly similar with the servi. The lives and limbs of the latter, and the chastity of the former, were under the protection of the laws. The coliberti, were a middle rank, between servi and liberi, doing the work of the first, but holding by the tenure of the last. They were tenants in socage, and manumitted villanes, but not absolutely free. The bordarii were distinct from the servi and villani; and seem to be those of a less servile condition; who had a bord or cottage with a small parcel of land allotted to them, on condition, they should supply the lord with poultry and eggs, and other small provisions for his board, or entertainment. Tenants in demesne, were such as lived in dominio regis, vel aliorum, under the power

of the king, or other lords. And such tenants received justice from their lords, and were judged by them in most cases.

Villa in Domesday Book signifies a manor, lordship, or single hamlet, two, or more of which, were usually united to form a villata, though in some few cases, a villa was sufficiently large to stand single, when it was said to answer pro villâ integrâ; and when two were joined together, each was called dimidia villata. The socmanni were those inferior landholders, who had land in the soc, or franchise of a great baron; privileged villanes, who though their tenures be absolutely copyhold, yet have an interest equal to a freehold. Francigena, a general name, signifying aliens in contradistinction to Englishmen, was given by the English to all strangers, known, or unknown, unless they could prove themselves English. Sac signifies a liberty or power granted to the king, to try and judge causes, and of receiving the forfeitures arising from them, within such and such limits, dominions, or jurisdictions. Soc is the place or territory, or precinct, wherein Sac or liberty of court was also exercised; the circuit of the place or franchise; or the liberty, privilege, or franchise itself. (Brady.)

Mansio comprehends more than a house. In Domesday it is said Roger de Busli had in Nottingham three mansions, in which were seated eleven houses. I have retained in the text, the Latin term villa; as the territorial property implied in the term, was not always, though generally, co-extensive with what is implied in the modern term village.

Tenths of vineyards. The produce of the vine must have been much more abundant in this country, formerly, than now, to be worth enumerating as part of an ecclesiastical endowment. In a description of the ordinary food of the Anglo-Saxons, figs and grapes are mentioned; and wine as an essential at the tables of the rich. That the seasons were not milder is evident from a record of the weather kept by various authors from 763 to 1048. Of 824, it is stated, "a dreadful and long winter. Not only animals, but many of the human species perished by the intenseness of the cold." The winters of 875, 913, 1039, and 1047, are stated to have been very severe. The summers varied in a similar manner as at present: sometimes "excessive and continued rains, harvest spoilt," &c.; sometimes " a summer of extreme heat." (Sharon Turner's Anglo-Saxons, v. 2, p. 549–551.) Either, therefore, our forefathers were more skilful in the cultivation of

the vine in the open ground; or they were satisfied with fruit in a less advanced state of ripeness than is now expected.

William de Albini Brito. The surname Brito is by some supposed to have been given to him, to denote that he was the first of the family British born.

Robert de Todeni, a younger brother of the above, gave to the Priory, at Belvoir, "thirty sticks of eels, to be paid yearly, on St. Matthias' day, out of his mills at Aburne," for the good of his soul and the souls of his family. This was by no means an unimportant gift at the time; eels being so much an available produce, that they were commonly the form in which the rent of a piece of water was paid. Thus, previous to the conquest, a piece of water was leased at a rent of two thousand eels. (Sharon Turner's Anglo Saxons, v. 2, p. 577.)

The lordship of Aslackby was the marriage portion of Agnes de Rye. She ratified the grants which her father had made to the Priory, at Belvoir, of one oxgang of land, in Aslackby, and two parts of the tithes of the demesne there, in corn, calves, lambs, wool, cheese, pigs, bees, and apples, and of whatsoever else was titheable.

Priory at Belvoir exempt from papal jurisdiction. This fact is noticed in a letter, from the Prior to Sir Thomas Lovel, and his consort, Isabella (de Roos) announcing their admission into the fraternity. The expression is; "domus, sive prioratus B. Mariæ de Belvero, et ejusdem loci conventus, sedi apostolicæ nullo modo, subditi et subjecti," The Prior of this period was Robert de Esseby. (Nichols' Leicest. vol. 2, pt. 1, append. 21-2.)

Ranulf de Gernons, or Gernoniis, Earl of Chester, great nephew of Hugh Lupus, nephew of the Conqueror, founded a strong and stately castle on the steep and craggy hill of Mount-sorrel, and overhanging the river. This castle, "in 1217, when after a long siege the inhabitants of the town had won it, was rased down to the very ground, as being the devil's nest, and a den of thieves, robbers, and rebels; and is, at this day, nothing but a rude heap of rubbish." (Camden, Brit. p. 521.) Ranulf de Gernons was a very important person in the reign of king Stephen, with almost as much influence as the Earl of Warwick in after times, (see Peck's Hist. of Stamford, lib. 4.)

Simon de St. Liz, (Senliz) was living in 1100, first Henry I. He gave to the Priory, at Belvoir, four bovates of land with all

their appurtenances (fields, meadows, marshes, woods, fens, and all fisheries, to the same land belonging, is the established meaning of the phrase, "cum omnibus pertinentiis suis") in Waltham, in the county of Leicester.

William de Albini II, had also a daughter, Alice, who married Asceline de Waterville, a considerable benefactor to the Priory of St. Michael, at Stamford, which had been founded in 1156, by William Waterville, (query his brother) then Abbot of Burg, (Peterborough.) This lady in her widowhood styled herself Domina de Maxta, i. e lady of the manor of Maxey, in the county of Northampton; as appears from a grant by her to the nunnery of St. Michael, Stamford, of a virgate of land. (Peck's Stamford, lib. 8, p. 25-26, where see her seal.)

Agatha Trusbut. "The Lord Trusbut gave in his arms three bolts." (Leland Itin. v. 7, p. 20.) The third Albini appears to have been a mighty hunter, and a great game preserver. In 1201, he had license to enclose a park in the Estokes called the Lund, though within the precincts of Rockingham forest, to hunt the fox and the hare there. In a grant of a portion of the thorns and trees in Belvoir Warren, to the monks at Belvoir, an express reservation is made of hares, pheasants, and partridges ;-" salvis mihi et hæredibus meis, leporibus, fesantis, et perdicibus." In 1203, king John gave him the manor of Orston, in Nottinghamshire, and one hundred shillings of socage land in Wilberston and Stoke.

Magna Charta. John was an infatuated monarch, but the barons were not altogether blameless. Their object in procuring Magna Charta appears to have been, not only to limit the power of the sovereign, but to render themselves independent of all superior control. After the signature of this memorable document, which was to have been a charter of peace and security to all classes, many of the barons were active in plundering the country, some fortifying their castles, some building new ones, and others seizing and abusing the king's officers, who went about on the business of the exchequer. So that the country was suffering from the greater curse of many petty tyrants, instead of one great despot. William de Albini, though he proved a brave and strenuous coadjutor with the other barons against the king, when once engaged; was prevailed upon with some difficulty, to join their party. They sent to him several times before he came; a chiding letter at last secured him.

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