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A HISTORY OF ESSEX a new estate under a new title. Before approaching the difficult subject of the changes under the new order in the status of what we may term the peasantry, we may glance at the witness to the Conquest borne by the map of Essex. There is no county perhaps that bears more clearly than Essex the imprint of the Norman Conquest. Two of its parishes indeed have actual French place-names, 1 and one the name of a Frenchman. 2 The suffixes which serve to distinguish its villages of the same name are rich in memories of Domesday lords, both barons and under-tenants. Helion('s) Bumpstead, Hatfield Peverel, Norton Mandeville, Woodham Ferrers, Theydon Gernon and Belchamp Otton preserve the names of Domesday barons, whether derived directly or through cadets of the house. The name of Warish Hall in Takeley disguises that of St. Walery, the saint whose relics the Norman host had adored at the mouth of the Somme, and whose sending the longed-for southern wind was rewarded after the Conquest by the gift of Essex manors. And what shall we say of the under-tenants whose names will meet us in the text ? With Adelulf de Merc I have dealt already ; 3 Garden's Hall in Chishall was the home of William Garden ; Hervey de Ispania is commemorated not only in Spain's Hall in Willingale Spain, but in Spain's Hall in Finchingfield ; and in Stondon Massey is disguised the name of Ralf de Marci. By a similar disguise the Tolleshunt of Mauger has become Tolleshunt Major, and the Shellow of Lambert (de Buelle) the modern Shellow Bowells. The Roding of Hugh de Berneres is Berners Roding to this day. It was again the Norman Conquest that brought to England such houses as those of Grai, Mortemer, and Giffard, of Beauchamp, Munteni, and Montfiquet. Their association indeed with Essex may be later than the date of the great Survey, but in Grays (Thurrock), Woodham Mortimer, Bowers Giffbrd, Beauchamp Roding, Mountnessing and Stansted Mountfichet the memory of Norman lordship is vividly pre- served. To lords of the alien race are also due the names of Layer Marney, Layer Breton, and Layer de la Hay, of North Weald Basset, Theydon Bois, Stapleford Tawney and Colne Engaine. The change from the English ' Alferestune ' to the present ' Bigods ' in Dunmow a name which Lady Warwick's enterprise has made widely known typifies the great transfer. Within two miles of it B(l)amsters Hall preserves the name of the Blancmoustier family, tenants of the house of Warenne, whose own Norman stronghold of Bellencombre is the origin of the name of Belcumber Hall in Finchingfield. In Sible Hedingham the manor of ' Grassals ' had once been the holding of Geoffrey Grosvassal, a knightly tenant of the house of De Vere, while Hosden's farm in Great Maplestead, not far away, preserves the name of a family descended from Hugh de Hosdenc, a Domesday under-tenant in the three eastern counties. The Counts of Guines have bequeathed 1 Beaumont and Pleshey (see pp. 396, 509, note 4 and p. 298 above). Virley. For Robert de Verli see p. 389. See p. 344 above, 356