Page:VCH Leicestershire 1.djvu/413

LEICESTERSHIRE SURVEY (TWELFTH CENTURT) THE Leicestershire Survey, the translation of which forms a natural supplement to the Domesday description of this county, is one of a series of three similar records which were compiled at different times during the second half of the reign of Henry I. The corresponding surveys of Lindsey and Northamptonshire have long been known to antiquaries, but the existence of the present document was never suspected before its discovery in the Public Record Office by Mr. Round, and its publication by him in Feudal England.^ Belonging as it does to the years 1124 g, 2 the middle of the darkest period in all English local history, it affords invaluable evidence in regard to two most important subjects, the assessment of the Leicestershire vills to the Danegeld, and the devolution of the greater fiefs in this county during the obscure forty years which follow 1086. The notes which are appended to the following translation are intended to connect each entry in the survey, whenever possible, with the corresponding entry in Domesday, but there are certain matters of general interest in connexion with the record which can most conveniently be discussed here. The survey, as we possess it, is merely a fragment, beginning abruptly in the middle of an entry relating to some unnamed vill in Gartree wapentake. The account of Gosecote wapentake follows at length, and it is probable that the survey of Framland wapentake with which the record closes is complete. It ends abruptly, it is true, but so far as can be seen, every vill in the wapen- take is accounted for. The same can unfortunately not be said of the description of Gosecote wapentake. A compact block of six vills, Barrow on Soar, Seagrave, Prestwold, Wymeswold, Burton on the Wolds, and Walton on the Wolds, all situated between the Foss Way, the Soar, and the Notting- hamshire border, and with a total assessment according to Domesday of more than eighty carucates, is entirely and inexplicably omitted from the survey. 1 pp. 196-214. The following translation is made from the survey as printed in Feudal England, where its bearing on problems of assessment and on Henry I's disposition of forfeited fiefs is discussed. ' The first date is fixed by the mention of King David (succeeded April, 1 124) ; and Mr. Round considers that the shrievalty of Hugh of Leicester, who is described as sheriff in the present survey, ended at Michael- mas, 1 129. 339