that it is almost irrelevant to repeat them here. Freeman's History of the Norman Conquest has superseded all modern accounts and is deeply interesting. The Conqueror's Legions landed on the flats of Pevensey, and in the formation of his plans of attack is said to have made Hastings his headquarters. To commemorate his victory the monks who attended William encouraged him to erect a monastery on the site where Harold fell and dedicate it to Saint Martin of Tours. Battle Abbey is the monument of the event. The chroniclers of the time mention that a large tract of country around Hastings was devastated by William's troops. The Conqueror, after the battle, ordered the construction of a wooden fortress at Hastings and the digging of a trench, a forerunner of the more lasting building of stone, the ruins of which still exist on the West Hill, the commander, according to Dawson, being Humphrey of Tilleul, one of his vassals. The conquest of England was accomplished after nearly twenty years of constant strife and bloodshed, during which period the faithful followers of the Conqueror were rewarded by grants of lands and estates confiscated from their Saxon owners to the victors. When the country became subservient to the new conditions in 1085-6, William ordered a general survey of England, a complete census of the people, their lands and possessions known as Domesday Book, the extraordinary detail of which has been looked upon as a marvel of lucidity. It was intended to be a register to determine the right in the tenure of estates, "to discover the quantity of every man's fees and to fix his homage, that is the question of military aid he was bound to furnish." From it the question of whether lands be ancient demesne or not, is sometimes still decided. Camden says "This Domesday Book was the tax book of King William." The taxes were levied according to this survey till the reign of Henry VIII., when, at the Reformation, a fresh survey was taken. The chief interest in the Conquest is the change that it is always said to have exercised in the character of the
institutions of England. It is asserted that the feudal system existed before the arrival of the Normans, but was more rigidly applied after the Conquest, and Hume speaks of the division of the kingdom into so many knight's fiefs, into so many baronies, and the complete reorganisation of the whole constitution.
Dawson states "The Castle of Hastings was probably strongly garrisoned in 1085, when the Danes under Cnut were expected to' invade England. And in speaking of the Domesday record mentions a striking omission of Hastings Castle or Town. That probably beneath the shadow of Hastings Castle in the valley to the East there had sprung up one of those Norman boroughs so frequently founded and fostered by the new Lords, consisting of a colony of tradesmen and craftsmen as an adjunct to the new garrison colony. Such may have been the 'New Burg' which according -
