Cambridge and its story With lithographs and other illus by Herbert Railton, the lithographs being tinted by Fanny Railton . Survey we learn that in the time of Edward theConfessor the town had consisted of 400 dwelling-houses,and was divided into ten wards, each governed by its ownlawman ( lageman ) or magistrate, a name which appearsto suggest that the original organisation of the town wasof Danish origin. By the year 1086 two of these wards hadbeen thrown into one, owing to the destruction of twenty-seven houses— pro castro —on account of the building ofthe Castle, and in the remaining ward
Cambridge and its story With lithographs and other illus by Herbert Railton, the lithographs being tinted by Fanny Railton . Survey we learn that in the time of Edward theConfessor the town had consisted of 400 dwelling-houses,and was divided into ten wards, each governed by its ownlawman ( lageman ) or magistrate, a name which appearsto suggest that the original organisation of the town wasof Danish origin. By the year 1086 two of these wards hadbeen thrown into one, owing to the destruction of twenty-seven houses— pro castro —on account of the building ofthe Castle, and in the remaining wards no fewer than fifty-three other dwellings are entered as waste. Altogether,in Norman times the population of Cambridge can hardlyhave exceeded at the most a couple of thousand. Thecustoms of the town were assessed at £j, the land taxat ^7, 2S. 2d. Both of these seem to have been newimpositions, payable to the royal treasury. How this cameabout one cannot say, but from this time onward, all throughthe middle ages, the farm of Cambridge appears frequently to have been given as a dower to the Queen. The earldom 24. A^ jr- t- iliiSiii. ?^p:> •_::.;^ f~X/ CAMBRIDGE IN THE NORMAN TIME of Cambridge and Huntingdon has been almost invariablyheld by a member of the Royal Family. The first steps,indeed, towards municipal independence on the part of theborough were taken when the burgesses demanded theprivilege of making their customary payments direct to theKing, and ridding themselves of this part, at any rate, ofthe authority of the sheriff. Certainly, there was muchcomplaint made to the Domesday Commissioners concern-ing the first Norman sheriff of Cambridgeshire, one RogerPicot, because of his hard treatment of the other things, it was said that he had required theloan of their ploughs nine times in the year, whereas in thereign of the Confessor they lent their ploughs only thrice inthe year and found neither cattle nor carts, and also that hehad built hims
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectunivers, bookyear1912
