"XXXVIII. Oger the Briton had the lordship of Sileby in Lei,cefterfhire; and others in the counties of Lincoln and Northamptonfhire. These are two exceptions to the general fuppofition, that the baronies were all given by the Conqueror to his followers; and that fuch Englishmen as were favoured with their own lands again, were contented to hold them as tenants to Norman lords, and under fuch compofitions, rents, and fervices, as they put upon them. Maino and Oger were certainly themselves barons, and tenants of the king in capite; as all thofe were who are enumerated at the head of every county, and not mentioned as earls or fpiritual perfons, thani, miniftri, or fervient regis.

XXXIX. Nigell de Albini (a younger brother to William de Albini Pincerna, ancestor to the earls of Arundel) was of noble extraction, and by the mother's fide a Mowbray. He came into England with the Conqueror, who rewarded him with the lordships of Seile and Dunton in Leicestershire, and feveral large poffeffions in the counties of Bucks, Bedford, and Warwick. He was afterward bowbearer to William Rufus; who, for his affiftance in fome martial expeditions, gave him the caftles of Bayeux and Mowbray, with all the lands forfeited by Robert de Mowbray, earl of Northumberland. He obtained alfo all the vaft poffeffions, already enumerated, of Geffrey de Wirce; and thus poffeffed 120 knight's fees in Normandy, and 140 in England. He founded a priory at Axholme; affumed in his latter days the habit of a monk; died at an advanced age at Rouen; and was buried in the abbey of Bec. See a fuller account of him, and of his family, under Burton Lazars, Vol. II. p. 272.

and

"XL. Judith the Countefs had 42 lordihips in Leicestershire, and others in the counties of Middlefex, Oxford, Bedford, Northampton, and Rutland. She was daughter of Lambert de Lens, by Maud countefs of Albemarle (fifter to the Conqueror's wife); and by him was given in marriage to Waltheof, fon of Richard, the great earl of Northumberland, Huntingdon, and Northampton, beheaded at Winchefter for rebellion against the king, who had railed him to fuch elevated rank; or, as fome fay, by procurement of his wife; and left iffue three daughters: Maud, married to Simon St. Liz, earl of Huntingdon and Northampton; Alice, by fome called Judith, wife of Ralph de Toeni; married to Robert, fifth fon of Richard de Tone brugge. After the death of earl Waltheof, king William offered Judith, his widow, in marriage unto Simon de S. Liz, a noble Norman ; but the refufing him, in regard he was lame on one of his legs, the king in much wrath, difpofed of the earldom of Huntingdom to that Simon. Whereupon, being extremely terrified, fhe fled away with her three daughters, and lurked in feveral places; and became fo fenfible of her guilt in promoting her husband's death, that in great penitence the continued all the days of her life a widow. This Judith founded the priory of Helenftow in Berkshire; and procured from king William a charter of divers immunities and privileges for the monks of Saltry in Huntingdonshire, of the Ciftercian order; which religious houfe the much frequented in her time.

XLI. Adeliza, wife to Hugo de Grentefmainell, was lady of Brokefburne, Herts, and the inheritrix of a noble family. She had

three

three manors in Leicestershire (Mardegrave, Peatling, and Barkby); three in Warwickshire, and four in Bedfordshire; died about 1091; and was buried in the monaftery founded by her husband at St. Evrauld.

XLII. The King's Servants (Servientes Regis) were the king's ordinary minifters, or fervants, whom he employed in his country affairs and bufinefs, in managing and looking after his manors and lands, his forefts, his fifhings, &c. his deer, his bees, his dairies, cows, horfes, fheep, hogs, corn in the granaries, &c. Some others were employed in hunting, hawking, &c. Some were bowyers, carpenters, and other mechanicks and artificers; and many were fmall officers in the court, thofe especially that had lands given them, which they nor their fathers held in the time of Edward the Confeffor; others in cities and great towns; nor could any but Saxons be well employed in these fervices, as the Normans knew not the country, nor understood the lands, and were incapable of many of the fervices. The perfons under this description in Leicestershire held fmall portions of lands at Barrow, Newton, Holeton, Wymefwold, Eaftwell, Ricoltorp, Effeberie, and Sharnford.

XLIII. Earl Hugo de Abrincis, furnamed Lupus, Earl of Chester, the Conqueror's fifter's fon by Richard Goz, had 24 lordships in this county. He was a perfon of great note among the Norman nobility, and a very expert foldier, for which reafon he was placed fo near the unconquered Welsh, to reftrain their excurfions; and his earldom was given him to hold as free by the fword, as the king held England by the crown. He adhered firmly to Rufus in the revolt of Bishop Odo; was in high favour with Henry I.; died about 1101, leaving Richard his fon and heir; and was buried in the chapter-house at Chefter.

"XLIV. The Homagers (or Homines) of the Earl of Mellent held twelve lordships in this county. Of these homagers fomething has been faid, p. xlii. But the term Homines feems to have been applied in various fenfes in different parts of the record; and in some places to mean literally either what we fhould now call "the good men of the county," or a jury of tenants affembled at the lord's court; with which latter interpretation the "Homines Goisfridi de Wirce," P. 235. b. 2. exactly correfponds."

We should be glad to infert fome of the particulars relative to the establishment of religious houfes, which are very curious; but we think that the Effays on Roman Roads are compofed with fuch fagacity and precifion, as to claim a diftinquifhed pre-eminence. Thefe are the communications of fome learned friends of Mr. Nichols, and in particular of Mr. Leman, whofe production is a masterly compofition. We have no hefitation in placing the whole of it before the

reader.

"Mr.

"I. Of the Watling-freet.-The Watling-ftreet, in its courfe from Richborough to Wroxeter, after paffing through Kent, Middlefex, Hertfordhire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Northamptonfhire, enters the county of Leicefter at Dovebridge (near which, but on the Northamptonfhire fide, and in the parish of Lilburn, is the ftation of Tripontium): this road is fo ftraight, fo perfect, and fo well known, that it would be ill employing one's time to defcribe it more minutely. From the Avon, which it paffes at Dovebridge, to the Anker near Manceter, the Watling-ftreet ferves as the South-weft boundary of the county from Warwickshire: and at the distances marked in the Itinerary are found the two next ftations on it, of Benone, High Crofs; and Manduffedum, Manceter.

"Thefe ftations, as well as Ratæ and Verometum, are mentioned in the first, fourteenth, and eighteenth, Itineraries of Richard; and in the fecond, fixth, and eighth, of Antonine. A trifling variation in the fpelling of a name, and a mifplacing of the figures which mark the diftances, owing to the carclefsnefs and inaccuracy of the tranfcribers, is all the difference that can be found between thefe feparate Itineraries; but the precife fpot of each ftation is even at prefent fufficiently pointed out by the foundations, urns, coins, and other remains of antiquity, had we not the additional confirmation of their refpective distances correfponding fo exactly with the miles of the Itineraries.

"II. Of the Fofs.-The Fofs Road is fuppofed to have proceeded from fome station on the fea-coaft of Lincolnthire, probably between Grimbfby and Saltby, crofs England in a South-westerly direction to Moridunum, the great port of the Weft; and indeed, in the fummers of 1718 and 1789, with my learned friend Dr. Bennet (the prefent bishop of Cork), I traced it with little difficulty from Ludford, an undoubted £ation at the head of the Bain, clearly to Lincoln, and thence into Devonshire. From Lincoln, at the distances marked in the fixth Itinerary of Antonine, are found ftations fo exactly anfwering to thofe diftances, that it appears unneceffary to look for them any where elfe. At twelve miles from Lincola is Brugh (Crocolana); feven miles from thence, at the great paffage of the Trent, where the Wefern branch of the Ermine-ftreet (which quitted the Eastern in its way to Ancafter, between the prefent 95th and 95th mile-ftones, in the great North road between Stamford and Newark) paffed the river, not far diftant from the prefent turnpike-gate at Thorpe, was Ad Pontem; feven miles farther was Margidunum, near Eaft Bridgford; and at the distance of thirteen miles, after paffing a tumulus near Willoughby on the borders of Nottinghamfhire, the road defcends the hill to the ftation Vernometum, which flood on the banks of a fmall ivulet in a field well known by the name of Herrings or Blackfield.

"The Fofs now entering Leicestershire, I fhall take the liberty of being more particular in my defeription of it.

After quitting the ftation of Vernometum, the Fofs makes a fmall bend (as it frequently dees at entering or leaving a ftation), but, foon regaining its former bearing, continues ftraight to Sex or Segs-Hill, and, though now much defaced, is ftill eafily traced by

its continuing almost always in the fame direction, and from its being ftill in many places high-ridged, and in some paved with large round ftones.

"At Sex-Hill is a confiderable tumulus, and alfo the remains of an entrenchment, where the Fofs is interfected by another road, apparently Roman, coming from Paunton on the Ermin-ftreet, in an E. N. Eafterly direction, pointing towards Barrow upon Soar, and which, if continuing in the fame bearing crofs Leicefterfhire, would have paffed the Via Devana North of Markfield, and fallen into the Watling-ftreet, near Etocetum, or Wall, in Staffordshire, at its junction with the Ryknield-street.

"From Sex-Hill, the Fofs, in going over the commons and Thruffington Woulds, keeps generally near the hedge, till it descends into the valley beyond Ratcliff. It leaves the great oblong tumulus of Shipley-Hill to the left, and, crofling the Wreak and another fmall rivulet near Syston, paffes by a vast tumulus at the place where the Melton Mowbray quits the Leicester road, and, going through Thurmafton, proceeds directly to Ratæ or Leicester.

"In Leicester it joins the Via Devana (of which I shall speak hereafter); and both, continuing through the town together, leave it by the great Gate-way ftill remaining (but which has, I know not for what trifling reafon, been called the Temple of Janus); and, paffing the meadow oppofite to King Richard's Bridge, where its original breadth is ftill vifible, it fuddenly turns to the left (on croffing the fecond branch of the Soar), over the meadows; and, gaining its old bearing, joins the Narborough turnpike, and continues with it as far as the fourth mile ftone from Leicester. The Fofs here quits the turnpike, and, going over the fields, leaves the town and church of Narborough to the left; and is still quite plain as it defcends the laft inclosure opposite the Green-lane, by which the Fofs is continued to High Crofs.

"Near Croft the farmers were breaking up in many places the ridge of the Roman road by carrying out their manure, when I paffed it in 1788; and it was impoffible not to obferve ftill parts of the ftone, with which it had been paved, lying about on every fide. Near Soar-mill, where the road has been entirely neglected, and is covered with water, one could feel plainly the broken pavement as one rodeover it. In a direct line, and without any variation, the Fofs continues from hence, over fields, to Benone, where it joins the Watling-ftreet.

III. Of the Via Devana.-The Via Devana runs from Col chefter (Camalodunum) in Effex to Chefter (Deva Colonia).

“This road was first taken notice of by the late Dr. Mason, whơ, obferving fome parts of it quite perfect for many miles in Cambridgefhire, hinted that, from its bearing, he fuppofed it was continued to Chefter. He himself found it in Huntingdonshire, Northamptonshire, and, I believe, afterwards faw fome traces of it in all the different counties from one fide of the ifland quite to the other.

"The prefent Bishop of Cork and myself travelled the greater part of it in the years 1788 and 1789; and I fhall now inform you more fully of that part of it which paffes through your county, while