devastations which stand upon record in the same book. Where they begin we suppose the army entered the county; and the state of the manor of Parkley, in the hundred of Skayswell, points out the place in the parish of Tyshurst. They there desolated their way through two parcels of land in the same hundred, belonging to the manor of Wilendone; and laying waste Wigzell, Saleherst, and another manor in the hundred of Henhurst, with Hiham, and a small part of Sadlescombe, in the hundred of Staple, they came to Whatlington; through which, and the manor of Netherfield, they extended themselves to face and oppose the invading enemy.'] [Footnote 2: From Domesday we learn who received the custody of Hastings: 'Rex Will. dedit comiti [de Ow] castellariam de Hastinges.' _Introd. Domesday_, i. 18.] [Footnote 3: Romney. It is not here stated whether William's men had been sent from Hastings thither, or whether part of his fleet had gone astray in the voyage, and landed there. _Domesday_ says of Dover, 'In ipso primo adventu ejus in Angliam _fuit ipsa villa combusta_.'] [Footnote 4: Edwin and Morcar.] [Footnote 5: Edgar Atheling.] [Footnote 6: Wace had, in narrating Swain's success in overrunning England, i. 327, observed upon the facility afforded to an invader by the scarcity of fortified posts: N'i aveit gaires fortelesce, Ne tur de pierre ne bretesce, Se n'esteit en vieille cité, Ki close fust d'antiquité. Maiz li barunz de Normendie, Quant il orent la seignorie, Firent chastels e fermetez, Turs de pierre, murs e fossez. ] [Footnote 7: _Benoit_ goes on to narrate at much greater length the events subsequent to the battle. Wace passes very lightly over English internal affairs, of which he probably knew and cared little, and which were, moreover, foreign to the plan of his work. The _Saxon Chronicle_ says of the coronation: 'Then on Midwinter day archbishop Aldred hallowed him to king at Westminster, and gave him possession with the books of Christ; and also swore him, ere that he would set the crown upon his head, that he would as well govern this nation as any king before him best did, if they would be faithful to him.' See as to the chronology of William's life and age Sir Harris Nicolas's _Chronology of History_, 279.] [Footnote 8: In the words of the original, Dona chastels, dona citez, Dona maneirs, dona comtez, Dona terres, as vavassors Dona altres rentes plusors. ] [Footnote 9: By the supposed charter of William in _Rymer_, he thus declares: 'This also we command, that all have and hold the law of Edward the king in all things,--audactis hiis quas constituimus ad utilitatem Anglorum;' which his son Henry expresses thus: 'Lagam Edwardi regis vobis reddo, cum illis emendationibus quibus pater meus eam emendavit, consilio baronum suorum.' See the laws of William in the Proofs and Illustrations, p. lxxxix, to Palgrave's _Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth_, vol. i.]