! Oyez! Oyez! Norman French for Hearken! hearken!
hearken!]

The work of incorporating the Norman and English families with one
another, and fusing the two languages into one, required about a century
for its full accomplishment; and when at last it was accomplished, the
people of England were somewhat puzzled to know whether they ought to
feel proud of William's exploits in the conquest of England, or
humiliated by them. So far as they were themselves descended from the
Normans, the conquest was one of the glorious deeds of their ancestors.
So far as they were of English parentage, it would seem to be incumbent
on them to mourn over their fathers' defeat. It is obvious that from
such a species of perplexity as this there was no escape, and it has
accordingly continued to embarrass the successive generations of
Englishmen down to the present day. The Norman Conquest occupies,
therefore, a very uncertain and equivocal position in English history,
the various modern writers who look back to it now being hardly able to
determine whether they are to regard it as a mortifying subjugation
which their ancestors suffered, or a glorious victory which they gained.

One of the great measures of William's reign, and one, in fact, for
which it has been particularly famous in modern times, was a grand
census or registration of the kingdom, which the Conqueror ordered with
a view of having on record a perfect enumeration and description of all
the real and personal property in the kingdom. This grand national
survey was made in 1078. The result was recorded in two volumes of
different sizes, which were called the Great and the Little Domesday
Book. These books are still preserved, and are to this day of the very
highest authority in respect to all questions touching ancient rights of
property. One is a folio, and the other a quarto volume. The records are
written on vellum, in a close, abridged, and, to ordinary readers, a
perfectly unintelligible character. The language is Latin; but a modern
Latin scholar, without any means other than an inspection of the work,
would be utterly unable to decipher it. In fact, though the character is
highly wrought, and in some respects elegant, the whole style and
arrangement of the work is pretty nearly on a par, in respect to
scientific skill, with Queen Emma's designs upon the Bayeux tapestry.
About half a century ago, copies of these works were printed, by means
of type made to represent the or