iginal character. But these printed
editions were found unintelligible and useless until copious indexes
were prepared, and published to accompany them, at great expense of time
and labor.

Some little idea of the character and style of this celebrated record
may be obtained from the following specimen, which is as faithful an
imitation of the original as any ordinary typography will allow:

[Illustration]

The passage, deciphered and expressed in full, stands thus--the letters
omitted in the original, above, being supplied in italics:

IN BRIXISTAN HUND_redo_.

Rex ten_et_ BERMUNDESYE. HERALD_US_ com_es_ tenuit. T_unc_ se
def_en_d_ebat_ p_ro_ xiii. hid_is_, m_od_o pro xii. hid_is_. T_er_ra
e_st_ viii. car_rucatarum_. In d_omi_nio e_st_ una car_rucata_ et
xxv. vill_ani_ et xxxiii. bord_arii_ cu_m_ un_a_ car_rucata_. Ibi
nova et pulchra eccl_esia_, et xx. ac_rae_ p_ra_ti. Silva v. porc_is_
de pasnag_io_.

The English translation is as follows:

IN BRIXISTAN HUNDRED.

The king holds BERMUNDESYE. Earl HERALD held it [before]. At that
time it was rated at thirteen hides; now, at twelve. The arable
land is eight carrucates [_or_ plow-lands]. There is one carrucate
in demesne, and twenty-five villans, and thirty-three bordars, with
one carrucate. There is a new and handsome church, with twenty
acres of meadow, and woodland for five hogs in pasnage [pasturage]
time.

But we must pass on to the conclusion of the story. About the year 1082,
Queen Matilda's health began seriously to decline. She was harassed by
a great many anxieties and cares connected with the affairs of state
which devolved upon her, and arising from the situation of her family:
these anxieties produced great dejection of spirits, and aggravated, if
they did not wholly cause, her bodily disease. She was at this time in
Normandy. One great source of her mental suffering was her anxiety in
respect to one of her daughters, who, as well as herself, was declining
in health. Forgetting her own danger in her earnest desires for the
welfare of her child, she made a sort of pilgrimage to a monastery which
contained the shrine of a certain saint, who, as she imagined, had power
to save her daughter. She laid a rich present on the shrine; she offered
before it most earnest prayers, imploring, with tears of bitter grief