of to-day will answer, "He is one who held land by 'socage,' tenure." Although in Domesday this "sochman" is confined to Danish districts, a fact which is recognised in the laws of Edward the Confessor. After the Conquest a type of tenure more or less closely corresponding to that by which the earlier sochman held his land, was gradually established over the whole kingdom.

Tenants who owned such tenures were called "sochmen," and the tenure itself was called "socage." A distinction was drawn between "free socage" and "villain socage." The fuller development of the feudal system which followed the Conquest greatly complicated all questions of land tenure. New conditions of holding superior to that of "socage" were introduced. Thus in the pages of Britton, who always speaks in the person of the King, we read: "Sochmanries are lands and tenements which are not held by knights' fee, nor by grand serjeantries, but by simple services, as lands enfranchised by us, or our predecessors, out of ancient demesnes." Bracton is more explicit. He defines free socage as the tenure of a tenement, whereof the service is rendered in money to the chief lords, and nothing whatever is paid, "ad scutum et servitium regis." "Socage," he proceeds, "is named from soke, and hence the tenants who held in socage are called sochmanni, since they are entirely occupied in agriculture, and of whom wardship and marriage pertain to the nearest parents in the right of blood. And if in any manner homage is taken thereof, as many times is the case, yet the chief lord has not on this account, wardship and marriage, which do not always follow homage." He then goes on to define "villain socage." The essential principle of socage tenure is rent in lieu of services. It is to this fact no doubt that the vast impetus which was given to the coinage of England soon after the coming of the Danes is largely due.

As Mr. Worsaäe says, the Danish coiners increased to fifty in number from the reign of Aethelred to Edward the Confessor, and the greater number exercised this vocation at York and Lincoln. Thus the sochmanni were found only in the settlements of the people who had created in England a tenure of land free from servile obligations.

The manner of fixing these early settlements of land was the same in Ireland, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and in Lincolnshire. The same custom is still observed by our modern colonists who launch out into the Australian bush. The land was staked out by the settler from the highest ridge downwards to the creek of the river or shore. By this means the settler obtained on outlet to the open sea. The homestead was built by the bondr or husbandman, on the sheltered ground between the marsh and hill. These settlements became byes, and were encircled by a garth, or farmyard. The names of some Norse farms and settlements became composed of a Norse prefix and Saxon ending. Thus we find Oxton "the farm of the yoke," in the hollow of a long ridge. Storeton, from stortun or "big field."

Many of these names are repetitions of places which exist in Cumberland, Denmark, and the Isle of Man. Raby and Irby were smaller farms on the boundary of large byes, and were derived from the Danish chief Ivar. Each homestead had its pastures and woods, which are denoted by the terminals "well," "wall," and "birket," found in such names as Crabwall, Thelwall, Thingwall.

"Thwaites" or "Hlither" were sloping pastures, cleared of wood, between the hill and marsh, used for grazing cattle and sheep. This system of agriculture is of Norse origin, and many such "thwaites" are to be found in Wallasey, Lancashire, and the Lake district. Calday and Calder, recorded in Domesday, "Calders," derived from kalf-gard, are names existing in Calderstones, at Wavertree, and Calday near Windermere, as well as at Eastham and in Scotland. Each large settler had summer pastures for cattle on the highland or moor, called "soeters" or "saetter," a shelter seat for the dairymaids. From this custom we derive the names Seacombe, Satterthwaite, Seathwaite, Seascale, and Sellafield. As the population increased the large estates were divided among the families of the early settlers, and these upland pastures became separate farms. Evidence that these early Norsemen were Christians is found in the name Preston, in Domesday. Prestune, the farm of the priest: who in these early days farmed his own land. From its position this farm became known as West Kirby.

The stone crosses of Nelson and Bromborough prove that these churches were founded early in the eleventh century.

The Danish character of Chester at this date is shown by the fact that it was ruled by "lawmen," in the same manner as the Five Boroughs (vide Round's "Feudal England," p. 465), and its growing wealth and importance was due to the trading intercourse through the Danish ships with Dublin.

Coming from the north-east another Norse and Danish settlement sprang up round Liverpool. Though we have no distinct historical record, the place names indicate the centre was at Thelwall (Tingwall). Such names are Roby, West Derby, Kirkby, Crosby, Formby, Kirkdale, Toxteth, found in Domesday as "Stockestede," Croxteth, Childwall, Harbreck, Ravensmeols, Ormskirk, Altcar, Burscough, Skelmersdale.

Out of forty-five names of places recorded in Domesday in West Derby Hundred, ten are Scandinavian, the rest might be interpreted in either dialect.

All other names in Domesday in South Lancashire are Anglo-Saxon, which only amount to twelve: the reason for the small number of names being that the land was for the most part lying waste, and was thus free from assessment. Thus we find on the present map that Norse names form a large number which are not recorded in Domesday. Many of these would be later settlements. In West Derby the names of three landowners appear in this survey with Norse names, while three others are probably Norse, and seven Saxon.

Following the fall of the Danish dynasty the districts of South Lancashire formed part of Cheshire and we find the names of six "Drengs" around Warrington, possessing Norman names, while only one bears a Norse name. The word "Dreng" being Norse, would infer that the tenure was of "danelaw" origin and not of Anglo-Saxon.

The founder of the Abbey of Burton-on-Trent, Wulfric Spot, held great tracts of land in Wirral and West Lancashire, which are named in his Will dated 1002. Thus the "Bondr" here held his land under Mercian rules, from which the hides and hundreds were similar to those of the previous "danelaw."

Lancashire was the southern portion of Deira, which was one of the two kingdoms, Bernicia being the other, into which the conquests of Ida, king of Northumbria, were on his death divided. In 559 A.D. Ida died, and Aella became King of Deira, and afterwards sole King of Northumbria, until 587 or 589. In 617, Edwin son of Ella was King of Northumbria, the greatest Prince, says Hume the historian, of the Heptarchy in that age. He was slain in battle with Penda of Mercia. In 634 the kingdom was again divided, Eanfrid reigning in Bernicia, and Osric in Deira. Then Oswald, saint as well as king, appears to have reunited the two provinces again under his kingship of Northumberland. Authorities, in more than one instance, vary as to the exact dates, within a year or two.

The Saxon kingdom of Northumbria reached from the Humber to the Forth, and from the North Sea to the Irish Sea. For two centuries after the death of Ecgfrith the Saxon king and the battle of Nectansmere, history only records a succession of plunder and pestilence.

Green the historian says "King after king was swept away by treason and revolt, the country fell into the hands of its turbulent nobles, its very fields lay waste, and the land was