eral industry which existed in the Roman
times. A century and a half after the Conquest had elapsed before the
Norman kings had a revenue from the Cornish iron mines. Iron forges were
registered, and lumps of hammered iron are stated to have been paid as
rent. Lead works are found only upon the king's demesne in Derbyshire.

Fisheries are important sources of rent. Payments of eels are enumerated
by hundreds and thousands. Herrings appear to have been consumed in vast
numbers in the monasteries. Sandwich yielded forty thousand annually to
Christ Church in Canterbury. Kent, Sussex, and Norfolk appear to have
been the great seats of this fishery. The Severn and the Wye had their
salmon fisheries, whose produce king, bishop, and lord were glad to
receive as rent. There was a weir for Thames fish at Mortlake. The
religious houses had their _piscinae_ and _vivaria_--their stews and
fish-pools.

_Domesday_ affords us many curious glimpses of the condition of the
people in cities and burghs. For the most part they seem to have
preserved their ancient customs. London, Winchester, and several other
important places are not mentioned in the record. We shall very briefly
notice a few indications of the state of society. Dover was an important
place, for it supplied the king with twenty ships for fifteen days in a
year, each vessel having twenty-one men on board. Dover could therefore
command the service of four hundred and twenty mariners. Every burgess
in Lewes compounded for a payment of twenty shillings when the king
fitted out a fleet to keep the sea.

At Oxford the king could command the services of twenty burgesses
whenever he went on an expedition; or they might compound for their
services by a payment of twenty pounds. Oxford was a considerable place
at this period. It contained upward of seven hundred houses; but four
hundred and seventy-eight were so desolated that they could pay no dues.
Hereford was the king's demesne; and the honor of being his immediate
tenants appears to have been qualified by considerable exactions. When
he went to war, and when he went to hunt, men were to be ready for his
service. If the wife of a burgher brewed his ale, he paid tenpence. The
smith who kept a forge had to make nails from the king's iron. In
Hereford, as in other cities, there were moneyers, or coiners. There
were seven at Hereford, who were bound to coin as much of the king's
silver into pence as he demanded. At Cambridge the b