Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

cessible to the antiquary and topographer. It was printed | its value stood at the formation of the Survey. The jurors
in fac-simile, as far as regular types, assisted by the repre- were, moreover, to state whether any advance could be
sentation of particular contractions, could imitate the made in the value. Such are the exact terms of one of the
original.
inquisitions for the formation of this Survey, still preserved
in a register of the monastery of Ely.

In 1816 the commissioners upon the Public Records pub-
lished two volumes supplementary to Domesday, which now
form one set with the volumes of the Record: one of these
contains a general introduction, accompanied with two dif-
ferent indexes of the names of places, an alphabetical index
of the tenants in capite, and an Index Rerum.' The other
contains four records; three of them, namely, the Exon
Domesday, the Inquisitio Eliensis, and the Liber Winton.,
contemporary with the Survey; the other record, called
Boldon Book,' is the Survey of Durham, made in 1183,
by bishop Hugh Pudsey. These supplementary volumes
were published under the superintendence of Sir Henry

Ellis.

The writer of that part of the Saxon Chronicle which relates to the Conqueror's time, informs us with some degree of asperity, that not a hide or yardland, not an ox, cow, or hog, was omitted in the census. It should seem, however, that the jurors, in numerous instances, framed returns of a more extensive nature than were absolutely required by the king's precept, and it is perhaps on this account that we have different kinds of descriptions in different counties.

From the space to which we are necessarily limited, it is impossible to go more minutely into the contents of this extraordinary record, to enlarge upon the classes of tenantry enumerated in it, the descriptions of land and other property therewith connected, the computations of money, the territorial jurisdictions and franchises, the tenures and services, the criminal and civil jurisdictions, the ecclesiastical matters, the historical and other particular events alluded to, or the illustrations of antient manners, with information relating to all of which it abounds, exclusive of its particular and more immediate interest in the localities of the country for the county historian.

Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmorland, and Durham were not included in the counties described in the Great Domesday; nor does Lancashire appear under its proper name; but Furness, and the northern part of that county, as well as the south of Westmorland and part of Cumberland are included within the West Riding of Yorkshire: that part of Lancashire which lies between the rivers Ribble and Mersey, and which at the time of the Survey comprehended six hundreds and 188 manors, is subjoined to Cheshire. Part of Rutlandshire is described in the counties of Northampton and Lincoln; and the two antient hundreds of Atiscross and Existan, deemed a part of Cheshire in the Survey, have been since transferred to the counties of Flint and Denbigh. In the account of Gloucestershire we find a considerable portion of Monmouthshire included, seemingly all between the rivers Wye and Usk. Kelham thinks it probable that the king's commissioners might find it impossible to take any exact survey of the three counties northernmost of all, as they had suffered so much from the Conqueror's vengeance. As to Durham, he adds, all the country between the Tees and Tyne had been conferred by Alfred on the bishop of this see; and at the coming in of the Conqueror he was reputed a count-iron, mills, vineyards, fisheries, trade, and the manual arts, palatine.

The order generally observed in writing the Survey was to set down in the first place at the head of every county (except Chester and Rutland) the king's name, Rex Willielmus, and then a list of the bishops, religious houses, churches, any great men, according to their rank, who held of the king in capite in that county, likewise of his thains, ministers, and servants; with a numerical figure in red ink before them, for the better finding them in the book. In some counties the cities and capital boroughs are taken notice of before the list of the great tenants is entered, with the particular laws or customs which prevailed in each of them; and in others they are inserted promiscuously. After the list of the tenants, the manors and possessions themselves which belong to the king, and also to each owner throughout the whole county, whether they lie in the same or different hundreds, are collected together and minutely noted, with their under-tenants. The king's demesnes, under the title of Terra Regis, always stand first.

For the adjustment of this Survey certain commissioners, called the king's justiciaries, were appointed. In folios 164 and 181 of the first volume we find them designated as 'Legati Regis.' Those, for the midland counties at least, if not for all the districts, were Remigius, bishop of Lincoln, Walter Giffard, earl of Buckingham, Henry de Ferrers, and Adam, the brother of Eudo Dapifer, who probably associ

As an abstract of population it fails. The tenants in capite, including ecclesiastical corporations, amounted scarcely to 1400; the under-tenants to somewhat less than 8000. The total population, as far as it is given in the record itself, amounts to no more than 282,242 persons. In Middlesex, pannage (payment for feeding) is returned for 16,535, in Hertfordshire for 30,705, and in Essex for 92,991 hogs; yet not a single swine-herd (a character so well known in the Saxon times) is entered in these counties. In the Norman period, as can be proved from records, the whole of Essex was, in a manner, one continued forest; yet once only in that county is a forester mentioned, in the entry concerning Writtle. Salt-works, works for the production of lead and

must have given occupation to thousands who are unrecorded in the survey; to say nothing of those who tended the flocks and herds, the returns of which so greatly enlarge the pages of the second volume. In some counties we have no mention of a single priest, even where churches are found; and scarcely any inmate of a monastery is recorded beyond the abbot or abbess, who stands as a tenant in capite. These remarks might be extended, but they are sufficient for their purpose. They show that, in this point of view, the Domesday Survey is but a partial register. It was not intended to be a record of population further than was required for ascertaining the geld.

There is one important fact, however, to be gathered from its entries. It shows in detail how long a time elapsed before England recovered from the violence at tendant on the Norman Conquest. The annual value of property, it will be found, was much lessened as compared with the produce of estates in the time of Edward the Confessor. In general, at the Survey, the king's lands were more highly rated than before the Conquest; and his rent from the burghs was greatly increased; a few also of the larger tenants in capite had improved their estates; but, on the whole, the rental of the kingdom was reduced, and twenty years after the Conquest the estates were, on an average, valued at little more than three fourths of the former estimate. An instance appears in the county of Middlesex, where no Terra Regis however occurs. The ing Edward the Confessor; the second, the sums at Anch they were rated at the time of the Survey, tempore Regis Willielmi

ated with them some principal person in each shire. These firstded T. R. E., shows the value of the estates

inquisitors, upon the oaths of the sheriffs, the lords of each manor, the presbyters of every church, the reves of every hundred, the bailiffs and six villains of every village, were to enquire into the name of the place, who held it in the time of king Edward, who was the present possessor, how many hides in the manor, how many carucates in demesne, how many homagers, how many villains, how many cotarii, how many servi, what free-men, how many tenants in socage, what quantity of wood, how much meadow and pasture, what mills and fish-ponds, how much added or taken away, what the gross value in king Edward's time, what the present value, and how much each free-man, or soc-man had or has. All this was to be triply estimated: first, as the estate was held in the time of the Confessor; then as it was bestowed by king William; and thirdly, as

in the

Terra Archiep. Cant.
Terra Episc. Lond.
Eccl. S. Pet. West.
Eccl. Trin. Rouen
Geoff. de Mandeville
Ernald de Hesding
Walter de St. Waleri
Terr. alior. Tenent

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

T. R. E.
£ 8. d.
100 14 0
190 11 10
114 0 0
0
25 10
121 13 0

T. R. W.

4

£ $.

d.

CO

86 12

0

li

157 19 6

W

86 16 6

as

20 10 112

5

the

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

D

111

ᎠᎴ

147

[ocr errors]

lish,

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

800

- The jurors ance could be of one of the

Still preserved ronicle which ith some de

1, not an ox,

Should seem, nces, framed e absolutely

haps on this ptions in dif

v limited, t ents of this asses of te d and other

of money, enures and ecclesiasevents al ers, with

clusive of localities

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

We shall now say a few words on the uses and conse- | minica was discovered by Columbus in 1493, and received
quences of the Survey. By its completion the king acquired its name in consequence of its being first seen on a Sunday.
an exact knowledge of the possessions of the crown. It The right of occupancy was long claimed equally by Eng-
afforded him the names of the landholders. It furnished land, Spain, and France, without any active measures being
him with the means of ascertaining the military strength of taken on the part of any of those powers for its exclusive
the country; and it pointed out the possibility of increasing possession; so that it became virtually a kind of neutral
the revenue in some cases, and of lessening the demands of ground until the year 1759, when its possession was as-
the tax-collectors in others. It was moreover a register of sumed by the English, and their right to hold it was for-
appeal for those whose titles to their property might be dis- mally recognized, in 1763, by the treaty of Paris. On this
puted.
occasion commissioners were sent out by the English
government, who sold the unsettled lands by auction to
the highest bidders. In this way nearly half the island
was disposed of in small lots, at prices amounting on the
The occupiers of lands already
settled were confirmed in their possession by leases granted
for forty years, and renewable, at the annual rent of 28. per
acre. In 1778 Dominica was taken by a French squadron
under the Marquis de Bouillé, but was restored to England
at the peace in 1783. In 1805 the island was again attacked
by the French fleet under Admiral Villeneuve, but was
successfully defended by the garrison under Sir George
Prevost.

Appeals to the decision of this Survey occur at a very
early period. Peter of Blois notices an appeal of the monks
of Croyland to it in the reign of Henry I. Others occur in
the Abbreviatio Placitorum from the time of John down-average to 65s. per acre.
ward. In later reigns the pleadings upon antient de-
mesne are extremely numerous: and the proof of antient
demesne still rests with the Domesday Survey. Other
cases in which its evidence is yet appealed to in our courts
of law, are in proving the antiquity of mills, and in setting
up prescriptions in non decimando. By stat. 9 Edw. II.,
called Articuli Cleri, it was determined that prohibition
should not lie upon demand of tithe for a new mill.
The mill, therefore, which is found in Domesday must be
presumed older than the 9th Edw. II., and is, of course,
discharged, by its evidence, from tithe.

On the discharge of abbey-lands from tithes, as proved
by Domesday, it may be proper to state that pope Paschal
II. at an early period, exempted generally all the religious
from paying tithes of lands in their own hands. This pri-
vilege was afterwards restrained to the four favoured Orders,
the Cistercians, the Templars, the Hospitallers, and the
Premonstratensians. So it continued till the fourth Council
of Lateran in 1215, when the privilege was again restrained
to such lands as the abbeys had at that time, and was de-
clared not to extend to any after-purchased lands. And it
extends only to lands dum propriis manibus coluntur.
From the paucity of dates in early documents, the Domes-
day Survey is very frequently the only evidence which can
be adduced that the lands claiming a discharge were vested
in the monastery previous to the year expressed in the La-
teran Council.

Although in early times, Domesday, precious as it was
always deemed, occasionally travelled, like other records, to
distant parts, till 1696 it was usually kept with the king's
seal, at Westminster, by the side of the Tally Court in the
exchequer, under three locks and keys, in the charge of the
auditor, the chamberlains, and deputy chamberlains of the
exchequer. In the last-mentioned year it was deposited
among other valuable records in the Chapter House, where
it still remains.

Dominica is 28 miles long and 16 miles broad in the broadest part; but its mean breadth is not more than 9 miles. No regular survey has ever been made; but the area is computed at 260 square miles. The origin of the island is volcanic. Pumice-stone, sulphur, and other volcanic productions are found. An attempt was recently made to trade in sulphur with the United States, but the speculation proved unsuccessful. There are numerous quarries of a volcanic lava, sufficiently durable for the purpose of ordinary buildings, which are worked for the use of the colony. The surface of the island is rugged, and its mountains are among the highest in the Antilles. Morne Diablotin is 5300 feet above the sea. The valleys are very fertile, and watered by numerous streams, of which there are thirty in different parts. About the centre of the island, and about six miles from the town of Roseau, on the top of a high mountain, is a fresh-water lake, with an area of several acres, and in some parts unfathomable. The soil in the valleys having been washed down from the hills by the periodical rains and mixed with decayed vegetable matter, has formed a light brown coloured mould, which is highly productive; towards the coast the soil is a fine deep black mould on a subsoil of yellow brick clay. The island contains an abundance of large timber-trees of the kinds commonly found in the West India Islands; among these the trunks of the gum-trees are hollowed out to form canoes. The streams abound with excellent fish, among which are mullets, pike, eels, and crayfish; the fishery on the coast also yields abundantly for the supply of the inhabitants.

The two most important works for the student of the Domesday Survey are Kelham's Domesday Book illustrated, 8vo., Lond., 1788, and the General Introduction The principal produce of Dominica consists of sugar (and to the survey, reprinted by command of His Majesty under of course rum) and coffee; the quality of the latter has a the direction of the commissioners on the Public Records, higher repute than that of any other of the West India 2 vols., 8vo., 1833, accompanied by fresh indices. A trans- Islands. The island is unequally divided into ten parishes. lation of the whole, under the title of Dom-Boc,' was The town Roseau is in St. George's parish, on the southundertaken early in the present century by the Rev. William west side of the island, and on a tongue of land, having Bawdwen, vicar of Hooton Pagnell, in Yorkshire, who Woodbridge Bay on the north and Charlotteville Bay on published Yorkshire, with the counties of Derby, Notting- the south. The town is regularly built, with long and ham, Rutland, and Lincoln, in 4to., Doncaster, 1809, fol-wide paved streets, which intersect each other at right lowed by the counties of Middlesex, Hertford, Buckingham, angles. The roadstead is safe, although the anchorage is Oxford, and Gloucester, 4to., Doncaster, 1812; but the far from good, from October to August; but during the work went no further. County portions of this record will hurricane months a heavy sea frequently rolls in from the be found translated in most of our provincial histories; the south. Prince Rupert's Bay, on the north-west side of the best are undoubtedly those in Dugdale's Warwickshire, island, is at all times safe and commodious. Nichols's Leicestershire, Hutchins's Dorsetshire, Nash's The population, according to a census taken in 1833, conWorcestershire, Bray and Manning's Survey, and Clutter-sisted ofbuck's Hertfordshire. Mr. Henry Penruddocke Wyndham published Wiltshire, extracted from Domesday Book, 8vo. Salisb. 1788, and the Rev. Richard Warner, Hampshire, 4to. Lond., 1789. Warwickshire has been published recently by Mr. Reader. There are numerous other publications incidentally illustrative of Domesday topography, which the reader must seek for according to the county as to which he may desire information. DOMINANT, in music, the fifth of the key.

the key be c, the dominant is G.
DOMINGO, ST. [HISPANIOLA.]

Whites.

[ocr errors]

Males.
382

Females.
338
Free coloured people 1,673 2,141
Slaves
6,802 7,324

[ocr errors]

Total.

720

3,814 14,126

Total, 8,857 9,803 18,660

The population of the town consisted of 244 whites, 1289 free coloured people, and 739 slaves; altogether, 2272 perThus, if sons. There were in 1835, in Roseau, 3 schools, in dras there were 245 children, taught according to the Madras system; there was one other school, in the parish of St.

DOMINICA, one of the Antilles, belonging to the Eng-Joseph, wherein 40 children were instructed. The greater

lish, and

and Guadaloupe: the parallel of 15° 18' N. lat. and the

faith

The shipping that arrived and sailed from the island in meridian of 61° 28' W. long. pass through the island. Do- 1835 were as follows'

P. C., No. 540.

VOL. IX. L

[blocks in formation]

Total, 222 12,651 1,154 223 12,921 1,172 The imports consist principally of plantation stores, cotton, linen, and woollen manufactures from England; corn, fish, and lumber from the British North American colonies and the United States, and live stock from the neighbouring continent of America. The exports are principally coffee, sugar, and rum. The quantities shipped in 1832, 1833, and 1834, were as follows:

[blocks in formation]

1834.

Value.

5,996.928 77,228 46,090

2,375

week. The dominical letter for any year is the letter on which all the Sundays fall. Thus, the first of January, 1837, being Sunday, the dominical letter for 1837 is A In a common year, the first and last days have the same letters, whence the dominical letter of the succeeding year is one earlier in the list: that is, the dominical letter for 1838 is G. But in leap-year, it is to be remembered that the 29th of February has no letter attached to it: whence every leap-year has two dominical letters, the first for January and February, the second for all the rest of the year, the second being one earlier than the first. The following will now be easily understood; each year is followed by its dominical letter; 1837, A; 1838, G; 1839, F; 1840, E, D; 1841, C; 1842, B; 1843, A; 1844, G, F,

&c.

As it is convenient in historical reading to be able to find the day of the week on which a given day in a distant year 898,891 lbs. 26,2791. fell, we subjoin the following tables. The middle column of figures contains the tens and units of the year in question, while the figures at the head contain the hundreds and tens of hundreds. Thus for the years 536 and 1772, look for 36 and 72 in the middle column, and for 5 and 17 at the head. On the right of the middle column is all that relates to the old style; on the left all that relates to the new style. The large letters on the left refer to years after Christ, the small letters to years before Christ.

DOMINICAL LETTER (dies domi'nica, Sunday). To every day in the year is attached one of the first seven letters, A, B, C, D, E, F, G; namely, A to the first of January, B to the second, &c.; A again to the eighth of January, and so on. The consequence is, that all days which have the same letter fall on the same day of the

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Example 1. What was the dominical letter of the year 763, before Christ, old style? Look on the left, opposite to 63, in the column which has 7 among the headings, and the small letter there found is e. Hence E was the dominical letter of 763 B.C., or the fifth of January was a Sunday. Example 2. What is the dominical letter of 1819, after Christ, old style? Look on the left, opposite to 19, in the column which has 18 among its headings, and the large letter there found is E. Hence E is the dominical letter of 1819 (old style), or the fifth of January was a Sunday.

Example 3. What will be the dominical letters of the year 1896, new style? Look on the right, opposite to 96, in the column which has 18 among the headings, and E D is found. Hence in this leap-year E is the dominical letter at the opening of the year, or the fifth of January will be a Sunday.

Having found the dominical letter for a given year, the following table will assist in finding the day of the week

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[blocks in formation]

forty-fifth year, after a reign of fifteen years. On the news of his death, the senate assembled and elected M. Cocceius Nerva emperor.

DOMINICANS. [BLACK FRIARS.] DOMITIA NUS, TITUS FLAVIUS, younger son of the Emperor Vespasianus, succeeded his brother Titus as emperor, A.D. 81. Tacitus (Histor., iv., 51, 68) gives an The character of Domitian is represented by all antient unfavourable account of his previous youth. The begin- historians in the darkest colours, as being a compound of ning of his reign was marked by moderation and a display timidity and cruelty, of dissimulation and arrogance, of of justice bordering upon severity. He affected great zeal self-indulgence and stern severity towards others. He for the reformation of public morals, and punished with punished satirists, but encouraged secret informers. He death several persons guilty of adultery, as well as some took a delight in inspiring others with terror, and Dion vestals who had broken their vows. He also forbade under relates a singular banquet, to which he invited the senators, severe penalties the practice of emasculation. He completed with all the apparatus of a funeral and an execution. He several splendid buildings begun by Titus; among others, is also said to have spent whole hours in hunting after and an Odeum, or theatre for musical performances. The most killing flies. At one time, before his becoming emperor, important event of his reign was the conquest of Britain he had applied himself to literature and poetry, and he is by Agricola; but Domitian grew jealous of that great com- said to have composed several poems and other works. mander's reputation, and recalled him to Rome. His (Tacitus, Suetonius, Dion, and Pliny the Younger.) suspicious temper and his pusillanimity made him afraid of DON, the (Douna or Tuna in Tartar, and Tongoul in every man who was distinguished either by birth and con- Calmuck), a considerable river of European Russia, and in nexions or by merit and popularity, and he mercilessly the latter part of its course the boundary between Europe sacrificed many to his fears, while his avarice led him to put and Asia. It rises about 54° N. lat. in the small lake to death a number of wealthy persons for the sake of their Ivanofskoe, in the government of Tula, close to the borders property. The usual pretext for these murders was the of the government of Ryazan, and thence flows in a general charge of conspiracy or treason; and thus a numerous race S. S. E. direction until it has passed Paulofsk, after skirting of informers was created and maintained by this system of the southern extremity of the government of Ryazan and spoliation. His cruelty was united to a deep dissimulation, north-western parts of that of Tambof, and traversing the and in this particular he resembled Tiberius rather than greater part of the government of Voronesh. Within these Caligula or Nero. He either put to death or drove away limits the Don receives the Sosva, Voronesh near Tavtof, from Rome the philosophers and men of letters; Epictetus and Sosna near Korotoszak. From Paulofsk it inclines was one of the exiled. He found, however, some flatterers more to the east, and quitting the government of Voronesh, among the poets, such as Martial, Silius Italicus, and enters the western districts of the territory of the Don Statius. The latter dedicated to him his Thebais and Cossacks: soon afterwards it turns due east, and after Achilleis, and commemorated the events of his reign in his having been joined by the Khoper at Khopeiskaya, the Silva. But in reality the reign of Domitian was anything Medveditsa near Ostrofskaya, and the Ilawla above Katchobut favourable to the Roman arms, except in Britain. In kinskaya, flows with numerous bendings until it approaches Mæsia and Dacia, in Germany and Pannonia, the armies the mountains of the Volga, through which it forces a were defeated, and whole provinces lost. (Tacitus, Agricola, passage about forty-five miles from that river. The Don 41.) Domitian himself went twice into Mæsia to oppose now proceeds in a south-western and then a W. S. W. dithe Dacians, but after several defeats he concluded a dis-rection towards its mouth, near which it receives on its graceful peace with their chief Decebalus, whom he acknow- right bank, above New Tsherkask, the Donecz, or Little ledged as king, and agreed to pay him a tribute, which was Don, the most considerable of its tributaries, which rises afterwards discontinued by Trajan; and yet Domitian made above Belgorod, in the government of Kursk, and is upwa. ds a pompous report of his victories to the senate, and assumed of four hundred miles in length. On its left bank the Don the honour of a triumph. In the same manner he triumphed is joined by the Manitsh, which rises on the southern terover the Catti and the Sarmatians, which made Pliny the mination of the Irgeni mountains, crosses the great CauYounger say that the triumphs of Domitian were always casian steppe, flows through lake Bolshoü, and falls into the evidence of some advantages gained by the enemies of Don at Tsherkask. The Don discharges its waters by three Rome. In 95 A.D. Domitian assumed the consulship for branches into the sea of Azof, not far from Nachikgefan, the seventeenth time, together with Flavius Clemens, who Asof, and Tsherkask, about 46° 40' N. lat. The length had married Domitilla, a relative of the emperor. In that of its course is estimated at about 900 miles, but the disyear a persecution of the Christians is recorded in the his- tance from its source to its mouth would not exceed 490. tory of the church, but it seems that it was not directed It has a very slow current, and abounds in shallows and particularly against them, but against the Jews, with whom sand-banks, but has neither falls nor whirlpools. In the Christians were then confounded by the Romans. spring it overflows its banks, and forms broad and unSuetonius ascribes the proscriptions of the Jews, or those wholesome swamps; it is navigable as high as Zadonsk, and who lived after the manner of the Jews, and whom he has depth of water enough from the middle of April to the styles as 'improfessi,' to the rapacity of Domitian. Flavius end of June for the larger description of vessels, but is so Clemens and his wife were among the victims. [CLEMENS shallow during the remainder of the year, that there is ROMANUS.] In the following year, A. D. 96, under the scarcely two feet of water above the sand-banks. Its mouths consulship of Fabius Valens and C. Antistius Vetus, a are so much choked with sand as to be unnavigable for conspiraey was formed against Domitian among the officers any but flat boats. The current of its tributaries is also of his guards and several of his intimate friends, and his sluggish, and none but the Donecz are navigable. As far wife herself is said to have participated in it. The im- as Voronesh, near the junction of the Voronesh and Don, mediate cause of it was his increasing suspicions, which the river flows between fertile hills; but from that point threatened the life of every one around him, and which are until its passage through the chain of the Volga, its left said to have been stimulated by the predictions of astro- bank is skirted by lowlands, and its right by a range of logers and soothsayers, whom he was very ready to consult. uplands; thence to its confluence with the Donecz, its high He was killed in his apartments by several of the conspi- bank is skirted by chalk hills, and its left is bounded by a rators, after struggling with them for some time, in his continued steppe. The waters of the Don are impregnated with chalk, and are muddy, and prejudicial to the health of those who are unused to them: they however abound in fish, though in this respect the Don is much inferior to the Volga. The Don is the Tanais of Herodotus (iv., 57) and other Greek and Roman writers. Herodotus states that the river rises in a large lake and flows into one still larger, the Maietis, or sea of Azof. The Hyrgis, which he mentions as a tributary of the Don, appears to be the

SDIVIL

IMAPCAE

Coin of Domitian.

DESVILLE

[graphic]
[graphic]

British Museum. Actual size. Copper, Weight, 432 grains.

Donecz.

DON-COSSACKS, the Territory of the (or, in Russian, Donskich Kosak of Zembla), so called from the river Don, is a free country which acknowledges the Russian sovereign as its chief, but is not reduced to the condition of a province, or organized as a government, like other parts of the empire. It lies between 47° and 54° N. lat., and 55° and

L2

67° E. long.; and is bounded on the north by the govern- | spirit, especially along the banks of the Don, where a very ments of Voronesh and Saratof, on the east by Astrachan, pleasant wine, not unlike Champaign, is made, and has on the south-east by the government of Caucasia, on the become a favourite beverage in Russia. There are superior south-west by the sea of Azof and the Nogay Steppes in kinds, the Stanitze and Zimlyanskoye, which resemble Taurida, and on the west by the governments of Ekateri- Burgundy in colour and flavour; but the favourite species noslaf and the Ukraine. It occupies an area of about is the Vinomarozka, or frozen wine, which is made from a 76,000 square miles. mixture of wine with brandy and the juice of various berries. In what is called the First Natshalstoe (district) of the Don,' which lies east of Tsherkask, there are at present 9710 vineyards, and in the Second,' northeast of Tsherkask, 2590; these vineyards contain from 200 to 800, and even as many as 1000 vines, and about fifteen different kinds of grasses. The inferior descriptions of wine are red ones, of which about 70,000 vedros (about 225,800 gallons) are annually sent to Moscow, and 30,000 (about 96,770 gallons) to Kharkof, beside considerable quantities to Kursk and other parts. The yearly sale of these wines produces about two millions of roubles, or 92,000l. sterling. The vines also yield about 10,000 vedros (32,250 gallons) of brandy spirit annually.

The general character of the country is that of a plain, in many parts consisting entirely of steppes, especially in the south-eastern districts bordering on the Sal and Manitsh. The interior is a complete flat, but in the north and along the banks of the Don there are slight elevations, and the south-eastern parts bordering on lake Bolskoi are traversed by low offsets of the Caucasian mountains. The rest of the country, with the exception of the parts immediately adjacent to the banks of the larger rivers, is a broad steppe, which contains abundance of luxuriant pasturage intermixed with tracts of sand and sluggish streams. The whole territory does not contain a single forest, and even brushwood is only occasionally found. The northern districts are far the best adapted for agriculture; the southern, where the soil is saline and sandy, for grazing. The steppes are full of low artificial mounds and antient tumuli, which are so numerous in some places as to give rise to the conjecture that they are the vestiges of some great and extinct race, probably of Mongolian origin, as the rude images in stone erected over some of them bear, in their features and peculiar style of head-dress, traces of that origin. Many of these tombs have been opened, and found to contain gold and silver urns, rings, buckles, &c.

The chief river is the Don, which enters the territory in the west, winds across it to the east, and then turning suddenly round, flows through the eastern and southern districts to the sea of Azof. In its course through this country it is joined by the Khoper, Medwedicsa, Ilawla, Sal, Donecz, and several minor streams. Besides these there are several other rivers which discharge their waters into the sea of Azof, such as the Krinka, Kagalnik, Yega, &c.; and there are numerous streams in the steppes, of which the greater part terminate in marshes, and are dry in summer. The principal lake is the Bolskoi, an enlarged bed of the Manitsh, about 70 miles long and 9 broad, the length of which forms for that distance the boundary between the territory of the Don-Cossacks and Caucasia. Next to this the most considerable lakes are those of Nowoe and StaroeOsero, which are covered in summer with an incrustation of salt from one to two inches in thickness, of which they furnish an abundant supply. No mineral springs have yet been discovered.

The country enjoys a mild and not unhealthy climate. The spring sets in early, and in the summer, which is of long continuance, the land is refreshed by frequent showers; the autumn is at times damp and foggy, and the winter, though clear and not accompanied with much snow, is severe and attended by much stormy weather. The rivers are closed by ice from the end of November to the month of February. Failures of the harvest are rare, but the inhabitants often suffer severely from the ravages of the locust, which is the scourge of the country.

The rearing of cattle is pursued with great industry both by the Cossacks and Calmucks; the wealth of the more affluent among them consists, in fact, of their numerous herds and flocks, and they have large Khutors, or cattlefarms, for breeding them in the steppes. The native Cossack horse is small and spare in flesh, with a thin neck and narrow croup; he is, on the whole, an ill-looking animal, but strong, fleet, and hardy. The common Cossack is rarely owner of less than three or four horses, but many of the Tabunes or herds, of the wealthier breeders, contain 1000 or more. All, with the exception of the saddle-horses, are kept on the pasture-grounds throughout the year, and in winter are forced to seek for their food either beneath the snow or from the high reeds on the banks of rivers. The Cossack himself does not keep either camels or dromedaries, but they are reared by their Calmuck fellow-countrymen and thrive well on the saline plants of the steppes. Next to the horse the sheep is the most common domestic animal; the ox is used for draught; goats are bred principally by the Calmucks; but swine and buffaloes are rare. The stock of the Cossack population in 1832 was composed of 257,211 horses, of which 123,328 were mares, 2,110,539 sheep, from which 217,775 poods (about 7,839,900 pounds) of wool were obtained; and 840,683 heads of horned cattle. The Calmucks at that time possessed 33,747 horses, 55,574 heads of cattle, 28,574 sheep, and 1365 camels and dromedaries.

The chase is unproductive, as the steppes are not the usual resort of wild animals or of much game; wolves, foxes, marsh-cats, dwarf otters, martens, marmots, jer boas, a species of gazelle, and hares are occasionally met with. Of wildfowl there are the steppic-fowl (Otis tetrax), water-starling, Muscovy duck, swan, snipe, pelican, and falcon. The principal amphibious animals are tortoises. The steppes also breed the Polish cochineal insect, of which however no use is made, the silkworm, and the cantharides.

Next to agriculture the people derive their chief subsistence from their fisheries. Fish indeed is their ordinary food, and consists of the sturgeon, trout, pike, tench, perch, salmon, carp, &c., for which the richest fishing grounds are the Don and the shores of the sea of Azof. The produce of 1832 was 1,033,935 poods (about 37,221,660 pounds weight), of which 496,512 poods were appropriated to internal consumption, and the remainder was exported. Caviar and isinglass are sent abroad in large quantities. Turtles and crabs in immense numbers, and of large size, are taken in the Don and its tributary streams.

The Cossacks rear little poultry, but they keep large stocks of bees; the number of apiaries a few years ago was 1044, which contained 30,201 hives, and produced annually 8299 poods (about 298,764 pounds weight) of honey and

Agriculture, cattle-breeding, the fisheries, and the cultivation of the vine, constitute the principal occupations of the Don-Cossacks; but, according to the most recent writer on this country, Schnitzler, agriculture, not the rearing of cattle, as most authors have affirmed, forms the chief employment of the people. In the low-lands of the north, which lie along the banks of rivers, the soil is very fertile, and produces grain of various kinds, such as rye, barley, wheat, oats, maize, and buckwheat; also peas, flax, and hemp. But even in the south, fields are found in the heart of the steppes at a distance of thirty and even forty miles from the Don, with rich crops of grain upon them; these fields are cultivated by the richer class of proprietors. In 1832, 91,486 tshetwerts of winter-corn (about 68,370 quar-wax. ters), and 359,643 (about 260,230 qrs.) of spring-corn were Trades and mechanical pursuits are carried on only in the sown; the former yielded two, and the latter three grains two chief towns, New and Old Tsherkask, and the larger for one, without the use of manure or much cost of la- stanitzes, or villages; for as the Cossack depends upon bour. The average crops of wheat are estimated at about himself for the supply of his daily wants, there is consetwo millions of tshetwerts (1,447,180 quarters) annually.quently little encouragement for the manufacturer and None of the Cossack families are without gardens, in which they raise vegetables of the ordinary descriptions, melons, cucumbers, and fruit; the last is not however an object of much attention. The culture of the vine was introduced by Peter the Great, and has been followed up with

mechanic. The only large manufactures are caviar, wax, and isinglass. The exports are inconsiderable, and consist principally of horses, cattle, tallow, skins, glue, fish, and their products, wine, and a little grain; the greater part of these exports are sent to Taganrog, which is the chief mart

« EelmineJätka »