Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/166

 THE HALL OF OAKHAM. With the exception of the grants made by King Edward the Confessor to his wife, and to the monastery of St. Peter at Westminster, the earhest information reLiting to the town of Oakham, upon which dependance may be placed, is that contained in the Conqueror's Survey. It is indeed doubtful whether any traditionary accounts are recorded in other sources, at all events such have eluded research in the present enquiry, and we are not unwillingly compelled to commence a history of the castle of Oakham at a period when there are accredited evidences of its actual state. Considering the very meagre notices which occm* during successive reigns, we are fortunate in finding in Domesday any notice whatever of the county of Rutland. Eor it is a remarkable fact that in the national documents which follow next in succession to this invaluable Survey, the county at an early period is almost entirely unmentioned, and instead of finding the expenses of the shrievalty written on the -great roll of the Pipe, like other counties, on a rotulet by themselves, they come in usually appended to Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, or Derbyshire. The mere mention of the county is unfrequent, and the facts detailed are of a nature- of no particular interest to the object before us. Such how- ever as have the least relevancy to the history of the town and castle of Oakham shall be exhibited in chronological series. They may not serve to throw much light on a subject that must possess considerable interest in itself, but their defi- ciency in this respect will probably be compensated by the information of another kind which is incidentally to be gleaned; such for instance as the testimony they aftbrd to the rights of the crown, to the custom of passing its landg by fine, and of making inquisition, at the decease of the tenjants, into the right of succession, to the mode of ascertaining the value of royal property, and to the methods adopted for re- dressing complaints and expediting justice. It may be enough to state these as some of the inferences which may be drawn from what must otherwise appear a dry and unmeaning col-