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the movements of large units and normal units of Norman forces, and, even, of patrols. In his most recent contribution to Domesday Studies, the late Mr. Welldon Finn has applied Lt. Col. Lemmon's criteria on a wide scale and has produced a sustained attempt to interpret fluctuations in value for the whole country, shire by shire. He starts with indications of military activities and moves on to consider a wider range of economic problems for each county. He is acutely aware of the inadequacy of his statistics and of the problem of trusting his figures. Can they 'be used with profit to deduce changes between the Conquest and the Inquest', he asks, or 'are they too deceptive?' Almost at the outset he asserts his confidence that the Domesday figures can be used to advantage, but it remains a recurrent theme of his book that the material is difficult, imprecise and often frustrating. If the discrepancy in values for a manor is too great, he wonders 'how far real comparison is possible'. If there is no discrepancy, he is ready to suspect that informants 'made no attempt to estimate what had been the earlier value of the holding'. As in his earlier books, Mr. Finn has a vast amount of detailed material at his command; few scholars can know the contents of Domesday Book so well. He has also a tendency to multiply examples though his purpose in citing them is not always clear. I am not convinced by his general argument, basically because I believe that Lt. Col. Lemmon's technique is over-refined, and that there are dangers in relying so extensively upon it. I share Mr. Finn's repeated assertion that we cannot make the best use of Domesday Book by dealing only with statistics. The problem which he has tackled is, indeed, formidable, and his discussion of the material will be valuable, but we have far to go before answers which carry conviction will be possible. News of Mr. Finn's death was announced after the publication of this book, and apart from an essay on the Yorkshire Domesday it is his last major contribution to the field which he had made very much his own. Whatever may be the final answers to the questions that he has raised, they must now come from other, and younger, scholars. DAVID WALKER Swansea THE ROYAL DEMESNE IN ENGLISH HISTORY. By B. P. Wolffe. George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1971. Pp. 324. £ 5.00 At first sight the title of this book, like its subtitle ('The Crown Estate in the governance of the realm from the Conquest to 1509') may appear misleading, since only a quarter of its length is devoted to the period