Note 151 — BOOK I.—THE SOURCE (continued 2)

According to Ailred (temp. Hen. II), "a king, many bishops and abbots, many great earls and noble knights descended both from English and Norman blood, constituted a support to the one and an honor to the other. At present," says another author of the same period, "as the English and Normans dwell together, and have constantly intermarried, the two nations are so completely mingled together, that at least as regards freemen, one can scarcely distinguish who is Norman and who English.... The villeins attached to the soil," he says again, "are alone of pure Saxon blood."