Note 125 — DIALOGUE V. ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT.

This bounty in so wise a prince as William will be thought strange. I believe it may be, in part, accounted for, from what is observed above of the Saxon allodial lords. These had possessed immense estates. And, as they fell in upon forfeiture, the great Norman adventurers would of course expect to come into the entire succession.—Perhaps too, in that confusion of affairs, the prince might not always, himself, be apprized of the extent and value of these possessions.