Chapter XII: ARRINGTON. A vill of 4 hides (14)

Elsworth 1 H. = 4 V. = 120 A.
Knapwell 1 H. = 4 V. = 160 A.
Graveley Freehold 1 H. = 7 V. = unknown
Villeinage 1 H. = 6-3/4 V. = 135 A.
Over 1 H. = 4 V. = 120 A.
Girton 1 H. = 4 V. = 120 A.
Burwell 1 H. = 4 V. = 120 A.

Here in thirty-one instances what we take to be the normal equation appears but seven times, but no other equation occurs more than twice. Moreover, so far as we have observed, the variations in the acreage that will be ascribed to a hide are not provincial, they are villar variations: that is to say, though we may see that the average hide of one county would have more acres than those that are contained in the average hide of another, we can not affirm that the hide of a certain county or hundred contains _a_ acres, while that of another has _b_ acres, and, on the other hand, we often see a startling difference between two contiguous villages. Lastly, where the computation of 120 acres to a hide is forsaken, we see little agreement in favour of any other equation. In particular, though now and again the hide of a village will perchance have 240 acres, we can find no trace of any 'double hide' in which ingenuity might see a link between the Roman and English systems of measurement and taxation[1323]. The only other general proposition which our evidence suggests is that a land which habitually displays unusually large virgates will often be a land in which a given area of arable soil has borne an unusually light weight of taxation, and this, as we shall hereafter see, will often, though not always, be a land where a given area of arable soil has been deemed to bear an unusually small value. But this connexion between many-acred hides and light taxation is not very strongly marked in our cartularies[1324].

[The carucate and bovate.]

In the land-books which deal with Kent the _aratrum_ or _sulung_[1325] is commoner than the hide or manse, and Domesday Book shows us that in Kent the _solin_ (_sulung_) is the fiscal unit that plays the part that is elsewhere played by the hide. That same part is played in Suffolk, Norfolk, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and the counties of Derby, Nottingham and Leicester by the _carucata_, which has for its eighth part the _bovata_. These terms seem to be French: that is to say, they apparently formed no part of the official Latin that had been current in England[1326]. We may infer, however, that they translated some English, or rather perhaps some Scandinavian terms, for only in Danish counties do we find them used to describe the geldable units. It is exceedingly doubtful whether we ought to treat this method of reckoning as older than the Danish invasions. Bede, himself a Northumbrian, uses the 'family-land' as his unit, no matter what be the part of England of which he is speaking, and his translator uses the _híd_ or _hiwisc_ in the same indiscriminate fashion. Unfortunately the 'carucated' shires are those which yield us hardly any land-books, and we do not know what the English jurors said when the Norman clerks wrote _carucata_ and _bovata_: perhaps _plough-gate_ and _ox-gate_, or _plough-gang_ and _ox-gang_, or, again, a _plough of land_, for these were the vernacular words of a later age. On the whole, the little evidence that we have seems to point to the greater antiquity in England of a reckoning which takes the 'house-land' rather than the 'plough-land' as its unit[1327].

[The ox-gang.]

As to the bovate or ox-gang, it seems to be an unit only in the same sense as that in which the virgate or yard-land is an unit; the one is the eighth, the other is the fourth of an unit. That, in days when eight oxen are yoked to a plough, the eighth of a plough-gang should be called an ox-gang will not surprise us, though, as a matter of fact, an ox never 'goes' or ploughs in solitude[1328]. In our Latin documents a third part of a knight's fee will be, not _tertia pars feodi unius militis_, but far more commonly, _feodum tertiae partis unius militis_. We do not infer from this that fractions of knights, or fractions of knight's fees are older than integral knights and integral fees. The bovate seems to have been much less widely known than the carucate, for apparently it had no place in the computation that was generally used in East Anglia, where men reckoned by carucates, half-carucates and acres and where the virgate was not absolutely unknown[1329].

[The fiscal carucate.] In the financial system, as we have said, the carucate plays for some counties the part that is played for others by the hide. Fiscally they seem to be equivalent: that is to say, when every hide of Wessex is to pay two shillings, every carucate of Lincolnshire will pay that sum. We think also and shall try to show that the Exchequer reckons 120 acres to the carucate, or, in other words, that if a tenement taxed as a carucate were divided into six equal shares, each share would at the Exchequer be called 20 acres. The same forces, however, which have made the fiscal hide diverge widely from the 'real' hide have played upon the plough-gangs of the Danelaw. In the Boldon Book we read of many bovates with 15 acres apiece, though the figures 20, 13-1/2, 12-1/2, 12 and 8 are also represented, and, when we come to the extents of the thirteenth century, we seem to see in the north but a feeble tendency to any uniformity among the equations that connect carucates with acres. The numbers of the acres in a bovate given by a series of Yorkshire inquests is 7, 7, 8, 15, 12, 6, 12, 15, 15, 6, 5, 9, 10, 10, 12, 24, 4, 16, 12, 18, 8, 6, 10, 24, 32[1330]. With a bovate of 4 acres, our carucate would have no more than 32. But then, in the north we may find very long rods and very large acres[1331], and, where Danes have settled, we have the best reason to expect those complications which would arise from the superimposition of a new set of measures upon a territory that had been arranged to suit another set[1332].

[Acreage tilled by a plough.]

Having been led into speaking of plough-gangs, we may end these discursive remarks by a gentle protest against the use that is sometimes made of the statements that are found in the book called Fleta. It is a second-rate legal treatise of Edward I.'s day. It seems to have fallen dead from its author's pen and it hardly deserved a better fate. For the more part it is a poor abstract of Bracton's work. When it ceases to pillage Bracton, it pillages other authors, and what it says of ploughing appears to be derived at second hand from Walter of Henley[1333]. Now Walter of Henley's successful and popular treatise on Husbandry is a good and important book; but we must be careful before we treat it as an exponent of the traditional mode of agriculture, for evidently Walter was an enlightened reformer. We might even call him the Arthur Young of his time. Now, it is sometimes said that according to Fleta 'the carucate' would have 160 acres in 'a two course manor' and 180 in 'a three course manor.' A reference to Walter of Henley will show him endeavouring to convince the men of his time that such amounts as these really can be ploughed, if they work hard. 'Some men will tell you that a plough can not till eight score or nine score acres by the year, but I will show you that it can.' His calculation is worth repeating. It is as follows:

The year has 52 weeks. Deduct 8 for holy-days and other hindrances.
There remain 44 weeks or 264 days, Sundays excluded.

_Two course._ Plough 40 acres for winter
seed, 40 for spring seed and 80 for fallow
(total 160) at 7/8ths of an acre per day = 182-6/7 days

Also plough by way of second fallowing 80
acres at an acre per day = 80 days
--------
Total 262-6/7 days[1334].

[Walter of Henley's scheme.]

It is a strenuous and sanguine, if not an impossible, programme. When harvest time and the holy weeks are omitted, the plough is to 'go' every week-day throughout the year, despite frost and tempest. Obviously it is a programme that can only enter the head of an enthusiastic lord who has supernumerary oxen, and will know how to fill the place of a ploughman who is ill. We have little warrant for believing that what Walter hopes to do is being commonly done in his day, less for importing his projects into an earlier age. In order that he may keep his beasts up to their arduous toil, he proposes to feed them with oats during half the year[1335]. If we inferred that the Saxon invaders of England treated their oxen thus, we might be guilty of an anachronism differing only in degree from that which would furnish them with steam-ploughs. But, to come to much later days, the Domesday of St. Paul's enables us to say with some certainty that the ordinary team of eight beasts accomplished no such feats as those of which Walter speaks. For example, at Thorpe in Essex the canons have about 180 acres of arable land in demesne. These, it is estimated, can be tilled by one team of ten heads together with the ploughing service that is due from the tenants, and these tenants have to plough at least 80 acres, to wit, 40 in winter and 40 in Lent[1336]. We must observe that to till even 120 acres according to Walter's two-course plan would mean that a plough must 'go' 180 acres in every year, and that, even if it does its acre every day, more than half the week-days in the year must be devoted to ploughing. We may, however, seriously doubt whether a scheme which would plough the land thrice between every two crops had been generally prevalent[1337]. Nay, we may even doubt whether the practice of fallowing had been universal[1338]. Not unfrequently in our cartularies the villein is required to plough between Michaelmas and Christmas and again between Christmas and Lady Day, while nothing is said of his ploughing in the summer[1339]. We are only beginning to learn a little about medieval agriculture.

However, we have now said all that we had to say by way of preface to what we fear will be a dreary and inconclusive discussion of some of those abundant figures that Domesday Book supplies. A few we have endeavoured to collect in the tables which will meet the reader's eye when he turns this page, and which will be explained on later pages.

FOOTNOTES:

[1217] D. B. ii. 47 b.

[1218] Ibid. 61.

[1219] Ibid. 64.

[1220] Ibid. 65.

[1221] Ibid. 69 b.

[1222] See above, p. 35.

[1223] For this reason I do not feel sure that Mr F. Baring (Eng.
Hist. Rev. xi. 98) has conclusively proved his case when he
accuses D. B. of omitting to notice the free tenants on the
estates of the Abbey of Burton.

[1224] The antiquity and universality of the balk must not be taken
for granted; see Meitzen, op. cit. i. 86; iii. 319. However,
in recent times balks did occur within the shots (this
Meitzen seems to doubt) as may be seen to-day at Upton St.
Leonards, Co. Gloucester. Mr Seebohm, op. cit. 4, 382, claims
the word _balk_ for the Welsh; but see New Eng. Dict. and
Skeat, Etymol. Dict. In this, as in many another case, the
Welsh claim to an English word has broken down.

[1225] A.-S. Chron. ad ann. 1043. Henry of Huntingdon, p. 192, took
the sestar of this passage to be a horse-load. Even if we
accept his version, the price would be high when compared
with the prices recorded on the Pipe Rolls of Henry II.; for
which see Hall, Court Life, 219, 220. But, though the point
can not be argued here, we may strongly suspect that the
chronicler meant something that is almost infinitely worse,
and that his sestar was at the very least as small as our
bushel. We know of no English document which suggests a
_sextarius_ that would be comparable with a horse-load.

[1226] Geatfled's will, K. 925 (iv. 263).

[1227] See above, p. 14.

[1228] Observe the clumsy nomenclature illustrated by K. 816 (iv.
164), a deed forged for the Confessor:--'Middletun et oðer
Middletun ... Horningdun et oðer Horningdun ... Fifehyda et
oðer Fifehyda.'

[1229] See in this context the interesting letter of Bp. Denewulf to
Edward the Elder, K. 1089 (v. 166). An estate of 72 hides, a
very large estate, came to the bishop almost waste. He prides
himself on having now tilled 90 acres!

[1230] A good programme of this system is given by Cunningham,
Growth of English Industry, i. 71.

[1231] Rectitudines, 4, § 3; Seebohm, Village Community, 141. Mr
Seebohm's inference is ingenious and plausible. See also
Andrews, Old English Manor, 218.

[1232] K. 259 (ii. 26), A.D. 845: Gift of 19 acres near the city of
Canterbury, 6 acres in one place, 6 in another, 7 in a third.

[1233] K. 241 (ii. 1), A.D. 839: Gift of 24 acres, 10 in one place,
14 in another.--K. 339 (ii. 149), A.D. 904: Gift of 60 acres
of arable to the south and 60 to the north of a certain
stream.--K. 586 (iii. 118): 'and 30 æcra on ðæm twæm feldan
dallandes.'

[1234] See e.g. Glastonbury Rentalia (Somerset Record Soc.) pp. 14,
15, 55, 67, 89, 119, 128-9, 137-8, 155, 166, 192, 195, 208,
219. A system which leaves half the land idle in every year
is of course quite compatible with the growth of both winter
and spring corn. When, as is not uncommon, the villeins have
to do between Michaelmas and Christmas twice as much
ploughing as they will do between Christmas and Lady Day,
this seems to point to a scheme which leaves one field idle
and divides the other between winter and spring corn in the
proportion of 2:1. Even in the fourteenth century a
three-field system seems to have been regarded in some places
as 'high farming.' Larking, Domesday of Kent, App. p. 23:
Extent of Addington, A.D. 1361: 'Et sunt ibidem 60 acrae
terrae arabilis, de quibus duae partes possunt seminari per
annum, _si bene coluntur_.' For evidence of the three-field
system, see Nasse, Agricultural Community, Engl. transl. 53.

[1235] Meitzen, op. cit. ii. 592.

[1236] Turton, Forest of Pickering (North Riding Record Society),
148 ff. Twenty years ago A. E. enclosed an acre; sown eight
times with spring corn; value of a sown acre 1_s._, of an
unsown, 4_d._ Twenty-two years ago E. C. enclosed a rood;
sown seven times with oats, value 6_d._ a year; value, when
unsown, 1_d._ a year. In the same book are many instances of
a husbandry which alternates oats with hay.

[1237] Scrutton, Commons and Common Fields, 118, citing a Report to
the Board of Agriculture.

[1238] Ine, 63-68, 70. See above, p. 238.

[1239] A very fine instance is found on the north coast of
Norfolk:--Burnham Deepdale, B. Norton, B. Westgate, B.
Sutton, B. Thorpe, B. Overy. As to this see Stevenson, E. H.
R. xi. 304.

[1240] Index Map of Ordnance Survey of Norfolk. Six inch Map of
Norfolk, LVI. Another instance occurs near Yarmouth along the
banks of the Waveney. Even if the allotment was the result of
modern schemes of drainage, it still might be a satisfaction
of very ancient claims.

[1241] See above, p. 355.

[1242] Fines (ed. Hunter) i. 242: 'sex acras terrae mensuratas per
legalem perticam eiusdem villae [de Haveresham].'

[1243] Acts of Parliament of Scotland, i. 309.

[1244] Schmid, Gesetze, App. XII.: 'three feet and three hand
breadths and three barley corns.'

[1245] Acts of Parliament of Scotland, i. 309. Compare Statutes of
the Realm, i. 206: 'Tria grana ordei sicca et rotunda faciunt
pollicem.' This so-called Statute of Admeasurement has not
been traced to any authoritative source. Probably, like many
of the documents with which it is associated, it is a mere
note which lawyers copied into their statute books.

[1246] Hoveden, iv. 33: 'et ulna sit ferrea.'

[1247] Britton, ii. 189.

[1248] Magna Carta is careful of wine, beer, corn and cloth; not of
land.

[1249] Gloucester Corporation Records, ed. Stevenson, p. 80. Near
the year 1200 a grant is made of land in Gloucester measuring
in breadth 30 feet 'iuxta ferratam virgam Regis.' Ducange, s.
v. _ulna_, gives examples from the Monasticon. The iron rod
was an iron ell. Were standard perches ever made and
distributed? Apparently the only measure of length of which
any standard was made was the _ulna_ or cloth-yard.

[1250] See the apocryphal Statute of Admeasurement, Stat., vol. i.
p. 206.

[1251] If the jurors had superficial measure in their heads and were
stating this by reference to two straight lines, they would
make the length of one of these lines a constant (e.g. one
league or one furlong). This is not done: the space is 6
furlongs in length by 3 in breadth, 14 furlongs in length by
4 in breadth, 9 furlongs and 1 perch in length by 5 furlongs
and 2 perches in breadth (instances from Norfolk) or the
like. They are endeavouring to indicate shape as well as
size. See the method of measurement adopted in K. 594 (iii.
129): 'and ðær ðæt land unbradest is ðer hit sceol beon
eahtatyne fota brad.'

[1252] The league of 12 furlongs has dropped out of modern usage; it
is very prominent in D. B., where miles, though not unknown,
are rare.

[1253] Our foot is ·30479 meters. Our perch is very close to 5
meters. Our acre 40·467 ares. A hide of 120 acres would be
48·56 hectares.

[1254] Statutes of the Realm, i. 206: 'Tres pedes faciunt ulnam.'
Though this equation gets established, the _ulna_ or
cloth-yard seems to start by being an arm's length. See the
story that Henry I. made his own arm a standard: Will.
Malmesb. Gesta Regum., ii. 487. Britton, i. 189, tells us
that the _aune_ contains two cubits and two thumbs (inches).
Our yard seems too long to be a step.

[1255] Second Report of Commissioners for Weights and Measures,
Parliamentary Papers, 1820, Reports, vol. vii.

[1256] As to all this see Meitzen, op. cit. i. 272 fol.

[1257] The ratio 10:1 is not the only one that is well represented
in Germany. The practice of making the acre four rods wide is
more universal. As we shall see below, length must take its
chance.

[1258] Morgan, England under the Normans, 19.

[1259] Pollock, E. H. R. xi. 218.

[1260] Morgan, op. cit. 19, citing Monasticon, iv. 421.

[1261] Second Report of the Commissioners for Weights and Measures,
Parliamentary Papers, 1820, Reports, vol. vii. The
information thus obtained might have been better sifted. When
it is said that a certain customary perch contains 15 feet 1
inch, these feet and inches are statute feet and statute
inches. Probably this perch had exactly 15 'customary' feet.
So, again, it is likely that every 'customary' acre contained
160 'customary' perches.

[1262] See below, p. 382.

[1263] Compare Meitzen, op. cit. ii. 560.

[1264] Morgan, op. cit. 22.

[1265] Anonymous Husbandry, see Walter of Henley, ed. Lamond, p. 69.

[1266] K. 296 (ii. 87): 6 _virgae_ in length and 3 in breadth.--K.
339 (ii. 149): 28 roda lang and 24 roda brad.--K. 507 (ii.
397): 12 gerda lang and 9 gerda brad.--K. 558 (iii. 229):
'tres perticas' = 'þreo gyrda.'--K. 772 (iv. 84): 12
_perticae_.--K. 787 (iv. 115): a _pertica_ and a half.--K.
814 (iv. 160): dimidiam virgam et dimidiam quatrentem.--K.
1103 (v. 199): 75 gyrda.--K. 1141 (v. 275): 6 gyrda.--K. 1087
(v. 163): 3 furlongs and 3 mete-yards = an unknown quantity +
12 yards + 13 yards + 43 yards and 6 feet + 20 yards and 6
feet + 7 yards and 6 feet + 5 yards. This charter is
commended to geometers. We see, however, that the 'yard' in
question is longer than 6 feet; it is connected with our
perch, not with our cloth yard. Schmid, App. XII.: 3 miles, 3
furlongs, 3 acre-breadths, 9 feet, 9 hand-breadths and 9
barley-corns.

[1267] Meitzen, op. cit. ii. 554. This _virga regalis_ is set down
at 4·70 meters; our statute perch stands very close to 5
meters.

[1268] Meitzen, op. cit. i. 278.

[1269] Ellis, Introduction, i. 116.

[1270] The use of _quarentina_ for furlong may be due to the
Normans.

[1271] Delisle, Études sur la condition de la classe agricole en
Normandie, 531-2.

[1272] We find from D. B. i. 166 that there was a royal _sextarius_;
but (i. 162, 238) other _sextarii_ were in use.

[1273] Meitzen, op. cit. ii. 564. Thus in Köln, the Morgen is 31·72
ares, the Waldmorgen 38·06 ares. In Brunswick the Feldmorgen
is 25·02 ares, the Waldmorgen 33·35 ares. So in Sussex the
common acres are small; the forest acre = 180 (instead of
160) perches. So in Herefordshire the common acre is put down
at two-thirds of the statute acre, but an acre of wood is
more than an acre and a half of statute measure.

[1274] Registr. Honor. Richemund., Ap., p. 11, Agard says: 'In the
Arrentation of Assarts of Forests made in Henry III.'s and
Edward I.'s times, for forest ground the commissioners let
the land _per perticam xx. pedum_,' though by this time the
16·5 foot perch was the established royal measure for
ordinary purposes. In a Buckinghamshire Fine levied in John's
reign (Hunter, i. 242) we find acres of land which are
measured 'by the lawful perch of the vill,' while acres of
wood are measured 'by the perch of the king.' Ibid. 13, 178:
a perch of 20 feet was being used in the counties of Bedford
and Buckingham, though Bedfordshire is notorious for small
acres. The obscure processes that go on in the history of
measures might be illustrated from the report cited above, p.
374, note 1261; the length of the 'customary' perch varies
inversely with the difficulty of the work to be done. In
Herefordshire a perch of fencing was 21 feet, a perch of
walling 16·5. And so forth.

[1275] Morgan, op. cit. 27, suggests a double goad. The _g[=a]d_ of
modern Cambridgeshire has been a stick 9 feet long; but the
surveyor put eight into the acre-breadth, reckoning two of
these _g[=a]ds_ to the customary pole of 18 feet. See Pell,
in Domesday Studies, i. 276, 296. A rod that is 18 feet long
is a clumsy thing and perhaps for practical purposes it has
been cut in half. Meitzen, op. cit., i. 90: Two
hunting-spears would make a measuring rod. See also Hanssen,
Abhandlungen, ii. 210.

[1276] Seebohm, op. cit. 119. Welsh evidence seems to point this
way.

[1277] K. 529 (iii. 4): '12 æceras mædwa.'--K. 549 (iii. 33).--K.
683 (iii. 263).

[1278] When Walter of Henley, p. 8, is making his calculations as to
the amount of land that can be ploughed in a day, he assumes
that the work will be over a _noune_. The 'by three o'clock'
of his translator is too precise and too late. At whatever
hour nones should have been said, the word _noon_ became our
name for twelve o'clock. See also Seebohm, op. cit. 124.

[1279] Meitzen, op. cit., ii. 565. The rods known in Germany range
upwards from very short South German rods which descend from
the Roman _pertica_ to much longer rods which lie between 4
meters and 5. Our statute perch just exceeds 5 meters. Then
the ordinary (not forest) _Morgen_ rarely approaches 40 ares,
while our statute acre is equivalent to 40·46 ares. However,
the Scandinavian _Tonne_ is yet larger and recalls the big
acres of northern England. In France perches of 18 feet were
common, and in Normandy yet longer perches were used, but we
do not know that the French _acre_ or _journal_ contained 160
square perches.

[1280] Seebohm, op. cit. 166.

[1281] Seebohm, op. cit. 19.

[1282] Thus e.g. Glastonbury Rentalia, 68: 'if he has eight oxen he
shall plough every Thursday [during certain seasons] three
roods [_perticatas_].'

[1283] Walter of Henley, 9.

[1284] Tour through the Southern Counties, ed. 3 (1772), pp.
298-301.

[1285] Tour through the Southern Counties, p. 127.

[1286] Walter of Henley, 9.

[1287] Young, View of Agriculture of Oxfordshire, p. 104. In
Oxfordshire in the early years of this century many ploughs
with four horses 'go out for 3 roods,' after all improvements
in ploughs and in horses.

[1288] Meitzen, op. cit. 88. Dr Taylor in Domesday Studies, i. 61,
gives a somewhat different explanation. The ploughman walked
backwards in front of the beasts, and, when near the end of
the furrow, used his right arm to pull them round.

[1289] Among the land-books those that most clearly indicate the
intermixture of strips are K. 538 (iii. 19),--648 (iii.
210),--692 (iii. 290),--1158 (v. 310),--1169 (v. 326),--1234
(vi. 39),--1240 (vi. 51),--1276 (vi. 108),--1278 (vi. 111).

[1290] As to the names of _culturæ_ the Ramsey Cartulary may be
profitably consulted. Such names as Horsepelfurlange,
Wodefurlonge, Benefurlange, Stapelfurlange (i. 307),
Mikellefurlange (321), Stanweyfurlange, Longefurlange (331)
are common. We meet also with _-wong_: Redewonge (321),
Langiwange, Stoniwonge, Schortewonge, Semareswonge (341-2).
Also with _-leuge_ (apparently O. E. _léah_, gen. dat.
_léage_): Wolnothesleuge, Edriches Leuge. Often the _cultura_
is known as the Five (Ten, Twenty) Acres. Sometimes in Latin
this sense of _furlong_ is rendered by _quarentina_: 'unam
rodam in quarentina de Newedich': Fines, ed. Hunter, i. 42.

[1291] Glastonbury Rentalia, 180, 195, 208.

[1292] Sixteen Old Maps: Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1888.

[1293] The rod, however, must have been very short; perhaps it had
as few as 12 feet.

[1294] For many reasons this must not be taken as a typical map. We
refer to it merely as showing the relation of 'estimated'
(that is of 'real') acres to an acre-measure.

[1295] Instructive evidence about this matter was given in a
Chancery suit of James I.'s reign. The deponent speaking of
the fen round Ely says 'it is the use and custom ... to
measure the fen grounds by four poles in breadth for an acre,
by a pole of 18 feet ... and in length for an acre of the
said grounds as it happeneth, according to the length of the
furlong of the same fens, which is sometimes shorter and
sometimes longer.' Quoted by O. C. Pell in Domesday Studies,
i. 296.

[1296] For an explanation of this mode of ploughing, see Meitzen,
op. cit. 84.

[1297] Meitzen gives 6 feet as a usual width for the beds in
Germany. I think that in cent. xiii. our selions were usually
wider than this.

[1298] The Gloucester Corporation Records, ed. Stevenson (1893),
should be consulted. When small pieces of land were being
conveyed, the selions were often enumerated. Thus (p. 124):
'and 13 acres of arable land ... whereof one acre lies upon
þistelege near Durand's land ... an acre and a half being
three selions ... half an acre being two selions ... an acre
of five selions ... an acre being one selion and a gore ...
four selions and two little gores ... an acre being three
selions and a head-land.' In Mr Seebohm's admirable account
of the open fields there seems to me to be some confusion
between the selions and the acre or half-acre strips.

[1299] On Mr Mowat's map of Roxton a quarter-acre strip is a
_yeard_.

[1300] D. B. i. 364: 'In Staintone habuit Jalf 5 bovatas terrae et
14 acras terrae et 1 virgatam ad geldum.' This virgate is a
quarter-acre. The continuous use of _virgata_ in this sense
is attested by Glastonbury Rentalia, 27. So in Normandy:
Delisle, Études sur la condition de la classe agricole, 535.
So in France: Ducange, s. v. _virgata_ from a Register of the
Chamber of Accounts: 'Quadraginta perticae faciunt virgatam:
quatuor virgatae faciunt acram.' Meitzen, op. cit. i. 95: in
Kalenberg a strip that is one rod in breadth is called a
_Gert_ (our _yard_).

[1301] In the Exeter Domesday _virga_ not _virgata_ is the common
word. In the Exchequer book an abbreviated form is used; but
_virga_ appears in i. 216 b.

[1302] So again, if a _iugum_ is quartered, its quarter can be
called a virgate. See Denman Ross, Hist. of Landholding, 140;
Round, Feudal England, 108.

[1303] See above, p. 372.

[1304] K. 205 (i. 259): 'circiter 30 iugera.'--K. 217 (i. 274): '30
iugera.'--K. 225 (i. 290): 'hoc est 30 iugerum' ... 'hoc est
85 segetum.'--K. 234 (i. 308): '150 iugera.'--K. 241 (ii. 1):
'24 iugeras.'--K. 259 (ii. 26): '19 iugera.'--K 264 (ii. 36):
'unum dimidium agrum ... healve aker.'--K. 276 (ii. 57): '10
iugera.'--K. 285 (ii. 70): '80 æcra.'--K. 339 (ii. 150):
'sextig æcera earðlondes ... oðer sextig.'--K. 586 (iii.
118): '30 æcra on ðæm twæm feldan.'--K. 612 (iii. 159): '2
hida buton 60 æcran.'--K. 633 (iii. 188): '3 mansas ac 30
iugerum dimensionem.'--K. 695 (iii. 295): '40 agros.'--K. 759
(iv. 59): '30 akera.'--K. 782 (iv. 106): 'fiftig æcera.'--K.
1154 (v. 303): '36 ækera yrðlandes.'--K. 1161 (v. 315): 'ter
duodenas segetes' = '36 æcera yrðlandes.'--K. 1211 (v. 393):
'25 segetes.'--K. 1218 (vi. 1): '14 hida and ... 40 æcera.'

[1305] Probably it occurs in Ine 67; certainly in Rectitudines 4, §
3, and in the late document about Tidenham (above, p.
330).--K. 369 (ii. 205): Boundary of a _gyrd_ at Ashurst
which belongs to a hide at Topsham (A.D. 937).--K. 521 (ii.
418): Edgar grants 'tres virgas.'--K. 658 (iii. 229):
Æthelred grants '3 mansas et 3 perticas.'--K. 1306 (vi. 163):
Æthelred grants land 'trium sub aestimatione perticarum.'--K.
772 (iv. 84): Edward Conf. grants '5 perticas.'--K. 787 (iv.
115): He grants 'unam perticam et dimidiam.'--K. 814 (iv.
160): He grants 'dimidiam virgam et dimidiam
quatrentem.'--Crawford Charters, 5, 9, mortgage in 1018 of a
yard of land.--K. 949 (iv. 284); 979 (iv. 307): two other
examples from the eve of the Conquest.--It is more likely
that these 'yards' and 'perches' of land are quarter-hides
than that they are quarter-acres; 'square' perches seem to be
out of the question. There are of course many instances in
the charters of a _pertica_, _virga_, _gyrd_ used as a
measure of mere length. See above, p. 375, note 1266, where a
few are cited.

[1306] Meitzen, op. cit. 74. In Germany the _Hufe_, _hoba_, _huoba_,
_huba_, _etc._ is the unit. This word is said to be connected
with the modern German _Behuf_, our _behoof_; it is the
_sors_, the portion that behoves a man. In Sweden, the unit
is the _Mantal_, a man's share. The last word about the
_tenmannetale_ of Yorkshire has not been said.

[1307] K. 633 (iii. 188).

[1308] K. 612 (iii. 159): 'landes sumne dæl, ðæt synd 2 hida, buton
60 æcran ðæt hæft se arcebisceop genumen into Cymesige to his
hame him to hwætelande.'

[1309] Rot. Hund. ii. 575. After going through the whole
calculation, I have satisfied myself that the sum is worked
in this way.

[1310] Hence in our law Latin the word _terra_ means arable land. To
claim _unam acram terrae_ when you meant an acre of meadow
(_prati_) would have been a fatal error.

[1311] K. 1222 (vi. 12); T. 508: 'And ic Æðelgar an an hide lond ðes
ðe Æulf hauede be hundtuelti acren, ateo so he wille.'
Kemble, Saxons, 117.

[1312] See above, p. 386, note 1304.

[1313] There can be little need of examples. Glastonbury Rentalia,
152: 'S. tenet unam virgatam terrae et dimidiam, quae
computantur pro una virgata.' Ibid. p. 160: 'H. tenet unam
virgatam et 5 acras, quae omnia computantur pro una virgata.'
Worcester Register, 62: A virgate consists of 13 acres in one
field and 12-1/2 in the other; the next virgate of 16 acres
in one field and 12 in the other. In other cases the numbers
are 16 and 14; 14-5/8 and 11; 13 and 12-1/2; 14 and 11;
14-3/4 and 11-1/4. Yet every virgate is a virgate.

[1314] At the date of Domesday we are a long way from the first
danegeld and a very long way from any settlement of
Cambridgeshire; still if we analyze a symmetrical hundred,
such as Armingford, we shall find that the average ten-hide
vill is just about twice as rich as the average five-hide
vill in men, in teams and in annual _valet_, though there
will be some wide aberrations from this norm.

[1315] See above, p. 336, note 1160.

[1316] See above, p. 237.

[1317] This is proved by 'The Burghal Hidage' of which we spoke
above, p. 187, and shall speak again hereafter.

[1318] See the Gerefa published by Dr Liebermann in Anglia, ix. 251.
Andrews, Old English Manor, 246.

[1319] The manner in which the old hides have really fallen to
pieces but are preserving a notional existence is well
illustrated by Domesday of St. Paul's, 41-47. In one case a
hide forms nine tenements containing respectively 30, 30, 15,
15, 5, 5, 7-1/2, 5, 7-1/2 acres. See Vinogradoff, Villainage,
249.

[1320] Vinogradoff, Villainage, 242; Maitland, History of an English
Manor, Eng. Hist. Rev. ix. 418.

[1321] See Pell, in Domesday Studies, i. 357. Almost at one and the
same moment, but in two different 'extents,' the same
tenements are being described as containing 15 and as
containing 18 acres. Domesday of St. Paul's, 69: 'In this
manor the hide contains 120 acres; the old inquest said that
it used not to contain more than 80; but afterwards the lands
were sought out and measured (_exquisitae sunt terrae et
mensuratae_).'

[1322] Cart. Rams. iii. 208. See also the table given by Seebohm,
op. cit. 37.

[1323] A 'double hide' of 240 acres plays a part in Mr Seebohm's
speculations. His instances of it hardly bear examination. On
p. 37 he produces from Rot. Hund. ii. 629 the equation 1 H.=6
V. of 40 A. apiece. This apparently refers to the Ramsey
manor of Brington; but Cart. Rams. ii. 43 gives 1 H.=4 V. of
40 A., while Cart. Rams. iii. 209 gives 1 H.=4 V. of 34 A.
Then Mr Seebohm, p. 51, cites from 'the documents of Battle
Abbey given by Dugdale' the equation 1 H.=8 V.; but this
seems to refer to the statement now printed in the Battle
Cartulary (Camd. Soc.) p. xiii., where 1 H.=4 V. As to the
supposed _solanda_ of two hides, see Round, Feudal England,
103.

[1324] The virgates on the Gloucestershire manors of Gloucester
Abbey contain the following numbers of acres: 36, 40, 36, 38,
48, 48, 48, 48, 50, 48, 40, 64, 64, 64, 48, 50, 60, 48, 48,
64, 18 (?), 44, 80, 48, 48, 72. See Gloucester Cartulary,
vol. iii. Of the taxation and wealth of the various counties
we shall speak hereafter.

[1325] Napier and Stevenson, Crawford Charters, p. 47: The O. E.
_sulh_ (plough) is 'cognate with Lat. _sulcus_.'

[1326] Both terms were in use in Normandy and some other parts of
France: Delisle, Études, 538; also Ducange. In a would-be
English charter of the days before the Conquest these words
would be ground for suspicion. In K. 283 and 455 Kemble has
printed (in documents which he stigmatizes) _caractorum_. But
apparently (see B. ii. 104, iii. 94) what stands in the
cartulary is _carattorum_, and this seems a mistake for the
common _casatorum_. To mistake O. E. _s_ for _r_ is easy.

[1327] See Stevenson, E. H. R. v. 143.

[1328] In D. B. the _iugum_ appears as a portion of a _solin_;
probably as a quarter of the solin. D. B. i. 13: 'pro uno
solin se defendit. Tria iuga sunt infra divisionem Hugonis et
quartum iugum est extra.' The _iugum_ has already appeared in
a few Kentish land-books. In K. 199 (i. 249), B. i. 476, we
find _an ioclet_ which seems to be half a manse
(_mansiuncula_). In K. 407 (iii. 262), B. ii. 572, we find
'an iuclæte et insuper 10 segetes (_acres_).'

[1329] D. B. ii. 389: 'In Cratingas 24 liberi homines 1 carr. terrae
et 1 virg.'

[1330] Yorkshire Inquisitions (Yorks. Archæeol. Soc.) passim. On p.
77 in an account of Catterick we read of 'a capital messuage
worth 5_s._; 32 bovates of arable land in demesne (each
bovate of 6 acres at 8_s._) £12. 16_s._; 31-1/2 bovates held
by bondmen (each bovate of 10 acres at 13_s._ 4_d._) £21; ...
2 bovates which contain 24 acres and 32 acres called Inland
worth 74_s._ 8_d._'

[1331] See above, p. 375.

[1332] A bovate of 13 acres seems to have prevailed in Scotland:
Acts of Parliament of Scotland, i. 387.

[1332] The immediate source is the Seneschaucie. See Walter of
Henley, ed. Lamond, p. 84. Fleta, p. 159.

[1334] Walter of Henley, pp. 6, 8, 44-5. With a three-course system
the figures will be somewhat different. Plough 60 acres for
winter seed, 60 for spring seed, 60 for fallow (total 180) at
the rate of 7/8th of an acre per day:--Total, 205-6/7 days.
In second fallowing plough 60 acres at an acre per
day:--Grand total, 265-5/7 days. Whichever system is adopted,
the plough 'goes' 240 acres.

[1335] Walter of Henley, p. 13.

[1336] Domesday of St. Paul's, 38.

[1337] Meitzen, op. cit. i. 277; Andrews, op. cit. 260.

[1338] Gerefa, 9 (Anglia, ix. 261): 'Me mæig in Maio and Junio and
Julio on sumera fealgian.' Andrews, op. cit. 257.

[1339] Thus e.g. Domesday of St. Paul's, 59, Tillingham. Is it
possible to fallow, when, as in this case, there is no
pasture for the oxen except such as is afforded by the idle
field? 'Non est ibi pastura nisi cum quiescit dominicum per
wainagium.... (69) Non est ibi certa pastura nisi quando
terrae dominici quiescunt alternatim incultae.'

§ 2. _Domesday Statistics._

[Domesday's three statements.]

As a general rule the account given by Domesday Book of any manor contains three different statements about it which seem to have some bearing upon the subject of our present inquiry. (_A_) It will tell us that the manor is rated to the geld at a certain number of units, which units will in Kent be solins or sulungs and yokes (_iuga_), in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Norfolk and Suffolk carucates and bovates (but bovates are, to say the least, rare in East Anglia), and in the rest of England hides and virgates; but acres also will from time to time appear in the statement. (_B_) It will tell us that the manor contains land for a certain number of teams, or for a certain number of oxen. (_C_) It will tell us that there are on the manor a certain number of teams, some whereof belong to the lord and some to the men.

TABLE I. STATISTICS

Recorded Danegeld Hides,
Modern Population circ. ann. Carucates,
Acreage (Ellis) 1150 Sulungs