Chapter XIII: XIV XV XVI (2)

One last guess is lawful after what we have seen in Leicestershire. These Nottinghamshire folk may be telling how many teams there were in King Edward's time and recording a large increase in the number of oxen and therefore perhaps in the cultivated area. In this case, however, we should expect to find the _valet_ greater than the _valuit_, while really we find that a fall in value is normal throughout the shire.

[Digression to East Anglia.]

We must here say one parenthetical word about the account of East Anglia. In one respect it differs from the account of any other district[1410]. We are told of the various landholders that they hold so many carucates or so many acres. Analogy would lead us to suppose that this is a statement touching the amount of geld with which they are charged. Though there is no statement parallel to the _Terra est b carucis_ which we find in most parts of England, still there are some other counties remote from East Anglia--Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford--where no such statement is given to us. In other words, a natural first guess would be that in Norfolk and Suffolk we are informed about _A_ and not about _B_. But then, it is apparent that some information about _A_ is being given to us by a quite different formula such as we shall not meet outside East Anglia. We are told about a vill that when the hundred pays 20_s._ for the geld this vill pays so many pence--seven pence halfpenny, it may be, or eight pence three farthings. This is the formula which prescribes how much geld the landholders of the vill must pay and it says nothing of carucates or of acres. Now this might make us think that the carucates and acres which are attributed to the landholders are 'real' and not 'rateable' areas, and are to be put on a level with the teamlands (_B_) rather than with the hides or gelding carucates (_A_) of other counties. Nevertheless, on second thoughts we may return to our first opinion. If these carucates are equivalent to the teamlands of other counties, Norfolk and Suffolk not only differ but differ very widely from the rest of England[1411]. In Norfolk we make about 2,422 carucates and about 4,853 teams, and, however wide of the mark these figures may be[1412], the fact that there are upon an average about two teams to every carucate is apparent on page after page of the record; often the ratio is yet higher. We have seen a phenomenon of the same kind, though less pronounced, in Nottingham; but then, if in Norfolk we proceed to divide the 'recorded population' by the number of carucates, we shall get 11 as our quotient. This is so very much higher than anything that we have seen elsewhere that we are daunted by it; for, even though we recall the possibility that a good many tenants in this free county are counted twice because they hold under two lords, still this reflection will hardly enable us to make the requisite allowance. To this it may be added that if we divide the acreage of Norfolk by its carucates and treat the carucates as teamlands, the quotient will place Norfolk among the counties in which the smallest part of the total area was under the plough. Further, it will be observed that the statement about the geldability of the vills does not enable us to bring home any particular sum to any given man. Be it granted that the sum due from a vill is fixed by the proposition that it contributes thirteen pence to every pound levied from the hundred, we have still to decide how much Ralph and how much Roger, two landholders of the vill, must contribute; and our decision will, we take it, be dictated by the statement that Ralph has one carucate and Roger 60 acres. We fear therefore that here again we can not penetrate through the rateable to the real[1413].

[The teamland no areal measure.]

About the 'land for one team' we can hardly get beyond vague guesswork, and may seriously doubt whether the inquiry as to the number of possible ploughs was interpreted in the same manner in all parts of the country. Here it may have been regarded as a reference to the good old time of King Edward, here to the local custom; there an attempt may have been made to enforce some royal 'standard measure,' and there again men were driven to speculate as to what might happen if a wilderness were once more inhabited. But unless we are mistaken, the first step towards a solution of the many problems that beset us is taken when we perceive that the jurors have not been asked to state the areal extent of the tilled or the tillable land.

[Eyton's theory.]

Far other, as is well known, was the doctrine of one whom all students of Domesday revere. For Mr Eyton the teamland was precisely 120 of our statute acres[1414]. The proof offered of this lies in a comparison of the figures given by Domesday with the superficial content of modern parishes. What seems to us to have been proved is that, if we start with the proposed equation, we shall rarely be brought into violent collision with ascertained facts, and that, when such a collision seems imminent, it can almost always be prevented by the intervention of some plausible hypothesis about shifted boundaries or neglected wastes. More than this has not been done. Always at the end of his toil the candid investigator admits that when he has added up all the figures that Domesday gives for arable, meadow, wood and pasture, the land of the county is by no means exhausted. Then the residue must be set down as 'unsurveyed' or 'unregistered' and guesses made as to its whereabouts[1415]. Then further, this method involves theories about lineal and superficial measurements which are, in our eyes, precarious.

[Domesday's lineal measure.]

One word about this point must be said, though we can not devote much room to it. The content of various spaces, such as woods and pastures, is often indicated by a reference to linear standards, leagues, furlongs, perches, feet, and there seems to be little doubt that the main equations which govern the system are these:

1 league = 12 furlongs or quarentines or acre-lengths
= 480 perches.

Now we read numerous statements which take the following form:--'It is _x_ leagues (furlongs, perches) long and _y_ wide,' or, to take a concrete example, 'The wood is 1 league long and 4 furlongs wide.' The question arises whether we are justified in making this mean that here is a wood whose superficial content is equal to that of a rectangular parallelogram 480 statute perches long by 160 statute perches wide. We are rash in imposing our perch of 16·5 feet on the whole England of the eleventh century, even though we are to measure arable land. We are rasher in using that perch for the measurement of woodland. But perhaps we are rasher still in supposing that the Domesday jurors have true superficial measurement in their minds[1416]. We strongly suspect that they are thinking of shape as well as of size, and may be giving us the extreme diameters of the wood or some diameters that they guess to be near the mean. If a clergyman told us that his parish was 3 miles long by 2 wide, we should not accuse him of falsehood or blunder if we subsequently discovered that in shape it was approximately a right-angled triangle and contained only some 3 superficial miles. And now let us observe how rude these statements are. The Norfolk jurors are in the habit of recording the length and the breadth of the vills. Occasionally they profess to do this with extreme accuracy[1417]. However, we reckon that in about 100 out of 550 cases they say that the vill is one league long by a half-league wide. This delightfully symmetrical county therefore should have quite a hundred parishes, each of which contains close upon 720 acres. Among the 800 parishes of modern Norfolk there are not 70 whose size lies between 600 and 800 acres. We are not saying that time spent over these lineal measurements is wasted, but an argument which gets to the size of the teamland by postulating in the first place that our statute perch was commonly used for all purposes throughout England, and in the second that these lineal can be converted into superficial measurements by simple arithmetic, is not very cogent and is apt to become circular, for the teamland contains its 120 acres because that is the space left for it by parochial boundaries when we have measured off the woods and pastures, and our measurement of the woods and pastures is correct because it will leave 120 acres for every teamland.

[Measured teamlands.]

One more word about these lineal measurements. In Norfolk and Suffolk the total area of the vills is indicated by them, and so it is in Yorkshire also. Now, unless we err, it sometimes happens that if we arithmetically deduce the total area from its recorded length and breadth, and then subtract from that area the content of any measured woods and pastures that there may be, we shall be left with too little space to give each East Anglian carucate or each Yorkshire teamland 120 acres and with far too little to allow a similar area to each East Anglian team. Try one experiment. At Shereford in Norfolk we have to force at least one carucate on which there are two teams into a space that is 3 furlongs in length by 3 in breadth[1418]. That means, if our method be sound, that each team has at the utmost 45 acres to till. Try we Yorkshire. There also we shall find entries which to all appearance will not suffer us to give 120 acres to the teamland.

In Andrebi ... 9 carucates for geld; there may be 6 teams.... The
whole half a league long and half [a league] wide[1419].

In Hotone and Bileham ... a manor of 10 carucates for geld; there
may be 10 teams.... The whole 10 quarantines long and 8 wide[1420].

In Warlavesbi 6 carucates for geld; there may be 4 teams.... The
whole half a league long and half [a league] wide[1421].

It would seem then that in these cases the utmost limit for the teamland is 60, 80, 90 acres. Then again, there are a few precious instances in which lineal measures are used in order to indicate the size of a piece of land the whole of which is arable. This occurs so rarely that we may fairly expect something exceptional. The result is bewildering. At Thetford we hear of land that is half a league long and half a league wide: 'the whole of this land is arable and 4 teams can plough it[1422].' Here then, but 90 acres are assigned to the teamland. We journey to Yorkshire and first we will take an entry which suits the Eytonian doctrine well enough. 'There are 13 carucates of land less one bovate for geld; 8 teams can plough them.... Arable land 10 quarentines long and equally broad[1423].' In this case we have 1000 acres to divide among 8 teamlands, and this would make each teamland 125 acres:--we could hardly expect a pleasanter quotient. But on the same page we have an entry which tells of a manor with 60 carucates and 6 bovates for geld and 35 teamlands where the 'arable land' is described as being '2 leagues long and 2 [leagues] wide[1424].' This gives nearly 165 acres to the teamland. There are two Lincolnshire entries which, when treated in a similar way, give 160[1425] and 225[1426] acres to the teamland. Then there is a Staffordshire entry which gives no less than 360 acres to each teamland, though it gives only 160 to each existing team[1427]. The suspicion can not but cross our minds that as regards the amount of land that had 8 oxen for its culture there may have been as wide a difference between the various shires in the days of the Confessor as there was in the days of Arthur Young; only, whereas in the eighteenth century a little space ploughed by many oxen was a relic of barbarism, it was in the eleventh an index of prosperity, freedom, a thick population and a comparatively intense agriculture. But theories about the facts of husbandry will not dispel the whole of the fog which shrouds the Domesday teamland.

[Amount of ploughed land in England.]

That, if all England be taken as a whole, the average teamland of Domesday Book would contain about 120 acres seems possible, and since we ourselves are committed to the belief that the old traditional hide had arable acres to this number, it may be advisable that we should examine some districts of ancient England through the medium of the hypothesis that Domesday's teamland has a long-hundred of our statute acres. In Column 1. of the following table we place the result obtained if we multiply a county's teamlands (or in the case of Sussex and Gloucester the teams) by 120; and in the following columns we give the figures which show the state of the county in 1895. In order to make a rough comparison the easier, we give round figures and omit three noughts, so that, for example, 371 stands for 371,000 acres[1428].

A A P M W T M
r r e o o o o
a a r u L o t d
b b m n a g d t a e
l l a t n r s i l r
e e n ( a d a o n
e 1 i z a n A
i ( n 8 n u i n c C
n 1 t 9 s n d ( r o
8 5 a e g 1 e u
1 9 P ) n d P 8 a n
0 5 a d ( l 9 g t
8 ) s f 1 a 5 e y
6 t H o 8 n )
u e r 9 t o
r a 5 a f
e t )
h

Total
Mountain Acreage
and Heath of
Permanent Land used Woods and Modern
Arable in Arable pastures for grazing Plantation County
1086 (1895) (1895) (1895) (1895) (1895)

1000 1000 1000 1000 1000 1000
Acres Acres Acres Acres Acres Acres

Sussex 371 298 381 9 124 933
Surrey 141 133 152 12 54 461
Berkshire 251 204 163 1 36 462
Dorset 280 188 300 18 38 632
Somerset 577 207 653 48 46 1042
Devon 957 581 633 138 86 1667
Buckingham 269 165 236 2 32 476
Oxford 317 228 188 1 27 485
Gloucester 589 269 387 7 58 797
Bedford 187 155 100 1 13 298
Northampton 352 215 344 0 28 640
Lincoln 605 1017 501 2 43 1695

[Decrease of arable.]

These figures are startling enough. We are required to believe that in many counties, even in Sussex where the forest still filled a large space, there were more acres ploughed T. R. W. than are ploughed T. R. V., while in some cases the number has been reduced by one half during the intervening centuries. Were the old acres in Oxfordshire as large as our own, a good deal more than three-fifths of that county was ploughed. Much might be said of the extreme futility of ancient agriculture. Then we should have to remember the 'inclosures' of the sixteenth century; also the movement which in our own day threatens to carry us back to 'the pastoral state[1429].' We should have to scrutinize those abundant marks of the plough which occur in our meadows and on our hillsides, even where we least expect them, and to distinguish those which were being made in the days of the Norman conqueror from those which tell of a much later age when 'the Corsican tyrant' threatened our shores.

[The food problem.]

And then there is the great food problem. At this point we might desire the aid of a jury of scientific experts. We are, indeed, but ill prepared to deliver a charge or to define a clear issue, but the main question may be roughly stated thus:--South of Yorkshire and Cheshire we have some 275,000 'recorded men,' some 75,000 recorded teams and (if we allow 120 statute acres to every team) some 9,000,000 statute acres of arable land[1430]. Is this supply of arable adequate or excessive for the population? Unfortunately, however, the question involves more than one unknown quantity.

[What was the population?]

In the first place, by what figure are we to multiply the number of 'recorded men' before we shall obtain the total population? Here we have to remember that nothing is said by our record about some of the largest towns and that the figures which we obtain from Norwich[1431] suggest that the inhabitants of London, Winchester and the like should not be neglected, even by those who are aiming at the rudest computation. Then what we read of Bury St Edmunds[1432] suggests that around every great abbey were clustered many artificers, servants and bedesmen who as a general rule were not enumerated by the jurors. We must also remember the monks, nuns and canons and the large households of barons and prelates[1433]. Again, it is by no means unlikely that, despite a high rate of mortality among children, the household of the ordinary villein was upon an average larger than is the household of the modern cottager or artizan, for the blood-bond was stronger than it is now-a-days. Married brothers with their wives and children may not unfrequently have dwelt in one house and may be described in our record as a single _villanus_ because they hold an undivided inheritance. On the other hand, we have seen reason to think that in the eastern villages many men may be counted more than once[1434]. Shall we, for the sake of argument, multiply the recorded men by 5? This would give us a population of 1,375,000 souls[1435].

[What was the field-system?]

What portion of the arable land shall we suppose to be sown in any one year? Some grave doubts may occur to us before we put this portion higher than one half[1436]. Common opinion would perhaps strike a balance between two-field and three-field husbandry. So we will suppose that out of 9 million acres 5 million are sown.

[What was the acre's yield?]

Then comes the insoluble question about the acre's yield. Even could we state an average, this would not be very serviceable, for every district had to feed itself in every year, and the statistics of the later middle ages suggest that the difference between good and bad years was very large, while the valuations of the manors in Domesday Book seem to tell us that the difference between fertile and sterile, forward and backward counties was much wider in the eleventh century than it is in our own day. The scientific agriculturist of the thirteenth century proposed to sow an acre with two bushels of wheat and regarded ten bushels as the proper return[1437]. Walter of Henley proved by figures that a three-fold return would not be remunerative, unless prices were exceptionally good, but he evidently thought of this exiguous yield as a possibility[1438], and yet, as we have seen, he represents the 'high farming' of his time and in his two-course husbandry would plough the land thrice over between every two crops. In the first half of the next century we can not put the average as high as 8 bushels[1439]. To eyes that look for 29 or 30, a yield of from 6 to 10 may seem pitiful; and the 'miserable husbandry' that Arthur Young saw in the west of England was producing from 15 to 20[1440]. However, there are countries in which a crop of wheat which gave 10 of our bushels to one of our acres would not be very small[1441]. For our present purpose, the figure that we should wish to obtain would be, not that which expressed the yield of an average year, but that which was the outcome of a bad year, for we have to keep folk alive and they can not wait for the good times. Let us then take our hypothesis from Walter of Henley. We suppose a yield of 6 bushels, 2 of which must be retained for seed. This would give us 20 million bushels as food, or, we will say, 15 bushels for every person.

[Of beer.]

Now, had we to deal with modern wheat and modern mills, we might argue that the bushel of wheat would weigh 60 pounds, that the weight of flour would be 72 per cent. of the weight of grain[1442], and that every human mouth could thus be provided with a little more than 28 ounces of flour every day, or, to put it another way, with bread amounting to nine-sixteenths of a four pound loaf[1443]. Some large, but indefinable, deduction should be made from this amount on the score of poor grain and wasteful processes. As the sum stands, we are at present proposing to give to each person a great deal more wheat-flour than would be obtained if the total amount consumed now-a-days in the United Kingdom were divided by the number of its inhabitants[1444]. But it need hardly be said that the problem is far more complex than are our figures. In the first place, we have to withdraw from the men of 1086 a large quantity, perhaps more than a half, of the wheat-flour that we have given them in order to supply its place with other cereals[1445], in particular with barley and oats, much of which, together with some of the wheat[1446], will be consumed in the form of beer. And who shall fathom that ocean? _Multum biberunt de cerevisia Anglicana_, as the pope said. Their choice lay for the more part between beer and water. In the twelfth century the corn-rents paid to the bishop of Durham often comprised malt, wheat and oats in equal quantities[1447]. In the next century the economy of the canons of St. Paul's was so arranged that for every 30 quarters of wheat that went to make bread, 7 quarters of wheat, 7 of barley and 32 of oats went to make beer[1448]. The weekly allowance of every canon included 30 gallons[1449]. In one year their brewery seems to have produced 67,814 gallons from 175 quarters of wheat, a like quantity of barley and 708 quarters of oats[1450]. With such figures before us, it becomes a serious question whether we can devote less than a third of the sown land to the provision of drink. The monk, who would have growled if he got less than a gallon a day, would, we may suppose, consume in the course of a year 20 bushels of barley or an equivalent amount of other grain: in other words, the produce, when seed-corn is deducted, of from two to three acres of land; and perhaps to every mouth in England we must give half a gallon daily[1451].

[The Englishman's diet.]

But if we can not make teetotallers of our ancestors (and in very truth we can not) neither may we convert them to vegetarianism. What we can read of the provender-rents paid in the days before the Conquest suggests that those who were well-to-do, including the monks, consumed a great deal of mutton, pork, poultry, fish, eels, cheese and honey[1452]. This would relieve the arable of part of the pressure that it would otherwise have borne, for, though we already hear of two manors which between them supply 6000 dog-loaves for the king's hounds[1453], and also read of pigs that are fattened with corn[1454], it is not very probable that any beasts, save those that laboured, got much from the arable, except the straw, and the stubble which we may suspect of having been abundantly mixed with grass and weeds. It is likely, however, that the oxen which were engaged in ploughing were fed at times with oats. Walter of Henley would keep his plough-beasts at the manger for five-and-twenty weeks in the year and would during that time give 70 bushels of oats to every eight of them[1455]. At this rate our 75,000 teams would require 5,250,000 bushels of oats, and on this score we might have to deduct some 4 million bushels of wheat[1456] from our 20 millions and reduce by one-fifth each person's allowance of grain. But then, it is by no means certain that we ought to transplant Walter's practices into the eleventh century; we have seen that he expected much of his oxen[1457].

[Is the arable super-abundant?]

At first sight it may seem incredible that the average human being annually required the produce of nearly seven acres. But observe how rapidly the area will disappear. We deduct a half for the idle shift; a third of the remainder we set apart as beer-land. We have not much more than two acres remaining, and may yet have to feed oxen and horses. But suppose that we concede to every human mouth the wheat of two full acres; we can not say for certain that we are giving it a quarter of grain, even though we suppose each acre to yield more than was to be had always and everywhere in the fourteenth century[1458].

[Amount of pasturage.]

Our doubt about the food of the oxen makes it difficult for us to state even the outlines of another important problem. Are we leaving pasture enough for the beasts? Their number was by no means small. South of the southern frontier of Cheshire and Yorkshire we must accommodate in the first place some 600,000 beasts of the plough, and in the second place and for their maintenance a sufficiency of bulls, cows and calves. Now-a-days England keeps 4,723,000 head of cattle, but we have been excluding from view near a quarter of England. Then there are other animals to be provided for. Their number we can not guess, for apparently the statistics that we obtain from the south-western and eastern counties give us only the stock that is on the demesne of the manors[1459]. We have seen that the peasants in East Anglia had sheep enough to make their 'fold-soke' an important social institution[1460]. Also we have much evidence of large herds of pigs belonging to the villeins, though these we may send to the woods. But, attending only to the dominical stock, we will begin by looking at the manor which stands first in the Cambridgeshire Inquest. The lord has 5 teams, 8 head of not-ploughing cattle, 4 rounceys, 10 pigs and 480 sheep. Then, in the accompanying table we will give some figures from various counties which show the amount of stock that is kept where there are 200 teams or thereabouts.

Teams (Demesne Beasts not
and of the
Tenants') Plough Horses Goats Pigs Sheep

Essex 207 267 34 107 777 1657
Suffolk 200 196 30 295 676 1705
Norfolk 202 132 44 200 672 5673
Dorset 202 159 47 281 479 6160
Somerset 202 82 16 49 198 1506
Devon 205 282 16 135 173 1553
Cornwall 200 62 35 52 26 1445
Total 1418 1180 222 1119 3001 19699

Even if we look only at the flocks which belong to the holders of manors, we may have to feed a million sheep south of the Humber, and, though all England now maintains more than 15 millions, it does this by devoting a large portion of its arable to the growth of turnips and the like. No doubt, the medieval sheep were wretched little animals; also large numbers of them were slaughtered and salted at the approach of winter; but from the arable they got only the stubble, and every extension of the ploughed area deteriorated the quality besides diminishing the quantity of the pasture that was left for their hungry mouths. As already said, our forefathers did not live on bread and beer; bacon must have been plentiful among them[1461]. Also many fleeces were needed for their clothing. As to meadow land (_pratum_), that is, land that was mown, it was sparse and precious[1462]; the supply of it was often insufficient even for the lord's demesne oxen. At least in Cambridgeshire, we find traces of a theory which taught that every ox should have an acre of meadow; but commonly this was an unrealized ideal[1463]. In Dorset now-a-days there will be near 95,000 acres growing grass for hay, whereas there were not 7,000 acres of meadow in 1086[1464]. Therefore we are throwing a heavy strain on the pasture[1465].

[Area of the villages.]

Lastly, we must not neglect, as some modern calculators do, the sites of the villages, the straggling group of houses with their court-yards, gardens and crofts, for this deducts a sensible piece from the conceivably tillable area. An exceedingly minute account of Sawston in Cambridgeshire which comes from the year 1279 shows us a territory thus divided: Messuages, Gardens, Crofts, etc., 85 acres: Arable, 1243 acres: Meadow, 82 acres: Several Pasture, 30 acres. The neighbouring village of Whittlesford shows us: Messuages, Gardens, Crofts, etc., 35 acres: Arable, 1363 acres: Meadow, 44 acres: Several Pasture, 35 acres. In both cases we must add some unspecified quantity of Common Pasture[1466]. The core of the village was not large when compared with its fields; but it can not be ignored.

[Produce and value.]

Recurring for a moment to our food problem, we may observe that the values that are set on the manors in Domesday Book seem to point to a very feeble yield of corn. Without looking for extreme cases, we shall often find that the value of a teamland is no more than 10 shillings. Now let us make the hypothesis most favourable to fertility and suppose that this 'value' represents a pure, net rent[1467]. We will make another convenient but extravagant assumption; we will say that 24 bushels of wheat will make 365 four-pound loaves. If then a lord is to get one such loaf every day from each teamland that is valued at 10 shillings, the price of wheat will be a good deal less than 5 pence the bushel; if two daily loaves are to be had, the price of the bushel must be reduced below 2-1/2 pence, for the cost of grinding and baking is not negligible. Whether this last price could be assumed as normal must be very doubtful, for the little that Domesday tells us about the price of grain is told in obscure and disputable terms[1468]. However, the evidence that comes to us from the twelfth[1469] and thirteenth centuries[1470] suggests a rough equivalence between an ox and two quarters of wheat, and in the eleventh the traditional price of the ox was 30 pence. But at any rate, the lord who has a small village with five teamlands, and who lets it to a _firmarius_, will receive a rent which, when it is stated in loaves, is by no means splendid. He will not be much of a _hláford_, or have many 'loaf-eaters' if his whole revenue is £2. 10_s._ or, in other words, if he is lord of but one small village in the midlands.

[Varying size of acres.]

Here we must leave this question to those who are expert in the history of agriculture; but if some relief is required, it may be plausibly obtained by a reduction in the size of the ancient acre. A small piece off the village perches will mean a great piece off the 2,600 teamlands of Oxfordshire, and we seem to have the best warrant for a recourse to this device where it is most needed. The pressure upon our space appears to be at its utmost in Oxfordshire, and just for that county we have first-rate evidence of some very small acres[1471]. On the other hand, in Lincolnshire and generally in the north, where we read of abnormally large acres, we seem to have room enough for them. And here may be a partial explanation of the apparent fact that the teamland of Oxfordshire does not support three, while that of Lincolnshire supports five recorded men.

[The teamland in Cambridgeshire.]

In these last paragraphs we have been speaking of averages struck for large spaces; but if we come to some particular districts we shall have the greatest difficulty in allowing 120 acres to every teamland. This is the case in southern Cambridgeshire. In that county Domesday's list of vills is so nearly the same as the modern list of parishes that we run no great risk in comparing the ancient teamlands with the modern acreage vill by vill, if we also compare them hundred by hundred. The general result will be to make us unwilling to bestow on every teamland a long-hundred of acres. One example shall be given. The Whittlesford Hundred[1472] contains five vills and we can not easily concede to it more land than is now within its boundary. In the following table we give for each vill its modern acreage, then the number of its teamlands, then the result of multiplying that number by 120.

WHITTLESFORD HUNDRED.

Sawston 1884 10 1200
Whittlesford 1969 11 1320
Duxford 3232 21[1473] 2520
Hinxton 1557 16[1474] 1920
Ickleton 2695 24-1/2 2940
The Hundred 11337 82-1/2 9900

In two cases out of five we have already come upon sheer physical impossibility. But let us suppose some rearrangement of parish boundaries and look at the whole hundred. We are giving it 9900 acres of arable and leaving 1437 for other purposes. Then we are told of 'meadow for' 37 teams and this at the rate usual in Cambridgeshire[1475], means 296 acres, so that we have only 1141 left. On this we must place the sites of five villages, houses, farmyards, fourteen water-mills, cottages, gardens. Probably we want 250 acres at least to meet this demand. Not 900 acres remain for pasture. The dominical flocks and herds were not large, but the lords were receiving divers ploughshares in return for the pasture rights accorded to the tenants and in some of the vills there was not nearly enough meadow for the oxen of the villeins. It is difficult to believe that 87 per cent. of a Cambridgeshire hundred was under the plough, and that less than 8 per cent. was pasture. However, we know too little to say that even this was impossible. In the twelfth century we read of manors in which there is no pasture, except upon the arable field that is taking its turn of idleness[1476]. We must remember that this idle field was not fallowed until the summer[1477]; also we may suspect that much that was not corn grew on the medieval corn-land.

[The hides of Domesday.]

Saddened by our encounter with the teamlands (_B_)--and our last word about them is not yet said--we turn to the hides, carucates and sulungs (_A_). With a fair allowance for errors we feel safe in believing that the total number mentioned by Domesday Book falls short of 70,000--and yet time was when we spoke of 60,000 knight's fees of 5 hides apiece[1478]. Let us then recall once more those tales of taxation that are told by the chronicler[1479]. If Cnut raised a geld of £72,000, then, even if we allow him something from those remote northern lands which William's commissioners did not enter, the rate of the impost can hardly have been less than a pound on the hide. We are not told that he raised this sum in the course of a single year; but, even if we suppose it spread over four years, it is a monstrous exaction, and we can hardly fancy that in earlier days the pirates had waited long for the £24,000 or £30,000 that were the price of their forbearance. And yet, as already said, our choice seems to lie between believing these stories and charging the annalist with reckless mendacity. Hereafter we shall argue that some ancient statements about hidage, even some made by Bede himself, deserve no credit; but it is one thing for a Northumbrian scholar of the eighth century to make very bad guesses about the area of Sussex, and another for a chronicler of the eleventh to keep on telling us that a king levies £21,099 or £11,048 or the like, if these sums are wildly in excess of those that were demanded. As to the value of money, the economists must be heard; but it is probable that the sea-rovers insisted on good weight[1480], and when in the twelfth century we can begin to trace the movement of prices, in particular the price of oxen, they are not falling but rising. However, we have already said our say about the enormity of the danegeld.

[Relation between hide and teamland.]

We are now to investigate the 'law' of _A_ and its relation to _B_. We shall soon be convinced that we are not dealing with two perfectly independent variables. There will often be wide variations between the two; _A_ may descend to zero, while _B_ is high, and in some counties we shall see a steady tendency which makes _A_ decidedly higher or decidedly lower than _B_. And yet, if we look at England as a whole, we can not help feeling that in some sense or another _A_ ought to be equal to _B_, and that, when this equation holds good, things are in a condition that we may call normal. Perhaps, as we shall see hereafter, the current notion has been that the teamland should be taxed as a hide if it lies in a district where a teamland will usually be worth about a pound a year. But for the time we will leave value out of account, and, to save words, we will appropriate three terms and use them technically. When _A_ = _B_, there is 'equal rating'; when _A_ > _B_, there is 'over-rating'; when _A_ < _B_ there is 'under-rating.' We shall find, then, that in many counties there are numerous cases of equal rating. Thus in Buckinghamshire we count

cases of under-rating 136
cases of equal rating 102
cases of over-rating 115

In Lincolnshire we may find an unbroken series of fourteen entries each of which gives us an instance of equal rating[1481]. In both Lincolnshire and Yorkshire such cases are common, but, while in Lincolnshire over-rating is rare, in Yorkshire under-rating is very rare. Fewer are the over-rated than the under-rated counties; but there are some for which the figures can not be given, and, as immense Yorkshire is set before us as much over-rated, the balance must be nearly redressed. But further, we may see that the relation between _A_ and _B_ is apt to change somewhat suddenly at the border of a county. The best illustration is given by the twin shires of Leicester and Northampton, the one over-rated, the other grossly under-rated. Another good illustration is given by the south-western counties. Wiltshire is heavily over-rated; Dorset, as a whole, very equally rated; Somerset decidedly under-rated, while when we come to Devon and Cornwall we enter a land so much underrated that, had we only the account of these two counties, the assumption that is implied in our terms 'under-rated' and 'over-rated' would never have entered our heads.

[Unhidated estates.]

Now for one cause of the aberration of _A_ from _B_ we have not far to seek; it is a cause which will make _A_ less than _B_ and which may reduce _A_ to zero. It is privilege. Certain estates have been altogether exempt from geld. In particular many royal estates have been exempt. '_Nescitur quot hidae sint ibi quia non reddidit geldum_'--'_Nunquam geldavit nec scitur quot hidae sint ibi_'--'_Rex Edwardus tenuit; tunc 20 hidae sed nunquam geldaverunt_':--such and such like are the formulas that describe this immunity. The number of actually geldant hides is here reduced to zero, and sometimes the very term 'hides,' so usually does it imply taxation, is deemed inappropriate. But these royal estates do not stand alone. Often enough some estate of a church has been utterly freed from taxation. The bishop of Salisbury, for example, has a great estate at Sherborne which has gelded for 43 hides; but 'in this same Sherborne he has 16 carucates of land; this land was never divided into hides nor did it pay geld[1482].'

[Beneficial hidation.]

But then again, we have the phenomenon which has aptly been called 'beneficial hidation.' Without being entirely freed from the tax, a manor has been rated at a smaller number of hides than it really contains. 'There are 5 hides' says a Gloucestershire entry, '3 of them geld, but by grant of the Kings Edward and William 2 of them do not geld[1483].' 'There are 8 hides there' says another entry 'and the ninth hide belongs to the church of St. Edward; King Æthelred gave it quit [of geld][1484].' 'There are 20 hides; of these 4 were quit of geld in the time of King Cnut[1485].' 'The Bishop [of Winchester] holds Fernham [Fareham] in demesne; it always belonged to the bishopric; in King Edward's day it defended itself for 20 hides, and it does so still; there are by tale 30 hides, but King Edward gave them thus [i.e. granted that they should be 20 hides] by reason of the vikings, for it [Fareham] is by the sea[1486].' 'Harold held it of King Edward; before Harold had it, it defended itself for 27 hides, afterwards for 16 hides because Harold so pleased. The men of the hundred never heard or saw any writ from the king which put it at that figure[1487].' We have chosen these examples because they give us more information than we can often obtain; they take us back to the days of Cnut and of Æthelred; they tell us of the depredations of the vikings; they show us a magnate fixing the rateable value of his estate _ad libitum suum_. But our record is replete with other instances in which we are told that by special royal favour an estate has been lightly taxed[1488]. What is more, there are many other instances in which we can hardly doubt that this same cause has been at work, though we are not expressly told of it. When in a district which as a whole is over-rated, or but moderately under-rated, we come upon a few manors which are extravagantly under-rated, then we may fairly draw the inference that there has been 'beneficial hidation.'

[Effect of privilege.]

Certainly this will account for much, and we have reason to believe that this disturbing force had been in operation for a long time past and on a grand scale. There is an undated writ of Æthelred[1489], which ordains that an immense estate of the church of Winchester having Chilcombe for its centre and containing 100 hides shall defend itself for one hide. In Domesday Book Chilcombe does defend itself for one hide though it has land for 88 teams[1490]. But further, Æthelred is decreeing nothing new; his ancestors, his 'elders,' have 'set and freed' all this land as one hide 'be the same more or less.' Behind this writ stand older charters which are not of good repute. Still we can see nothing improbable in the supposition that Æthelred issued the writ ascribed to him and that what he said in it was substantially true. Before his day there may have been no impost that was known as a 'geld'; but there may have been, as we have endeavoured to show, other imposts to which land contributed at the rate of so much per hide. We suspect that 'beneficial hidation' had a long history before Domesday Book was made.

[Divergence of hide from teamland.]

But it will not account for all the facts that are before us; indeed it will serve for few of them. Privilege can account for exceptional cases; it will not account for steady and consistent under-rating; still less will it account for steady and consistent over-rating. We must look elsewhere, and for a moment we may find some relief in the reflection that by the operation of natural and obvious causes an old rate-book will become antiquated. There will be more 'teamlands' than there are gelding hides because new land has been brought under cultivation; on the other hand, land will sometimes go out of cultivation and then there will be more gelding hides than there are teamlands. Now that there is truth here we do not doubt. As we have already said[1491], the stability of agrarian affairs in these early times may easily be overestimated. But we can not in this direction find the explanation of changes that take place suddenly at the boundaries of counties.

[Partition of the geld.]

A master hand has lately turned our thoughts to the right quarter. There can we think be no doubt that, as Mr Round has argued, the geld was imposed according to a method which we have called the method of subpartitioned provincial quotas[1492]. A sum cast upon a hundred has been divided among that hundred's vills; a sum cast upon a vill has been divided among the lands that the vill contains. It is in substance the method which still governs our land-tax, and in this very year our attention has been pointedly called to its inequitable results. But, whereas in later centuries men distributed pounds, shillings and pence among the counties, our remoter ancestors distributed hides or carucates or acres. The effect was the same; and it is not unlikely that they could pass with rapidity from acres to pence, because the pound had 240 pence in it and the fiscal hide had 120 acres. So the complaint urged this year that Lancashire is under-taxed and Hertfordshire over-taxed[1493] would have been in their mouths the complaint that too many hides had been cast on the one county and too few on the other.

[Distribution of hides.]

We will not repeat Mr Round's convincing arguments. Just to recall their character, we will notice the beautiful hundred of Armingford in Cambridgeshire[1494]. In Edward's day it had 100 hides divided among fourteen vills, six of which had 10 hides apiece, while eight had 5 hides apiece. Before 1085 the number of hides in the hundred had been reduced from 100 to 80; the number of hides in each of the 'ten-hide vills' had been reduced to 8; and each 'five-hide vill' had got rid of one of its hides. Obviously such results as these are not obtained by a method which begins by investigating the content of each landholder's tenement. The hides in the vill are imposed from above, not built up from below[1495].

[The Worcestershire hidage.]

We have no wish to traverse ground which must by this time be familiar to all students of Domesday. But, having in our eye certain ancient statements about the hidage of England, we will endeavour to carry the argument one step further.

In Worcestershire we have strong evidence of a neat arrangement of a whole county. In the first place, we are told that 'in this county there are twelve hundreds, whereof seven, so the shire says, are so free that the sheriff has nothing in them, and therefore, so he says, he is a great loser by his farm[1496].' Then we are told that the church of Worcester has a hundred called Oswaldslaw in which lie 300 hides. Then we remember that notorious charter (_Altitonantis_) which tells how this triple hundred of Oswaldslaw was made up of three old hundreds, called Cuthbertslaw, Wulfhereslaw and Wimborntree[1497]. Then, turning to the particulars, we find that exactly 300 hides are ascribed to the various estates which St. Mary of Worcester holds in this triple hundred. Those particulars are the following:--

[The Worcester estate.]

Chemesege 24 } Norwiche 25 }
Wiche 15 } Overberie 6 } }
Fledebirie 40 } Segesbarue 4 } }
Breodun 35 } 200 Scepwestun 2 } 25 } 100
Rippel 25 } Herferthun 3 } }
Blochelei 38 } Grimanleh 3 } }
Tredinctun 23 } Halhegan 7 } }
Cropetorn 50 }

We have here preserved the order in which Domesday Book names the estates, but have added some brackets which may serve to emphasize the artificiality of the system. Then, looking back once more at our _Altitonantis_, we see Edgar adding lands to the 50 hides at Cropthorn, so that 'a perfect hundred' may be compiled, and the lands that he adds seem to be just those which in our table are bracketed with the Cropthorn estate.

[The Westminster estate.]

Thus we have disposed of three out of those twelve 'hundreds' of which Worcestershire is composed and also of 300 hides of land. Next we perceive that the church of Westminster is said to hold 200 hides. Reckoning up the particulars, we find, not indeed 200, but 199.

H. V. H. V.
Persore 2 Pidelet 5
Wiche 6 Newentune 10
Pendesham 2 Garstune 1.3
Berlingeham 3.1 Pidelet 4
Bricstelmestune 10 Peritune 6
Depeforde 10 Garstune 7
Aichintune 16 Piplintune 4.2
Beford 10 Piplintune 6.2
Longedune 30 Cumbrintune 9
Poiwic 3 Cumbrintune 10
Snodesbyrie 11 Broctune 3
Husentre 6 Stoche 15
Wich 1 Cumbrintune 2
Dormestun 5 -----
199.0

[The Pershore estate.]

Then the church of Pershore has just 100 hides; they are distributed thus:--

Persore 26
Beolege 21
Sture 20
Bradeweia 30
Lege 3
----
100

It is easy to divide these manors into two groups, each of which has 50 hides. The county also tells us that the church of Pershore ought to have the church-scot from 'the whole 300 hides,' that is, as well from the 200 allotted to Westminster as from the 100 which Pershore holds[1498].

[The Evesham estate.]

Then Evesham Abbey has, we are told, 65 hides in the hundred of Fissesberge. 'In that hundred,' it is added, 'lie 20 hides of Dodingtree and 15 hides in Worcester make up the hundred.' The 65 hides which Evesham holds are allotted thus:--

Evesham 3.0 }
Lenchewic 1.0 }
Nortune 7.0 }
Offenham 1.0 } 25
Liteltune 6.0 }
Bratfortune 6.0 }
Aldintone 1.0 }

Wiqwene 3.0 }
Bratfortune 6.0 }
Badesei 6.2 } 25
Liteltune 7.0 }
Huniburne 2.2 }

Ambreslege 15.0
----
65.0

[The residue of Worcestershire.]

We have dealt heretofore with 665 hides. Let us now reckon up all the hides in Worcestershire that we have not yet counted. The task is not perfectly straightforward, for we have to meet a few difficult questions. In order that our account may be checked by others, we will set forth its details. We will go through the survey noting all the hides which we have not already reckoned.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Worcester city 15.0 | More 1.0 | Glese 1.0
Bremesgrave 30.0 | Betune 3.2 | Merlie 0.1
[1499]Suchelei 5.0 | More 0.1 | Wich 1.0
Grastone 3.2 | Edboldelege 2.2 | Escelie 4.0
Cochesei 2.2 | Eslei 6.0 | Nordfeld 6.0
Willingewic 2.3 | Eslei 1.0 | Franchelie 1.0
Celdvic 3.0 | Ridmerlege 1.2 | Welingewiche 0.3
Chideminstre 20.0 | Celdeslai 1.0 | Escelie 1.0
Terdeberie 9.0 | Estham 3.0 | Werwelie 0.2
Clent 9.0 | Ælmeleia 11.0 | Cercehalle 2.0
Wich 0.2 | Wich 10.0 | Bellem 3.0
Clive 10.2 | Sudtune 1.0 | Hageleia 5.2
Fepsetanatum 6.0 | Mamele 0.2 | Dudelei 1.0
Crohlea 5.0 | Broc 0.2 | Suineforde 3.0
Hambyrie 14.0 | Colingvic 1.0 | Pevemore 3.0
Stoche 10.0 | Mortune 4.0 | Cradeleie 1.0
Huerteberie 20.0 | Stotune 3.0 | Belintones 5.0
Ulwardelei 5.0 | Stanford 2.2 | Witone 2.0
Alvievecherche 13.0 | Scelves 1.0 | Celvestune 1.0
Ardolvestone 15.0 | Chintune 5.0 | Cochehi 2.2
Boclintun 8.0 | Beretune 2.0 | Osmerlie 1.0
Cuer 2.0 | Tamedeberie 3.0 | Costone 3.0
Inteberga 15.2 | Wich 0.2 | Beneslei 1.0
Wich 1.0 | Clistune 3.0 | Udecote 1.2
Salewarpe 1.0 | Chure 3.0 | Russococ 5.0
Tametdeberie 0.2 | Stanford 1.2 | Stanes 6.0
Wich 0.2 | Caldeslei 1.0 | Lundredele 2.0
Matma 5.0 | Cuer 1.0 | Hatete 1.0
[1500]Mortune 5.0 | Hamme 1.0 | Hamtune 4.0
Achelenz 4.2 | Sapie 3.0 | Hortune 2.0
Buintun 1.0 | Carletune 1.1 | Cochesie 2.0
Circelenz 4.0 | Edevent 1.0 | Brotune 2.0
Actune 6.0 | Wicelbold 11.0 | Urso's hide 1.0
Lenche 4.0 | Elmerige 8.0 | Uptune 3.0
Wich 1.0 | Croelai 5.0 | Witune 0.2
Ludeleia 2.0 | Dodeham 1.0 | Hantune 4.0
Hala 10.0 | Redmerleie 1.2 | Tichenapletreu 3.0
Salewarpe 5.0 | Hanlege 1.2 | Cedeslai 25.0
Wermeslai 2.0 | Hanlege 3.0 | Hilhamatone 0.1
Linde 2.0 | Alretune 1.2 | Fecheham 10.0
Halac 1.0 | Hadesoro 2.0 | Holewei 3.0
Dunclent 3.0 | Holim 1.0 | [1501]Mertelai 13.0
Alvintune 2.0 | Stilledune 0.2 | -----
539.0