In South Wales the trev is the unit for gwestva.
Turning now to the Dimetian and Gwentian Codes, according to which the free trev instead of the maenol is the gwestva-paying unit:[255] there is first the group of twelve trevs (instead of twelve maenols) under a single maer, and under the name of maenol instead of cymwd; but apparently all the trevs in the group of twelve[256] are free trevs. There are other groups of seven taeog-trevs making a taeog-maenol, and the maenol (instead of the cymwd) has its court, and becomes the unit of legal jurisdiction.[257]
Confining attention to the free maenol, the first thing to notice is that each of the twelve free trevs of which it was composed paid its gwestva, or tunc pound in lieu of it. The trev, therefore, was the gwestva-paying unit.
And as to the interior of the trev we read,—
'There are to be four randirs in the trev, from which the king's gwestva shall be paid.'
'312 erws are to be in the randir between clear and brake, wood and field, and wet and dry, except a supernumerary trev [the upland has in addition].' [258]
In this case the 'tunc pound' of 240d. was paid by each trev of 4 randirs, each randir containing 312 erws, and the trev 1,248 erws in all. The trev in South Wales is, therefore, slightly larger than the [p204] Venedotian maenol. Here we are bound by no law that the pence in the gwestva should exactly correspond with the number of erws. But in the other versions the 12 odd erws in the randir are stated to be for 'domicilia,' [259] or buildings, and 12 erws would allow of 3 tyddyns of the requisite 4 erws each.
This fixes for us the number of homesteads or tyddyns in the trev. There were 3 tyddyns to each randir, and 4 randirs to the trev, and so there were 12 tyddyns in each trev, and to each tyddyn there were appendant 100 erws in the arable, pasture, and waste.
The trev a cluster of twelve holdings, each paying an ounce or score of silver, so between them the tunc pound.
The trev which paid its tunc pound of 240d. was thus made up of 12 holdings, each paying a score pence. And as in the Latin version of the Dimetian Laws (p. 825) a score pence is translated uncia argenti, the connexion is at once made clear between the system of grouping the holdings so as to pay the tunc pound, and the monetary system which prevailed in Wales, viz., that according to which 20d. made an ounce, and 12 ounces one pound. The 12 holdings each paying a score of pence, or ounce of silver, made up between them the tunc pound of the trev.