There is another manor (Blechinton, near the coast), where there were—
- 2 holdings of half-hides,
- 9 of wistas,
- 6 of half-wistas,
and two other manors where the holders were in one case 5, all of half-hides; and in the other case one of a hide and 4 of half-hides.
The double hide of 240 acres.
These are valuable examples of hides and half-hides, as still actual holdings in villenage, whilst apparently instead of virgates in some of these Sussex manors a new holding—the wista—occurs. And among the documents of Battle Abbey given by Dugdale there is the following statement, viz., that 8 virgates = 1 hide, and 4 virgates = 1 wista (great wista?). Supposing the virgate here, as mostly elsewhere, to have been, normally, a bundle of 30 acres, it is clear that in this hide of 8 virgates we get another instance of the double hide of 240 acres; whilst the 'great wista' of 4 virgates would correspond with the single hide of 120 acres, and the wista would equal the ordinary half-hide of two virgates.
Domesday of St. Paul's, A.D. 1222.
We pass to another cartulary, and of earlier date. In 1222 a visitation was made of the manors belonging to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, London. The register of this visitation is known as the 'Domesday of St. Paul's.' [47] The manors were scattered in [p052] Herts, Essex, Middlesex, and Surrey—all south-eastern counties.
In the survey of Thorp,[48] one of the manors in Essex, after a list of tenants on the demesne land, and others on reclaimed land (de essarto), there follows a list of tenants in villenage who are called hydarii. As in the Battle Abbey records the virgarii were holders of virgates, so these hydarii were probably, as their name implies, groups of villani holding a hide. But the holdings had in fact become subdivided and irregular. Nevertheless, those belonging to each original hide are bracketed together; and adding together their acreage, it appears that the hide is assumed to contain 120 acres. The following examples will make it clear that the holdings were once hides of four virgates of 30 acres each.
Hides and virgates.
| Holdings. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| xx. a. | = 30 a. | = hide of 120 acres. | ||
| x. a. | ||||
| xxx. a. | = 30 a. | |||
| 12 hide | = 60 a. | |||
| xxx. a. | = 30 a. | = hide of 120 acres. | ||
| xxx. a. | = 30 a. | |||
| xv. a. | = 30 a. | |||
| xv. a. | ||||
| v. a. | = 30 a. | |||
| v. a. | ||||
| vii.12 a. | ||||
| v. a. | ||||
| vii.12 a. | ||||
| And so on. | ||||