In Cherchebi habuit Comes Morcar 5 car. terrae ad geldum. Terra ad 4 car.
In Bodebi habuit Comes Morcar 8 car. terrae ad geldum. Terra ad 9 car.
Southern formulas.
Leaving now for a while the carucated part of England and postponing our visit to Kent, we find similar formulas. They tell us (A) that the manor contains a certain number of units of assessment, (B) that there is land for a certain number of teams, (C) that there are so many teams upon it. But we have a new set of units of assessment; instead of carucates and bovates, we have hides and virgates. The Huntingdonshire formula is particularly clear. It runs thus:
In M habet K a hidas ad geldum. Terra b car[ucarum or carucis]. Ibi nunc in dominio d car[ucae] et ... villani et ... bordarii habentes e car[ucas].
The number of hides that is put before us is the number of hides ‘for geld.’ So in Cheshire and Shropshire the number of hides that is put before us is the number of ‘hidae geld[antes].’ From this we easily pass to the formula that prevails in Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset and Devon:
K tenet M. T[empore] R[egis] E[dwardi] geldabat pro a hidis. Terra est b car[ucarum]. In dominio sunt d car[ucae] et ... villani et ... bordarii cum e car[ucis].
A formula common in Sussex, Surrey and several other counties instead of telling us that this manor has a hides for geld, or has a gelding hides, or gelds for a hides, tells us—what seems exactly the same thing—that it ‘defends itself’ for a hides. Then we pass to counties such as Middlesex, Hertford, Buckingham and Oxford where the entry does not commonly use any words which explicitly refer to geld:—we are told that K holds M for so many hides (pro a hidis). Lastly, we may pass to counties, such as Warwickshire and Staffordshire where, at first sight, the entries may seem to us ambiguous. They run thus—‘K holds M. There are there a hides. There is land for b teams.’ Here for a moment it may seem to us that we have two different statements about the actual extent or capacity of the manor:—there are a hides there, but land for b teams. But comparing the formulas in use here with those in use in other counties, we can hardly doubt that they all come to one and the same thing:—a statement about b, the capacity of the manor, is preceded by a statement about its taxation, which statement may take the short form, ‘There are a hides there,’ instead of one of the longer forms, ‘It gelds, or defends itself, for a hides,’ or ‘He holds a gelding hides, or a hides for geld.’
Kentish formulas.
In Kent again, we have the three statements, though here the units of assessment are sulungs and yokes:—the land ‘defends itself’ for a sulungs; there is land there for b teams; there are d teams in demesne and the men have e teams.