At first sight the survey of Middlesex seems to offer materials similar to those that come to us from Cambridgeshire. Very curious and instructive they are. A Middlesex entry will usually give us the number of hides (A), the number of teamlands (B), the number of teams (C), and also certain particulars which state the quantity of land that there is in demesne and the quantities held by divers classes of tenants. The sum of these particulars we may call P. Now we begin by hoping that P will be equal to A, and, since the particulars often contain acres as well as hides and virgates, we hope also to discover the equation that is involved in the sum. As an example we will take a case in which all goes well. At Cowley a manor defends itself for two hides; in demesne are one and a half hides; two villeins have a half hide. Here A = 2 H. and P = 11⁄2 H. + 1⁄2 H.; so all is as it should be. But we soon come upon cases in which, though we make no assumption about the relation of the acre to the hide, our P refuses to be equal to our A. Then perhaps we begin to hope that P will be equal to B: in other words, that the sum of the quantities ascribed to lord and tenants will be equal to the number of teamlands. But this is more fallacious than the former hope. We will put a few specimens in a table[1560].

HidesTeamlandsSum of particulars
Harrow (Abp. Canterbury)10070461⁄2 H. + 13 V. + 13 A.
Stepney (Bp. London) 3225181⁄2 H. + 481⁄2 V.
Fulham (Bp. London) 4040411⁄2 H. + 30 V.
Westminster (Abbot) 131⁄21110 H. + 141⁄2 V. + 5 A.
Sunbury (Abb. Westminster) 7 6 4 H. + 101⁄2 V.
Shepperton (Abb. Westminster) 8 7 31⁄2 H. + 17 V. + 24 A.
Feltham (C. Mortain)1210 6 H. + 161⁄2 V.
Chelsea (Edw. of Salisbury) 2 5 1 H. + 4 V. + 5 A.

Meaning of the Middlesex entries.

We seem to have here three independent statements, and, though throughout the county P shows a tendency to keep near to A, still we must not make calculations which suppose that the ‘hide’ of A is the ‘hide’ of P. Take Chelsea for example. We must not say: 2 H. = 1 H. + 4 V. + 5 A., and therefore four virgates and five acres make a hide. No, it seems possible that in these Middlesex ‘particulars’ we do at last touch real agrarian arrangements. At Fulham the bishop has 13 hides in demesne; 5 villeins have 1 hide apiece; 13 villeins have 1 virgate apiece; 34 have a half-virgate apiece; 22 cottiers have in all a half-hide; Frenchmen and London burgesses have 23 hides; so there are 411⁄2 hides and 30 virgates. That we take to be the real arrangement of the manor, though we are far from saying that all its hides are equal. But it gelds for only 40 hides. A virgate can not be a negative quantity. Therefore we need say no more of these Middlesex entries, only in passing let us observe that the discrepancy between P and B is often considerable, and this seems to show that the teamland of these Middlesex jurors is not in very close touch with the agrarian and proprietary allotments.

Evidence in the Geld Inquests.

To yet one other quarter we have hopefully turned only to be disappointed, namely, to the so-called Geld Inquests, copies of which are placed at the beginning of the Exeter Domesday. They tell us of a geld that obviously is being levied at the rate of six shillings on the hide, and sometimes they seem to tell us expressly or implicitly the amount that an acre pays. For a moment we may think that we are obtaining valuable results. Thus at Domerham we find that 14 hides minus 4 acres pay £4. 3s. 8d. We conclude that each acre is taxed at one penny and that 72 A. = 1 H.[1561]. Then at Celeberge 20 H. minus 4 A. is taxed at £5. 19s. 6d. We conclude that each acre is taxed at three-half-pence and that 48 A. = 1 H.[1562]. But we soon come to sums which are absurd and discover that as regards small quantities these documents are for our present purpose quite useless. For the Wiltshire hundreds we have three different documents. They do not agree in their arithmetic. Probably they represent the efforts of three different computers. Indubitably one or more of them made blunders. To give one example:—one of our documents begins its account of Mere by saying that it contains 85 hides, 1⁄2 a hide and 1⁄2 a virgate; the other two documents say 86 hides, 1⁄2 a hide and 1 virgate[1563]. This is by no means the only instance of such discrepant results. But mere clerical or arithmetical errors are not the only obstacle to our use of these accounts. It soon becomes quite evident that small amounts are dealt with in an irregular fashion. Thrice over we are assured that 15 H. 1⁄2 V. paid the king £4. 11s. 0d.[1564]; but they should have paid £4. 10s. 9d., if four virgates make a hide. Thrice over we are assured that 641⁄2 H. paid £19. 6s. 10d.[1565]. All suppositions as to acres and virgates apart, 641⁄2 H. should have paid £19. 7s. 0d In Somersetshire the calculations do not speak of acres, but they introduce us to the fertinus or farthing, which is certainly meant to be the quarter of a virgate. Numerous entries show us that 4 fertini = 1 virgate, and yet when a mass of land expressed in terms of hides, virgates and farthings is said to pay a certain sum for geld, we find that the odd farthings are reckoned as paying, sometimes 3d., sometimes 4d., sometimes 42⁄3d., sometimes 5d., sometimes 6d. per farthing[1566]. So again, when additions are made, odd acres are ignored. We are told that in a certain hundred the barons have 20 hides in demesne, and then that this amount is made up by the following particulars, 8 H. + 1 V. + 3 H. + 3 V + 41⁄2 H. - 4 A. + 31⁄2 H. It is obvious that these particulars when added together do not make 20 hides, though they may well make 20 hides and 4 acres[1567]. A study of these Geld Inquests has brought us reluctantly to the conclusion that, though they amply prove that 4 V. = 1 H., they afford no proof as to the number of acres that are reckoned to the virgate[1568].

Treatment of small quantities.

One word to explain that the apparent rudeness with which small figures are treated is not due to any persuasion that they may be safely disregarded, but is rather the natural outcome of a partitionary method of taxation. Little quantities are lost in the process. It is known that a certain hundred should have, for example, 80 hides and a certain vill 5 hides: but when you come to add up the particulars you can not bring out these round figures, perhaps because many years ago a small error was made by some one when an estate of 23⁄4 hides was being divided into 7 shares. If a mistake be made, it can never be corrected; the landowner who has once or twice paid for 47 acres will refuse to pay for 48 and will tell you that the deficient acre does not lie on his land.

Result of the evidence.

The ignes fatui which dance over the survey of Middlesex and the Geld Inquests of the south-western counties have for a while led us from our straight path. We have seen that in Cambridgeshire the equation 1 H. = 4 V. = 120 A. is employed on at least twenty occasions. Now as to the rest of England it must at once be confessed that we have no such convincing evidence. In many counties acres of arable land are but rarely mentioned; parcels of land which geld for less than a hide are generally expressed in terms of hides and virgates; we read, for example, not of so many acres, but of the ninth part of a hide or of two third parts of a virgate. Thus we are compelled for the more part to fall back upon the presumption that the treasury has but one mode of reckoning for the whole of England.