a half hide and 45 acres[1576],
two hides and a half and 45 acres[1577],
a half hide and 48 acres[1578],
x hides and 80 acres[1579],
nine hides and 82 acres[1580].
We have here cited twenty instances in which, as we think, the hide exceeds 60 acres (we might have cited many others) and twelve in which it exceeds 80 acres. We might further adduce instances in which our record speaks of a virgate and 10 acres, a virgate and 15 acres, and even of a virgate and 20 acres[1581], and when we read of two hides less 30 acres and two hides less 40 acres[1582] we infer that a hide probably has not only more but considerably more than the 30, 40 or 48 acres that are allowed to it by Kemble and Eyton. Our argument is based on the belief that men do not habitually adopt extremely cumbrous forms of speech. From a single instance we should draw no inference, and therefore when we just once read of ‘three hides and a half and 80 acres’ we do not infer that 80 acres are less than half a hide[1583].
Evidence from Essex continued.
But more can be made of these returns from Essex. We will take a large number of tracts of land described in the formula ‘x hides and z acres’; we will observe the various numbers for which z stands, and if we find some particular number frequently repeating itself we shall be entitled to argue that this number of acres is some very simple fraction of a hide. We will take at hazard 100 consecutive entries which contain this formula—‘x hides + z acres,’ where x is either an integral number or 1⁄2. The result is that in 37 cases z is 30, in 12 it is 15, in 8 it is 40; then 35 and 20 occur 5 times; 80, 50, 45, 37, 18, 10 occur thrice, and 38 and 151⁄2 twice; eleven other numbers occur once apiece. There can we think be but one explanation of this. The hide contains that number of acres of which 30 is the quarter, 40 the third, 15 the eighth[1584].
Further evidence.
But Essex, it must be confessed, lies next to Cambridgeshire, and for the rest of England we have less evidence. Still there are entries which make against any theory which would give to the hide but 30, 40 or 48 acres. In Hertfordshire we read of ‘a hide and a half and 26 acres[1585].’ In the same county we read of ‘a half virgate and 10 acres,’ and this seems to tell of a hide of at least 88 acres[1586]. In Gloucestershire we read of a manor of one hide and are told that ‘in this hide, when it is ploughed, there are but (non sunt nisi) 64 acres of land,’ whence we may draw the inference that such an acreage was unusually small[1587]. We pass from Mercia into Wessex. In Somersetshire we read of ‘three virgates and a half and 5 acres[1588],’ in Dorset of ‘three virgates and a half and 7 acres[1589],’ in Somerset of ‘one and a half virgates and 8 acres[1590].’