[1371] One word about the meaning of the valets. I think it very clear from thousands of examples that an estate is valued ‘as a going concern.’ The question that the jurors put to themselves is: ‘What will this estate bring in, peopled as it is and stocked as it is?’ In other words, they do not endeavour to make abstraction of the villeins, oxen, etc. and to assign to the land what would be its annual value if it were stocked or peopled according to some standard of average culture. Consequently in a few years the value of an estate may leap from one pound to three pounds or to five shillings or even to zero. Eyton, Dorset, 56, has good remarks on this matter.
[1372] Seebohm, Village Community, 85–6. To the contrary Round, in Domesday Studies, i. 209, and Feudal England, 35.
[1373] Round, Feudal England, 35.
[1374] See e.g. D. B. i. 222: ‘Terra est 2 car. Has habent ibi 3 sochemanni et 12 bordarii.’ ... ‘Terra est 3 car. Ibi sunt ipsae cum 9 sochemannis et 9 bordariis.’ Ibid. i. 223: ‘Terra est 1 car. quam habent ibi 4 bordarii.’ Ibid. i. 107 b: ‘Terra est 7 car. et tot ibi sunt.’
[1375] D. B. i. 222. Codestoche, Lidintone.
[1376] D. B. i. 289; 339 b, Bechelinge.
[1377] D. B. i. 342 b, Toresbi.
[1378] D. B. i. 339, Agetorne.
[1379] D. B. i. 174, Lappewrte.
[1380] D. B. i. 163, Berchelai.