[1690] Wallingford.
[1691] Wilton, Tisbury, Shaftesbury, Malmesbury, Cricklade.
[1692] Wareham, Bredy.
[1693] Watchet, Axbridge, Lyng, Langport, Bath.
[1694] Exeter, Halwell, Lidford, Barnstaple.
[1695] A good deal of doubt hangs over the entries touching Buckingham, Essex and Warwick.
[1696] Birch, Cartularium, i. 414; Birch, Journal Brit. Archæol. Assoc. xl. 29 (1884); Earle, Land Charters, 458; Liebermann, Leges Anglorum, 8; Stevenson, Engl. Hist. Rev., 1889, 354.
[1697] Unless the mention of Wessex is interpolated (and if it be interpolated then the grand total has been tampered with) it is difficult to suppose that ‘Wiht gara 600’ points to the Isle of Wight, ‘Gifla 300’ to the district round Ilchester, or the like. I owe this observation to Mr W. J. Corbett.
[1698] It is a little curious that if we multiply the 244,100 hides by 120 we obtain 29,292,000, a figure which is not very far off from the 32,543,890 which gives the total acreage (tidal water excepted) of modern England. However, it is in the highest degree improbable that the computer of hides was aiming at pure areal measurement. Nor could his credit be saved in that way, for the area of Kent is to that of Sussex as 975:932, not as 15:7. The total of ‘cultivated land’ in England is less than 25 million acres, that of arable is less than 12 million.
[1699] Bede, Hist. Eccl. ii. 9 (ed. Plummer, i. 97): ‘... Meuanias insulas ... quarum prior ... nongentarum lx. familiarum mensuram iuxta aestimationem Anglorum, secunda trecentarum et ultra spatium tenet.’ Ibid. iii. 24 (p. 180): ‘... regnum Australium Merciorum, qui sunt, ut dicunt, familiarum quinque millium ... Aquilonaribus Merciis quorum terra est familiarum vii. milium.’ Ibid. i. 25 (p. 45): ‘Est autem ad orientalem Cantiae plagam Tanatos insula non modica, id est, magnitudinis iuxta consuetudinem aestimationis Anglorum familiarum sexcentarum (þæt is syx hund hida micel æfter Angel cynnes æhta).’ Ibid. iv. 13 (p. 230): ‘ad provinciam Australium Saxonum, quae post Cantuarios ad austrum et ad occidentem usque ad Occidentales Saxones pertingit, habens terram familiarum septem millium (is þæs landes seofen þusendo [hida]).’ Ibid. iv. 14 (p. 237): ‘Est autem mensura eiusdem insulae [Vectae] iuxta aestimationem Anglorum mille ducentarum familiarum: unde data est episcopo possessio terrae trecentarum familiarum (æfter Angel cynnes æhta twelf hund hida, and he þa þam biscop gesealde on æht þreo hund hida).’ Ibid. iv. 17 (p. 246): ‘Est autem Elge in provincia Orientalium Anglorum regio familiarum circiter sexcentarum (six hund hida) in similitudinem insulae.’ Ibid. iii. 25 (pp. 182–3): ‘donaverat monasterium quadraginta familiarum in loco qui dicitur Inrhypum.’ Ibid. v. 19: ‘mox donavit terram decem familiarum in loco qui dicitur Stanford, et non multo post monasterium triginta familiarum in loco qui vocatur Inrhypum (tyn hiwisca landes on þære stowe þe is cweðon Stanford ... minster xxx. hiwisca.)’ Ibid. iv. 13 (p. 232): ‘donavit ... Uilfrido terram lxxxvii. familiarum (seofan and hund eahtig hida landes) ... vocabulo Selæseu.’ Historia Abbatum (p. 380): ‘terram octo familiarum iuxta fluvium Fresca ab Aldfrido rege ... comparavit ... terram xx. familiarum in loco qui incolarum lingua Ad villam Sambuce vocatur ... accepit ... Terram decem familiarum quam ab Aldfrido rege in possessionem aceeperat in loco villae quae Daltun nuncupatur ...’ Hist. Eccl. iv. 21 (p. 253): ‘accepit locum unius familiae ad septentrionalem plagam Uiuri fluminis (onfeng heo anes hiwscipes stowe to norð dæle Wire ðære ea).’ Ibid. iii. 4 (p. 133): ‘Neque enim magna est [Iona] sed quasi familiarum quinque, iuxta aestimationem Anglorum.’ Ibid. iii. 24 (p. 178): ‘Singulae vero possessiones x. erant familiarum, id est simul omnes cxx.’