As there were twelve carucates in the 'Hundred', so it paid twelve marcs, which, if we can trust the above explanation, themselves came to be termed a 'Hundred'. Moreover, the 'Hundreds' themselves were grouped in multiples of six. So too the Yorkshire thegn who held six Manors or less paid three marcs to the sheriff; if he held more than six, twelve marcs to the king (Domesday, i. 289b).

It is a special feature of the 'Danish' district that each territorial 'Hundred' contained twelve 'carucatæ terræ'. This point is all-important. Just as a 'Hundred' to an Anglo-Saxon suggested one hundred 'hides', so to the Danes of this district it suggested twelve 'carucates'. Nay, to the men of Lincolnshire there could be no more question that twelve carucates made a 'Hundred' than there could be now, among ourselves that twelve pence make a shilling. If we turn to the Lindsey Survey,[139] a generation later than Domesday, we obtain proof to that effect. We find that Survey, in three instances, adding up all the estates of a tenant within a Wapentake, and giving us the result in 'Hundreds' and 'carucates'. Here are the actual figures:

Car.Bov. Car.Bov. Car.Bov.
24 120 120
20 100 114
24 106 30
110 80 10
50 60 20
110 14 30
86 04 34
10
06
20
16
———— ———— ————
H. 3 66[140] H. 4 06[141] H. 3 54[142]

Now we must observe that these 'Hundreds' are not districts with 'a local habitation and a name'; they are merely sums of twelve carucates produced by compound addition. We further find, at the head of the survey of each Wapentake, a note that it is reckoned to contain so many 'Hundreds', with the explanation, in some instances that in each 'Hundred' were 'xii. carucatæ terræ'.[143] But even here the real unit is shown to be 'six carucates', for several Wapentakes contain an odd 'half-hundred', while in that of Horncastle this is actually entered as 'six carucates'.

Here are the nineteen Wapentakes, with the number of Hundreds assigned to each, and the number of 'carucatæ terræ' that such Hundreds would imply:

West Trithing
WapentakeHundredsCar. terr.
Manley[ ]½
Aslacoe7½ 90
Lawress12 144
Corringham5 60
Axholme4 48
Well7 84
North Trithing
Walshcroft8 96
Haverstoe7½ 90
Bradley3½[144][and 3 bov.]42⅜
Ludborough3 36
Yarborough14 168
Bolingbroke8 96
Gartree6 72
South Trithing
Candleshoe10 120
Calceworth10 120
Wraghoe9 108
Hill6 72
Lothesk10 120
Horncastle6½ 78

All the above, it will be seen, are multiples of the six-carucate unit. That the aggregate of recorded 'carucatæ terræ' appears to differ, though slightly, from the totals here given only shows how vain is the argument that, because the recorded aggregates of Hundreds may often be uneven figures, there could therefore have been no system at work such as I contend there was. Clerical error and special alterations have both to be allowed for.

It has never, so far as I know, been pointed out that these Lindsey Trithings were so arranged as to contain an approximately equal number of 'Hundreds'. So far as it is possible now to reckon them, the South Trithing contained 51½, the North Trithing 51½, and the West Trithing 49½. Fifty 'Hundreds' would represent 600 carucatæ; and it is, to say the least, a singular coincidence that, in the archaic territorial list that has hitherto baffled investigation, the North Gyrwa, South Gyrwa, and Spalda are reckoned each at 600 hides.[145]

I shall now give some instances of Lindsey townships assessed on the basis of the six-carucate unit: