South Newton.
7. Leicestershire.
Barkby.
I have thought it worth while to insert this table, but I am not satisfied with it. (i) I am inclined to think that, as stated in the text, fuller information would show that medium-sized holdings of between 20 and 60 acres were more common than it suggests. It is plain that surveyors often could not locate the properties of freeholders, and the larger the property the harder their task. (ii) Even where the holding is set out by the surveyor, one cannot always form an accurate judgment of its size. For example, rights of common, though often expressed in acres, are often expressed in some other way, e.g. in the terms of the number of beasts which the tenant may graze; and, again, a man is sometimes said to hold so many acres “cum pertinentiis.” What I have done is simply to enter the acreage as given in the surveys. In some cases, therefore, the size of the holding is certainly underestimated.
Table III. ([p. 48)]
The figures in this table are an analysis of the figures given under the heading of “Customary Tenants" in Table I., and the source from which they are taken will be found by looking at the explanation of that table given above. As I have pointed out in the text, it is probable that not all the “Tenants at Will" should have been entered as “Customary Tenants" in that table. I hope that any error which may have arisen through their inclusion under that heading there may be neutralised by setting them out here. It will be seen that they are not numerous.
Table IV.(pp. [64 and 65])
This table is based on documents relating to the undermentioned manors. The sources from which the information is taken are given, with a few exceptions (see below), in the explanation of Table I.
1. Wiltshire and Somerset.
South Newton, Byshopeston, Washerne, Knyghton, Donnington, Estoverton and Phipheld, Wynterbourne Basset (all in Wilts), South Brent and Huish (Somerset).