[ i88 J 



biihery yonder, over, under, Jupa,Juher, nether, eaji, 

 'weft, north, fouth, white, black, yellow, green, &c. all 

 of which contribute to prove this flat country to 

 have been once a fea. But. if we may in this cafe 

 rely upon tradition, for the digging up of fhip's an- 

 chors many feet under ground in the marfliy places, 

 there cannot remain any pofTibility of doubt. 



I have feen fome grants of William I. and grants 

 of manors foon after the Conqueft, which I could 

 both read and underlland. They were not much 

 unlike the long narrow chyrographs of fines wrote 

 in Law-Latin Court-hand;* but I do not recoiled 

 to have feen in the leafes of tenements for lives un- 

 der thefe grants, any particular boundaries fet forth, 

 till fince the difTolution of monafteries at the Refor- 

 mation j and from hence I conclude that this flat 

 country was no otherwife bounded than by ancient 

 grants of manors, each of which was gelt at a cer- 

 tain number of hides,-]- and was under the feudal 



tenure 



• I have now in my pofleflion one of thefe Law-Latin Gourt-hand 

 chyrographs, acknowledged in Hil. term, 4th William IIL between 

 Francis Carfwett, Dodor in Divinity, and vicar of Bray in Berklhire, 

 (the turn-coat vicar of Bray) plaintiff, and John Friend, of Taunton 

 Saint Mary Magdalen, defendant. 



f How fhall we reconcile the very great difference at prefent fub- 

 fifting between thofe authors who have laboured to afcertain the quan- 

 tum contained ia a hide of land? fome having fixed it to be fifty acres, 



whilft 



