278 Broughton Gifford. 
I cannot pretend to reconcile the figures in Domesday with 
the actual acreage of the parish. A few points are, however, 
pretty clear. Humphrey’s manor or, as we should say, pa- 
rish, using an ecclesiastical division in a civil sense, was Brough- 
ton: Rainburgis’ manor was what is now called Monkton. 
Where Saward’s land was situate is uncertain. Humphrey’s 
measured 12 hides, Saward’s 3, and Rainburgis’ 5. But a hide 
has been held to be any number of acres between 120 and 60: in 
fact it can have been an indication of space only in connection with 
value. For instance, Rainburgis’ manor here is to the rest of the 
Parish as one to three, whereas Monkton in measurement is not 
one to seven: but then the Monkton land is the more valuable by 
far. Again, there was a considerable quantity of arable,! far more 
than now; and to this fact the present appearance of many fields 
bears witness, being ridged up high, though now in grass. Of this 
arable, a good deal was in the hands of non-freemen. There was 
a large amount of pasture (chiefly as now at Monkton), by which 
I understand grazing ground, for which the Parish is now famous. 
There are only 16 acres of meadow (pasture) which may have been 
reserved for the oxen employed on the arable. There was an ex- 
tensive wood, 1} miles long, and 2 furlongs broad. There is now 
none whatever: but there are abundant proofs of its former locality 
in open fields, called to this day, Broughton Wood, Wood lagger 
(Jeng, Anglo-Saxon, long piece, very descriptive here), 14 acre 
wood, 10 acre wood, 8 acre wood, middle 12 acre wood, 12 acre 
wood, Green light woods, first and second light woods, and 2 Bow 
or bough woods. They number about 127 acres, and are the 
western portion of the Parish. Here the swine fattened on Oak 
mast (there is and probably never was any Beech), which was 
of as much worth then as the timber. It will be remarked 
that there was no wood at Rainburgis’ farm. The land there 
was too good, to remain long uncleared. There were two mills. 
1How much I cannot say; for a Carucate, or ploughland, has been esti- 
mated at any number of acres from 60 to 180, In fact it must have been an ad 
valorem estimate. The land here being good, the former figure would be nearer 
the mark; and this is actually the extent of a carucate here, according to an 
inquisition in 1849, quoted further on. 
