39 
fortunately the essential parts, the actual payments to the King, 
are only a summary, which for Somerset amounted to £514 0S. 11d. 
(f. 527), and was carried to Winchester. In the final days of 
danegeld, 2nd and 8th Hen. II., as the Pipe Rolls show, the 
assessment amounted to £277 10. od., the payments were 
4179 78. 10d. ; levied no doubt at a lower rate, and accounted 
for by the Sheriff at the Exchequer. 
Looking to the plan of the assessment, Mr. J. H. Round 
(Feudal England, p. 54) assumes “ that the Hundreds themselves 
were first assessed, and that such assessments were multiples of 
the five-hide unit.” But one of his Somerset examples is con- 
tradicted by the Geld Roll. Crucha (Eyton I., p. 134) is 39 hides 
in the Roll, though possibly corrected by Domesday. The other, 
Witestana, is indeed 115 hides (not 120), here I readily admit the 
5 hide multiple applies. The Glastonbury holdings were mostly 
of a peculiar character, created by the great drainage system out 
of the moors and fens, and forming rectangles bounded by the 
drains, each constituting a multiple of the hide, often of 5 hides. 
How different the holdings of early settlers, of irregular shape, 
and areas mostly containing virgates and its fractions ! 
But take the geld list of the 41 hundreds, and we have only 
the following multiples of 5 hides ; Witestana 115, Bada 95, 
Brunetona 5, Cumba 20, Cingeberia 40, Wivelescoma 15, Regis 
Brunetona 10, Ciu 35, Monachetona 15. Clearly, then, the 
assessors and collectors of the Geld Roll had no idea of a 5 hide 
unit. As to Mr. Bates’ attempt to prove the theory, after manipu- 
lating manors ad /ibitum, transgressing the bounds of hundreds, 
and utterly disregarding Geld Roll and Domesday principles, the 
whole has ended in conspicuous failure, and proved that as 
regards Somerset the 5 hide unit isa myth. (See “Somt. Archl.,” 
Vol. XLV. p. 51.) Moreover, a single mistake in identification 
would bring down the whole fabric, and the subtractions, ad- 
ditions, and new creations of hidage would have a like effect. 
As to the hundreds of the Geld Roll (see p. 54) the order 
