A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



therefore, for this district are altogether abnormal. There are, for 

 instance, forty entries relating to the modern Hundred of Sutton ; in 

 twenty-eight of these the hides stand to the ploughlands in the exact 

 ratio of 2 to 5 ; in four others it is almost exact ; and the eight remain- 

 ing ones do not differ from it widely enough to prevent the ratio for the 

 whole Hundred being 2 to 5.* 



It is obvious that something must be hidden behind this artificial 

 arrangement ; and it is the more obvious when we see, as the Domesday 

 expert does, how peculiarly inconvenient its figures were, in practice, for 

 the payment of the 'geld.' The point is too technical for full discussion 

 here, but its essence is that a tax which was reckoned in shillings on the 

 ' hide ' could not be paid with exactitude on one or more ' fifths ' of a 

 hide, which were the fractions resulting from this peculiar assessment. 

 To obviate this difficulty, the awkward fractions, we find, were in some 

 cases ingeniously adjusted so as to preserve the assessment on the whole 

 vill intact, and yet to enable its constituent portions to pay, each of 

 them, an even number of pence. Of this, we have beautiful examples in 

 Silverstone and Blakesley. 



Here, the superficial inquirer might say, there is but one out of 

 six entries in which the ratio is 2 to 5. And yet, when we group the 

 entries under their respective vills, the ratio is seen to hold good, while 

 the actual fractions are so adjusted that their liability under a tax of one 

 or more shillings on the hide presented no difficulty. It was only, of 

 course, in the case of fractions that such adjustment was needed." 



Now for this peculiar ratio I have advanced the explanation that 

 it really represents the result of a great reduction of assessment, a 

 uniform reduction of sixty per cent. My theory is that the so-called 

 ploughlands of the Northamptonshire Domesday are not ploughlands at 

 all, but represent the old assessment before this great reduction. That 

 is to say, that when a vill is entered as assessed at four ' hides ' and as 

 containing ten ploughlands, the combination really means that its assess- 

 ment has been reduced from ten units to four. This theory is so novel, 



' See, for the details, my paper on 'The Hidation of Northamptonshire,' in English 

 Historical Review^ January, 1900. 



' The whole subject is worked out in my above paper. 



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