A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



One is tempted to suggest that, as the typical number was as arbitrary 

 in the one as in the other, the eight units had originally been ten, and 

 thus represented a previous reduction of twenty per cent, on the old 

 total.' 



It is very difficult to detect the principle of assessment at work in 

 the rest of the county till we reach its north-eastern portion. Here we 

 observe a most suggestive contrast to the typical figures in the south- 

 west. The vills of five or of ten ploughlands have entirely disappeared, 

 and, in their place, are distinct traces of that duodecimal system which 

 prevailed in Lincolnshire and Leicestershire. Here are some examples 

 taken from those Hundreds of Nassaburgh and Willibrook which occupy 

 the north-eastern regions of the county. 



We are justified, I think, by these figures in holding that this district 

 had been under the same Scandinavian influence as the adjacent region 

 to its north. For when we turn to the entries on that region, we find 

 Tallington, Lincolnshire, just across the Welland, assessed at 12 [5 + 7] 

 ' carucates of land,' and Easton, Leicestershire, which similarly lay at 

 the nearest angle of that county, assessed at 12 'carucates of land.' 

 Between Leicestershire and Lincolnshire lay what is now Rutland, of 

 which the south-eastern portion was then part of Northamptonshire, and 

 though termed a ' wapentake,' ^ was similarly assessed in hides. This is 

 not the place in which to discuss the assessment of Rutland as a whole ; 

 but its close connection with that of the adjacent district of North- 

 amptonshire requires some mention of it. The Domesday Rutland 

 consisted of two wapentakes (the third being then in Northamptonshire), 

 and, like Leicestershire and Lincolnshire, was intensely duodecimal. One 

 wapentake consisted of two ' hundreds,' ^ with i 2 ' geld ' carucates and 24 



' This suggestion would bring us appreciably nearer to the 3,200 hides of ' the County 

 Hidage,' which Prof. Maitland believes to have been the original assessment of the shire, and 

 would also re-establish the original prevalence of the normal unit of five hides in the district 

 affected. 



^ See p. 268 below. 



' These Scandinavian 'hundreds,' consisting of twelve 'geld' carucates each, must be 

 carefully distinguished from the Hundreds of the counties to their south, with which they had 

 nothing to do. 



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