THE DOMESDAY SURVEY 



(sic) ploughlands in each ; in the other there was only one ' hundred,' 

 consisting of 12 'geld' carucates, but this 'hundred' contained 48 

 ploughlands. These ploughlands were divided thus [D.B. fo. 293;^) : — 



It is, I think, no mere coincidence that not only Lyddington, Rutland 

 (then in Northamptonshire), but Peterborough itself, Wittering, Nassing- 

 ton, and Harringworth,' all in Northamptonshire, had 16 ploughlands 

 each, as had the Peterborough manor of Great Easton, Leicestershire, in 

 the angle formed by Northamptonshire and the modern Rutland.* 



The above wapentake, with its simple distribution, shows us how 

 the figure 16 might really form part of a rigidly duodecimal system. 

 When we turn to the other wapentake (Alfnodestou), with its 24 'geld' 

 carucates and its (alleged) 48 ploughlands, we find figures very helpful 

 for explaining those of Northamptonshire, because, at first sight, they do 

 not suggest either a fixed ratio or a strictly duodecimal basis. Here are 

 the names in their order [D.B. 293/^) : — 



Ploughlands 



Greetham .... 

 Cottesmore 

 Overton and Stretton 

 Thistleton 



Teigh 



Whissendine . 



Exton 



Whitwell .... 

 ' Alestanestorp ' . 



Burley 



Ashwell .... 



8 

 12 



12 



2 



5 

 12 



12 



3 

 5 



7 



As a matter of fact, these figures, when they are added up, give us 24 

 carucates and 84 ploughlands (not 48). Their extreme value for the 

 study of the figures in northern Northamptonshire consists in the 

 demonstration they afford that a rigidly duodecimal arrangement may 

 underlie figures which do not, at first sight, imply it. In the Hundred 

 of Nassaburgh, for instance, we have similarly four manors with 12 

 ploughlands, and two with 6 ; but we have also one of 5, one of 3, 



' Three miles from Lyddington and six from Ridlington. 



* ' Ipsa abbatia tenet in Estone xii. carucatas terrae. Terra est xvi. carucis ' {D.B. fo. 231). 



267 



