A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



for themselves, the latter being (as their name implies) forty times as 

 long as the former ; but the 'leagues' present difficulty. Mr. Eyton/ 

 who evidently wrote under the influence of Ellis/ relied on a statement 

 in the 'Ingulf forgery, which the latter had accepted as 'good 

 authority,' and arrived at the conclusion that the ' leuca ' was a mile and a 

 half, that is, twelve ' quarentens,' or 2,640 yards. The ultimate authority 

 for this reckoning seems to be a Battle Abbey Register, where it is 

 stated that the leuca contains 12 quarentines, and the quarentine 40 

 perches.' Mr. Stuart Moore, however, has cited another record in 

 which the proportions are the same.^ 



When we come to apply this reckoning in practice to Northampton- 

 shire, certain questions present themselves. If a wood is said to measure 

 so many perches, or even furlongs, in length, and so many more in 

 width, we may look on the figures as possibly and even probably correct. 

 But what are we to say to such figures as these for the Peterborough 

 manors of Werrington and Oundle (fo. 221) .? The woodland of the 

 former manor measures two ' leagues ' by one ; of the latter, three 

 'leagues 'by two! This would give, on Mr. Eyton's system, 2,880 

 acres of woodland to Werrington, and 8,640 acres to Oundle. But in 

 1535 the abbey had only 15^ acres and 208 acres of woodland in these 

 two manors respectively.' Allowing even for the clearances of four 

 and a half centuries, these figures make one sceptical. The two royal 

 manors of Gretton and Corby, which are entered together in the survey 

 (fo. 219^) are, of course, in a forest district, and there is nothing in- 

 herently suspicious in the measurements of their woodland. At Gretton 

 they are one ' league ' by half a ' league,' and at Corby eighteen fur- 

 longs by four, figures which according to Mr. Eyton would represent 

 720 acres in both cases. But is it not obvious that measurements in 

 which a ' league ' is a unit are of the crudest character t They cannot, 

 in fact, represent actual measurements at all. When, on the other hand, 

 we meet with such measurements as these, we must almost infer that a 

 rod was used. 



But even in these cases the figures on the whole suggest that the 



* The Dorset Survey, pp. 25-26. * Introduction to Domesday, I. 159-160. 

 ' Monasticon AngUcanum, III. 241. 



* MS. Lansdown 761, fo. 69A. Document relating to * Herleston' (see his Northamptonshire 

 Domesday, p. 89). 



* Bridges' Northamptonshire, II. 405, 537. 



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