DOMESDAY SURVEY 



the Domesday figures may not be infallible. It will be evident that a 

 very small margin of error in the figures themselves would make the task 

 of their combination into duodecimal totals impossible for us. 



For all this we can trace a number of assessments of the normal 

 type in the southern half of our county beginning with Wysall (3 caru- 

 cates), on the Leicester border, and continuing through Bradmore, 

 Plumtree, Normanton on the Wolds (f + T\ + T\), i carucates each, 

 Cotgrave 6 (2 + 1 + 3) and Edwalton (f + }) i, to the Trent at Wil- 

 ford, 3, West Bridgford, Adbolton (I + I), Holme Pierrepont, ij each, 

 RadclifFe on Trent, 3 carucates (ii + ij), Saxondale, and Newton 

 (I + ii), i carucates each. Lying apart from this group occurs Orston, 

 3 carucates, and away in Newark wapentake we find Girton assessed at i J. 



Lastly, crossing the Trent once more we may illustrate the possi- 

 bilities of the combination of vills by setting forth the very neat assess- 

 ment of North and South Muskham with the hamlet of Little Carlton 

 included in the latter. The long continued association of these three 

 places, which occupy a corner of ' Lide ' wapentake to themselves, makes 

 it very probable that this was the grouping actually employed in the 

 distribution of the geld. 



Car. Bov. Team-lands 



North Muskham 



Archbishop of York . . . .14 (not given) 



Peterborough Abbey .... I 2 4 



'Uluric' o 



Sokeland . . . . . . O 



'Tochi' 2 



Siward . . . . . . o 



South Muskham 



Archbishop of York . . . .4 



'Sortebrand' . . . . . O _, 

 Little Carlton 



Sokeland to North Muskham . o i) (not given) 



We shall find it convenient to consider in connexion with assess- 

 ment what is perhaps the most difficult problem presented by the Not- 

 tinghamshire survey the relation between gelding carucates, plough- 

 lands, and actual plough-teams. The second are in uniform excess of the 

 first, but the third are so greatly in excess of the second that the 

 question whether the term ' plough-land ' bears its obvious meaning in 

 this county has seriously to be faced. This has attracted the attention 

 of Professor Maitland, who says : 



To interpret the steady excess of teams that we see in Nottingham and Derby 

 is not easy. We can hardly suppose that the jurors are confessing that they employ 

 a superfluity of oxen. Perhaps, however, we may infer that in this district a given 

 area of land will be ploughed by an unusually large number of teams, whereas in 

 Devon and Cornwall a given area will be ploughed, though intermittently, by an 

 unusually small number. In every way the contrast between Devon and Cornwall 

 on the one hand, Lincoln, Nottingham, and Derby on the other, is strongly marked. 1 



Now the case of Nottinghamshire stands somewhat apart from that 

 of its neighbours to east and west. In Lincolnshire there seem after all 



1 Domesday Book and Beyond, 427. 

 211 



6-4 



4 



i 



4 



I2'0 



