i 2 i Domesday and Feudal Statistics 



of the total population under 1 6, then would there 

 have been 2,380,000 persons in all England ; but 

 presuming 35% of the total population wed (and 

 noting that in Claro of 1,000 recorded, 716 are 

 found as married), then would there be approxi- 

 mately 1,074,000 wed folk of i-^- millions as above, 

 which being -^ (taking 35% of whole community 

 as married) of the total, would bring the popula- 

 tion in 1377 to 3,o6p)OOO, so that the true total 

 should lie between these estimates, say some 

 2,700,000, called 2^ millions. Unless the chroni- 

 clers are to be regarded as mere relaters of fables, 

 there must have been enormous mortality in 

 Death' ack *34 8 ~9 ( tne Black Death); given at to more 

 than ^ the population, so that in the ii l half of 

 the 1 4th century the English population might 

 very well be estimated at 4 millions. As the 

 postulators of the 120 acre theory are burdened 

 with an arable of over 10,000,000 acres in 1086 

 for some 1,800,000 people, it easily follows that 

 20,000,000 (on the same theory) would not be an 

 excessive amount for 4,000,000 folk temp. Ed. III. 

 prior to 1348-9, and (still on that theory) some 

 30,000,000 of arable, what time the Saxon esti- 

 mate* of 242,700 Hides was made ; after this, it 

 would be but little astonishing to hear that the 

 whole country at one time consisted of a vast 

 ploughed field, and that traces of terrace cultiva- 

 tion had been discovered on Scawfell Pike itself. 

 Ploughs Prof. Maitland has counted 70,606 ploughs 

 Population in 30 of the recorded counties of D. B., which 

 answers to an estimate of 84,130 for the 40 

 modern shires of England by as follows : 



* Vide, p. 28. 



