127 Domesday and Feudal Statistics 



in breadth); here it may be stated with absolute 

 certainty that the leuga was nothing approaching 

 "Liberty ji miles ; for the whole liberty of Ripon would 

 not comprise 51,840 acres, and the portion of it 

 included in the Domesday berewicks would well 

 answer to a leuga of a modern mile or a trifle 

 less;* at the same time by taking the greatest 

 length and the greatest breadth a leuga of i-| miles 

 would be found. An example like this on the 

 large scale enables a statement of some certainty 

 that here the leuga was either the modern mile, or 

 else that (if i-| miles) the greatest and not average 

 length and breadth was taken ; and is of far 

 greater worth than rash calculations from assumed 

 perches of 1 8 to 20 feet, which by the way might 

 reasonably be expected to be derived from the 



* Ripon and its Berewicks as given correspond to about 



How esti- half the Liberty of Ripon, the whole of which is considerably 



mated in less than the area comprised in 6 leuga long x 6 1. broad, 



y ' taking i leuga as i^ miles linear measure ; by the area of 



the modern townships with additions the leuga works out 



just under I statute mile; a like explanation may then be 



reasonably postulated for such entries as would give enormous 



ploughlands of up to 360 acres on a rectangular block 



calculation. For the berewicks of Ripon do extend 9 miles 



by 9 miles (6 leuga x 6 1.), but that is their greatest length 



and breadth, from which nothing can be asserted, and as 



demonstrated the actual area was but about ? of such as 



5 



would be found by multiplying the greatest linear measures ; 

 in addition to this it may be held a ploughland contained in 

 itself both pasture (not common of pa.) and meadow of the 

 tenantry, at least for the plough oxen, of which numerous 

 instances may be noted in the Yorkshire I. P. M.'s. (Yks. 

 Record Series), and the Hundred Rolls (vol. ii.) ; also some- 

 times houses were on the "ploughland." 



