54 ENGLISH FIELD SYSTEMS 



957 King Edwig conveyed to Bishop Osulf twenty mansae at the 

 same place. ^ There is a sUght if not a very exact correspond- 

 ence between the descriptions of the boundaries of the two grants. 

 Assume, as Seebohm did, that the boundaries are the same. Why 

 should each twenty mansae (or cassati) be looked upon as part 

 of a larger township ? Why should they not refer to the same 

 area — perhaps to a township of twenty hides ? That the 

 grantees in each charter were different need cause no difficulty. 

 Between 903 and 957 the twenty mansae may well have reverted 

 to the crown. The first grant was of the sort which did revert; 

 it had just done so in 903. The boundaries to which Nasse refers 

 at W^olverley, Worcestershire, were probably alike for the same 

 reason. 2 In one charter the king gave two mansae to one of his 

 ministri, in the other two mansae to the cathedral church at Wor- 

 cester. Both grants, to be sure, occurred within the same year. 

 It is not improbable, however, that there was a speedy reversion 

 and regrant, while the identity of the mansae conveyed is insured 

 by the circumstance that the first grantee (Pulfferd) gave his 

 name to the land. 



A last instance is cited by Nasse. In the middle of the tenth 

 century eighteen mansae and twenty-two mansae were conveyed 

 at Welford, Berkshire, with substantially the same boundaries.^ 

 No phrase explains why this is so, nor do the eighteen seem to 

 have been a part of the twenty-two. Nasse apparently thought 

 them constituents of a forty-hide manor, bounded similarly be- 

 cause arable acres were intermixed. The first part of this assump- 

 tion seems justifiable. In Domesday Book, Welford is set down 

 as a manor " formerly " rated at fifty hides.^ What Nasse forgot 

 is that a manor of this size was usually composite, containing 

 within its bounds more than one township. A comparison of the 

 Domesday map with the modern one reveals Welford as such 

 a manor.^ This being the case, the eighteen and the twenty- 



1 Cod. Dip., 335 (aw. 903), 467 {an. 957). 



2 Ibid., 291, 292 {an. 866). ' Ibid, 427 {an. 949), 1198 {an. 956). 

 * " T. R. E. se defendit pro 1 hidis et modo pro xxxvii (i. 58J)." 



5 Cf. Victoria History oj Berkshire, i. 323. Several hamlets near Welford do not 

 appear on the Domesday map, e. g., Easton, Wickham, Warmstall, Clapton, Shef- 

 ford. 



