156 History of the Eiiglish Landed Interest. 



its surface. Prefacing our approacliing task thus, we shall be 

 less disappointed at the unsatisfactory results which it will 

 produce, Henry of Huntingdon defines the hide as " Hida 

 autem Anglice vocatur terra unius aratri culturse sufHciens per 

 annum." Bede calls it " Faniiliam," and says it was as much 

 as would maintain a family. An old MSS. declares it to be 120 

 acres. Gervase of Tilbury made it 100 acres. Spelman cites 

 the Malmesbury MS. as computing it at 4 virgates, or 96 acres. 

 The History of Founding Battle Ahhey makes it 6 virgates, 

 or 11:4 acres. Camden gives us a choice of two solutions: the 

 " acreage-ploughable-in-one-year " theory, and the " four yard- 

 land " theory, which latter merely replaces one ambiguous term 

 with another. Sir Edward Coke holds the negative idea, viz., 

 that these various terms do not contain any definite number of 

 acres. Fleta estimates the hide at 180 acres. Professor Rogers 

 throws no additional light on the subject. For what Seebohm 

 and Vinogradoff have to say we shall reserve space later on.^ 

 To add to our difficulties, the word acre raises further theories,^ 

 as it was originally applied to any open ground or field, 

 such as castle acre, west acre, etc. Then it came to imply 

 the lots into which the infield was divided, and was found 

 by the Commissioners in 1876 to widely vary in area even 

 in the same locality. The virgate, too, may mean 24, 28, 

 or even 40 acres, though it was understood at the time 

 to hold 4 fardels, whatever area they represent. Two cen- 

 turies later than the great survey, Walter of Henley^ de- 

 fines a plough-land ; and since he had acted as a farm bailiff 

 his evidence is almost as worthy of credence as that of any 

 modern land surveyor's. He says : " If your lands are divided 



' Dr. Stubbs, in chap. v. of his Constitutional History, supplies in foot- 

 note No. 2. p. 79, the views of Kemble, Grimm, Robertson, and G. L. von 

 Mauzer, on the subject. Stubbs himself believes the later hide to have 

 been 120 acres, and suggests that some of the greatest inconsistencies may 

 have arisen from the term being applied to the entire share of one mar 

 in the four common fields ; but then wero there four or three common 

 fields? 



* It was not till 33 Ed. I. that the acre was fixed b^' law as forty 

 perches long and four wide. 



^ Vide Walter of Henlej', Husbandry, R.H. Societj-'s translation, 1890. 



