Domesday Book. 159 



ploughteams as breeders find it worth their while to produce 

 for showyard purposes, and the result is not comforting to the 

 pride of us modern farmers. 



The writer next points out that the Trinity system of 

 cultivation requires a different computation of the carucate. 

 "When, says he the land was divided into three parts {i.e. 

 winter crop, spring crop, and fallow), the carucate was 160 

 acres. This difference is explained by the custom of plough- 

 ing summer fallow thrice, which still exists on heav}'- land 

 farms where the farmer can afford to pursue so excellent a 

 system of husbandry. 



All the conclusion that it is safe to draw from the study of 

 this thirteenth century writer's remarks is, that the hide, or 

 carucate, was an area of land ploughable by one man and beast 

 within the 308 days which constituted his working year ; that 

 in Walter of Henley's time and neighbourhood from 160 to 180 

 acres could be thus cultivated during those periods of the year 

 when the seasons required it ; ^ that, since the interval of time 

 between the introduction of the Saxon system of hide measure- 

 ment and the date of Walter of Henley's MS, exceeds several 

 centuries, it is reasonable to conclude that, from improvements 

 in implements and beasts of burden, the acreage of the carucate 

 had gradually increased, even though, as we have shown, the 

 acreage ploughable in one day has remained almost constant 

 ever since ; and lastly, that from the indefinite and varying 

 methods of calculating the area of perches and virgates, the 

 carucate or hide did not represent the same acreage in all parts 

 of the country, nor even the same area on hilly and stiff soils 

 as on those that were level and light. 



Let us now compare these conclusions with those of Seebohm. 

 He starts with the virgate or yard-land, which he describes as 

 bundles of land composed of acres or half-acres. Searching 

 first the Manor Rolls of Winslow, he discovers the case of a 

 virgate, which loses its indivisible unity by becoming relet in 



^ That there were two areas of land understood by the term plough-land 

 may be inferred, I think, from the sentence, " Quant vos purrez e quantes 

 des carues vos auctz en chescun liu ji^tit ou graunt e quantes vos purrez 

 atier." — Les Rentes seynt Robercl. 



