i8 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



sickle, weed-hook, spade, shovel, woad dibble, barrow, besom, 

 beetle, rake, fork, ladder, horse comb, shears, fire tongs, 

 weighing scales, and a long list of spinning implements 

 necessary when farmers made their own clothes. The 

 author wisely remarks that one ought to have coverings for 

 wains, plough gear, harrowing tackle, &c. ; and adds another 

 list of instruments and utensils : a caldron, kettle, ladle, pan, 

 crock, firedog, dishes, bowls with handles, tubs, buckets, 

 a churn, cheese vat, baskets, crates, bushels, sieves, seed basket, 

 wire sieve, hair sieve, winnowing fans, troughs, ashwood pails, 

 hives, honey bins, beer barrels, bathing tub, dishes, cups, 

 strainers, candlesticks, salt cellar, spoon case, pepper horn, 

 footstools, chairs, basins, lamp, lantern, leathern bottles, comb, 

 iron bin, fodder rack, meal ark or box, oil flask, oven rake, 

 dung shovel ; altogether a veiy complete list, the compiler of 

 which ends by saying that the reeve ought to neglect nothing 

 that should prove useful, not even a mousetrap, nor even, what 

 is less, a peg for a hasp. 



Manors in 1086 were of all sizes, from one virgate to enor- 

 mous organizations like Taunton or Leominster, containing 

 villages by the score and hundreds of dependent holdings. 1 

 The ordinary size, however, of the Domesday manor was from 

 four to ten hides of 120 acres each, or say from 500 to 1,200 

 acres, 2 and the Manor of Segenehou in Bedfordshire may be 

 regarded as typical. Held by Walter brother of Seiher it had 

 as much land as ten ploughs could work, four plough lands 

 belonging to the demesne and six to the villeins, of whom 

 there were twenty- four, with four bordarii and three serfs ; thus 

 the villeins had 30 acres each, the normal holding. The manorial 

 system was in fact a combination of large farming by the 

 lords, and small farming by the tenants. Nor must we 



1 Vinogradoff, English Society in the Eleventh Century, p. 307. 



2 Ibid. p. 312. Perhaps one of the most interesting features of the 

 smaller manors is that they were constantly being swallowed up by the 

 larger. 



