A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



' solebant reddere,' < solebant falcare prata,' and so on. Then, when the enumeration is complete, 

 these significant words appear : ' nunc autem praedictum manenum de Quicham est ad firmam . . . 

 et reddit xxvi /.' Particular attention is due to the fact that this is the first, last, and only time 

 that the word ' manerium ' occurs in the whole record, and that Whickham was not the capital 

 messuage of any one of the bishop's manors. This circumstance, coupled with the unique form of 

 the entry in the ' tune et modo ' style of Domesday Book, raises a strong presumption that the vill 

 had been put to farm since the composition of Boldon Book and that we have here the record of the 

 change. This is, I believe, sufficient ground for the rejection of the last part of the passage, 

 beginning with the words ' nunc autem ' as an interpolation. 



We may now sum up the results of our inquiry. The four MSS. of Boldon Book represent 

 two MS. families. X, the parent of three of these, A, C, and D, dates from some period between 

 1249 and 1284, and derives either from the annotated original of Boldon Book itself (a very 

 doubtful conjecture) or (as is more likely) from a copy made from that original at some time after 

 the accession of Bishop Philip of Poitou, 1197, and before that of Bishop Walter Kirkham, 1249. 

 Z, the parent of our fourth text, B, would seem to have been a copy of the annotated original made 

 at some period that cannot be ascertained, but certainly later than 1197, and kept abreast of the 

 changes that were taking place from that time up to the close of the fourteenth century, a practical 

 or working text in effect. Then, after the compilation of Hatfield's Survey, the whole document 

 was recast, altering the disposition of the material and incorporating the notes and additions into the 

 text in such wise as to make it available for further use in the exchequer. The Auditor's MS. from 

 which Canon Greenwell printed might very well have been the actual original of this recension, 

 since it occurs in the same volume and the same hand as Hatfield's Survey. One conjecture, which, 

 since it is conjecture and no more, has been reserved until now, may be thrown out. There is 

 some evidence that a survey standing half-way between those of Pudsey and Hatfield has been lost. 1 

 Is it not possible that Z was the working copy of Boldon Book in the exchequer until Bishop 

 Beaumont's survey was made ; that it was then allowed to fall into neglect until the end of the 

 fourteenth century, when with the need of a new survey the need of a copy of Boldon Book was 

 also felt ; and that Z was taken up as the fullest, the most available, and therefore to the uncritical 

 mind of the Middle Ages the most authoritative copy of Bishop Pudsey's survey ? 



1 See Hatfield's Survey (Surtees Soc.), pref. p. v. and p. 51. 



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