32 THE DOMESDAY INQUEST 



All these equations can be solved only by the formula 

 iH=4V. 



In Devon and Cornwall the virgate was further divisible 

 into four ferdings. The number of acres in a virgate is 

 similarly never stated in Domesday Book, but there is one 

 equation from which it can be deduced 



(6H + iV + 7 A) = (2JH + 9 A) + (iiH + 6A) + JH + JH 



hence 15 A = JV 

 and therefore 3oA = iV and i2oA = iH. 



But this formula will not hold good for the whole of Eng- 

 land. In Wilts we find a virgate of 10 acres, and therefore a 

 hide of 40 acres. 2 And it would seem as though a Sussex 

 hide sometimes contained 8 virgates. 



We cannot, however, be too much on our guard against 

 considering these geld acres as statute acres. The geld hide 

 of Domesday Book (i.e. the hide in the first term of this 

 formula) was merely notional, not areal. 



But every notion represents some reality, and we must, 

 therefore, inquire what was the reality represented by the 

 notional geld hide. To this question many answers have been 

 returned, of which one of the most noteworthy is the Rev. C. S. 

 Taylor's paper on the " Pre-Domesday Hide in Gloucester- 

 shire," in the Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire 

 Archaeological Society. 3 



When King Alfred translated Bede's Ecclesiastical History 

 into English, he used the term " hide " as equivalent to Bede's 

 " possessio unius familiar" Thus, where Bede wrote " donavit 

 terram 87 familiarum," Alfred wrote " sealde 87 hida landes," 

 showing that he considered the hide to be a family holding. 

 Turning to the charters and grants of the English Kings, 

 we find that the areas of the estates are expressed by such 



1 D. B., I. 198 a 2. 2 17 E. H. R., 280. 



3 Vol. 18, p. 288. 



