38 THE DOMESDAY INQUEST 



the date at which the question was put to them. In the 

 statistics for Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, the number of 

 teams, both in demesne and of the tenants, is given for " then " 

 and "now" for 1066 and 1086. And frequently "after- 

 wards " is inserted to give the number of teams on the estate 

 when it came into the possession of its new owner. At first 

 sight it would seem as if the first volume gives these figures 

 only for the year 1086 ; but a careful examination will show 

 an occasional variant for the second term in the formula. 

 Compare two consecutive entries relating to the estates of the 

 Bishop of Lincoln, in Oxfordshire 



" The same Bishop holds Milton : there are 40 hides. . . . There 

 is land for 26 teams. Now there are in demesne five teams . . . and 

 (the tenants have) 1 9 teams. 



"The Bishop himself holds Banbury : there are 50 hides. . . . 

 T. R. E. there were 33^ teams, and the Bishop found as many. . . . 

 Now there are in demesne 7 teams and (the tenants have) 33 

 teams." l 



Turning to Leicestershire, we find that the entries in which 

 it is stated, " There were B teams T. R. E.," are almost as many 

 as those in which it was stated, " There is land for B teams." 

 We may therefore conclude that in the minds of the Com- 

 missioners the two expressions were identical, and that it 

 made no difference which they used, so that the second term 

 in the formula gives the number of teams employed on the 

 estate in 1066. Possibly, in many cases this was matter of 

 guesswork ; but where there is a great difference between 

 the number of teamlands (B) and the number of actual teams 

 (C + D), it would seem either that some land had gone out 

 of cultivation or that some land had been brought into cultiva- 

 tion during the reign of the Conqueror. Occasionally the 

 teams are recorded for some date previous to the death of 

 the Confessor. 



1 D. B., 1. 155 a 2. 



