40 THE DOMESDAY INQUEST 



country which were settled by the English. On turning to 

 the shires settled mainly by the Danes Leicester, Derby, 

 Nottingham, York, and Lincoln we find a variation from the 

 usual formula. All three terms are found in the formula; 

 but instead of stating the assessment in hides, the scribes for 

 these shires stated it in carucates, or teamlands, and in all 

 these shires (except Leicester) the usual form of the first 

 term of the formula is, " There are A carucates for geld (ad 

 geldum)" This carucate was divisible into eight bovates, 

 or ox-gangs, showing the intimate connection of the unit 

 of assessment with the manorial plough-team of eight oxen. 

 In Leicester there was a hide of 18 carucates, 1 and in the 

 county between the Mersey and the Kibble there was a hide 

 of 6 carucates, 2 and it has been suggested that in Lancashire 

 we have a case of the imposition on the Danish assessment by 

 carucates, of the old Saxon assessment by hides. 8 The fact 

 that the number of gelding carucates usually differs from the 

 number of teams in 1066 and 1086, in the same way as the 

 number of hides in other parts of England also differs from 

 the number of the teams, shows that for these Danish shires 

 the assessment was fixed at some period before the death of 

 Edward the Confessor, and supports the proposition that the 

 geld hide also represents the primitive family holding, employ- 

 ing one team of eight oxen. The counties where the assess- 

 ment is reckoned in hides are often called the "hidated" 

 counties, while the others are called the " carucated " counties. 

 In dealing with the carucated districts, reference must be 

 made to Canon Taylor's theory that "the open field is the 

 master-key for the interpretation of Domesday, 4 and that the 

 ' carucata ad geldum ' is not . . . the quantity of land ploughed 

 in each year by one plough, but the quantity of land ploughed 

 in one year in one arable field by one plough." 5 He shows 



1 f. ., 82. 2 D. B., I. 278 b 2. 



3 V. C. H. Lane., I. 271. 4 D. S., i. 140. 



6 /A, 157- 



