CHAPTER III 

 THE VILL AND THE MANOR 



" Quomodo vocatur mansio ? " 



'"WIT THAT is the name of the mansion?" was the first 

 \ \ question that was put to the Cambridgeshire jurors, 

 who must have understood the meaning of the 

 term. But the Exchequer Domesday uses this term very 

 exceptionally. The best-known passage is that in the second 

 volume, which states that the hide which Count Eustace held 

 at Orsedd was not one of his hundred mansions. 1 The Exeter 

 Domesday, however, uses " mansio " for every holding which 

 it describes, only a few of which are called " manors " in the 

 Exchequer Domesday. But in the statistics of the boroughs, 

 " mansio " is more frequently used ; the " mural mansions " of 

 Oxford are well known ; certain of the mansions in Stafford 

 are definitely stated to appertain to places which can be 

 identified as rural manors ; three mansions in Rochester 

 pertained to the manor of Alnoitone ; 2 so that the term 

 " mansio " must have been a colourless term, which could be 

 applied to any property varying in size from Crediton with 

 its 185 teams to a town house in Oxford or Stafford. It may, 

 therefore, be translated as " tenement." In one passage in the 

 Exchequer Domesday " mansio " and " manor " are used side 

 by side: "To this manor lay three freemen': one held half a 

 hide and could depart without the licence of the lord of the 



1 D. B., II. 9. 2 Id., I. 8 a I. 



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