THE VILL AND THE MANOR 49 



manor from the Bishop of Winchester ; and two knights 

 held i hide and 1 1 virgate from Hardouin of Eschalers ; but 

 ^ hide was annexed to Litlington, I virgate to Earl Roger's 

 manor of Shingay, ^ virgate to Mordun, and ^ virgate to 

 Litlington. 1 When a portion of a vill was thus annexed to a 

 manor in another vill, it was said to " lie in " that manor, but 

 its " wara " or assessment lay in its mother vill ; that is to say, 

 although the inhabitants of these portions performed their 

 services and paid their dues to the manors in which they lay, 

 yet their assessment remained in and they paid their geld to 

 the man who collected the geld for their mother vill. 2 Certain 

 land at Loncheli, in Berkshire, " lies and is valued at Gratenton, 

 which is in Oxfordshire, and yet pays scot in Berkshire." 3 



So that a vill could be (i) a manor of itself ; (2) subdivided 

 into many manors ; (3) a portion of another manor ; or (4) 

 it could contain a manor, and portions could be annexed to 

 other manors. 



What, then, is a manor ? The Domesday Commissioners 

 never define this term, but must have known the characteristics 

 of the institution to which they applied it ; and the best way of 

 ascertaining those characteristics is to analyze the constitution 

 of the tenements which they designate as manors. 



The first characteristic is a truism. The manor is the tene- 

 ment of one lord, or of joint heirs, or of a body like the canons 

 of St. Paul's ; but a vill may be divided among many owners. 



Then, again, there was some occult connection between the 

 manor and one of the houses on the estate. Mr. Scrutton 4 

 quotes a plea of the thirteenth century to show that 

 "manerium" was sometimes used in the sense of "manor- 

 house." In 1268 certain persons were tried at York "be- 

 cause they came by night to the manor of William, and broke 

 the walls of the said manor, and took his goods and chattels." 



1 I. C. C., 60 ; D. B. and B.,\\. 

 *F..,us. 3 D. B., I. 6ib. 



4 Commons and Common Fields^ p. 10. 



