THE VILL AND THE MANOR 51 



estate to find the person who was liable ; and, in the same way 

 as to-day the overseer leaves the demand-note for the poor- 

 rate at the farmhouse, so in the eleventh century the collector 

 called at the manor-house for the geld. In his view the 

 Domesday manor was a house and estate separately assessed 

 to the geld, 1 in which case the lord was liable for the geld of 

 some of his tenants. This theory is supported by a passage 

 in the Herefordshire Domesday : 



" The said Ralph Mortimer holds Melela of one hide, Lei of one 

 virgate, and Fech of one virgate. These three were gelding manors. 



geld 



(Haec in. matter 1 fuerunf) : three thegns held them. When Turstin 

 of Wigmore received them from Earl William, he joined them to the 

 aforesaid manor of Claybury, and then and now they were and are 

 valued therein." 2 



As these three places were distinctly called gelding manors, 

 it would seem that they were separately assessed to the geld. 



The clearest connection between the geld and the manor is 

 shown in the Essex Domesday, where the usual formula is, 

 " X held such a place for a manor and for A hides ; " and a 

 possible connection is shown at West-meston : " There is no 

 hall there, neither did they pay geld as they say." 3 If this 

 theory is correct, the collector would call at one house only 

 where a vill was coterminous with a manor ; he would call at 

 several houses where a vill was divided into many manors. 

 At Horndon he would call at five houses to collect the geld on 

 9 hides and 80 acres, and he would make a special call at 

 Aluric's house at Tendring to collect 3^., the geld payable by 

 his manor of 1 5 acres. 4 



But this theory has been criticized, especially on the ground 

 that many properties that were separately assessed to the geld 

 were not called " manors," but were merely referred to as 

 " lands ; " and it must be remembered that many estates in 



1 D. . and B., 1 20. 2 Id., 260 a I. 



3 D. B., I. 27 a 2. 4 D. B., II. 95 b. 



