58 THE DOMESDAY INQUEST 



explain why a portion of a vill could be annexed to a manor 

 in another vill ; the rents and services arising from the out- 

 lying portion would be accounted for by the bailiff of the 

 manor to which it was annexed. It will also explain how one 

 manor could be held of another ; the sub-manor accounted to 

 one bailiff, who in his turn accounted, to the bailiff of the head 

 manor. Finally, it should be noticed that in many cases 

 " manerium " appears to be interchangeable with a colourless 

 term like " terra," showing that the Commissioners themselves 

 had no very strong views that any definite constitution was 

 required to justify their applying the term "manor" to any 

 tenement. 1 



" The solution of difficulties thus seems to lie in the idea that the 

 conquerors not only found manors on English soil and described 

 them as such in Domesday, but created manors where they were not 

 as yet constituted, and described as manors complexes of property 

 which were in the slightest degree similar to them." 2 



When we remember that the term " manor " was applied to 

 any estate that was managed as one whole, irrespective of its 

 size, and could be applied to large estates like Tewkesbury, 

 which was assessed at 95 hides, or to small properties like 

 Aluric's manor at Tendring, assessed at 1 5 acres, it is obvious 

 that to state the number of manors belonging to any person 

 will give no adequate idea of the extent of his possessions. 

 The King had nine manors in Oxfordshire, which varied in 

 assessment from 34^ hides to 5 hides ; so in any calculations 

 that we may make, we shall reckon the hides assessed on, 

 or preferably the teams employed on the estates of any 

 landowner. 



Meanwhile, there are a few passages which indicate that 

 the Commissioners, or perhaps the King himself, had some 

 vague idea that a manor ought to be of a certain size. Fre- 

 quently we read in the eastern counties of certain free men 

 who were delivered to some grantee to complete his manor (" ad 

 1 c. M., 283. 2 id., 301. 



