THE HUNDRED AND THE SHIRE 69 



where their existence cannot be attributed to the action of a 

 magnate in aggregating his estates for the purposes of jurisdic- 

 tion. Till 1834 Boycot and Lillingstone Lovell were detached 

 portions of the hundred of Ploughley (Oxon.), entirely sur- 

 rounded by Buckinghamshire, the former I mile, and the 

 latter 4 miles from the nearest Oxfordshire village : these 

 vills are entered in Oxfordshire by Domesday Book. In all 

 probability, a man who was accustomed to attend the moot 

 of the hundred of Ploughley, or its predecessor (for Ploughley 

 is not mentioned in Domesday Book), settled at some distance 

 from his neighbours in an attractive spot ; after a time, the 

 neighbourhood became settled by men who met in another 

 moot ; but nevertheless the first settler remained faithful to his 

 old friends, and met in their moot. In the case of these two 

 vills, it is not possible to think that they were connected with 

 Oxfordshire, and with the hundred of Ploughley, by some 

 grantee's will ; for in 1086 they were in the possession of 

 Reinbald, Benzelinus, and Richard the engineer, none of 

 whom had any other property in the county. 



The five-hide unit has already been mentioned in connec- 

 tion with the assessment for geld, but the customs of Berk- 

 shire and of the boroughs show that this unit was closely con- 

 nected with the service in the fyrd, the territorial army, which 

 replaced the levy en masse, except when the country was in- 

 vaded. Domesday Book shows that many of the boroughs 

 furnished one soldier for every 5 hides in their assessment ; * 

 and in Berkshire, " If the King sent out an army, from every 

 five hides only one soldier went ; and for his victuals and 

 pay, every hide gave him 4/- for two months." 2 It will be 

 remembered that when William II. called out the fyrd for 

 an invasion of Normandy, the soldiers assembled at Dover, 

 but after Ralph Flambard had collected from them the pay 

 they had received, he dismissed them and abandoned the 

 expedition. 3 



1 D. Bar., 80. 2 D. B., I. 56 b I. 3 Stubbs, Const. Hist., i. 302. 



