1 70 THE DOMESDAY INQUEST 



at the map shows how every parish on the southern bank 

 of the Rother in North-West Sussex stretches from the 

 summit of the downs to the river-bank, so that each has 

 its due proportion of river valley for meadow, greensand for 

 arable, and bare down for sheep pasture ; and the same 

 feature may be noticed in the Evenlode valley in Oxford- 

 shire, and in other parts of England. 



In the same way as, in Essex, the woods are measured 

 by the number of pigs they could feed, so in the same 

 county the size of the pastures was sometimes expressed 

 by the number of sheep they could support. At Lachentun 

 there was pasture for two hundred sheep. 1 Mr. Round 2 has 

 called attention to these sheep pastures in Essex, and points 

 out that to-day there are in many cases outlying portions 

 of marshland belonging to inland parishes, which were 

 formerly used as sheep pastures, and known as "wics." 

 From these "wics" was supplied a considerable quantity of 

 hard cheese, such as is referred to at Kempsford (Glos.), 

 where 120 weys of cheese were produced from the sheep- 



fold ; 3 and at Buckland (Berks.) there was a wick producing 

 10 weys of cheese, valued at $2s. ^d. ; 4 at Sparsholt 6 

 weys of cheese were produced from the dairy (" vaccaria "). 5 

 Countess Judith gave to St. Helena a sheepfold of 672 sheep 

 and 60 acres of meadow in Huntingdonshire. 6 



1 D. B., ii. 53. 



3 D. B., I. 169 a i. 

 5 Id., I. 57 b 2. 



2 V. C. H., Essex, 373. 

 4 D. B., I. 58 b i. 

 6 Id., I. 206 b 2. 



