VALUES AND RENDERS 229 



bailiffs of the thirteenth century ; and Domesday Book shows 

 that all but one of these sources of income were accounted 

 for. The numbers of the teams belonging to the demesne 

 and furnished by the tenants give a rough estimate of the 

 area of the demesne farm. In the eastern counties the rents 

 paid by the socagers and tenants are stated, and the profits of 

 the mill, the meadows, and the wood are usually recorded. 

 All these sources of income must have been taken into account 

 by a prospective lessee when he was bargaining for the lease 

 of a manor. They must also have been taken into account 

 by the jurors when they made a sworn statement as to the 

 value of a manor. 



The most casual student of Domesday Book will notice 

 that, as a general rule, the more teams that are employed on 

 a given estate the greater will be its value. Reverting to our 

 three Oxfordshire estates ; Combe, with five teams, in 1086 

 was valued at 10 ; Deddington, with thirty teams, at 60 ; 

 and Stanton Harcourt, with twenty-two teams, at 50. 

 Every page in our record will show this general rule, that one 

 element in the value of an estate depends on the number of 

 teams employed, and hence on its state of cultivation ; indeed, 

 this latter element is admitted at Aldwinckle (Beds.), which 

 " was worth 2os. ; now 30^. ; and, if it were well cultivated 

 (si bene exerceretur), it is worth loo/-." 1 



But when once this general rule has been laid down, it is 

 hard to see how it was applied. It must have been pro- 

 foundly modified by the fact that some land is more produc- 

 tive than other. Take as examples three adjoining properties 

 on the Cherwell, in Oxfordshire : Kidlington, with seven 

 teams, was valued at 14 ; 2 Islip, with six teams, at 10 ; 3 

 and Watereaton, with nine teams, at $* To-day Kidlington 

 is rated at 26s. an acre, and Islip and Watereaton at 30^. an 

 acre. So that the land which is least valuable in this twentieth 



1 D. B., I. 222 a r. * Id., I. 158 a 2. 



3 Id., I. 160 a 2. 4 Id., I. 158 a 2. 



