THE INCIDENCE OF THE GELD 251 



is explained by Bishop Stubbs to mean that " the Old English 

 hide was cut down to the area of the Norman carucate, and 

 thus estates were curtailed and taxation increased at the same 

 time." It has been thought that this passage indicates that a 

 new Domesday Book was prepared within some ten years of 

 our record, especially as a preceding passage states that 

 Ralph Flambard urged the King to revise the " description " 

 of England, and " descriptio " is one of the terms that 

 Domesday Book applies to itself. But of this second Domes- 

 day there is no evidence, and it must be remembered that 

 Orderic was a Norman monk, writing in Normandy, and 

 Bishop Stubbs therefore thinks that in this passage Orderic 

 was referring to the compilation of Domesday Book, and has 

 post-dated its completion by some ten years. 



Possibly, however, the distinction between "teamlands " (or 

 carucates) and " hides " gives the clue to the correct interpre- 

 tation. Did Ralph Flambard advise the King to levy the 

 Danegeld, not according to the old system of hides, but 

 according to the teamlands shown by Domesday Book ? It 

 is not impossible that Orderic heard that there was some 

 dispute as to valuation, in which the rival systems were based 

 on teamlands and hides respectively, and that his distance 

 from England led him to confuse this dispute between two 

 rival systems of valuation with the earlier inquiry, the results 

 of which are to be found in Domesday Book. Whether this 

 be so or no, we may without much hesitation attribute to 

 Ralph Flambard the wholesome disregard of the Conqueror's 

 beneficial hidations, which is shown by the Pipe Roll of 

 H3O. 1 



In our introductory chapter we stated that at the 

 Gloucester gemot of 1085 the King would probably be told 

 by his Council that certain counties were over-assessed and 

 that others were under-assessed. Some explanation of these 

 is necessary. A hide, we must remember, was originally 

 1 D. s., i. 116. 



