252 THE DOMESDAY INQUEST 



supposed to be the land of one family, which was cultivated 

 by a team of eight oxen ; but by the time of Domesday 

 Book there were many cases in which the number of hides 

 at which a property was assessed varied considerably from 

 the number of teams employed on that property. When the 

 number of hides was equal to the number of teams, the 

 property would be fairly assessed ; if the hides exceeded the 

 teams, the property would be over-assessed ; if the hides were 

 less than the teams, the property would be under-assessed. 

 Reverting to our three Oxfordshire examples : Combe was 

 assessed at I hide, but employed five teams ; it was there- 

 fore under-assessed. Deddirigton, assessed at 36 hides, em- 

 ployed thirty teams, and was therefore over-assessed. Stanton 

 Harcourt was assessed at 26 hides, and employed twenty-two 

 teams ; it also was over-assessed. 



Let us apply the same method to the counties ; but in so 

 doing we must take no notice of the Conqueror's beneficial 

 hidations, but must compare the hidage of 1066 with the 

 teams employed in 1086. Using Professor Maitland's figures, 1 

 we find that there is no county in which the numbers of the 

 hides and teams are the same. The three counties whose 

 assessment appear to be the fairest are Oxfordshire (where 

 H : T : : 100 : 102), Bucks. (100 : 99), and Hants (100 : 101). 

 But if Hampshire was fairly assessed, the other counties 

 which formed the original kingdom of Wessex were much 

 over-assessed: Surrey (100 : 62), Berks. (100 : 73), Wiltshire 

 (100 : 74), and Dorset (100 : 77), were more heavily assessed 

 than any counties in England, except Middlesex (100 : 63), 

 Warwick (100 : 73), and Leicester (100 : 73) ; possibly the 

 presence of London may account for the heavy assessment 

 of Middlesex. Sussex, too (100 : 89), was over-assessed, but 

 its neighbour, Kent, was very lightly assessed in having two 

 and a half teams for every sulung at which it was assessed. 

 The two counties which were most under-assessed were 



1 D. B. and B., 400. 



