A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 
sue femine’ (214b). A good instance of the gift of land in reversion 
to a religious house is found at Goldington, where lfric ‘ Wintremelc ’ 
so granted his half-hide to the canons of St. Paul’s.’ 
For agriculture the Bedfordshire survey is of no appreciable interest. 
But in those counties where Ramsey Abbey happened to hold land we 
can always, at least, compare the jejune figures of Domesday with the 
abbey’s own survey of its lands in the reign of Henry I. The great 
manorial plough drawn by eight oxen, on which Domesday bases all its 
calculations, was the rule on the Ramsey Abbey manors, and two such 
teams are found at Barton and three at Shillington in the days of Henry 
I.” In Domesday the importance of the plough dwarfs all other sources 
of agricultural wealth ; but the right of multure, by which the peasants 
were compelled to bring their grain to be ground at the lord’s mill, 
formed in certain cases an appreciable item in his revenue. Of the 
watermills on the Ouse one may select for mention as being of consider- 
able value those at Harrold and Odell, each of which was returned as 
worth £1 16s. 8d. and 200 eels a year, while that at Tempsford returned 
£2 and 120 eels, and the two at Eaton Socon £1 16s. 6d. and 100 eels. 
The eels so often found in Domesday as forming a portion of the mill’s 
render came, of course, from the mill-pool. The two mills at Sandy on 
the Ivel were worth no less than £2 Ios., and two at Biggleswade above 
it £2 7s. 
Woodland, though of service for many purposes, was valued in 
Domesday according to the ‘ mast’ it afforded as food for swine. Down 
by the streams the water-meadows provided hay for the plough-oxen ; 
and even pasture for the farm stock is entered at times in the survey. 
The rents paid in money or in kind for the use of some of these rights are 
of considerable interest to the student. At Meppershall, for instance, 
the woodland yielded ‘ de consuetudine silve ’ ten shillings in addition to 
providing feed for 200 swine, and at Westoning three shillings in 
addition to feeding 400; at Cranfield it yielded the ‘iron for the 
ploughs’ in addition to feeding a thousand ; and at Westcote it similarly 
provided the ironwork in addition to supplying feed. At Segenhoe there 
were yearly received ten rams ‘ de consuetudine silva,’ and at Harlington 
one ram and a load of beans in addition, in each case, to the feed. 
In the Ivel valley the Biggleswade meadows, besides providing hay for 
the ten plough-teams of the manor, produced from the surplus hay five 
shillings a year ; while at Langford, higher up the stream, they produced 
two shillings in addition to supplying hay for sixteen teams. The most 
notable entry of ‘ pasture’ is that at Langford, where we read that it 
produced six shillings besides providing feed for 300 sheep. At Henlow 
the ‘ pasture’ produced tenpence. One may also, perhaps, mention here a 
1 «Quam postea canonicis S. Pauli sub W. rege dedit ut post mortem suam haberent omnino con- 
cessit” (218b). It was of great importance to the canons to have their reversionary right thus recorded in 
Domesday. A contemporary of A‘lfric, named Edward, had similarly granted to St. Paul’s his land in 
reversion, but Otto, the Domesday tenant, who married his widow, refused to let St. Paul’s inherit it, as 
it was entitled to do, on her death (Domesday Studies, p. 556). 
2 Cartularium monasterii de Ramesia (Rolls Series), iii. 274, 307. 
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