A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 
the second portion, which begins with Aspley (Guise) in Manshead 
Hundred, is devoted to those manors which were held of him by under- 
tenants, and in it the Hundreds recur in their regular order ; but in the 
first part, which deals with the manors he held in demesne, this order is 
not observed. In that part we begin with Stodden, ‘ Buchelai,’ Wixam- 
tree and Clifton, but then proceed with Redbornstoke, Flitt and Barford. 
On comparing this arrangement with the regular sequence of the Hun- 
dreds, it will be seen that the fief is entered, asI said, in two portions, 
and, moreover, that the first portion can itself be divided into two 
halves.’ 
Mr. Ragg has suggested, as the result of his careful analysis of the 
survey, that if we assumed the royal demesne to have formed a Hundred 
of its own, and reckoned Bedford as a half Hundred, Bedfordshire would 
have had at the time of the survey ten whole and four half Hundreds, 
representing, in all, the equivalent of twelve. Professor Maitland also 
reckons the Domesday Hundreds as twelve,’ but he derived the figure 
from Dr. Stubbs, who must have obtained it differently, namely from 
the headings in the text. In any case it is noteworthy that the ‘ county 
hidage’ assigns 1,200 hides to Bedfordshire,’ which is not far from the 
Domesday total. But we must not be tempted by these figures to 
hazard conjectures here as to an earlier state of things on which, in the 
present state of our knowledge, it is premature to speak. 
' Mr. Ragg has observed that the lands of St. Albans, in the adjoining county of Herts, present a 
similar exceptional grouping in two halves, of which the first deals with the manors in hand. 
? Domesday Book and Beyond, p. 459. 
3 Ibid. p. 456. 
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