DOMESDAY SURVEY 



roads, hedges, and waste. On this basis the total acreage accounted for in 

 the Domesday Survey of Devon is, roughly, 743,320 acres, or about half the 

 present total. The present total, however, includes not only a large number 

 of manors of post-Domesday creation, which were waste and part of the 

 forest in 1085, but considerable tracts which are still untilled, Dartmoor 

 Forest and other commons, river beds, marshlands, and the foreshore. 

 Advocates of a larger area for the plough-land are apt to forget that if they 

 are right no place remains for the forest which extended over all Devon 

 until King John's time, the Domesday booklands being only clearances of 

 limited areas. 



There is no reason to think that the acre in Domesday times differed 

 from the acre as fixed by the Statute 33 Edw. I, st. 6 : ' When an acre of 

 land containeth 40 poles [i.e. 220 yards] in length, then it shall be in breadth 

 4 poles [i.e. 22 yards]. '^ In the open field, where the lie of the ground 

 allowed it, the acreman first measured off 220 yards for the furrowlong and 

 then 22 yards in breadth for the villager entitled to i acre, 1 1 yards for one 

 entitled to J acre, and 5J yards for one entitled to J acre. Hence when 

 used as a long and not a square measure the acre was 22 yards, and this is 

 the Domesday use. At Abbots Kerswell there is ' pasture 5 furlongs in length 

 by 30 acres in breadth,' i.e. 30 times 22 yards in breadth ; at CuUicombe is 

 ' woodland 20 acres in length by 2 in breadth,' and at Throwleigh is ' pasture 



I league in length by 4 acres in breadth.' 



Placing I o acre strips side by side a perfect square is obtained, measur- 

 ing 220 yards every way. This is the quarantine or furlong of land. Twelve 

 quarantines or square furlongs whether placed in a single row or in two rows 

 of six each or in three rows of four each, described in Domesday phraseology 

 as ' taking length and breadth into account ' (inter longitudinem et latitudinem) , 

 make a league (Jeuca) or 120 acres, the normal length of which is therefore 

 12 times 220 yards or ij miles, whilst the normal width is i furlong or 

 220 yards.* Mr. Eyton ' has correctly observed that where the phrase 

 ' taking length and breadth ' is employed, areal leagues of 120 acres each are 

 intended ; but that when wood (land) or pasture is stated to be so many 

 leagues long and so many leagues broad, the league must be reckoned as 



I I miles. He further endeavoured to deduce the exact acreage of the wood- 

 land and pasture by multiplying the length by the breadth ; but it is clear 

 that where so large a unit is used the estimates of the Domesday com- 

 missioners must have been extremely rough ; and moreover, while the pro- 

 duct of the average length and breadth would yield a total representing the 

 acreage sufficiently accurately, it is obvious that if the measures given were 

 the greatest length and breadth of irregular blocks the product would be 

 greatly in excess of the true area. It is therefore inadvisable to attempt any 

 calculation of the amounts of woodland and pasture assigned to the several 

 manors. 



In one place the seam (summa) or sumpter horse-load is met with 

 (fol. 408) as a measure of quantity. A seam of hay according to present use 



' Trans. Devon Assoc, xxvl, 308. 



' With this view agrees Mr. Whale in Trans. Devon Assoc, xxxii, 524. 



' Key to Domesday, Dorset (1878), 31. Dr. Round, in V. C. H. Wore, i, 271, suggests the possibility that 

 the league contained only 4 furlongs, which would certainly make a more workable unit, but lacks the support 

 of evidence. 



387 



