THE DOMESDAY SURVEY In the first case there is a deficiency of j-^, and in the second of ■£-, while in the third we find an excess of -j-j-j-. No one can doubt that these were really ten-hide, ten-hide, and forty-hide townships. We have to allow, in the first place, for trivial slips, and in the second for possible errors in the baffling work of identification in the present day. The essential point to be borne in mind is that the principle of assessment in units of ' five hides ' has to be tested by examining the survey of the county as a whole. When this is done the evidence in its favour is, in Bedfordshire, overwhelming. That it is not so absolutely perfect as in Cambridgeshire is largely due to the fact that we have for the latter county transcripts of the jurors' actual returns, hundred by hundred and vill by vill. These returns were broken up for the com- pilation of Domesday Book by re-arranging the contents under ' fiefs,' and thus the unity of the vill's assessment became obscured in what, as the above tables show, was often a multitude of fractions. Mr. Ragg, who has made an independent analysis for the purpose of the present work, has attempted the reconstruction of the vills hundred by hundred, and from his results we glean further cases in point : — 'i 6 3 9 I 2 0 . l The last two instances are peculiarly striking, and we may observe that even the fractions adapt themselves to the payment of the ' geld,' for when this tax was at two shillings on the ' hide,' five ' acres ' would pay a penny and two and a half a halfpenny. Apart from assessment, the Bedfordshire Domesday is of interest for its surveys of the royal manors, for the light it throws on the difficult question of tenures on the eve of the Conquest, for disputed titles to estates, for allusion to exchanges of lands, and for the frequent mention of Ralf Tallebosc, who, although dead at the time of the survey, had left his mark on several places, and whose widow and daughter were holding lands which were often the subject of rival claims. King William's share in the spoils of the Conquest was represented in this county, at first sight, by those lands only which came to him as Crown demesne ; for, strange as it seems, Harold is not mentioned in its survey as having held any manor within its borders. 1 And this Crown demesne was of a very peculiar character. Instead of being scattered about the county as was usually the case, it lay in a belt along its southern border through the manors of Leighton Buzzard, 1 He had, however, annexed Weston(ing) to his manor of Hitchin (Herts) ; and it thus came to King William. I 193 25
