A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE there is no difficulty with regard to the omission of the W from Estone, as that letter was assumed or dropped according to the taste of the speaker. . . . Besides, in many parishes of the county the ' westen ' has actually dropped the ' W ' at the present time, and appears as 'East End ' instead of ' West End,' in each case being the old westen or waste, and having no reference whatever to the points of the compass. Lastly he wrote of the puzzling ' Segresdone ' : — I take it for granted that Segresdone is only another form of ' sacristan ' or ' sex- ton,' and that the land which bore the name had some connection with an ecclesias- tical establishment. The absence of any history of the county and the paucity of printed records relating to its feudal tenures have greatly increased the difficulty of identifying Domesday manors ; for the surest identification is that which is proved by feudal descent. Some progress, however, has, it is hoped, been made. It has hitherto been insufficiently realized that in studying Domesday for a county, the surveys of adjoining counties have to be kept in view. 1 Thus, in Bedfordshire, we find, along the Northamp- tonshire border, portions of Podington (| hide) and Farndish (f hide) surveyed under that county, while portions of Newton Bromshold and of Rushden are surveyed under Bedfordshire. Stanwick, although it all belonged to Peterborough Abbey, is surveyed partly under one and partly under the other. On the Buckinghamshire border, a third of Edles- borough, which is now wholly in that county, is placed by Domesday under Bedfordshire, while Meppershall was assessed partly under Bedford- shire and partly under Hertfordshire at the time of the Great Survey. 2 Caddington was then as now divided between the two counties. So also, on the Huntingdonshire border, Everton, which is now wholly in Bed- fordshire, was then surveyed as divided by the border, Rannulf brother of Ilger holding the Huntingdonshire portion (7 hides) in capite, and the Bedfordshire portion (5 hides) under the Countess Judith. These cases may serve to introduce the singular tangle of Beds and Hunts in the extreme north of the former county. Swineshead is still an island in Bedfordshire, Tillbrook bushes cutting it off from Hunting- donshire, to which it belongs. In Domesday it appears as a manor as- sessed at five hides, and all in the hands of Eustace the sheriff (of Hunts), who held there half a hide in chief, and the rest under William of Warenne, of whose lordship of Kimbolton it was part. This lordship, in which William had succeeded Harold himself, had clearly a disturbing effect on several estates in its neighbourhood, William, for instance, stretching out his hands over Tillbrook and part of Dean. Of the still mysterious ' Hanefeld ' we are told that it had always belonged to Kim- bolton, but was assessed rightly in Bedfordshire. 3 Again, in Keysoe, adjoining Swineshead, 3 virgates are surveyed in Huntingdonshire as a part of the lordship of Kimbolton, and 1 virgate as lying in Beds, though 1 I have appended at the end of the Domesday text extracts from the surveys of other counties which relate to lands now in Bedfordshire. 2 ' Pro iiii hidis se defendit in Bcdefordescire. In Herefortscire ipsa villa se defendit pro iii hidis ct una virgata ' (see p. 255 below, and compare the Victoria History of Herts, vol. i.) 3 ' Warram dedit semper juste in Bcdefordscira ' (see p. 232 below). 214
