A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE as against £^z from Northamptonshire. To the west of the latter county is Warwickshire, where again we find, at the head of its survey (fo. 238), a note of similar payments : twenty shillings for a sumpter horse, >rio for a hawk, and ^(^23 for the hounds. It may perhaps explain the absence of attention hitherto given to these entries that the Index to Domesday Book is so deplorably imperfect (and, in consequence, misleading) as to give only two references to contributions to the hounds, although they are found in Gloucestershire and Bedfordshire, as well as in the three above counties. In the latter, which adjoined Northamp- tonshire on the east, three royal manors between them contributed £^ 5J, to the hounds (fos. 209, 2091^) ; in Gloucestershire, Cheltenham and three other of the king's manors had to supply bread for his hounds. But hawks, as well as hounds, were needed by the king. When a thegn died in Berkshire the hawks and hounds that had been his had to be offered to the king ; and entries relating to these precious birds, their nests, their eyries, and their keepers, are plentiful enough in Domesday.* Ten pounds for a hawk, in the money of William's days, may seem an enormous sum ; but under Worcestershire (fo. 172) we find similar pay- ments from the shire, namely, twenty shillings for a sumpter-horse, and ^10 in cash ' or a Norway orresc) hawk.' In the reign of Henry II. the sheriff of Worcestershire had still to pay at the Exchequer yearly >^I3 'for hawk and sumpter-horse.' It will be observed that Northamp- tonshire had also to provide a huntsman's horse — or rather, its money equivalent — and a commutation for hay. The sumpter-horse was of great importance for a court which was ever on the move ; some half a century after Domesday, the quaint document on the king's household proves that even the royal ' chapel ' was packed upon his patient back. An entry (fo. 219/^) relating to a doubtful locality, shows us an estate which paid ten shillings a year for the rugs {feltrce) that covered them. A great and as yet insoluble difficulty is presented by the fact that while Northamptonshire was liable, as above, to pay annually ' three nights' ferm (that is) jCs^/ Oxfordshire paid ' three nights ferm, that is jri5o.' It seems impossible at present to account for the great variations in the sums representing the night's (or day's) ' ferm.' Great groups of manors in Hampshire and the south-west paid, under this head, over ^100 ;' on the other hand, the same due was paid by single manors, worth, in Sussex, no more than jTao or ;C3°' while, in Cambridgeshire, a manor could commute its liability to provide ' three days' ferm' for ^13 Sj. d. It is interesting however, to learn, at least, the essential constituents of this ' ferm.' In Gloucestershire and in Cam- bridgeshire alike they were wheat, honey, and malt (fos. i62(^, 189, 189^). Only wheat and honey are mentioned on the royal manors of Bedfordshire (fos. 209, 20()b), but the malt, doubtless was included in
- In the famous Dialogue on the Exchequer, under Henry II., they are termed * royal birds,*
and the practice of offering them in lieu of cash is mentioned.
- The details will be found in the Introduction to the Hampshire Domesday^ in the ' Vic-
toria ' history of that county. 274
