DOMESDAY SURVEY THE description in Domesday Book, of the district which forms the modern shire of Rutland is scattered over many disconnected pages of the Great Survey. The north and west of the county, the modern hundreds of Alstoe, Martinsley, and Oakham Soke, are collectively described on a folio following the survey of Nottinghamshire, and constitute the ' Roteland ' of Domesday, but the vills contained in the modern hundreds of East and Wrangdike are included in the Northampton- shire Survey, and are there disposed, not according to their geographical position, but according to the tenant in chief who held them in 1086. At the date in question the latter district formed the Northamptonshire hundred of ' Wiceslei,' a name now represented by Witchley Warren near Ketton ; Alstoe Hundred, although described as a wapentake in Domes- day, possessed its present boundaries ; and Oakham Soke Hundred formed part of Martinsley Wapentake. The distinction between wapentake and hundred in Rutland covers much more than a difference in local nomenclature. Its meaning will best become apparent upon a comparison of two typical entries, one of which is taken from each part of the county : — Whissendine [Alstoe Wapentake] Glaston [Wiceslei Hundred] M. In Whissendine Earl Waltheof had 4 cam- WilHam holds of the Countess (Judith) 4 hides cates of land (assessed) to the geld. (There is) in Glaston. There is land for 8 ploughs. In land for 12 ploughs. There Hugh de Hotot demesne are 1 5 ploughs and 2 serfs; and 5 vil- has of the Countess (Judith) 5 ploughs ; and leins and 3 sokemen, with 2 bordars, have (there are) 27 villeins and 6 bordars who have 5 ploughs. There (are) 10 acres of meadow. 8 ploughs. In King Edward's time it was It was and is worth 40 shillings. Edward held worth j^8 ; now (it is worth) £i2,- it with sac and soc. It will be seen that although similar information is afforded by each of these entries the form into which that information has been cast varies somewhat in the two cases, and that in regard to one matter, the most important of all from the standpoint of the Domesday Commissioners, there arises a difference of terminology. At Glaston we read of hides ; at Whissendine, of carucates. Now the carucate was the unit of assessment which obtained in the counties of Lincoln, Nottingham, Leicester, Derby, and York ; the hide occurring south and west of this area ; and this geographical distinction is accompanied by a notable variation in regard to the manner in which these units are normally distributed among the vills of the several counties in which they are respectively found. The typical Lincolnshire vill, for instance, is found to be assessed at six or twelve carucates ; the typical Bedfordshire vill will answer for five or ten hides ; or, in general terms, the assessment of the south and west was decimal in character, that of the north and east was duodecimal. The nature of the Rutland assessment will shortly be I 121 16
