The name is absent

they are the original nobles, three times as valuable
as the freeman, and whether the twelfhynde are
an exclusive class of magnates, raised above them
during the progressive development of the royal
power ; or whether, on the contrary, the twelfhynde
and twyhynde are the original divisions, and the six-
hynde a middle class of ministerials, which sprang
up when ceorls had entered the service of the crown,
and thus became raised above their fellow freemen.
I incline to the latter opinion, partly from the ap-
parent absence of this sixhynde class in Mercia,
partly from the apposition noticed above, and the
omission of the sixhynde altogether from the pas-
sage in Eadweard’s law, which regulates the pay-
ments for the other two classes. There is no state-
ment of a royal wergyld in Wessex, but from what
has been said of the composition made for Mdl, it
may be inferred that it was thirty thousand sceattas
or 120 pounds, like that of Mercia. The total in-
consistency of these several values will be apparent
if we arrange them tabularly :

If these data be accurate, we must conclude that

eɪɪʌ. x∙]

the ratio of the king and noble to the ceorl in the
different states varied as follows :

North. . king : ceorl : : 113 :1 nearly.

Merc. . . king : ceorl : : 72 : 1.

Wessex . king : ceorl : : 72 : 1.

Kent . . king : ceorl : : 17⅝ : 1.

North. . noble, 1st class : ceorl : : 56 :1 nearly.
2nd class : ceorl : : 30∣ : 1 nearly.
3rd class : ceorl : : 15⅛ : 1 nearly.
4th class : ceorl : : 7⅜ : 1 nearly.

Merc. . . noble : ceorl : : 6 : 1.

Wessex, noble, 1st class : ceorl : : 6 : 1.
2nd class : ceorl : : 3 : 1.

Kent . . noble : ceorl : : 2 : 1.

Now this variety, which is totally irrespective of
the real value of the Jnyms and the shilling, seems
to involve this part of the subject in impenetrable
darkness. All that we can permit ourselves to
guess is, that circumstances had in process of time
altered the original relations between the classes,
but in different ratios in the different kingdoms.
This however is not all the difficulty : we have
to contend with the complication arising from the
fact, that the scilling, the currency in which all the
southern calculations are nominally made, really
differed in value in the several states : and thus
when we attempt to compare one freeman with
another, we find their respective prices to be in
Mercia 833⅜ sceats, in Kent 3600.

However the details were arranged, the principle
itself is clear enough, and we must now be content

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