Hydae.

In Gloucesterscyre sunt................ 2400

In Wirecesterscyre sunt................ 1200

In Herefordescyre sunt................ 1500

In Warewycscyre sunt ................ 1200

In Oxenefordscyre sunt................ 2400

Iu Salopescyro sunt .................. 2300

In Cesterscyre sunt .................. 1300

In Staffordescyre sunt ................ 500

The Cotton MS. Vesp. A. xviii. fol. 112, b, Writtenin the reign
of Edward I., gives a different list of counties, among which the
following variations occur :—

Bedfordshire ................ 1000

Northamptonshire ............ 4200

Gloucestershire .............. 2000

Worcestershire .............. 1500

Shropshire .................. 2400

Cheshire .................... 1200

If we pursue the plan heretofore adopted, we shall have these
results:—

Now either these figures cannot be relied on, or we must carry
the hide in this calculation to a very different amount. If we
take it at 10∩ acres, we shall find the whole hidage of these thirteen
counties amounts to 25,300 × 100 or 2,530,000 acres, while the

THE HΓD.

Wholeactualacreagc is 7,669,905; giving an excess of 5,139,905,
and consequently a ratio of 25 : 51 nearly, or 1 : 2. This would
a little exceed the present ratio, which is 5:11, a result which
appears very improbable indeed in the reign of Henry HI. But
when we consider the numberless errors of transcription, so un-
avoidable where merely numbers, and not words, are given, and the
totally inconsistent accounts contained in different manuscripts,
we can hardly rest satisfied that the figures themselves arc trust-
worthy. Even on the hypothesis that in the time of Henry III.
or Edward I. the hide was calculated on the new footing of 100
acres, we yet could not reconcile the conflicting amounts assigned
to the counties themselves.

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