104
THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND.
[book i.
Now Sussex contained 7000 hides1, and this will
give us a quotient of 53∙25 acres per hide. Here
again, if we make allowance for the condition of
Saxon husbandry, we shall hardly err much in as-
suming something near thirty to thirty-three acres
to have been the arable hide in Sussex.
When once we leave the accurate reports of a
historian like Beda for the evidence of later ma-
nuscripts, we must necessarily proceed with great
caution, and in reasonable distrust of our conclu-
sions. This must be borne in mind and fairly ap-
preciated throughout the following calculations.
An authority already mentioned 2 computes the
number of hides in Eastanglia at 30,000. It is
difficult to determine exactly what counties are
meant by this, as we do not know the date of the
document; but supposing, what is most probable,
that Norfolk and Suffolk are intended, we should
have a total of 2,241,060 acres in those two great
farming districts3. But even this large amount
will only give us a quotient of 73i7 acres per hide,
and it may fairly be diminished by at least one
half, to account for commons, marshes, forests and
other land not brought under the plough from the
seventh to the tenth centuries.
The same table states Essex at 7000 hides. The
acreage of that county is 979,000 acres4, hence
1 Beda, Hist. Eccl. iv. 13. 2 See Chap. III. p. 82.
8 Norf. 1,292,300, Suff. 918,760, =2,241,060. Of these I believe
only about 2,000,000 are actually under cultivation, which would re-
duce the quotient to sixty-three acres and two-thirds per hide.
* Of which only 900,000 are computed to be now under cultivation :
this reduces the quotient to 128,6 acres per hide ; and the ratio of cul-
сн. ιv∙]
THE EDEL, HI'D OR ALOD.
106
upon the whole calculation we shall have 139f acres
per hide. But of course here a very great deduc-
tion is to be made for Epping, Hainault and other
forests, and for marshy and undrained land.
I shall now proceed to reverse the order of pro-
ceeding which has hitherto been adopted, and to
show that the hypothesis of the hide having com-
prised from thirty to thirty-three acres is the only
one which will answer the conditions found in va-
rious grants : that in a number of cases from very
different parts of England, a larger number of acres
would either be impossible or most improbable :
that it is entirely impossible for the hide to have
reached 120 or even 100 acres, and that the amount
left after deducting the arable, to form pastures
and meadows, is by no means extravagant. The
examples are taken from different charters printed
in the Codex Diplomaticus Ævi Saxonici, and for
convenience of reference are arranged tabularly.
The comparison is made with the known acreage,
taken from the Parliamentary return of 18411.
The table is constructed upon the following plan.
The first column contains the name of the place;
the second, the number of hides; the third, the
actual acreage ; the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and
eighth, the hides calculated at thirty, thirty-two,
tivated to uncultivated land is as 7:23, taking the hide at 30 acres ;
and as 77 :223 taking the hide at 33 acres.
1 Enumeration Abstract, etc., 1841. I have also used the tables
found in Mr. Porter’s Progress of the Nation ; in these however, the
total acreage, calculated apparently upon the square miles, differs
slightly from the results of the Government inquiry, Mr. Porter’s
numbers always exceeding those of the Blue-book.