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A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE One is tempted to suggest that, as the typical number was as arbitrary in the one as in the other, the eight units had originally been ten, and thus represented a previous reduction of twenty per cent, on the old total.' It is very difficult to detect the principle of assessment at work in the rest of the county till we reach its north-eastern portion. Here we observe a most suggestive contrast to the typical figures in the south- west. The vills of five or of ten ploughlands have entirely disappeared, and, in their place, are distinct traces of that duodecimal system which prevailed in Lincolnshire and Leicestershire. Here are some examples taken from those Hundreds of Nassaburgh and Willibrook which occupy the north-eastern regions of the county. Nassaburgh Willibrook Hides Ploughlands Hides Ploughlands Pilesgate . Southorp . Castor Ailesworth Milton Werrington Glinton . 6 3 6 2 3 6 6 12 12 3 12 12 Colly Weston . . Cotterstock . Easton .... Fotheringay . . . Tansor .... 2 3 3 6 6 6 6 6 12 i8 We are justified, I think, by these figures in holding that this district had been under the same Scandinavian influence as the adjacent region to its north. For when we turn to the entries on that region, we find Tallington, Lincolnshire, just across the Welland, assessed at 12 [5 + 7] ' carucates of land,' and Easton, Leicestershire, which similarly lay at the nearest angle of that county, assessed at 12 'carucates of land.' Between Leicestershire and Lincolnshire lay what is now Rutland, of which the south-eastern portion was then part of Northamptonshire, and though termed a ' wapentake,' ^ was similarly assessed in hides. This is not the place in which to discuss the assessment of Rutland as a whole ; but its close connection with that of the adjacent district of North- amptonshire requires some mention of it. The Domesday Rutland consisted of two wapentakes (the third being then in Northamptonshire), and, like Leicestershire and Lincolnshire, was intensely duodecimal. One wapentake consisted of two ' hundreds,' ^ with i 2 ' geld ' carucates and 24 ' This suggestion would bring us appreciably nearer to the 3,200 hides of ' the County Hidage,' which Prof. Maitland believes to have been the original assessment of the shire, and would also re-establish the original prevalence of the normal unit of five hides in the district affected. ^ See p. 268 below. ' These Scandinavian 'hundreds,' consisting of twelve 'geld' carucates each, must be carefully distinguished from the Hundreds of the counties to their south, with which they had nothing to do. 266