THE DOMESDAY SURVEY (sic) ploughlands in each ; in the other there was only one ' hundred,' consisting of 12 'geld' carucates, but this 'hundred' contained 48 ploughlands. These ploughlands were divided thus [D.B. fo. 293;^) : — ' Geld ' carucates Ploughlands Oakham Hambledon Ridlington 4 4 4 16 16 16 12 48 It is, I think, no mere coincidence that not only Lyddington, Rutland (then in Northamptonshire), but Peterborough itself, Wittering, Nassing- ton, and Harringworth,' all in Northamptonshire, had 16 ploughlands each, as had the Peterborough manor of Great Easton, Leicestershire, in the angle formed by Northamptonshire and the modern Rutland.* The above wapentake, with its simple distribution, shows us how the figure 16 might really form part of a rigidly duodecimal system. When we turn to the other wapentake (Alfnodestou), with its 24 'geld' carucates and its (alleged) 48 ploughlands, we find figures very helpful for explaining those of Northamptonshire, because, at first sight, they do not suggest either a fixed ratio or a strictly duodecimal basis. Here are the names in their order [D.B. 293/^) : — Ploughlands Greetham .... Cottesmore Overton and Stretton Thistleton Teigh Whissendine . Exton Whitwell .... ' Alestanestorp ' . Burley Ashwell .... 8 12 12 2 5 12 12 3 5 7 As a matter of fact, these figures, when they are added up, give us 24 carucates and 84 ploughlands (not 48). Their extreme value for the study of the figures in northern Northamptonshire consists in the demonstration they afford that a rigidly duodecimal arrangement may underlie figures which do not, at first sight, imply it. In the Hundred of Nassaburgh, for instance, we have similarly four manors with 12 ploughlands, and two with 6 ; but we have also one of 5, one of 3, ' Three miles from Lyddington and six from Ridlington.
- ' Ipsa abbatia tenet in Estone xii. carucatas terrae. Terra est xvi. carucis ' {D.B. fo. 231).
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