THE DOMESDAY SURVEY assessed in Hunts, 1 and as held, after as before the Conquest, by Alwin. I have no doubt that this was the Alwin surnamed ' Deule ' who had held Pertenhall (now in Bedfordshire), between Keysoe and Kimbolton, under the Bishop of Lincoln, 2 and who had also preceded his Norman tenants on some other manors in Bedfordshire. 3 Of this Pertenhall (a place supposed to be unmentioned in Domesday 4 ) we read that it lies in Bedfordshire, but renders (its) geld and service in Huntingdonshire. 6 From this tangle — which is continued along the border of North- amptonshire and Huntingdonshire — we may now pass to the great 'crux' of the Domesday Survey of Bedfordshire, the mysterious manor of 'Estone,' which is the subject of ten separate entries under seven different fiefs. Mr. Airy guessed, we have seen, that it was that of Little Staughton, but its name disappears from view, in Bedfordshire, after the date of Domesday. 6 The clue, which is faint but, I think, sufficient, is found among the ' claims ' iclamores) at the end of the Huntingdonshire survey. We there read of an ' Estone,' which (it is incidentally observed) is as- sessed in Bedfordshire, that it belongs to the abbot of Ely's manor of Spaldwick, but that Eustace (the sheriff of the county), a noted despoiler of the church, had seized a sixth of a hide there. 7 Of the identity of this ' Estone ' there is no doubt whatever ; it is Easton some three or four miles north-east of Kimbolton, and a little more than a mile south-east of Spaldwick. The latter manor had dependencies in Easton, Long Stow, and Little Catworth lying round it. B Assuming that this Huntingdon- shire Easton was the ' Estone ' of the Bedfordshire survey, we now see why William de Warenne is shown therein to have made himself master of certain lands there, as at Tillbrook and Dean ; Kimbolton was the centre of them all. That Easton was associated, as a fact, with Kim- bolton as with Spaldwick, is shown by the Hundred Rolls, where we read of one hide there that it is of the Honour of Kimbolton, 9 though the bulk of it appears to have been then dependent on Spaldwick. 10 There is nothing stranger prima facie in this Huntingdonshire Easton being then a detached portion of the nearest Bedfordshire Hundred than is the converse phenomenon in the case of Swineshead ; but it is right to add that the identification rests wholly on the statement that the holding of Eustace there, and therefore presumably all Easton, was for purposes of assessment in Bedfordshire." Nor, so far as our limited knowledge of Huntingdonshire history extends, does Easton appear sub- sequently as part of Bedfordshire. That Domesday should enter it under 1 ' Jacet in Bedefordscira sed geldum dat in Hunted'scire.' 2 See p. 266 below. 3 See p. 227 below. It is singular that this Alwin Deule (who had also preceded Eustace, the sheriff, at Perry near Kimbolton) seems to be wholly omitted from Ellis' Domesday Index.
- Airy. 5 See p. 266 below.
8 I have sought in vain for a manor of the name in Bedfordshire, and Mr. Ragg could only suggest that it was ' probably near Thurleigh.' 7 ' Quae jacet in Estone el geldat in Bedefirdscire' (fo. 208). 8 See the Inquititio Eliensis and the Inquisith Comitatus Cantabrigiensis (ed. Hamilton, p. 166). 9 Vol. ii. p. 632. 10 Ibid. p. 615. 11 The £ hide held by Eustace is virtually just what is wanted to raise the total assessment to 10 hides. 215
