Page:VCH Rutland 1.djvu/180

A HISTORY OF RUTLAND discussed in detail, but it is necessary first to notice the peculiar position in which the modern county stands in relation to the boundary which separates the ' hidated ' fi-om the ' carucated ' parts of England. The southern part of Rutland, the ' Wiceslei ' Hundred of Domesday, is the only part of England north of the Welland which is assessed in hides ; and the fact that the boundary between the hidated and the carucated shires, for nearly all its course, coincides with well-defined geographical features — the Dove, the Trent, Watling Street, the Avon, and the Welland — makes its divergence from the latter river, for so short a distance, very remarkable. In considering the Rutland assessment it is essential to observe this fiscal distinction between the north and south of the modern county, and the assessment of North Rutland, which occupies a position unique in Domesday, to some extent throws light upon the difficult problems presented by the south. Alstoe Wapentake, as described in Domesday, included twelve vills. In a prefatory note to the survey of this part of Rutland we are told that Alstoe Wapentake contained two hundreds; in each of which there were 12 carucates of land assessed to the geld and 24 plough-lands. The survey of Lincolnshire makes us acquainted with a system by which local groups of 12 carucates were described as hundreds, although the meaning ■ and origin of this system are still obscure ; and the number of carucates assigned to the several vills in Alstoe Wapentake, if counted up, will duly amount to twenty-four. Unfortunately, however, the survey of the wapen- take accounts for eighty-four plough-lands instead of the forty-eight which are required by the statement in the prefatory note, and thus a new difficulty is raised. But on the other hand it is no infrequent thing for Domesday arithmetic to be inconsistent with itself, and it seems plain that the compiler of the prefatory note meant to tell us that each of the two Alstoe 'hundreds' contained an equal number of plough-lands, although he was wrong in his statement as to the number in question. But if this were so we ought to be able to divide the vills of the wapentake into two groups, each of which contained 1 2 carucates and forty-two plough-lands, and experiment proves that this division can be made in one way, and to all seeming in one way only. The result is given in tabular form : — Carucates Team-lands Teams Cottesmore . 3 12 24 Overton 3^ 12 12 Thistleton . h I 2 Teigh ' Alestanestorp ' , Ashwell . I 2 I 5 5 6 6 6 7 Greetham , 3 8 10 Whissendine 4 12 13 Exton 2 12 II Whitwell . I 3 3 Burley 2 7 6 12 42 58^ 12 42 43 The peculiar importance of these figures lies in the fact that their combina- tion into duodecimal groups is attested by the direct statement to that effisct in the prefatory note to the survey of the district. Elsewhere in the <:arucated shires we frequently meet with villar assessments as irregular as those 122