NOTE
The reader should bear in mind throughout that the date of the Domesday Survey is 1086; that 'the time of King Edward ' ('T.R.E.'), to which it refers, normally means the date of his death (January 5, 1066) ; and that the intermediate date, which is usually entered as ' when received,' is that at which the estate passed into the hands of the new holder or was confirmed by the Conqueror to the old one. These values, which are possibly approximate, were sometimes identi- cal at two of the periods, and sometimes at all three ; in the latter case the formula ' valuit semper ' is employed.
The Domesday 'hide' was a unit of assessment divided into four quarters called ' virgates,' each of which was reckoned to contain 30 acres, but these were merely fiscal, not areal measures. ' Demesne ' is used in two senses : manors held ' in demesne ' were those which the tenant-in-chief (who held directly of the Crown) retained in his own hands, instead of enfeoffing under-tenants therein ; but when the ' demesne ' of a manor is spoken of, the term denotes that portion which the holder (whether a tenant-in-chief or only an under-tenant) worked as a home farm with the help of labour due from the peasants who held the rest of the manor from him. Of the peasantry the three main classes are styled, in descending order, villeins, bordars, and serfs ; the serfs were specially connected with the lord's portion of the manor; the phrase ' villeins with bordars ' is merely a variant of ' villeins and bordars.' The essential element of the plough (' caruca ') was its team of oxen, always reckoned in Domesday as eight in number ; their im- portance is indicated in this county by the entry of the water-meadows that supplied them with hay.
Buckinghamshire is one of the counties in which the letter ' M,' denoting ' Manerium ' (manor), is found prefixed to entries. The double numbering of the fiefs is due to an error of the scribe, who has omitted to number, in the text, that of the Bishop of Lincoln, which has thrown out the numbering of all those that follow. Another error of the scribe is his writing, here as under Berkshire, ' Molebec ' for ' Bolebec ' in one instance, and conversely ' Berlaue ' for ' Merlaue ' (Marlow), which points to an easy confusion of the two letters.
The text has been prepared by Mr. Ragg and revised by Mr. Round, who has also added the footnotes which bear his initials.
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