A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE in Domesday has a bearing on the character of the river valleys and on the position and extent of the manors at the time when the Survey was made. The streams which made the meadows fat performed the same function for the eels which appear to have been deemed an important addition to the restricted diet of the time. The fisheries or weirs (gurgites) entered in Domesday normally paid a rent in eels. One of the manors at Hoddesdon received ' 100 eels from the weir' ; another ' 150 eels from the fishery.' At Hailey there were similarly received ' 50 eels from the weir,' and at Cheshunt ' 100 eels from the weir.' It would seem therefore that eels were more highly esteemed than fish. The monks of St. Alban's however, to whom fast days were a matter of importance, had a fish-stew (vivarium piscium) as a needful supplement to their * park for beasts of the chase.' There was one more function that the streams had to perform : they turned the wheels of those mills of which the annual value is so carefully recorded in Domesday. This value depended rather on the amount of wheat that they were entitled to grind than on the actual power of the mill. At Hertford itself the 3 mills were an important factor in the king's revenue, to which they contributed no less than 10 a year. At Ware, to the eastward down the river, there were no fewer than 5 mills, of which 2 produced between them yearly 24J. and 375 eels, while the other 3 were only worth IQJ. together. The part payment of the rent in eels was a common feature in some counties and the above number is accounted for by the fact that eels were always reckoned by ' stiches,' 25 going to the ' stich.' Even now eel- traps are found commonly enough in connection with the mill-leat. The woodland in those days was of great importance, but its para- mount value consisted in the mast on which the swine were fattened. In some counties the woodland was measured by the number of swine that it yielded to the lord in return for the ' pannage,' but in Hertford- shire its extent was reckoned by the number for which it could afford feed. Although this was somewhat of a rough estimate it obviously affords some indication of the distribution of woodland at the time. Knebworth, it was reckoned, had enough for feeding i ,000 swine, as had also Bushey ; Hatfield enough for 2,000. On the other hand Lilley, though a manor containing 9 ploughlands, had only woodland enough for 6 swine ; and Wymondley, with 24 ploughlands, had only enough for 10. The parks of Cashiobury and Rickmansworth appear to represent the woodlands in which the abbots of St. Alban's were able to feed 1,000 and 1,200 swine respectively. When for a great part of the year fresh meat was not to be obtained, an important part in the supply of food was played by the great herds of swine that then roamed through the forest glades, and the accounts for provisioning castles in the pipe-rolls of the next century reveal the position in the diet of the nation occupied by ' pork and beans.' The woodland was of value also as supplying the timber for building and repairs and underwood for fences and for firing. In Hertfordshire however the fences alone are mentioned in this 294
