A HISTORY OF RUTLAND the record of an old assessment ; ' and it seems highly probable that such a theory supplies the best explanation of the difficulties presented by the Rutland plough-lands. On this theory the 84 plough-lands and 24 carucates of Alstoe Wapentake are the record of a great reduction of geldability, not distributed equitably over the several vills of the wapentake, but bringing down the burden of geld laid upon the district as a whole to two- sevenths of its former total ; and the artificiality of the plough-land in this quarter becomes even more apparent when we pass from Alstoe Wapentake to the three royal estates which constituted the neighbouring wapentake of Martinsley : — * Carucates Team-lands ^ Teams Oakham 4 16 39 Hambleton ...... 4 16 45 Ridlington 4 16 34 Here the carucates of assessment laid upon each manor are exactly one- quarter the number of reputed plough-lands, which is constant in each case, while the number of actual teams is so greatly in excess of the number of plough-lands as to preclude all possibility that the latter are in any correspon- dence with agrarian reality. It is evident that the team-lands of the above table are conventional quantities just as much as the gelding carucates, and the simplest explanation ot this fact is to suppose that in the plough-land here we are given a record not of present agricultural condition but of past geldability ; a record, it may be added, which would be quite relevant to the purpose of the Domesday Survey, for the inquiries under this head were con- ducted solely with reference to a possible increase of the king's dues, and a reduction of the geld laid on any particular vill by no means barred the king from increasing the assessment to its former level again at some future date. From these considerations we may now pass to the fiscal questions which arise out of the survey of South Rutland, the ' Wiceslei' Hundred of 1086, a district which, as we have already seen, formed part of Northamptonshire at the latter date. Owing to this fact, we are enabled to trace the fiscal history of the district further back than is generally the case, for there has been preserved a survey of Northamptonshire, dating from the period 1067-75,* and commonly known as the Northants Geld Roll, in which 'Wiceslei ' Hundred is included. From this document we gather that the district in question, which appears as a single hundred in Domesday, had formerly comprised two hundreds, known respectively as ' Hwicceslea west ' and ' Hwicceslea east,' and we gain some important, if perplexing, information about them. We may express this information below in tabular form. Hides Hides 'Gewcrcd' Inland Waste Hwicceslea west . . . . 80 10 40 30 Hwicceslea east . .... 80 15 34 31 Total 160 25 74 61 ' r.C.H. Notts, i, 211-13.
- The facts relating to this anomalous wapentake were discussed by Maitland, Dom. Bk. and Beiond, 47 1.
' In addition to these forty-eight team- lands we are tolJ in the prefatory note to the description of ' Roteland ' that there was room for fourteen ploughs in ' the king's three demesne manors.' In fact, however, the latter contained eleven ploughs ' in dominio,' and at Oakham there could have been four more. ' Printed by Ellis, IntroJ. to Dom. i, 186 ; see also F.C.H. Northants, , 357-89. 124
