Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 9.djvu/238

 192 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 S.IX.SBPT. 3,1921. DOMESDAY AND THE GELD INQUESTS. (12 S. ix. 65, 152.) FBOM MR. BEICHEL'S reply to my note, I fear I did not express myself clearly. I certainly did not expect my theory to " accoiint for the variations in the totals " of Hundreds. On the contrary, if accepted, the theory would deprive us of one solu- tion of the problem, viz., that which supposes certain manors to have been outside the scope of the Geld Rolls. Nor did I think that nobody could ever be in arrear with his taxes in those happy days. I only suggested that some of the entries which for want of a better t'erm I styled " defaults " represented disputed claims. Those entries comprised other cases than insolvency, e.g., payments made in another Hundred (Dorset). When I spoke of the villeins " universally withholding payment," I confined my "universe" to the known field. So far as I am aware we have no means of ascertain- ing how matters stood in the greater part of England. But in the five western shires for which the Geld Rolls have been pre- served we find a uniformity of non-payment which can hardly be treated as accidental. To suppose that all the villeins on comital manors were simultaneously unable to pay their tax would be extravagant. There must have been some common ground for non-payment other than poverty or dis- honesty. As I understand the earliest Pipe Roll to belong to the end of Henry I.'s reign, no light can be obtained here on the conditions of the Conqueror's time. The theory that certain royal manors were ignored in the Geld Rolls has on the surface a very convenient plausibility. But it leads to results more " surprising " than my suggestion. Take the single case of the Hundred of Bampton in Devon. In the Geld Roll the King's exemption among demesne lands is three hides. In the Hundred the King has the manor of Morebatha, which had belonged to Harold. In Domesday it was assessed at three hides, of which was one in demesne. On my theory this accounts for the exemption as repre- senting (1) the King's demesne ; (2) villein land. But in the Transactions of the Devon Association (xxx. 448), MB. REICHEL has a very different solution. The King's exemp- tion " was probably in respect of Holecome, an estate in the hands of Baldwin the Sheriff." Now Holecome was assessed at nine hides, four of which were in demesne. It is not easy to find here an agreement with the King's exemption of three hides. Nor is .it evident why this, of all Baldwin's manors, should be supposed to be only his in trust for the King, or to have been granted since 1084. In King Edward's time it was not royal property, but belonged to Seward. And, lastly, it was subinfeuded to Rogo, which would account for no exemption being claimed on Baldwin's behalf. Other instances might be cited but would encroach on your space. I do not profess to reconcile the total hidage of the Geld Rolls with the aggregate of Domesday figures. I doubt the possibility of doing so, and at most could only suggest some reasons for the discrepancy. At present I merely protest against one solution which seems to me inadequate. J. A. RUTTEB. HEBALDIC (A CAUTION) (12 S. ix. 104). I All lovers of heraldry must feel pleased, though perhaps a little shy, when a new " dictionary " of such a very old and exact I note that your correspondent, MBS. COPE, contemplates one, and makes general ! contribution of new material consisting of I coats of arms not recorded in the ordinary ! presume that MBS. COPE does not intend, by i her having only mentioned a few recognized j authorities, to exclude those coats of arms recorded in * such works as, for instance, Glover's ' Ordinary,' contained in Edmond- son's 'Complete Body of Heraldry' (1780), a much older authority, of course, than those she mentions. I hope that I may be excused, as one of the oldest correspondents of ' N. & Q.' upon heraldic subjects, for expressing a wish that no armorial bearings will be accepted with- out some satisfactory authority for their use, or a reference to their source. Otherwise her work can have no real value for any I think it may fairly be said that there is much to be desired on this point even in some of the works already existing, and that at the present time an enormous amount of coat -arm our is borne by persons who have no
 * science as heraldry is foreshadowed.
 * application to your correspondents for the
 * books of reference which she mentions. I
 * student of heraldry.