Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/159

 9 th S. V. FEB. 24, 1900.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

151

which, as we have seen, a b&y of 400 square ft. could be divided.

If we adapt bays containing 400 square ft. each to the hide of 120 acres and the various divisions of the hide, we shall get the follow- ing table of acres, bays, and annual rents :

Length Square of house feet in Rent.

Holding. Acres. Bays, in feet. bays. s. d.

Hide 120 ... 12 ... 240 ... 4,800 ... 20

Half-hide ... 60 ... 6 ... 120 ... 2,400 ... 10

Virgat.e 30 ... 3 ... 60 ... 1,200 ... 5

Bovate 15 ... H ... 30 ... 600 ... 2 6

Half-bovate ... 7 ... f ... 15 ... 300 ... 1 10 ... 1 ... 20 ... 400 ... 1

As the bay of 240 square ft. corresponds to 6 acres, so the bay of 400 square ft. corre- sponds to 10 acres. In both cases the penny represents a " square " or " pane " of 20 square ft., together with the corresponding half-acre.

In assigning 10 acres to a bay of 400 square ft., instead of 6 acres to a bay of 240 square ft., we shall only have altered the shape of the house. We shall not have changed the proportion between the house-room and the monetary units or between the house-room and the land. The bovate, for instance, will still consist of 15 acres, and its proper house- room will still be an area of 600 square ft. If the area of the bay be 240 square ft. the house attached to the bovate will be 40 ft. long and 15 ft. broad. If the area be 400 square ft. it will be 30 ft. long and 20 ft. broad.

Obviously the large bay of 400 square ft. will be more suitable for the open, basilinal form of house, whilst the small bay of 240 square ft. will be more suitable for the enclosed, quadrangular form of house, for 20 bays of 240 square ft. each will make a better quad- rangle than 12 bays of 400 square ft. each.

Mr. Wigfull, of Sheffield, architect, tells me that he has lately measured the fork- built bays of an old barn at Barlow-Wood- seats, near Dronfield, and found the sides to be 19i ft. by 19| ft. This was inside measure- ment.

The pound, the shilling, the penny, the halfpenny, the farthing, and possibly also other monetary units, were originally the expression, in weights or pieces of silver, of the values of annual chief rents charged on defined and graduated areas of house-room or house-space and on areas of arable land pro- portioned or correlated to the size of every such area of house-room. These areas are the " squares " of the Roman agrimensores.

The term "chief rent "is here used in the sense of "land-tax" or rente censive, and the words " arable land " include the common rights appurtenant thereto. This " chief j

rent" was sometimes called redditus albus, or white rent, because it was paid in silver.

The nominal measure of value was a real or imaginary house containing an area of 4,800 square ft., divided into 20 bays of 240 square ft. each, or 240 spaces of 20 square ft. each. The whole house corre- sponded to a pound of silver, every bay corresponded to a solidus, or shilling, and every space of 20 square ft. corresponded to a penny. Or, to express the same thing in terms of ounces instead of shillings, the nominal measure of value was a real or imaginary house containing an area of 4,800 square ft., divided into 12 bays of 400 square ft. each, or 240 spaces of 20 square ft. each, the whole house corresponding to a pound, every bay corresponding to an ounce of 20 pennyweights, or pennies, and every space of 20 square ft. corresponding to a penny. A farthing corresponded to a space of 5 square ft., plus half a rood. Whether we reckon in ounces or shillings, the area of house-room was to the area of arable land as 1 to 1,089.

I have been trying to put together the scattered parts of an old economic machine. In doing tnis I have kept in view the sporadic occurrence in England of the rule or law of gavelkind, and have seen how well these regular and minute divisions of houses and land were adapted, not only for the purpose of apportioning chief rents on partition, but also for the purposes of division and sub- division amongst heirs ; for real property in the ancient world was divided specifically, or in kind, and not, as with us, by a distribution of the net proceeds of sale. S. O. ADDY.

'DK. SYNTAX' (9 th S. v. 8). In the early forties, when a student of Arts at the Uni- versity of Edinburgh, I remember seeing a tall, gaunt, erect man with a military air going along Nicolson Street. His dress attracted observation. He had on a green coat and long Hessian boots up to his knees, while his head was adorned with a shining brass helmet and plume of feathers. ^ Youth- ful curiosity caused me to make inquiry who bhe strange apparition was. I was told he was Dr. Syntax, a name which he either assumed or which had been conferred upon him. One of his peculiarities was to attend churches on Sundays and take a sketch of the officiating clergyman. I have seen him doing so in the 'orebreast of the galleries of St. Giles's and Lady Yester's churches. He was understood
 * o have a bee in his bonnet and to be harm-

ess. His appearance at church, though from the oddity of his apparel apt to divert the