Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/370

 304 NOTES AND QUERIES. 9* s. VL OCT. 20, woo. no arable land is mentioned, and possibly these messuages had at that time no arable land. But the 'Hundred Rolls'tell us that in the town of Chippenham in Cambridge- shire there were seventy villani, each of whom held a messuage, the area of which is not given, and fifteen acres of arable land (terra).* And then we get such entries as this:— "Dicunt 'i"'»! Ricardus ad Cruceni est custu- marius dieti domini Johannis et tenet xv acras terre cum uno mesuagio continente dimidiam rodam."t In these and other instances the half-rood of messuage corresponds to the half-virgate, or bovate, of arable land. Accordingly a rood of messuage should correspond to a full virgate, and there are cases in which it does correspond. Thus at Whittlesford in Cam- bridgeshire it is said that "Stephanus Capellanus tenet de domino J. de Akyoi mesuagium j rode [et] xxx acraa terre."J And by the same rule two roods of messuage should correspond to sixty acres or half a hide. Such a correspondence is apparent when we read of "Nich's de Giddinge qui defendit unum mesuagium continens dimidiam acram terre, et in campis ij virgatas terre. "§ And by the same rule an acre of messuage should correspond to a hide. It does so in the following instance :— " Symon Ostrieiarius tenet in Slepe j mesuagium continens unam acram et unam carucatam terre et xv acras prati per serjantiam de domino Rege ad custodiendum unum ostric.ium."|| From evidence like this we are justified in making the conjecture that the normal messuage belonging to a virgate contained one rood, and so in proportion for the hide and its other fractional parts. Now if we deduct the odd forty square yards from the acre, and treat them as the amount of mes- suage or building land assigned to every acre of 4,800 square yards, ana if, moreover, we bear in mind that a bay of building contain- ing an area of 240 square feet was appro- priated to every six acres of arable land,T the result will be as follows:— t Ibid., ii. 519 b. I Ibid., ii. 575 a. § Ibid., ii. 632 a. II Ibiil., ii. 604 i. The meadow is an appurten- ance. II To understand this table fully it will be necessary to refer to the tables given in my articles on 'The Origin of the English Coinage,'9th S. iv. 431; v. 29, 149. Sq.yds.in Building- So. ft. Holding. Jnyers. Acres. Bays. Plot, in House. Hide 180 120 20 4,800 4,800 Half-hide 90 60 10 2,400 2,400 Virgate 45 30 5 1,200 1,200 Bovate 22* 15 24 600 600 Half-bovate 11} 7i 1} 300 300 9 6 1 240 240 11 1 J 40 40 It will be seen in this table that a messuage or building-plot containing 1,200 square yards, or the fourth part of an acre of 4,800 square yards, corresponds to a virgate of thirty acres, and so in proportion for the other quantities. In an acre of 4,840 square yards the rood contains 1,210 square yards, and the reduction has been caused by the fact that we have separated the odd forty square yards from that acre, and assigned them to the messuage or building-plot. It will also be seen that the building-plot in each case is nine times the area of the house, the number of square yards in the area of the building-plot being numerically identical with the number of square feet in the area of the house. It will also be seen that whereas in the acre of 4,840 square yards the area of the house would be to the area of the acre as 1 to 1,089, in the acre of 4,800 square yards the ratio is as 1 to 1,080— a much more practicable number. It will be further noticed that an acre of building- plot corresponds to a hide, and that the area of the building-plot is to the area of the arable land as 1 to 120. The building-plot, therefore, as well as the house, was a measure of the arable land. The result is startling, but this perfect symmetry can hardly be accidental. It should be observed that the building- plots in the foregoing table would be large enough, and yet not too large,forthequantities of arable land severally assigned to them. Moreover, the house does not occupy too large a portion of the building-plot; there is room for a barn and other buildings, as well as a small garden or yard. It is a curious, though it may be an accidental, coincidence that at the present day building-plots in towns are measured in yards, and the build- ings themselves in feet. If the foregoing table be true, it follows that all English land which was subject to exact mensuration was divided into blocks or rectangles containing 240 square feet each, or parts of such blocks. In other words, the basis of measurement was not the Roman actus simplex of 480 square feet, but a block of half that size. Now the existence of a block of 240 square feet as the basis of
 * ' Rot. Hundr.,' ii. 506 a.