Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/558

 462 NOTES AND QUERIES. p* s. vi. DEC. 15, woo. bays of the same size. The breadth of the hall was 16 feet: the breadth of the chapel was 15 feet. And yet in both cases the unit of measurement was a bay of 240 square feet. It also appears from ' Boldon Book' that in the village of Boldon there were twenty- two villani, each of whom held two bovates of 15 acres each, or 30 acres in all. It was part of their duty to make every year, if it became necessary to do so, a house 40 feet in length and 15 feet in breadth—i.e., a house of two bays and a half, like the chapel just mentioned.* This obligation on the part of the villani of Boldon is confirmed by 'Bishop Hatfield's Survey,' from which it appears that 23 villani in that village then held a messuage and two bovates of land respectively, and that, among their other duties, they had to make a house 40 feet longand 15 feet broad in parco.i The village of Boldon serves as a model for other villages in the neighbourhood, and the survey tells us that in sixteen other villages of the Bishop of Durham the villani " hold, render, and work" like those of Boldon. Therefore the villani of these sixteen other villages had also to build a house 40 feet long and 15 feet broad every year, when neces- sary. It will be noticed that all the above-men- tioned villani are represented as holding not a virgate, but two bovates, containing alto- gether 30 acres. Accordingly, the bovate of 15 acres, and not the virgate. was the typical holding in these villages. The virgate is not mentioned in ' Boldon Book.' Now, it appears from ' Boldon Book' that in the village of Whickham there were thirty- five villani, each of whom held one bovate of 15 acres. These villani in the course of their work had also to make a house 40 feet long and 15 feet broad.| Here, then, we have a single bovate, of 15 acres, corresponding to a tione sua, ai opus fuerit, unam domum longitudinis xl pedum, et latitudinis xv pedum, et tune quum facmnt sunt quieti unusquisque de id. de aver- penyngs."—P. 4. In 'Bishop Hatfield's Survey" (]>. 99) each tenant pays 16W. " pro averpeynes." t Ibid-i p. 99. What is meant by the additional words " in parco" is not evident. Possibly they refer to an enclosure in which the houses stood. } " Et in operatione sua facere unam domum longitudinis xl pedum et latitudinia xv pedum" (p. 33). This is confirmed by 'Bishop Hatfield's Survey," p. 95. We are told, however, in this survey, that the bondi, as they are then called, make the house " by two days in the week." The words are, "et in operatione sua, per ij dies in ebdomada, faciunt j domum longitudinis xl pedum et latitudinU xv pedum." house of two bays and a half. We may there- fore presume that in all the other seventeen villages (including Boldon) a house of this size corresponded to a bovate, and not to a virgate. I need hardly refer to" the well-known custom, which is found in many manors, by which the tenants were obliged to maintain and repair their houses. The Durham ' Hal mote Rolls' show that when a man took a bondage, or other holding, he not unfre- quently undertook either to repair an exist- ing house, or to build a new one of prescribed size, within one or two years from the date of his entry, the landlord finding the great timber. It appears from Domesday Book that " the thanes in the land between the Kibble and the Mersey, who were immediate tenants of the Crown, were accustomed to make houses for the king like villeins."* We may compare the hall of 60 feet in length which the villani of Auklandshire had to build with a house of the same length mentioned in the Domesday Book. It is there stated that the Abbot of Peterborough agreed with the Abbot of Ramsey to supply materials for a house of 60 feet, and rods for the court round the house, and to restore the house and court if they should be out of repair.t The bay of 240 square feet appears in an- otherform besides that of 15feetoy 16 feet, viz., 12 feet by 20 feet. Thus in ' Bishop Hatfield's Survey' we read of a man taking a piece of land 30 feet in length and 20 feet in breadth for a stable.* This was 2£ bays of 12 feet by 20. In the same document we are told of a man enclosing from the waste a piece of land 40 feet long and 12 feet broad to enlarge his tenement.§ This was two spaces of 240 square feet. And it appears from the 'Liberate Rolls' of the year 1237 that Henry III. ordered to be made at Kennington " a chapel with a staircase (' capellam acf stagium') of plaster, which shall be 30 feet long and 12 feet wide,"|| or a bay and a half. tion." p. 140. I have personally examined old houses of the peasantry in this district, and accounts of some of them are given in my ' Evolution of the English House." t Morgan, trf supra, p. 71. The material words are. " materiam invenit ad unam domum Ix pedum, et virgas ad curiam circa domum " (i. 205). J "Unam placeam de vastis dominicis, juxi.i Horsepole, pro quodam stabulo. de longitudine xxx pedum et latitudine xx pedum. —P. 156. § P. 172. II In Turner's' Domestic Architecture iu England,' 1851, p. 185.
 * " Villani debent facere singulis annis in opera-
 * Morgan's ' England under the Norman Occupa-