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 THE DOMESDAY SURVEY point relating to the woodland, namely that at Southill there are two entries of ' half a hide ' of woodland, and at Sandy one of three acres. The reckoning of woodland on this system is rare in Domesday, and at present obscure. Among miscellaneous rural features we may note Eudo Dapifer's two acres of vineyard — probably newly planted — at Eaton Socon, Hugh de Beauchamp's ' park ' for beasts of the chase at Stagsden, and the fish- stew (vivarium piscium) of ' Osbern the fisher ' at Sharnbrook. Of urban or commercial life Domesday tells us little ; and in Bed- fordshire this is peculiarly the case. We read of burgesses of Bedford, of market dues at Luton and Leighton (Buzzard), and that is about all. But in this connection one may note a point bearing on money, namely that two ' ores ' are entered as the value of some land on fo. 2 1 8b. It is proved by Cambridgeshire evidence that this ' ore ' was sixteen pence. No general statement can be made as to the effect of the Conquest on the wealth and prosperity of the county. Mr. Pearson's tables show a decrease of about twenty-five per cent in values, for the whole county, when those of 1086 are compared with those on the eve of the Conquest; and this decrease is most marked on the lands of the lay barons. But when we come to examine for ourselves the values, manor by manor, we find the variations between them at these two periods, and at that intervening date when the land was received by the grantee, varying in too erratic a fashion for any conclusions to be drawn from them. All that can be said is that the value was, as might be expected, usually lowest at the time of the grant. The last subject that we have to consider is that of identification. When dealing with the work of our predecessors in this branch of inquiry, we have to remember that they are sometimes found to have been misled by a fancied resemblance, and that they may even have fallen a prey to the pranks of perverse etymologists. Weston and Easton, for instance, are names not uncommon, the origin of which, one would have thought, must be obvious to all. Yet of Westoning — originally Weston — omitted in the Bedfordshire survey, we find Mr. Airy writing thus : — Westoning is not mentioned in the Record, nor is there any vacancy in or on the borders of the Hundred of Manshead for which it appears eligible. Early men- tion of it occurs by the name of Weston Tregos, and it became Weston-Ing after its purchase by Sir William Inge, Chief Justice of the King's Bench in 131 7, so that the original name of the place is merely Weston. Now, Mr. Monkhouse in his Bedford- shire etymologies tells us that Weston in Anglo-Saxon means a wilderness ; and that all the ' Westons ' and ' West Ends ' were tracts of waste and barren land. If such were the case with the present Westoning, its absence from the Record as a distinct manor or property is quite intelligible ; and looking at its position on the map I am inclined to think that it formed the 'westen ' or waste of Priestley (now a hamlet of Flitwick), and that whatever there was of taxable value about it is included in the return of that manor (p. 44). So too he endeavoured to identify the mysterious ' Estone ' by means of this etymology, arguing that ' the high clay table of Little Staughton . . . was one of a series of westens,' and that — 213