Page:VCH Berkshire 1.djvu/401

 DOMESDAY SURVEY period the bulk of the people's diet. This we know from the supplies provided for garrisons and for armies. Eighty-five years after the great survey, when Henry II and his host were about to invade Ireland, wheat and cheese were sent from Berks to feed them in that savage land. A hundred loads of wheat at one and twopence a load, and twenty weys of cheese, at five shillings each, 1 were conveyed in thirty carts from Abingdon and from Newbury to Bristol to be despatched thence to Ireland." In the fertile Vale of White Horse the evidence of the ' wicks ' still remaining that dairy-farming, then as now, was pursued in its western portions, is confirmed by the entries of meadow in the great survey. The value of the river meadows, and the rich cattle pastures is shown by its exact reckoning of the acres of ' pratum ' as compared with its loose estimates in some other departments. There are several entries of four acres, and even a single acre is duly recorded. One is struck, therefore, by the figures given towards the Wiltshire border in the Vale of White Horse. The acreage runs thus : Ashbury (200), Odstone (200), Compton Beauchamp (60), Woolstone (150), Becket (93), Shrivenham (24o), 3 Watchfield (150), Coleshill (207), the Coxwells (280), Shellingford (104),* Hatford (100), Stanford in the Vale (318), Goosey (135), Dench worth (81), Challow (40), Uffington (85), Spars- holt (350)," and the Letcombes (261). Similar large figures distinguish the rich belt of river meadows between the hills and the Thames from Inglesham to Longworth. Here we have Buscot (300), Eaton Hastings (148), Faringdon (135)," Littleworth (285),' Carswell (59), Buckland (220), Hinton Waldrist (40), Duxford (16), Longworth (100). Lower down the river, as we might expect, we again find considerable figures : 200 at Abingdon ('Bertone'), 300 at Sutton Courtenay and up the stream that flows in there, 344 8 at Milton, and 268 at Steventon. Appleford had 60, the two Wittenhams 217, Cholsey 100, Reading 162. Up the valley of the Kennet also there were 83 at Burghfield, 80 at Ufton, 64 at Pad- worth, 124 at Aldermaston, and 147 at Thatcham. Enough has been said to show that the acreage of meadow has a meaning and not only affords a general indication of the condition of the valleys at the time, but also contains useful guidance as to the situation of the manors named in Domesday. But the actual acreage of the meadows does not exhaust the information. Only 104 acres are assigned to Shellingford, but Domesday adds that 1 2s. 6d. is received from ' other meadows,' the surplus apparently being let. There was also received ' for pasture ' (de pasture?) 2J. %d. at Stanford in the Vale, 1 The Domesday price, we saw, was about three shillings and threepence. But the wey probably varied in those days of local measures. Indeed, the monks of Abingdon complained that twenty-two stone went to the wey in ^Ethelwold's day as against eighteen under Henry I. ^ Pipe Roll 17 Hen. II. (Pipe Roll Soc.), 88. 3 Stainswick and Chapelwick are in this district. * See below. 5 This included Kingston Lisle. 6 This included the Berkshire portion of Inglesham. 7 Possibly there were 54 more. 8 And possibly 30 more. 307