Page:VCH Derbyshire 1.djvu/408

 A HISTORY OF DERBYSHIRE shire, as wholly the result of chance, and the probability that they mean something is increased when we find that incidental sources of manorial revenue, such, for instance, as mills, 1 are frequently expressed in terms of the same unit. The only denomination, in fact, to which it can be brought to refer is the ' ore,' which is not mentioned by name in the Domesdays of Derbyshire or Notts. In several counties we are distinctly told by Domesday that the ' ore ' (or ounce of silver) equalled 20 pence, but, on the other hand, we have good evidence that a counter-reckoning of 1 6 pence to the ' ore ' was known, 2 and as the Survey is silent on the point in one county, there is nothing to hinder the belief* that the latter equation prevailed there. If this were so, then we can better understand the very important statement which occurs in the list of local customs relating to Notts and Derbyshire to the effect that for certain breaches of the peace a fine was paid by eighteen ' hundreds,' each hundred paying 8. This has been connected by Mr. Round with the statement in the York Liber Albus^ that the peace of that church was safeguarded by a system of fines graduated according to ' hundreds,' and that ' in a hundred there are contained 8.' 4 If 16 pence went to the ore in this part of England, we can understand the latter statement, for 8 would contain just 1 20 ores, which, according to the ' long hundred ' which prevailed in the Danelaw, would normally be described as a hundred in themselves. The same sum of 8 appears in our Survey as the 'relief which a thegn having more than six manors paid to the king. In studying Domesday, it is always advisable to pay attention to more than one county at the same time, for vills situated on the border of two counties are frequently surveyed under each of them, while there also exist cases in which a vill is described in the Survey under a county with which it had no territorial connexion.* The latter cause of perplexity does not affect us in dealing with Derbyshire, but our county was curiously implicated with Leicestershire in the extreme south of it. Until quite recently a group of villages belonging to Derbyshire formed an island surrounded by Leicestershire. Appleby, Oakthorpe, Donisthorpe, Stretton-en-le-Field, Willesley, Chilcote and Measham, with probably the unidentified 'Trangesbi,' were reckoned as part of Derbyshire in 1086 as afterwards, but were separated from the body of the county by the Leicestershire parishes of Over and Nether Seal. 8 The first four of these vills, together with Ravenstone, which is still further imbedded in Leicestershire, and Linton, which seems to be wholly in Derbyshire, were surveyed, in fact, under each county in 1 The following valuations of mills may be quoted : Spondon, Hope, Winshill, Staveley, Youlgreave, Sandiacre (5*. 4d.). A villein at Osmaston-by-Derby paid zt. 8</. Mr. Round considers that the valuation of mills in ' ores ' was widespread in Domesday. a Chadwick, Studies in dnglo-Saxon Institutions, pp. 24-5. 8 Mr. Round points out that the Burton Cfiartulary, combined with the Okeover Charters, contains proof that the ' ore ' of 1 6 pence was recognised ' eo nomine ' in the district. 6 Thus parts of Oxfordshire and of Warwickshire are found surveyed with Northants. 6 In 1893 Over and Nether Seal were transferred to Derbyshire in exchange for the group of villages mentioned above. In the Domesday map they are represented as in Derbyshire. 320
 * Feudal England, p. 73.