Page:VCH Leicestershire 1.djvu/353

 DOMESDAY SURVEY As the plough and its oxen were the staple sources of agricultural wealth in early times, it is surprising to find a decrease in the number of ploughs so often coinciding with a great increase in manorial value. We are, in fact,, faced with the question whether the figures given above in the column headed ' valuit ' really refer to the same date as the statements about the pre- Conquest ploughs. But the 'valuit' often becomes even more anomalous when we compare it with the assessment of the manors to which it refers, Thus, taking ten consecutive entries on the fief of the Countess Judith, we find : Vill Heather Broughton Astley Markfield ' Elvelege ' ' Ricoltorp ' Rearsby. Welby. Sysonby Lubenham Foxton. Car. Bov. I. d. 'Valuit' 4 o 4 o 2 o 2 o 2 2 2 4 6 4 O 4 7 o 7 4 O I O 10 O 2 O 2 O 10 O IO O IO O IO 1 O 4 o o o o o 6 8 o o Now as the geld was normally levied at the rate of two shillings to the caru- cate, in six out of these ten examples the whole value of the estate would have been more than equalled by its fiscal responsibilities, and the figures in the list become even more striking if we remember that it has been estimated that, if the whole of England be taken into account, the average value of the hide or carucate will be something very close to twenty shillings. 14 It has, therefore, been suggested, in explanation of the conjunction of extreme poverty with crushing taxation displayed by Leicestershire, that the 'valuit ' does not refer to the Confessor's time, but to ' some time of disorder that followed the Conquest ' ; u and on the whole an examination of the county vill by vill seems to bear out this view. In the first place, there are four entries in which we are told that the value given for the estate refers to the time when it was received by the Domesday tenant, that is, to some period in the early years of William's reign : Vill Burbage. . . Bottesford Soke of Melton Mowbray Husbands Bosworth , 'When received' ' d - O 2 6 o 4 10 o o o o o 6 1086 d - 400 16 o o 15 10 o i o o to which we may add the cases of Barrow-on-Soar and its ' soke,' of which we are told ' the whole (estate) was and is worth 40, when received (it was worth) 10,' and of Donington le Heath, which had originally been worth i, but was waste when Nigel de Albini entered into possession of it, and had only risen in value to two shillings at the date of the survey. These figures, few as they are, are enough to suggest that Leicestershire had under- gone something very like actual devastation in the period immediately succeeding the Conquest, and it is quite possible that the Domesday ' valuit v 14 Maitland, Dom. Bk. and Beyond, 465. 283 u Ibid. 469.