Croxton 7 } } Eltisley 3 } 10} } Caxton 10} 25 } Caldecot 1-3/4} } Long Stow 3-1/4} 5} -------- 100 Several points are here noticeable. Observe, in the first place, how the twenty-five hide 'quarter' which heads the list is divided into three _equal_ blocks of 8-1/3 hides each, just as we found in Wetherley Hundred that one of the twenty-hide 'quarters' was divided into five _equal_ blocks of four hides each. In these cases the same principle of simple equal division was applied to the quarter hundred as we saw applied to the whole hundred in the first two cases we studied--the Hundreds of Staines and of Radfield. Notice next how the two Vills of Toft and Hardwick, which are separately surveyed in Domesday under their respective names, are found from the _Inq. Com. Cant._ to have combined (under the name of 'Toft') in a block of 8-1/3 hides. Lastly, it should not be overlooked that the 3/4 hide not localized in Domesday fits in exactly with Hatley to complete its five hides. The chase now becomes exciting: it can no longer be doubted that we are well on the track of a vast system of artificial hidation, of which the very existence has been hitherto unsuspected. Let us see what further light can be thrown by research on its nature. On looking back at the evidence I have collected, one is struck, surely, by the thought that the system of assessment seems to work, not as is supposed, _up from_, but _down to_ the Manor. Can it be possible that what was really assessed was not the Manor, nor even the Vill, but the Hundred as a whole? This view is so revolutionary, so subversive of all that has ever been written on the subject, that it cannot be answered off-hand. We will therefore begin by examining the case of the Hundred of Erningford, which introduces us to a further phenomenon, the _reduction_ of assessment. HUNDRED OF ERNINGFORD (_Inq. Com. Cant._, pp. 51-68) _Hides_ _Ploughlands_ T.R.E. T.R.W.