_H._ _V._ Count Alan 0 1 Hugh de Beauchamp 6 0 Geoffrey de Mandeville 3 1 { 5 1 { 6-1/2 0 Geoffrey de Bech { 1 1-1/2 { 0 5-1/2 { 0 3-1/2 Peter de Valognes 0 1/2 ----------------- 25 0 If we now push on to Worcestershire, we find a striking case in the Hundred (or rather the triple Hundred[109]) of Oswaldslow. Its assessment was 300 hides;[110] and I am able to assert that of these we can account for 299, and that it contained Manors of 50, 40, 35, 25 (two), and 15 hides.[111] We have also, in this county, the case of the Hundred of Fishborough, made up to 100 hides, and remarkable for including in this total the fifteen hides at which Worcester itself was assessed. The special value of this and of the Huntingdon instances lies in its placing the assessments of a borough on all fours with the assessment of a rural Manor, as a mere factor in the assessment of a rural Hundred. By thus combining town and country it shows us that the assessments of both were part of the same general system. This is a point of great importance. This case of the Hundred of Fishborough is, however, peculiar. The entry, which was prominently quoted by Ellis (who failed to see its true significance), is this: In Fisseberge hundred habet æcclesia de Euesham lxv. hidæ. Ex his xii. hidæ sunt liberæ. In illo Hundredo jacent xx. hidæ de dodentreu. et xv. hidæ de Wircecestre perficiunt hundred.[112] Now this entry is purely incidental, and its real meaning is this. In the true Hundred of Fishborough (adjoining Evesham on the east), Evesham Abbey held sixty-five hides (assessed value), of which twelve were exempted from payment of geld, a statement which can be absolutely verified from the details given. To this aggregate was added the fifteen hides of Worcester (though in another part of the county), together with twenty hides of the distant _Hundred_ of Doddentree. A total of 100 hides was that arrived at. Now the Hundred of Doddentree had itself made up to about 120 hides,[113] by the addition of eighteen hides, which belonged to Hertford as to 'firma'.[114] A reduction, therefore, of twenty hides suggests a complicated process of levelling the local Hundreds, which may remind us how large a margin must be allowed for these arrangements. Before leaving Worcestershire, attention should be called to the great Manor of Pershore, which Westminster Abbey held for 200 hides, and to the 100 hides connected therewith under the heading 'Terra sanctæ Mariæ de Persore'. In Somerset we find some good instances, with the help of Mr Eyton's analyses. HUNDRED OF CREWKERNE