There were many, but not so many, _heims_ in the valley of the Neckar; but everywhere (with small local exceptions) they faded away in districts outside the Roman boundary, except in Frisia, where the proportion was large. Now, the question is, what do these _heims_ represent? «_Heim_ and _villa_ interchange.» We have already said that they interchange like the English 'ham' with the Latin 'villa.' The districts where they occur most thickly, where they formed 80 per cent. of the names of places in the time of the monastic grants, and which had formed for several centuries the Roman province of Upper Germany, shade off into districts which abounded with local names ending in _villa_. «_Wilare_, _weiler_, and _wyl_.» They did so a thousand years ago, and they do so now. It is only needful to examine the Ordnance Survey of any part of these districts to see how, even now, the places with names ending in 'heim' are mixed with others ending in 'villa,' or 'wilare,' or the Germanised form of the word, 'weiler,' or 'wyl;' and further, how the region abounding with 'heims' shades off into a district abounding with names ending in 'villa,' or 'wilare,' and we may add the equally manorial Latin or Romance termination _curtis_, or 'court,' and its German equivalent 'hof,' or 'hoven.' And such was the case also at the date of the earliest monastic charters. This fact in itself at least suggests very strongly that here, as in England, 'ham' and 'villa' were synonyms for the same thing, sometimes called by its [p258] Latin and sometimes by its German name. Indeed, actual instances may be found in the charters of these districts in which the name of the same place has sometimes the suffix _villa_ or _wilare_ and sometimes _heim_.[350] Moreover, these places which are thus called 'villas' or 'heims' in the monastic charters were to all intents and purposes _manors_ as far back as the records allow us to trace them. The earliest surveys of the possessions of the abbeys leave no doubt as to their manorial character.[351] And the earliest charters prove that they were often at least manorial estates before they were handed over to the monks. Indeed, a careful examination of the Wizenburg and Lorsch charters and donations leads to the result that these 'heims' and 'villas' were often royal manors, '_villæ fiscales_' on the royal domains, just as Tidenham and Hysseburne were in England. They seem to have often been held as benefices by a _dux_ [p259] or a _comes_, or other beneficiary of the king, just as Saxon royal manors were held by the king's thanes as 'læn-land.'[352] Thus the royal domains of Frankish kings were apparently under manorial management, and practically divided up into manors. The boundaries or 'marchæ' of one manor often divided it from the next manor;[353] while one 'villa' or 'heim' often had sub-manors upon it, as in the case of Tidenham.[354]