Speaking generally, in its chief economic features every manor is alike, as in the record itself one common form of survey serves for them all. Hence the Winslow example gives the requisite key to the whole. Bringing to the record the knowledge of how the open fields were everywhere divided into furlongs, and acre or half-acre strips, and that virgates and half-virgates were equal bundles of strips scattered all over the fields, the description of the manors in the Hundred Rolls becomes perfectly intelligible. In the first place the manor consists, as in the Winslow example, of two parts--the land in demesne and the land in villenage. The land in demesne consists of the home farm, and portions, irregular in area, let out from it to what are called free tenants (_libere tenentes_), some of them being nevertheless villeins holding their portions of the demesne lands in free tenure at certain rents in addition to their regular holdings. «Virgates and half-virgates.» The land in villenage, as in the Winslow manor, is held mostly in virgates and half-virgates, and below these cottiers hold smaller holdings, also in villenage. In describing the tenants in villenage there is first a statement that A. B. holds a _virgate_ in villenage at such and such payments and services, which are often [p034] very minutely described. The money value of each service and the total value of them all is in many cases also carefully given. This description of the holding and services of A. B. is then followed by a list of persons who also _each_ hold a virgate at the same services as A. B. Secondly, there is a similar statement in detail that C. D. holds a _half-virgate_ in villenage, and that such and such are his payments and services, followed by a similar list of persons who also _each_ hold a half-virgate at the same services as C. D. «Cottier tenants.» Then follows a list of the little cottier tenants, and their holdings and services. Amongst some of these cottage holdings there is equality, some are irregular, and some consist of a cottage and nothing else. These holdings are all in villenage, but, as before mentioned, the names of the villein tenants often occur again in the list of free tenants (_libere tenentes_) of portions of the lord's demesne or of recently reclaimed land (_terra assarta_). This may be taken as a fair description of the common type of manor throughout the Hundred Rolls, with local variations. «With exceptional variations the manors are all of one type.» The chief of these is that in many places in Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire the holdings of the _villani_, instead of being described as virgates and half-virgates, are described by their acreage. There are so many holders of 30, 20, 15, 10, or other number of acres each. They are not the less in grades, with equality in each grade, but the holdings bear no distinctive name.