In the meantime, returning to the question of the holdings in villenage, an additional reason for the variations in their acreage is found in the statement already alluded to, viz. that the extent of the actual carucate, or land of one plough team, was dependent, among other things, upon whether the system of husbandry was the two-field or the three-field system, each plough team being able to cultivate a larger acreage on the former than on the latter system. VII. S.E. OF ENGLAND--THE HIDE AND VIRGATE UNDER OTHER NAMES (THE RECORDS OF BATTLE ABBEY AND ST. PAUL'S). «Battle Abbey Records.» Passing now to the south-eastern counties, there are in the Record Office valuable MSS. relating to the [p050] estates of Battle Abbey.[46] There are two distinct surveys of these estates, made respectively in the reigns of Edward I. and Henry VI. «Surveys of 1284–7.» The date of the earliest MS. is from 12 to 15 Edward I. (1284–7). It is, therefore, almost contemporaneous with the Hundred Rolls. The estates lay in various counties; but wherever situated, the same general phenomena as those already described are found. Confining attention to the regular grades of holdings in villenage, the following are examples from the Battle Abbey estates. The abbot had an estate at Brichwolton (or Brightwalton), in Berkshire. In the survey of it 10 holders of a virgate each are recorded as _virgarii_, and in the MS. of Henry VI., 5 holders of half-virgates are in the same way called _dimidii virgarii_. There was another estate at 'Apeldreham,' in Sussex. Here, under the heading 'Isti subscripti dicuntur _Yherdlinges_,' there is a list of 5 holders of virgates, 4 holders of 1½ virgates each, and one of ½ a virgate. At 'Alsiston,' in Sussex, a manor nestling under the chalk downs, the holdings were as follows:-- «½ hides and wistas.» 1 wista and 1 great wista. ½ hide. 1 hide. ½ hide and 1 wista. 3 wistas and 1 great wista. ½ hide. ½ hide. ½ hide. ½ hide. 1 wista. ½ hide. ½ hide. ½ hide. 1 wista. ½ hide. The præpositus 1 wista (without services). [p051] In the description of the services, those for each half-hide are first given, and then there follows a note that each half-hide contains two wistas; wherefore the services of each wista are half those above mentioned. There is another manor (Blechinton, near the coast), where there were-- 2 holdings of half-hides, 9 of wistas, 6 of half-wistas, and two other manors where the holders were in one case 5, all of half-hides; and in the other case one of a hide and 4 of half-hides. «The double hide of 240 acres.»