About the same period Wulfwold abbot of Bath makes title to lands, which he addresses to bishop Gisa, Tofig the sheriff and all the thanes of Somersetshire. Cod. Dipl. No. 821. In the year 1049, Ðurstán granted lands at Wimbush by witness of a great number of persons, among whom are Leófcild the sheriff and all the thanes of Essex. Cod. Dipl. No. 788: and about the same time Gódríc bought lands at Offham, in a shiremoot at Wii, before all the shire. Cod. Dipl. No. 789. Lastly, Leófwine bought land, by witness of Ulfcytel the sheriff and all the thanes in Herefordshire. Cod. Dipl. No. 802. The relation of these thanes to the gódan men or dohtigan men (good men, doughty men, boni et legales homines, Scabini, Rachinburgii, etc.) will be examined in a subsequent Book, when I come to treat of the courts of justice: but I will here add one example, which is illustrative of the subject of this note. The marriage-covenants of Godwine, arranged before Cnut, by witness of archbishop Lyfing and others, including Æðelwine the sheriff, and various Kentish landowners, are stated to be in the knowledge (geenǽwe) of every _doughty man_ in Kent and Sussex (where the lands lay) both thane and churl. Cod. Dipl. No. 732. There was nothing whatever to prevent a man from being a scírþegn, whether eorlcund or ceorlcund, as long as he had land in the scír itself: without land, even a cyninges þegn could certainly not be a scírþegn. It is true that a man might be of síðcund rank, that is noble, without owning land (see Leg. Ini, § 51), and there were king’s thanes who had no land (Æðelst. v. § 11); but such a one could assuredly not represent himself in the scírgemót. There is a common error which runs through much of what has been admitted on this subject: the ceorl is universally represented in a low condition. This is not however necessarily the case: some ceorls, though well to do in the world, may have preferred their independence to the conventional dignity of thaneship. We may admit, as a general rule, that the thanes were a wealthier class than the ceorls; indeed, without becoming a thane, a ceorl had little chance of getting a grant of folcland or bócland, but some of them may have, through various circumstances, inherited or purchased considerable estates: as late as the year 984, I find an estate of eight hides (that is 264 acres according to my reckoning) in the possession of a _rusticus_, obviously a ceorl:—“Illud videlicet rus quod Æðeríc quidam rusticus prius habuisse agnoscitur.” Cod. Dipl. No. 1282. Footnote 582: