dung shovel; altogether a very complete list, the compiler of which
ends by saying that the reeve ought to neglect nothing that should
prove useful, not even a mousetrap, nor even, what is less, a peg for
a hasp.

Manors in 1086 were of all sizes, from one virgate to enormous
organizations like Taunton or Leominster, containing villages by the
score and hundreds of dependent holdings.[51] The ordinary size,
however, of the Domesday manor was from four to ten hides of 120 acres
each, or say from 500 to 1,200 acres,[52] and the Manor of Segenehou
in Bedfordshire may be regarded as typical. Held by Walter brother of
Seiher it had as much land as ten ploughs could work, four plough
lands belonging to the demesne and six to the villeins, of whom there
were twenty-four, with four bordarii and three serfs; thus the
villeins had 30 acres each, the normal holding. The manorial system
was in fact a combination of large farming by the lords, and small
farming by the tenants. Nor must we compare it to an ordinary estate;
for it was a dominion within which the lord had authority over
subjects of various ranks; he was not only a proprietor but a prince
with courts of his own, the arbiter of his tenants' rights as well as
owner of the land.

One of the most striking features of the Domesday survey is the large
quantity of arable land and the small quantity of meadow, which
usually was the only land whence they obtained their hay, for the
common pasture cannot often have been mown.[53] Indeed, it is
difficult to understand how they fed their stock in hard winters.

According to the returns, in many counties more acres were ploughed in
1086 than to-day; in some twice as much. In Somerset in 1086 there