Note 14 — ILLUSTRATIONS
Reading edition
The word here used, occasionally spelt ferm, sometimes means not so much a piece of land turned to agricultural use and cultivated by owner or tenant, as an account, a reckoning: It is akin to farm from the A.S. fearm or feorm=food, a meal. A trustworthy authority says that the meaning of farm "arose from the original practice of letting lands, on condition that the tenant should supply his lord's household with so many nights' entertainment." Hence "Reddet firmam trium noctium." (He will supply three nights' entertainment).—Doomsday Book.