Note 489 — Chapter XI
Reading edition
Mr. Kemble, in an elaborate chapter on the “Hide,” has determined that it was probably a little less than 100 statute acres of arable land. (“Anglo-Saxons,” vol. i. c. 4, p. 88-121.) It is clear, however, that the word was often used for a much smaller, though indefinite extent of land. In Bosworth’s Anglo-Saxon Dictionary (in voc. Hyde) many examples are quoted, showing that it was popularly held to be as much land as “could be tilled in a year by one plough.”