Note 58 — Chapter II · THE REGALIA, OR RIGHTS OF ROYALTY.

“Æðelingawudu, Colmanora and Geátescumbe belong to these twenty hides, which I myself, now rode, now rowed, and widely divided off, for myself, my predecessors, and those that shall come after me, for an eternal separation, before God and the world.” Eádred. an. 955. Cod. Dipl. No. 1171. “Now I greet well my relative Mygod of Wallingford, and command thee in my stead [on mínre stede] to ride round the land to the saint’s hand.” Eádw. Conf., Cod. Dipl. No. 862. The force of the word berídan is very difficult to convey in words, but still perfectly obvious. Another difficulty arises from the word stede, which is properly masculine, but here given as a feminine. I think it impossible that it should mean stéde, a mare (i. e. on my mare), and prefer the supposition either that stede had changed its gender, or that the copy of the charter is an incorrect one.