[8] The prosperity of the Jews in the early Middle Ages was
remarkable. They have been said to have accumulated 46 per cent. of
the total personalty of England in little more than the first century
of their operations. This is an error, due to overlooking the fact
that for the Saladin Tithe the Jew was taxed one fourth and not
one-tenth of his goods. The true figure should be about 25½ per cent.
But even that is astonishing for perhaps one per cent. of the
population. It supposes an average Jewish fortune twenty-five times
larger than the average English one.
[9] This is a strong argument, because Headbourne Worthy, the point in
dispute, was precisely the most important of these villages. It is
given in Domesday (Ordie) as the holding of Mortemer, while King's
Worthy was but a hamlet, and Martyrs' Worthy is not mentioned.
[10] Mr. Haverfield in the _Victoria History of Hampshire_ (vol. i.
287) gives the Roman Road as going straight from the North Gate to the
King's Worthy church. See also his general map and his description on
p. 321. This is surely preferable to the conjecture of the 6-inch
Ordnance (Hampshire, XLI.) that it followed the line of Hyde Street
and proceeded to Headbourne Worthy.
[11] One would naturally expect Alfred's bones to have been scattered
with the rest in the Reformation; they seem to have been spared. It
was most probably Alfred's leaden coffin that was dug up unopened in
the building of the now vanished prison, and sold in 1788. It fetched
two pounds.
[12] Leaving upon our left the first of the archæological discoveries
which mark the whole of the Road:--the Roman villa unearthed or
explored by Mr. Collier in 1878.
[13] The balance of evidence is certainly against it. In favour of the
antiquity of New Alresford we have the phrase _restored_ applied to
Bishop Lucy's market, and the three churches attached to Alresford in
Domesday, and supposed to show that more than one village was attached
to the manor. Against, we have the immediate presence of the
artificial head of water established by the Bishop; the name, and the
fact that the medieval road from Alton went not to New but to Old
Alresford. Again, while there is no special mention of New Alresford
in Domesday, there is mention of Sutton, close by, and a Bishop's
palace stood there for some centuries.
[14] Their passage is an excellent example of the Reversion of the
Pilgrimage to an ancient road. The regular road in the thirteenth
century was presumably that by Chawton Wood and Bighton, mentioned by
Duthie, who finds it in a charter of Henry III.'s. (This charter, it
is only fair to add, was never discovered by his executors.)
[15] Thus West Street and Broad Street near Lenham, Dun Street at the
edge of Eastwell, the old name for Albury (Weston Street), etc.
[16] The point where the line leaves the modern road is east of Bury
Lane, just past a farm called Dean Farm. The ridge is first noticeable
in the field marked 134 in the 1/2500 inch Ordnance Map for Hampshire
[XLII. 7, Old Series, 1870, Ropley Parish].
[17] These fields are marked 191, 192, and 194 on 1/2500 inch Ordnance
Map, Hampshire, Old Series, 1870, XLII. 8.
[18] The boundary between the fields marked 201, and 202-3 in map
cited above. The track is again lost for a short distance in crossing
the field marked 205.
[19] The last few yards of the alignment follow the boundary between
plots marked 219 and 216 in map already quoted.
[20] Moreover, from this same point the medieval road to Old Alresford
mentioned above left Alton.