[727] In the A.-S. land-books the word _civitas_ is commonly applied to Worcester, Winchester, Canterbury, and other such places, which are both bishops' sees and the head places of large districts. But (K. v. p. 180) Gloucester is a _civitas_, and for some time after the Conquest it is rather the county town than the cathedral town that bears this title. Did any one ever speak of Selsey or Sherborne as a _civitas_? In 803 (K. v. p. 65) the bishops of Canterbury, Lichfield, Leicester, Sidnacester, Worcester, Winchester, Dunwich, London and Rochester style themselves bishops of _civitates_, while those of Hereford, Sherborne, Elmham and Selsey do not use this word. But an inference from this would be rash.
[728] An interesting example is this. In 779 Offa conveys to a thegn land at Sulmonnesburg. The boundaries mentioned in the charter are those of the present parish of Bourton-on-the-Water. 'Sulmonnesburg ... is the ancient camp close to Bourton which gave its name to the Domesday Hundred of Salmanesberie, and at a gap in the rampart of which a Court Leet was held till recently.' See C. S. Taylor, Pre-Domesday Hide of Gloucestershire, Trans. Bristol and Gloucestershire Archæol. Soc. vol. xviii. pt. 2. As regards the names of hills and of villages named from hills there may occasionally be some difficulty in marking off those which go back to _beorh_ (_berry_, _berrow_, _barrow_) from those which go back to _burh_ (_burgh_, _borough_, _bury_). Mr Stevenson tells me that in the West of England the termination _-borough_ sometimes represents _-beorh_.
[730] Aethelr. IV. 4. The Quadripartitus is our only authority for these _Instituta_; but Dr Liebermann (Quadrip. p. 138) holds that the translator had in front of him a document written before the Conquest. Schmid would read _borh-bryce_; see p. 541; but this emendation seems needless. Has not the sum been Normanized? The king's _burh-bryce_ used to be 120 (i.e. in English 'a hundred') shillings, and a hundred _Norman_ shillings make £5. So according to the Berkshire custom (D. B. i. 56 b) he who by night breaks a _civitas_ pays 100 shillings to the king and not (it is noted) to the sheriff.
[731] D. B. i. 2: 'Concordatum est de rectis callibus quae habent per civitatem introitum et exitum, quicunque in illis forisfecerit, regi emendabit.' See the important document contained in a St Augustin's Cartulary and printed in Larking, Domesday of Kent, Appendix, 35: 'Et omnes vie civitatis que habent duas portas, hoc est introitum et exitum, ille sunt de consuetudine Regis.'