of ‘A’. However, by recalculating the mistranscriptions and supplying the missing burh figures from ‘A’ then the ‘restored’ total would be 28,671. Hill then turns to the second part of the final sentence “and 30 to the West Saxons”, this too is glossed as ‘30,000’ by the copyist ‘6’ so that it seems to refer to hides; but Hill proposes that it refers to the 30 burh; there are in fact 31 of these in the combined lists, but he then proposes that Buckingham (at 1600 hides) is in fact Mercian, that is not of “the West Saxons”, so is not included in the grand total. The adjusted total of 27,071 then concurs with the final ‘B’ sentence/statement. Therefore, ‘A’ and ‘B’ were copied from the same archetype/s as they agree on the grand total (less 1600 for Buckingham), yet differ only in their final sentence/statements as to what the figures demonstrate, a formula for manpower or a total of hidage. This is important because it evidentially contradicts any proposal that the recensions had burh added or subtracted to reflect ‘new’ or ‘abandoned’ burh. The ‘B’ archetype is more likely to be closer to the ultimate source which would be an ‘exchequer/ treasury’ document. ‘A’/ Cotton-Otho would have been prepared from it to perform the function Hill proposes, the burh/ shiring of the reconquered areas. But, surely the final sentence/statement of ‘B’ “And to Worcester 1200 hides. To Warwick four and 2400 hides” which Hill proposes as being about the proposed organisation of the new Mercian ‘shires’ should actually, if it meant such, would actually be more congruent if appended to the formulae following ‘A’. See also Fyrd Anglo-Saxon England History of the English borough References Sources Blackburn, Mark (1998). "The London Mint in the Reign of Alfred." In Kings, Currency and Alliances: History and Coinage in Southern England in the Ninth Century, edited by M.A.S. Blackburn and D.N. Dumville. Studies in Anglo-Saxon History no. 9. Woodbridge. pp. 105–23. Hill, David. "Athelstan's urban reforms." Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 11, 173-185. Further reading Radford, C.A. Ralegh. "The Later Pre-Conquest Boroughs and their Defences." Medieval archaeology 14 (1970): 83-103. External links The Burghal Hidage 33 Burhs listed in the Burghal Hidage Information on the Cotton MSS at the British Library Texts of Anglo-Saxon England Warfare of the Middle Ages