By C. R. Straton. 295 



had gone into decay, and if the tenant made default for one year 

 after the stake was set up then the house escheated to the lord. 

 The holding was " at stake " during this period. 



The great hundred court was held twice a year by the sheriff — 

 at Hoktide and Michaelmas, and to the sheriffs tourn every 

 tithing sent a reeveman with four bowmen, and the suitors were 

 sworn " upon the holy gospel " well and truly to perform their 

 office and true presentment make. The oath at Shaftesbury was, it 

 appears, administered instead " on the corporal," which was the 

 ' fine linen cloth that was used to cover the consecrated elements. 



But besides being a court every manor was also a farm. Some 

 of the land in a manor the lord kept in hand as demesne land for 

 the use of his household, if he lived in the manor house. The rest 

 he granted to tenants, to be held under him, either for money rents 

 or for military or praedial services. At this time actual money of 

 currency was very scarce, and business of all kinds was carried on 

 much more by barter than by sale, and rents consisted more often 

 of grain or services than of money. Each holding was called a 

 tenement and the holder a tenant, although many of those tenants 

 were what we should call freeholders : they held in perpetuity and 

 could not be disturbed so long as they made the returns due to 

 their lord. In this survey they are called liheri tenentes, — free 

 tenants, free meaning free to go if they liked, they were no longer 

 adscript serfs. But by far the larger number in each manor were 

 copyholders or customary tenants. Their title to their lands was a 

 copy of the court roll, and they each rendered certain services in the 

 cultivation of the manor fields according to the custom of the manor. 

 Some were exempt from actual farm labour on account of other ser- 

 vices rendered to the community. The bailiff, the priest, the black- 

 smith, the carpenter, and the pound keeper all held their acres free 

 from ordinary services, the duties of their respective callings being 

 considered as equivalent in value. But all those farmers, and 

 there were fifty in Broadchalke alone, had not their farms sepai'ate 

 from each other, as they would have now, but they had each a 

 share in a great common farm cultivated on the open field system. 

 Each manor had its three large fields — one for tilth grain or winter 



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