94 Erlcstohe and its Manor Lords. 



had the custody of the feeding rights of the manor, which involved 

 the duty of impounding all animals found feeding contrary to 

 custom and the regulations mutually agreed upon from time to 

 time by the homage, and for this purpose they had control of the 

 pound and of " a piece of meadow " or " plot of pasture near 

 Hickett's hedge," which was doul)tless used for strays that remained 

 for any length of time unredeemed. The most important of the 

 special regulations were that no horses or beasts were to feed on 

 . the lighter lands, or, as the minutes say, " in any upper field," or 

 "above ye town," that all pigs were to be ringed by All Saints' 

 Day, and that these were to be kept styed during harvest and not 

 to go forth until the fields were clear of corn ; while the general 

 rules had reference to the routine of change in pasture at different 

 times of the year, for beasts from Common to Common Mead and 

 to common fields, and for sheep between the Sheep Leaze, the- 

 fields above the town, and the feeding grounds in the vale, which 

 they shared at times with the beasts. The operation of moving 

 the cattle was called a drift, and was superintended by the drivers 

 or tellers (enumeratores) , who could summon the tenants to attend 

 at an hour's notice (when anyone making default was liable to a fine), 

 and who had to see that no tenant had more than his customary head 

 of stock — five Ijeasts, twenty-four sheep, and apparently one horse — 

 to each yard-land. The repair of the roads seems also to have 

 been included among the duties of the homage, for on one occasion 

 they presented an inhabitant for encroaching on the highway by 

 planting willows, and frequent orders were given for the " scouring 

 and amendment " of the horseways and sheep drove by the tenants 

 to whose land such duties were attached, and on one occasion a 

 tenant had " to set up rails at tlie end of his house to prevent a 

 horse-way which is prejudicial to the footway." The tenants were 

 under strict obligation to keep their houses and tenements in 

 repair, and a notice to this effect is found in the roll of 1544, while 

 in the later periods the penalties for neglect were severe, rising in 

 some cases tu a fine of £10 10s., and occasionally involving the 

 forfeiture of the whole " estate." The homage also kept the lord 

 and the tenants strictly to custom in the matter of the repair of 



