SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC ECONOMY. 119 



Heyford Warren h , and it is likely that the fine levied on the 

 defaulting or dishonest bailiff at Staverton 1 was assessed by 

 the view of frankpledge. 



The right of preemption or purveyance, which formed, as 

 part of the royal pferogative, so capricious and partial an 

 incidence during the period before us, is constantly alluded 

 to ; we may judge how annoying it was by the heavy bills paid 

 to avoid it. The accounts do not contain any allusions to the 

 practice before the middle of Edward the Second's reign, when 

 its inconvenience begins to be felt. The mischief was aggra- 

 vated by the fact that Hugh Spenser's bailiffs arrogated the 

 same right. In Edward the Third's reign, again, purveyance 

 is frequently referred to, and avoided only by payment of bribes 

 to the king's officers, in other words, by contriving that the 

 obligation to furnish supplies, the price of which was fixed, and 

 payable in tallies on the Exchequer, should fall on those who 

 were too poor to offer hush-money to the royal officers. The 

 right of purveyance included that of taking carriages and horses 

 for the king's use, and by usage the king's wife and sons were 

 entitled to the same privilege. 



The possessors of estates, when they held impropriated tithes, 

 seem to have been liable to rates on behalf of the fabric, and 

 for the due discharge of divine service 1 *. The bailiff" of Elham 

 pays for a clock, and presents a heavy bill for building the 

 church in 1290. Three years later he repairs the glass in the 

 chancel ; and six years after, claims allowance for another large 

 sum ; the occasion of which with a further payment is repeated 

 in 1301, and even more definitively in 1310. Similar contri- 

 butions are made at Letherhcad, Holy well, and Gamlingay. 

 One payment, afterwards erased, seems like a compulsory rate 

 in aid of the poor, made at Cambridge in one year of the great 

 famine 1 . 



One of the most general customs of the middle ages was the 

 present of gloves. They were given at once to the highest 



h Vol. ii. p. 613. ii. ' p. 610. ii. k pp. 609. ii., 6lO. i. ii., 6ll. i. 



1 p. 6ll. i. 



