Notes and [lustrations. 293 
3 qrs. 3 bu. of wheat from the stock; 5 qrs. 3 bu. of malt from the 
stock; meat bought, 10s. 10d.; 5 sheep from the stock; fish and 
herrings bought, 5s.; herrings bought for the customary tenants, 
7d.; cheese, milk, and butter bought (the dairy being let), 9s. 6d. ; 
salt, 3d.; candles, 5¢.; pepper, 3d¢.; spoons, dishes, and faucets, 
5d. 30 bedrepes, as before; 19 reapers, hired for 1 day, at their 
own board, 4d. each; 80 men, for 1 day, and kept at the lady’s 
board, 4d. each: 1404 men (szc) hired for 1 day, at 3d. each; the 
wages of the head reaper, 6s. 8d.; of the brewer, 3s. 4d.; of the 
cook, 3s. 4d. 30 acres of oats tied up by the job (fer /askam), 
1s. 8d.; 6 acres of bolymong cut and tied up by the job, 3s. 4d. ; 
16 acres of pease, cut by the job, 8s.; 5 acres of pease and boly- 
mong, cut and tied up by the job, zs. 6d. ; 3 acres of wheat, cut and 
tied up by the job, rs. 11d.” [ Here follow similar details for 1389, 
including a mention of 5 pairs of harvest-gloves, 1od.| ‘‘ What a 
scene of bustling industry was this! for, exclusive of the baker, 
cook, and brewer, who, we may presume, were fully engaged in 
their own offices, here were 553 persons employed in the first year ; 
in the second, 520; and ina third, 538; yet the annual number of 
acres, of all sorts of corn, did not much exceed 200. From this 
prodigious number of hands, the whole business must have been 
soon finished. There were probably 2 principal days; for two 
large parties were hired, every year, for t day each..... These 
ancient harvest-days must have exhibited one of the most cheerful 
spectacles in the world. One can hardly imagine a more animated 
scene than that of between 200 and 300 harvest-people all busily 
employed at once, and enlivened with the expectation of a festivity, 
which perhaps they experienced but this one season in the year. 
All the inhabitants of the village, of both sexes, and all ages, that 
could work, must have been assembled on the occasion ; a muster 
that, in the present state of things, would be impossible. The 
success of thus compressing so much business into so short a time 
must have depended on the weather. But dispatch seems to have 
been the plan of agriculture at this time, at least in this village. 
We have seen before, that 60 persons were hired for 1 day, to weed 
the corn. These throngs of harvest-people were superintended by 
a person who was called the head-reaper (supermessor or preepositus), 
who was annually elected, and presented to the lord, by the inhabi- 
tants; and it should seem that, in this village at least, he was 
always one of the customary tenants. The year he was in office, he 
was exempt from all or half of his usual rents and services, according 
to his tenure; he was to have his victuals and drink at the lord’s 
table, if the lord kept house (sz? dominus hospitium tenuertt) ; if he 
did not, he was to have a livery of corn, as other domestics had ; 
and his horse was to be kept in the manor-stable. He was next 
in dignity to the steward and bailiff. The hay-harvest was an affair 
of no great importance. ‘There were but 30 acres of grass annually 
