44 The Demesne. 1270— -1307. [ch. 



The first column of the table gives the net money profits accord- 

 ing to the bailiff's reckoning^ ; the second column includes the value 

 of grain and stock, reckoned in the way just explained^ 



1306 76 15 III 



Average : about ^87. Average : about ;^93. 



The expenses consisted of a few small rents, the largest being a 

 payment of i6d. as waite-fee^ for the guard of Norwich castle; of 

 some insignificant customary payments, e.g. 4^. to the plowmen on 

 Lammas-day ; of wages to the lord's agents and to the inferior 

 officers of the manor, as well as to the smith, carpenters(thatchers) 

 plasterers, (coopers,^ and other workmen employed on the demesne; 

 of purchases of iron, steel, salt, grease, tallow, and sundry manu- 

 factured articles. These last included plow-shares, wheelbarrows, 

 wheels for plows and wheelbarrows, forks, spades, hoes or mattocks, 

 axes, clouts, strakes, axle-irons (hurthirons)*, wer-irons% nails of 

 various kinds, hinges, boards, laths, saddles, saddle-bags, leather 



' 1 * Liberationes ' or payments made in the lord's behalf to persons not connected with the 

 manor are, of course, left out of account. 



2 At Forncett, the average price of a quarter — eight bushels — of wheat in the ten years 

 for which we have information was ^s. io\d. Calculated from Thorold Rogers' tables, the 

 average price of a quarter of wheat in the same ten years was 5J. 6^af. But Rogers has 

 omitted the low prices of inferior grain while the Forncett average is based on all the prices 

 quoted, including the low prices at which grain was sold * ad opus comitis.' It may therefore 

 be concluded that the price of wheat was high in Forncett. 



^ For waite-fee, see Memorials of S. Edmunds^ R.S., i. 269, 271, and Red Book of 

 Exchequer^ R.S., ccxl. 



^ Probably connected with hurter, the iron ring in the axle of a cart. Halliwell, Did. of 

 Archaic and Provincial Words. 



^ The meaning of this term is not clear to me. 



