v^ 



it] The Demesne. 1270 — 1307. 45 



collars, traces, halters, curry-combs (strigils), cord, sacks (probably 

 for measuring grain), canvas for the windmill-sails and for sacks, cloth 

 for winnowing, small cloths used in straining milk and making ^ 

 cheese, hair-cloth for thq malt-house^^ pots and pans of earthenware 

 and of brass, buckets, vats, small vessels for the dairy, stamps for 

 butter or cheese, sieves, hurdles for harvest carts, hurdles for sheep, 

 a key for the grange, and a bolt for the hay-housel 



But while many articles were thus procured from outside the 

 manor, some of the more important implements of the farm were 

 made on the estate itself by the labour of the smith and of carpenters. 

 Thus, in 1275, two carpenters were hired for three days to prepare 

 timber for the plow and to make three harrows and yokes. The 

 frame of the plow was put together by carpenters and fitted with 

 iron by the smith. The carts were also made within the manor, as 

 were also the ladders and some of the wooden vessels, though these 

 latter seem to have been more frequently bought. In 1300, when 

 the earl wa^ about to visit the manor, several men were hired for 

 18 days to prepare 'divers vessels.' 



The material in print affords a very insufficient basis for com- 

 parison between this and other manors, but such a comparison seems 

 to indicate that the more unusual features of the Forncett accounts 

 were the number of chevage-paying bondmen, the tax annually 

 levied upon the tenants, and the sums paid as rent, and as fines and 

 amercements — sums not only absolutely large, but relatively as 

 compared with the proceeds from grain and stocks About 100 

 persons annually paid chevage. They are called in some rolls 



1 Used for drying the malt after it had been made to germinate. Rogers, Agric. and 

 Pi-ices, I. 572. 



'^ These articles were probably obtained at Norwich where a number of industries had 

 arisen, and the large market created by a populous town in a well-peopled district permitted 

 the division of employments to be carried comparatively far. At about this time there were 

 in Norwich gilds of saddlers, tanners, cobblers, and fullers. In the extracts from the Leet 

 Rolls of Norwich (1288-1313) printed on pp. i-6r, vol. v. (1891) of the Selden vSoc. 

 publications, some 60 or 70 different trades are mentioned. To illustrate the sources from 

 which the articles purchased for Forncett may have been supplied, as well as to show how 

 minute was the division of employments in Norwich, a few of the occupations noticed in the 

 leet rolls may be enumerated : viz. turners, basket-makers, lock-smiths, mustard-men, 

 mitten-makers, girth-makers, bell-founders, makers of knife-handles, bird-snare makers, 

 lace-braiders, chaloners (blanket-makers), hatters, and barbers. 



^ For example, in Forncett fixed rents averaged about ;^i 8. ro^. ; perquisites of court were 

 usually between £\o and £^o ; sales of grain between ;^3o and £(iO. 



In Wilburton, temp. Ed. II., 'rents of assize' were about ^2; perquisites of court 

 somewhat more; sale of crops ;^8 to £^\. Maitland, ' History of a Cambridgeshire Manor,* 

 Eng. Hist. Rrd.y July, 1894. 



In Cuxham, Oxford, 13 16-17 (^ Y^^^ of great scarcity) rents were less than £2 ; fines and 

 pleas, £^. 15J. ; grain, ^19. 5^. Rogers, Agric. and Prices, ii. 617-630. 



On the other hand, other of Bigod's Norfolk manors present the same peculiarities as 



