6o THE ENCLOSURES IN ENGLAND [216 



1344, J. paid a fine for a messuage and a half virgate of land, 

 '' ad q^e idem Johmmes electus est per totum homagium." ^ 

 In other entries cited by Page, the element of compulsion is 

 unmistakable : the new holder of land is described as " elec- 

 ttis per totum homagium ad hoc compulsus/' a phrase which 

 is frequently found also in the entries of fines paid on some 

 of the Winchester manors after the Black Death. ^ 



This method of compulsion was useful to some extent, 

 but there were limits beyond which it could not be pushed. 

 Five men of Therfield in 1351 were ordered to take up cus- 

 tomary land, and several of them left the manor rather than 

 obey. " Vendiderunt quod habuerunt et recesserunt noci- 

 ta/nte" ^ At Nailesboume, in the same year, "' Rohertus le 

 Semenour compulsus iinivit et clam recessit et ea tenere re- 

 cusavit/' * The problem which confronted landowners dur- 

 ing the Black Death was not so much an absolute lack of 

 men on the manors, as a stubborn unwillingness on the part 

 of these men to hold land. There were enough men left by 

 the pestilence, but they were determined to avoid taking up 

 the tenements whose holders had died. The pressure which 

 was brought upon the villains to induce them to take up land 

 and to prevent them from leaving the manor could not pre- 

 vent the desertions, which had begun before the pestilence, 

 and which took away the men who would naturally have 

 supplied the places of those who died. The whole village 

 must have been anxious to prevent the desertion of these 

 men, for the community was held responsible for the ser- 

 vices from vacant tenements, when they failed to provide a 

 tenant. At Meon, for instance, each of twenty-six tenants 



1 Page, op. cit., p. 345. 



2 Ibid., p. 340, note i, and Levett, p. 85. 

 9 Ihid., p. 340, note i. 



* Levett and Ballard, op. cit., p. 85. 



