Estate Ma7iagement. 187 



crops with that just harvested on the lord's demesne. An offi- 

 cial, most likely by his dress from the neighbouring monastery, 

 has attached himself to the group, and is estimating with an 

 expert's eye the probable value of the rectorial tithe. Here 

 and there amidst the tenants' corn appears a strip of stubble, 

 denoting those parts of the servile land which form a portion 

 of the demesne. 



Adjoining the arable ground are one or two superior-looking 

 pastures, technically known as " hams," on which cattle or 

 sheep can be finished off and rendered prime for the butcher. 



One remaining touch completes the picture. Far away on 

 the distant horizon a sharp eye will detect the baronial banner 

 fluttering from the highest tower of the tenant-in-chief 's castle. 

 The Lord of the Manor has been there many a time to render 

 feudal service, for powerful though he be here, he is the vassal 

 of the great noble yonder, whose warder's pikes and moat 

 waters are just now reflecting the glittering sunlight. 



But if (still in imagination) we allow ourselves to convert 

 those distant battlements and turrets into the towers and spires 

 of a stately abbey,^ the scene around represents the industry 

 and pursuits of Church vassals. Seldom liable to military 

 service except on special occasions, and holding their lands for 

 a small quit rent or moderate proportion of the produce, they 

 could pursue their husbandry without those interruptions from 

 boon service and annual calls to arms in which the tenantry of 

 the lay barons employed more than a moiety of their days. Their 

 infield (as the permanent arable lands were termed) would there- 

 fore display a heavier yield of oats and here in the alternate 

 husbandlands or raines between the riggs than the crops our 

 fancy pictured in the servile lands of the manor; and even the 

 " outfield " would show here and there temporary cultivation, 

 where some more than usually industrious " feuar " had chosen 



* It will be noted that in order to bring in all the terms in use, the 

 former scene has been imagined in the sovith, this latter in the north of 

 England, where infield was used instead of common field, spence instead 

 of solar, raine and rigg instead of dole and balk, etc. The term infield 

 must not be confused with the Saxon term inland. The former was 

 the common arable field of the community, the latter the Saxon lord's 

 demesne lands. 



