Estate Management. 189 



harsh treatment, much less brook the idea of serfdom. It was 

 an idealised form of feudal tenure, far in advance of the times, 

 and possibly nearer to what was passing in Charles Kingsley's 

 mind when he wrote to Sir Charles Bunbury his objections to 

 la 'petite culture and eulogised feudalism.^ But let us descend 

 from the eminence and inquire closer into such matters as the 

 unaided eye cannot convey to the brain. The seneschal gallop- 

 ing off to some other manor could answer our questions ; but he 

 is too busy to rein in, and we must be content with some other 

 official. He is an important man, that fast disappearing horse- 

 man, and his day is quite as fully occupied as that of any 

 modern estate agent, of whom he is but the prototype. A 

 knowledge of law is essential for one who has not only to 

 advise the bailiffs beneath him, but make his periodical rounds 

 of inquiry into the rents, services, and customs of the various 

 manors under his supervision, or examine the franchises of 

 courts, lands, woods, meadow^s, pastures, waters, mills, and all 

 other such matters liable to be withdrawn or withheld without 

 legal warrant.^ He has, too, to keep a carefully surveyed plan 

 and reference of the demesne lands, containing the acreage, 

 cultivation of each field, and other particulars whereby he can 

 check the accounts of seed furnished by the provost or hay ward, 

 estimate the exact number of ploughs necessary for cultivating 

 the arable lands, at the rate of one implement per nine-score 

 acres ; deduct from this sum the acreage ploughable by boon, 

 predial, or money services, and enumerate the head of live 

 stock which the meadow lands could carry after deducting the 

 acreage necessary for the manor hay. Similarly he will refer 

 to the Estate Roll for the acreage and capabilities of the 

 common lands available as pasturage. He has also to look 

 sharply after the farm management at each manor he visits — 

 for one of his duties invests him with powers of enforcing 

 compensatory fines for bad husbandry, wrong cropping, and 

 " neglect of guard " over the live stock. Even the character 

 of the bailiff and other foremen are not allowed to escape his 

 watchful eye. All this is so like the modern duties of a land 



^ Vide. Letters and Memoirs of Charles Kingsley, by his Widow. 

 ^ Serieschancie, pp. 84, seq., Translation of Eoyal Hist. Soc. 



