Estate Management. 193 



tenants, whether worked out or commuted, and handed them 

 periodically to the bailiff. 



Unlike the provost, the hayward was permanently appointed, 

 but otherwise the duties of the two men were very similar. It 

 seems however probable that the provost, who is further on 

 called the lord's chattel, was a kind of champion to the boon 

 tenants, representing their interests as opposed to those of the 

 lord, which the hayward looked after. For this reason the 

 former supervised the work of the court servants, so that their 

 deficiencies should not add to the predial services of the class 

 he represented.^ 



The cowmen slept in the stalls with their charges, the 

 ploughmen with the oxen, and the waggoners with their 

 horses. All these men were closely watched, to prevent their 

 absence from duty at markets, wrestling, wakes, or taverns.^ 

 The waggoners were strictly forbidden to ride their horses, or 

 in any way maltreat them ; and the shepherd's office was con- 

 sidered such a position of trust as to require pledges for his 

 good and faithful service.^ Besides the remaining rank and 

 file of the labouring class we may briefly allude to the messor, 

 or chief reaper, and to that body of radmen or riding bailiffs 

 which Vinogradoff has touched on, but about the existence 

 of which we have been somewhat sceptical in an earlier 

 chapter. 



An interesting account by Professor Thorold Rogers in his 

 &ix Centuries of Work cmd Wages^^ introduces us to another 

 estate official, the scribe or clerk, who probably led an itinerant 

 life travelling from estate to estate whenever his services were 

 required. His busy time was no doubt between July ard 

 Michaelmas, the most usual period for an annual stocktakirg 

 in the 13th century. Under the direction of the seneschal 

 or bailiff he drew up on parchment the lord's profit and less 

 and capital accounts. The names of the estate and the receiver 

 of rents, and the date of the king's reign were engrossed on 



' Seneschancie, Trans. Eoyal Hist. Soc, p. 103. 



2 Id., Ibid. pp. 101, 115. 



^ Id., Ibid. p. 115. 



* Six Centuries of Work and Wages, pp. 49 sqq. 







