LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES 49 



manor had one or two pigeon houses, and the number of 

 pigeons reared is astonishing ; from one manor Lord Berkeley 

 obtained 2,151 pigeons in a single year. No one but the lord 

 was allowed to keep them, and they were one of the chief 

 grievances of the villeins, who saw their seed devoured by 

 these pests without redress. Their dung, too, was one of the 

 most valued manures. Lord Berkeley, like other landlords, 

 went often in progress from one of his manors and farmhouses 

 to another, making his stay at each of them for one or two 

 nights, overseeing and directing the husbandry. The castle 

 of the great noble consumed an enormous amount of food in 

 the course of the year ; from two manors on the Berkeley 

 estate came to the ' standinghouse ' of the lord in twelve 

 months, 17,000 eggs, 1,008 pigeons, 91 capons, 192 hens, 

 288 ducks, 388 chickens, 194 pigs, 45 calves, 315 quarters of 

 wheat, 304 quarters of oats ; and from several other manors 

 came the like or greater store, besides goats, sheep, oxen, 

 butter, cheese, nuts, honey, &C. 1 Even the lavish hospitality 

 of the lords, and the great number of their retainers, 

 must have had some difficulty in disposing of these huge 

 supplies. 



The examining of their bailiffs accounts must have taken 

 a considerable portion of the landlord's time, for those of each 

 manor were kept most minutely, and set forth, among other 

 items, ' in what sort he husbanded ' the demesne farms, ' what 

 sorts of cattle he kept in them, and what kinds of graine he 

 yearly sowed according to the quality and condition of the 

 ground, and how those kinds of graine each second or third 

 yeare were exchanged or brought from one manor to another 

 as the vale corne into an upland soyle, and contrarily.' And 

 we are told incidentally he ' set with hand, not sowed his 

 beanes '. He was also accustomed to move his live stock 

 from one manor to another, as they needed it. 



1 Lives of the Berkeley s, i. 166. There is no reason to doubt Smyth, as 

 he wrote with the original accounts before him. 



