PASTON AND LATIMER 61 



other hand, land had depreciated in value ; rents had declined ; 

 farming had deteriorated ; useful practices had been discontinued ; 

 cattle were dwindling in size and weight ; the common pastures 

 had become infected with " murrain " ; the arable area of open- 

 fields had grown less productive, and without manure its fertility 

 could not be restored. Land was cheap to buy and cheap to rent. 

 Enterprising purchasers and farmers could make it pay, if they 

 realised the advantages of separate occupation, of employing money 

 on the land, of reviving obsolete practices like marling, and, in 

 certain climates, of adopting a convertible husbandry that adapted 

 itself to fluctuating needs better than the open-field system, which 

 rigidly regulated the cultivation of the soil and permanently separ- 

 ated arable land from pasture. The one obstacle to the success of 

 the new tenant-farmer was the scarcity and dearness of labour. 

 But sheep-grazing cut down labour bills, while legislation checked 

 the natural rise of wages, and barred the outlet into towns against 

 agricultural labourers and their sons. Even a high rate of wages 

 often proved nominal rather than real, for, under the Statutes of 

 Labourers, farmers had the option of paying their men in corn at 

 the statutory price of 6s. 8d. a quarter when corn fell below that 

 price, or in money when the price of corn approached or exceeded 

 the statutory figure. 



Two contemporary pictures have been painted of the lives of 

 tenant-farmers, who were fathers of famous sons one at the 

 opening, the other at the close, of the fifteenth century. Each 

 picture seems to be more or less typical of the farming class at the 

 periods to which they belong. Clement Paston. at the beginning 

 of the century, lived at the village of Paston, near Mundesley in 

 Norfolk. 1 " He was," says an anonymous writer who was no 

 friend to the family, " a good plain husband(man), and lived upon 

 his land that he had in Paston, and kept thereon a plough all times 

 in the year, and sometimes in barlysell two ploughs. The saide 

 Clement yede (went) at one plough both winter and summer, and 

 he rode to mill on the bare horseback with his corn under him, 

 and brought home meal again under him, and also drove his cart 

 with divers corns to Wynterton to sell as a good husband (man) 

 ought to do." He had at the most 100 or 120 acres of land, some of 

 it copyhold, and a " little poor water-mill." He married a bond 

 woman. Their son William, who was kept at school, often on 

 1 Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, Introduction, vol. i. pp. 28-30, 



