SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



they had half a load of wheat, a sheep, and a ' scultellata ' of salt, and at 

 Edgeware 6</., a cheese worth 2</., and salt to the value of \d. 



The usual number of boon-days is either three, as at Paddington, 

 Kensington, and Teddington, where the free tenants only attend two, 

 while the custumers send six men to three ; or two, as at Drayton, 

 the one with food being attended by all the tenants' servants as well 

 as by the tenants themselves. At Sutton the tenants send one man 

 to the dry and two to the ' wet precaria ' ; and at Isleworth, where again 

 the free tenants attend as overseers only one bedrippe and have three 

 meals a day of bread, cheese, and beer, at the lord's cost, the custumers 

 have to attend two, receiving only one similar meal in the day, but 

 without beer at the second bedrippe. At Greenford the free tenants 

 attend one ' precaria,' while there are six four being dry for the 

 custumers ; but these probably include ploughing days, which were some- 

 times called ' precariae,' and are not otherwhere mentioned for the 

 Greenford custumers. At Hayes no boon-days are mentioned. 



The food provided at the ' precariae ' is carefully specified at 

 Teddington, where at the first ' precaria ' the servants had a meal of 

 bread, water and two dishes, and the masters received 30 gallons of 

 beer. Masters and servants had bread, water and two dishes at the 

 second 'precaria.' At the great 'precaria' the masters had a dignarium 

 of bread and cheese and beer, the servants had water and two dishes, 

 and masters and servants supped together, provided with a suffi- 

 ciency of beer. On the second day of the great ' precaria ' all the 

 ' consuetudinarii ' dined together, and when the harvest was finished 

 they received a measure (sectarian!) of beer. The fare provided for the 

 tenants on all the manors was ample in quantity and quality. Bread 

 and cheese with either fish or meat was the usual dinner, and at 

 supper there was often a pottage of beans or peas as well. At 

 Harmondsworth in 1434 the provisions laid in, either from the stock 

 of the manor or by purchase, for the autumn boon-days included 

 bread, cheese, milk and butter and eggs, beer, beef, pork and other 

 meat, ducks, salt-fish, and herrings. If the usual diet of the tenants 

 at their own tables was in anything like the same proportion, 

 there would seem to be some justification for Froissart's surprise at 

 the 'grant aisse et craisse ' in which the English peasant lived, and in which 

 the chronicler, who was not remarkable for democratic sympathies, 

 saw the source and origin of their turbulence at the ' hurling-time.' 88 



Although the works were apportioned to the separate holdings, 

 there was a certain amount of joint responsibility for certain services. 

 Thus it was generally understood that the mowing and carting of the 

 hay from the whole meadow must be completed, and if tenements 

 ! were in the lord's hands, he had to provide substitutes for a corresponding 

 share of this work. Again at Kensington all the tenants were responsible 

 for the ploughing of a given number of acres, and at Isleworth when the 

 number of cottars fell from five to four, the four had to do the same 



" Froissart, Chroniques (ed. Soc. de 1'Hist. de France, Luce), x, 94.. 



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