i 



SPREAD OF LEASES 57 



arable land in Nowton, Suffolk, let the land at 6d. an acre 

 per annum for a term of six years.^ It contains no clauses 

 about cultivation ; the landlord warrants the said 2 acres to 

 the tenant, and the tenant agrees to give them up at the end 

 of the term freely and peaceably. The deed was indented, 

 sealed, and witnessed by several persons. The impoverished 

 landlords also let much of their land on stock and land leases. 

 The custom of stocking the tenants' land was a very ancient 

 one : the lord had always found the oxen for the plough teams 

 of the villeins. In the leases of the manors of S. Paul's in the 

 twelfth century the tenant for life received stock both live 

 and dead, which when he entered was carefully enumerated in 

 the lease, and at the end of the tenancy he had to leave 

 behind the same quantity.^ It was a common practice also, 

 before the Black Death, for the lord to let out cows and 

 sheep at so much per head per annum.^ The stock and land 

 lease therefore was no novelty. In 1410 there is a lease of 

 the demesne lands at Hawsted by which the landlord kept 

 the manor house and its appurtenances in his own hands, the 

 tenant apparently having the farm buildings, which he was to 

 keep in repair. He was to receive at the beginning of the 

 term 20 cows and one bull, worth 9^. each ; 4 stotts, worth 

 loj, each; and 4 oxen, worth 13J. ^d. each ; which, or their 

 value in money, were to be delivered up at the end of the 

 term. The tenant was also to leave at the end of the lease 

 as many acres well ploughed, sown, and manured as he found 

 at the beginning. Otherwise the landlord was not to interfere 

 with the cultivation. If the rent or any part thereof was in 

 arrear for a fortnight after the two fixed days for payment, 

 the landlord might distrain ; and if for a month, he might 

 re-enter : and both parties bound themselves to forfeit the 

 then huge sum of ;;^ioo upon the violation of any clause 



' CuUum, Hawsted, p. 175. 



"^ See Domesday of S, Paul, Introduction. 



* Thorold Rogers, History 0/ Agriculture and Prices, i. 25. 



