64 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



what parts they pleased, except to his enemies, subject how- 

 ever to an order of the Council ; and owing to the interference 

 of the Council the law probably became a dead letter, at all 

 events we find it confirmed and amended by 4 Hen. VI, c. 5. 



The prohibition of export must have been a serious blow to 

 those counties near the sea, for it was much easier to send 

 corn by ship to foreign parts than over the bad roads of Eng- 

 land to some distant market.^ Indeed, judging by the great 

 and frequent discrepancy of prices in different places at the 

 same date, the dispatch of corn from one inland locality to 

 another was not very frequent. Richard also attempted to 

 stop the movement, which had even then set in, of the country- 

 men to the growing towns, forbidding by la Ric. II, c. 5, those 

 who had served in agriculture until 12 years of age to be appren- 

 ticed in the towns, but to ' abide in husbandry '. 



One of the most unjust customs of the Middle Ages was 

 that which bade the tenants of manors, except those who 

 held the Jtts faldae, fold their sheep on the land of the lord, 

 thus losing both the manure and the valuable treading.^ How- 

 ever, sometimes, as in Surrey, the sheepfold was in a fixed 

 place and the manure from it was from time to time taken out 

 and spread on the land.^ 



In the same district horses had been hitherto used for farm 

 work, as it was considered worthy of note that oxen were 

 beginning to be added to the horse teams. The milk of two 

 good cows in twenty-four weeks was considered able to make 

 a wey of cheese, and in addition half a gallon of butter a 

 week ; and the milk of 10 ewes was equal to that of 3 cows. 



On the Manor of Flaunchford, near Reigate, the demesne 

 land amounted to ^6 acres of arable and two meadows, but 



^ Lord Berkeley, about 1360, had a ship of his own for exporting wool 

 and corn and bringing back foreign wine and wares. — Smyth, Lives of 

 the Berkeley s, i. 365. 



' Nasse, Agricultural Community of the Middle Ages, p. 66. 



' Customs in some Surrey manors in the time of Richard II, Archaeo- 

 logia, xviii. 281. 



i 



