A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



bread and ale, cheese, and either meat or fish, and the entries of the cost of 

 these meals from time to time show the number of persons employed. At 

 Cranfield, where there seem to have been about forty custumary tenants ^ 

 (i.e. heads of households), there were in 1307 at the first ' precaria ' 60 cus- 

 tumars, at the second 1 26, and at the chief 178 ; eighteen years later the numbers 

 were 92, 126, and 1 87." Besides these ' food boon days' there were others on 

 which the custumars supplied their own food, called ' hungribedripe,' *' or 

 received only bread and cheese and ale for their lunch, as at Cainhoe in 1381," 

 and presumably also at Grovebury, where a ' Chesbedryp ' is mentioned in 

 1 341 ." A special complaint was made by the tenants of Weston manor in 1 275 

 that they ought only to do three days' reaping, receiving their food, one day fish 

 and the other days meat, at the manor house, but John Tregoz now demanded 

 ten days' work, and also extorted ' one waterbedripe, when they drink water.' ** 

 The Shillington labourer was expected to reap one selion for an ordinary 

 day's work, and two for the ' hungerbedrype,' and also to reap and carry 

 three roods of corn for ' cornbone ' — counting as three ' works.' " The cus- 

 tumary labour was not always sufficient, and at Grovebury, in 1341, when 

 the virgaters appear to have availed themselves of the custom by which they 

 might pay 1 2J. and be quit of work instead of rendering zs. and work, no 

 less than 65J. was spent in hiring men to work in the harvest at 2^/. a day.*" 

 At the end of the harvest came the harvest supper, the ' Rypegos,' or * reap 

 goose,' so called because geese formed the chief dish." In the same way at 

 Barton, when the meadows had been mown, the mowers received a sheep or 

 6^.,*' but at Grovebury 1 2^. was paid in lieu of the ' Medschep.' ** At Shil- 

 lington the normal day's mowing terminated at three o'clock, but if the men 

 worked on until dusk each might take away as much grass as he could lift 

 on the handle of his scythe ; but if, in his endeavour to secure a large load, 

 the handle broke, he lost his grass.** 



When we come to the ' opera,' or undefined works, we find that they 

 were of very great variety. Weeding, bean planting, hedging, ditching, 

 thatching and carrying manure are all provided for ; ordinarily the work 

 ended at three o'clock, and if it was continued till dusk it counted as two 

 days, but if dinner was provided at the manor house then the day's work did 

 not end till dusk.*' There were holidays, usually about a week, at Christmas, 

 Easter and Whitsuntide, and work was also remitted whenever a work day fell 

 upon a festival. At Cranfield in 1324 six festivals occurred during the har- 

 vest season and ten during the remainder of the year, causing the loss of 

 some 350 'works,' — not a very serious matter when the total number due 

 amounted to 4,656.** Allowances had also to be made for tenants who were 

 ill, but eight ' works ' was the most allowed to anyone on this score.*^ At 

 Barton, if the villein were so ill that he had received the Sacrament, no work 

 was expected from him for the next fifteen days ; *' if he were then still alive 



^ Mins. Accts. bdle. 740, no. 10. " Ibid. no. 13. 



" Ibid. bdle. 741, no. 13. " Ct. R. bdle. 153, no. 13. 



" Mins. Accts. bdle. 741, no. 4. s^ Rot. Hund. (Rec. Com.), i, 6. 



" Ramsey Chartul. (Rolls Ser.), i, 463. « Mins. Accts. bdle. 741, no. 4. 



*' Ibid. no. 19 ; expenses of the ' Rypegos ' at Shillington — 3 geese, &c. provided. 



" Ramsey Chartul. (Rolls Ser.), i, 476. " Mins. Accts. bdle. 741, no. 4 



" Ramsey Chartul. (Rolls Ser.), i, 462. « Ibid. 461. 



" Mins. Accts. bdle. 740, no. 13. " Ibid. bdle. 741, no. 13. 



" Ramsey Chartul. (Rolls Ser.), i, 477. 



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