A PEASANT'S THOUGHTS 23
were common brewers and had broken the prior's orders about
the sale of ale, and they were each fined twelvepence. John
Morgan presented that a stray horse had been found by one of
his tithing and surrendered to the beadle and was now in the
village pound. He also asked that William Bonesay might be
enrolled in his tithing as he was now twelve years of age. William
Cook complained that Richard Jamys had received one John
Freeman into his house, and that John was not in any tithing and
was suspected of being a night-walker and eavesdropper. Richard
was ordered to produce John at the next Court and to be ready
to answer for him. Lastly, John atte Hethe was removed from his
office of tithing man, and in his place William Craft was elected
and sworn.
So the proceedings came to an end; and, after the cellarer had
reminded them that the next Court would be held on that day
six weeks, he withdrew to his private chamber, and amid a-general
chattering the peasants began to disperse. John left the Court
with his sons who soon joined their own friends and set off home-
wards. He, however, made a roundabout circuit so as to pass by
the great west field, for he was anxious to see how things were
coming on, for the whole week past had been so taken up with
haymaking and work elsewhere thaj; he had had no time even to
do an hour's work there. As he came round by the field his eye
rapidly moved from strip to strip and he saw there was much to
be done. St John's Day was already past, so they must set to
work at once at the weeding, he thought, and he determined to
spend the rest of the day at this. For a few minutes before turning
homeward to his midday meal he sat down and looked across the
great field at the village as it straggled over the neighbouring
slope—a familiar sight, but dearer to him than any other place on
earth. There stood the church, clean and white in the midday sun,
and there a few hundred yards to the right his own little house
and its narrow close which, with his land in the common fields,
represented all he had in the world.
It seemed little enough, yet, he reflected, things might be