COMMUNAL OPERATIONS 45 the most economical way would have been to yoke the oxen of various peasants together in one plough-team, and to have worked over the whole field, furrow by furrow, just as the peasants were forced to plough the lord's demesne by communal labour. We imagine that this is what was done, but little definite evidence exists to support this view. On the other hand, Dr Coulton has drawn attention to a passage in Piers Plowman which, as he says, " seems to point clearly to a good deal of private ploughing and reaping".1 The dishonest peasant in Piers Plowman confesses: "If I went to the plough I pinched so narrowly that I would steal a foot of land or a furrow, or gnaw the half-acre of my neighbour; and if I reaped, I would over-reap (i.e. reach over into my neighbour's ground), or gave counsel to them that reaped to seize for me with their sickles that which I never sowed."2 We may emphasise this point by noticing another example of this kind of dishonesty which is mentioned in Robert Mannyng of Brunne's Handlyng Synne. Here we read of"false husband- men who falsely plough away men's lands, [and] take and plough away a furrow of land through and through".3 And when we turn from literature to the records we find some evidence of a similar nature. An instance occurs at Thorner, in 1365, which suggests that communal operations were unusual, and that private agreements were resorted to at times. We read that "John de Roch complains of Robert de Eltoft on a plea of agreement. John comes and says that on a certain day and year he made a pact with the said Robert that they should be partners for ploughing the land of the said John and Robert with equal animals going to the plough, which partnership is called mar- rows, for a year only; and concerning this Robert in no wise held to the pact, etc. "* Now this phrase