68 THE MANORIAL POPULATION
were an inseparable part of country life, and which constantly
absorbed a portion of the manorial surplus population.
Not only this: these men, as well as providing necessary services
for their fellows within the village, were also among those who
most easily got free from the manorial organisation. As we have
seen, they were burdened with but small duties, and it was com-
paratively easy for them to get the lord to commute their work
for a money payment.1 This left them almost free, and we should
be wrong not to consider the great if indirect effect this had in
stimulating their neighbours to approximate to their status. The
virgater with a multitude of claims upon him must frequently
have sighed for the comparative freedom of the little man, who
held only a few acres, it is true, but who could do what he wished
in his own time and in his own way. We must not press this too
far: the virgater frequently enough found his family could easily
divide up among them the duties their holding imposed, and
still leave plenty of time for their own strips and crofts; but,
nevertheless, this was a freedom attaching to many of these
small tenants that must have given some virgaters cause for
reflection.
Their comparative freedom will be seen when it is realised
that, once they had done the limited amount of work their little
holding imposed upon them, they could turn their attention from
one master or occupation to another more easily than could the
greater tenants. They were able, therefore, to make experiments
in crop production, or to cultivate their small holdings in ways
impossible to the virgaters who were bound by age-long custom
and the necessity for co-operative work at frequent intervals.
Hence, we may with some justice think of this section of the
medieval villagers as being far more important in several ways
t than at first sight might appear to be the case.
We must also note how the gradual spread of a desire to com-
mute works for money payments increased the need for such
men as these. The more the lord allowed his tenants to buy their
freedom from week or boon works, the more necessary it was that
he should be able to command a steady supply of labour for his
various needs. This he would have found it very much more diffi-
cult to do unless there had already existed on his manor, or
1 See e.g. Neilson, Ramsey, 26, 28.