MANORIAL FLUX AND CHANGE 69
near by, a number of men whose comparative freedom from the
incessant cares of husbandry left them leisure to "live by their
hands" in serving whosoever cared to employ them.1
On these manors where money rents were predominant, and
services few or nil, much the same state of affairs prevailed. Small
holders could not exist on their own few acres; they were forced
to seek work wherever it could be found, and obviously it could
be found on the acres of larger holders. Free or serf, the land
had to be cultivated, and the labour came from the multitude of
small tenants and their sons who formed part of every manor.
One further point must be considered. We must always re-
member that beneath the apparent fixed condition of affairs as
revealed in the extents and customals there was a constant state
of flux and change on the manor. The extent was concerned
almost solely with the holding: the individual units of father,
mother, children and other relatives which each holding might
be supporting were of comparatively minor importance from
this point of view. But, as we may easily imagine, a man who
had only a small part in the common fields and yet was burdened
with a large family was forced to do what he could to provide an
outlet for them. Hence we find him purchasing assarts, or taking
over extra cots and plots within the vill so as to accommodate his
numerous progeny. In short, a constant movement was going on
between the various sections of the manorial tenantry: some were
leaving their father's home to start a life for themselves in some
empty house and toft, or were prepared to build one on the
assart clearing at the edge of the village. Others again were
turning to seek a living by labour connected with the normal
manorial arrangements: they engaged themselves as ploughmen,
or carters, or shepherds who served the lord all the year round in
return for a fixed wage, or they came to the aid of a fellow peasant
unable, or unwilling, to discharge the duties incumbent upon his
holding. The pressure of work at special seasons also called for a
body of workmen who could be recruited at harvest or other
times of stress, and who could aid the normal servants in a
multiplicity of ways which varied according to the special and
local needs of the many manors.
So far we have been stressing the differences between the
1 V.C.H. Berks, n, 175, i8z; Herts, iv, 184; Dorset, n, 233,