7o THE MANORIAL POPULATION
greater and the lesser tenants. It remains to note wherein their
paths ran side by side. The lesser tenants, as we have seen, had
• little or nothing to do with the communal cultivation of the
common fields. Nor had they any but the most insignificant of
shares in the common meadows, and therefore they were not
called on for plough and other services on the lord's demesne to
the same extent as were their fellows. But some return they had
to make for their holdings, and this return usually took the form
of a day's work from time to time at the lord's will. Since they
were not liable to perform the major works they were usually
turned on to the many odd jobs always waiting to be done. They
spread dung, or hedged, or ditched; they drove pigs and cattle
to and from market; they helped to repair walls and thatches, to
make new barns and pigstyes; to toss, and rake and collect the
hay; to bundle and stook and load the sheaves on to the wagons;
to winnow and thresh in the barns; to clear out the manor
buildings before the coming of the lord; to gather reeds or rushes,
or to plant potherbs or beans—these and a thousand other
things were their usual lot.
If any one duty more than another attached to them it was the
housing and guarding of thieves and prisoners awaiting judg-
ment. Sometimes they are ordered to house them in their own
homes for the time being as part of their duties, while at others
they are responsible for them in the village lock-up.1 They have
to produce them for judgment and to take them to higher courts
when required. When we recall how difficult it was for the king's
officers to keep men from breaking gaol, we may imagine the
troubles which beset a man charged with such a duty, with
nothing better than a fragile structure of lath and plaster to keep
his prisoner under arrest.
Another duty which commonly devolved on them was the
carrying of letters and writs. They are made responsible for
warning their fellows of the coming of the steward to hold a
court, or they carry writs within limited areas (generally within
the county).2 They go from one manor to another carrying
1 Ramsey Cart. I, 484; Yorks Inquis. I, 75; Wore. Priory Reg. 150, 66 b;
Suff. Inst. Arch, in, 244; Econ.Docs. (Tawney) 61; Banstead, 54; V.C.H.
Surrey, in, 29; Cal. Inquis. n, No. 443.
2 Econ. Docs. (Tawney) 63; Black Book St Augustine, 27, 28; Sussex Rec.
Soc. xxxi, 48, 114, 117, 120.