102 RENTS AND SERVICES
This is inserted in this place, by itself, because when the convent
first came to Darnhale, the bond-tenants said that no division ought
to be made of the sheep, but that all the sheep ought to remain wholly
to the wife of the deceased. Which is quite false, because we always
used to divide them without gainsaying it at all, until Waren le
Granteunour was bailiff of Darnhale; and while he was bailiff he was
corrupted with presents, and did not exact the lord's share of all things
in his time; and afterwards the bond-tenants endeavoured to make this
a precedent and custom, which they by no means ought to do.1
But for this addendum we should have known nothing of the
struggle which had been waged over the partition of the sheep,
and by it we are also reminded of the extent to which the lord
was dependent on his agents, and of the wisdom lying behind
the careful drawing up of the written customals. Cases such as
this, or the revolts at Dunstable,2 or Burton,3 or Meaux,4 are
evidence enough of the necessity for reading the bald statements
of the customals with a wideawake attention. Only by so doing
shall we sense the underlying agitation that was changing con-
ditions on innumerable manors—an agitation, however, which
was seldom violent enough to leave any very obvious traces, even
to the diligent reader of customal and court roll
With such general considerations in mind we may now turn to
see the way in which the "power of the lord" had determined
what services and what payments the serf should make, and
how they are to be found in their essentials all over the country,
despite local modifications and variations, due to "the custom
of the Manor ".
One of the most characteristic features of the manorial system
was its insistence on manual labour as one important element in
the return a man made to his lord for the privilege of holding
land on the manor. He might, and generally did, make certain
money payments, but his obligation to render a specified amount
of work from time to time was all important. The lord depended
to a greater or less degree upon the work thus exacted for the
cultivation of his part of the manor, for the proper tending of his
cattle and the upkeep of his manor house. Of course it is true
1 Vale Royal Ledger Book (Lancashire and Cheshire Rec. Soc.), 119.
2 Ann. Dunst. (R.S.), 133.
8 (Wm. Salt Soc.) Staff. Collections, v, 82.
4 Melsa Chron. (R.S,), ill, 126.