io4 RENTS AND SERVICES
occasions to appear with all his family and servants; but, for the
most part, the lord contented himself by exacting only such
service as might be rendered by a single person in the course of a
day's work. And even when we have said this we have not made
clear what was meant by a day's work in the thirteenth-century
cartularies. For example, a day's work is frequently defined as
the threshing of two bushels of wheat or a quarter of oats, or the
mowing of an acre or rather less of hay, or the cutting of a half
acre of corn—or a multiplicity of other jobs1—all of which, how-
ever, have this in common: they represent only something like
half a day's actual work.2 Old farm labourers still speak of
cutting two acres of wheat by hand between the hours of 4 a.m.
and 10 p.m.; and, making allowances for then and now, this helps
us to realise that (in the later Middle Ages, though it had doubt-
less been stricter in the past) the man who was called upon to
work three days a week, as a matter of fact actually worked only
for a portion of each of those days, and even then, as we have
seen, this generally took but one member of the household away
from the family holding.
We may emphasise this point (which is of great importance,
and has not been fully appreciated in modern discussions of this
question) by noting the terms used to define the hours of work
demanded of the peasant, especially at the busiest times of
year—the hay and corn harvests. The cartularies make it clear
that it is an unusual thing to demand a man's work for the whole
day, and when this is exceptionally required the cartulary says so
quite clearly. Thus the men of Stoneley in Warwickshire are to
be in the field during the harvest at sunrise and to work till
sunset? and the same hours are expressly required in many other
instances.4 Again at Forncett, for the greater part of the year the
lord exacted manual works which lasted for half the day only:
in the autumn, however, the works are stated to be per diem
1 See any cartularies passim for this. E.g. Ramsey Cart. i, 288, 299, 310,
323, 335, 345, etc.
* Cf. Norf. Arch, xrv, 19, where Mr W. Hudson writes: *' Work for a whole
day on the land counted for 2 works*'.
8 Dugdale, Warwick, 1770.
4 Frideswde's, St. Cart, n, 357; Arch. Journ* Lvin, 355; Min. Ace. 987/19,
etc. The men of the monks of Eynsham come to their harvesting ante pulsum
campani missa beate Marie, and are not allowed to sit to eat their breakfast or
otherwise ante cottacionem—presumably about noon. Eynsham Cart, u, 40.