THE CUSTOMALS . 105

integrum.1 Even in the harvest season a day's work often ihean$
only till noon: a man may send two men to work till noon, or
only one if he stays till evening (usque vesperam) ;2 or again, work
terminates at noon unless the lord gives a repast, in which case
work is resumed until evening.3

If we bear these facts in mind we shall not be so overwhelmed
when we read that at Waldon and Walpole in East Anglia(^r. 1270)
six days' work a week were performed throughout the year,4 or
that in the West of England, the monks of Gloucester in 1266-7
were exacting a minimum of four days' work most of the year
and five days at harvest.5 Even on manors as heavily burdened
as these, it left a man with considerable time for his own work,
except on a very few occasions. And he was protected from
attempts to demand more of him by the exactness with which his
P services were usually defined. Years before the first accounts of
o such services were written down (and few written accounts exist
^ earlier than 1225) custom had hardened and settled what was
^ each tenant's burden, and any move to increase this was fiercely
resisted by him and all his fellows.6 It is true that they were not
^ always able to withstand pressure from above, and no doubt
*"* services actually increased on some manors in the thirteenth
>* century; but, generally speaking, services slowly dwindled as the
^ peasants bought their freedom from such liabilities.7
r» The exactness with which services are defined, and the meti-
^ culous way they are accounted for in the annual accounts may
lead us too far in a belief in medieval order and regularity.
"^ Although the lord had a right to the works, he did not always
j demand them as regularly or as completely as we may easily be
led to believe. As regards regularity,Mr Hudson writes:

It is often taken for granted that the obligation to do one work a
week, or sometimes three or four, meant literally so many days' work
regularly, in consecutive weeks. Whatever the original practice may

1 Davenport, op. cit. xxxix.

2 Battle Cust. 87: cf. a mane usque nonam, 63, 74, 76, 78, 94 and Crondal
Records, 112, 113, 120.

8 Norf. Arch, xx, 185; and cf. p. 189, where ploughing goes on till noon if
dinner is provided, otherwise it ceases at tierce (9 a.m.).

4 Med. East Anglia 81; cf. Norf. Arch, xx, 185; Ramsey Cart. I, 310.

5 Glouc. Cart, in, 52, 53.

8 Neilson, Ramsey Econ. Conditions, 29; Cur. Reg. Rolls, I, 4; Levett, op. cit.
65 n. 2. 7 See below, p. 279.

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