ii2 RENTS AND SERVICES
not the ground. And, if perchance the handle break, then he shall
lose his straw or grass, and be at the lord abbot's mercy, and pay a
fine, coming to the best accord that he can with the abbot.1
Many other interesting variations might be quoted from the
Ramsey manors, as for instance the custom which allowed the
serf to take from the abbot's courtyard a bundle of as much
straw as he could carry, "but, if the band break before he has
passed through the yard door, he shall lose his straw, and com-
pound by a fine as best he may ".2 In the West of England, on a
manor of the Abbot of Glastonbury, the size of the sheaf taken
by the peasant was measured in a strangely elaborate manner:
If any sheaf appears less than is right, it ought to be put in the
mud, and the hayward should grasp his own hair above his ear, and
the sheaf should be drawn midway through his arm; and if this
can be done without defiling his garments or his hair, then it is ad-
judged to be less than is right; but otherwise it is judged sufficient.3
On other manors the serfs had the right to medkniche when they
mowed the lord's meadow. This was as much hay as the hay-
ward could lift with his little finger as high as his knees.4
Whatever else may be thought of conditions such as these, it is
obvious that work demanded in this fashion and at such frequent
intervals was often work grudgingly given, and often work badly
done. We have only to glance through manorial documents to see
that this was so. To take the first few pages of the Abbots
Langley rolls: men were fined for not coming to the harvest, or for
not producing a sufficient number of men; they came late, and
when they did come performed their work badly or in an idle
fashion.5 Sometimes, not one, but a whole group of men failed to
appear and so left the lord's crops ungarnered.6 Others, even
when they came, made themselves very unpleasant; Hugh le
Waterleder, despite his name, cursed the lord's servants when
they summoned him to carry water;7 Roger Cook, when told to
1 Ramsey Cart. I, 394; cf. 311, 324, 336, 399; Worcester Priory Reg. 146;
Camb. Antiq. Soc. Proc. xxvn, 165; Glow. Cart, in, 64,167, etc.; Glas, Rentalia,
10, 14, 53, 65, 7i, 85, etc.
2 Ramsey Cart, i, 415. For other interesting customs see I, 49.
8 Glas. Rentalia, 135; cf. 68. * Ibid. 85, 87, 88, 90, 91, 92.
5 Abbots Langley Rolls, ff. i, 2, 3,4, 8, 9, 13, 14, 16 (all c. 1270). Cf, Hales
Rolls, 168; Tooting Bee Roll$t 236, 240, 241, 246, 249, etc.
6 Abbots Langley Rolls, ff. ao> 21, 34. Cf. Col. Pat. Rolls (1299), 461;
F.C.H. Berks, n, 184. T Chester Rolls, 184.