THE MANORIAL OVEN 135
The actual work when repairs were necessary was laid upon the
serfs. They carried wood to the mill, or cleaned out and repaired
the sluices, or helped in re-thatching: in short were called on for
all the semi-skilled and unskilled labour required. Loss of time
meant loss of money to the lord, and thus the tenants of the
Bishop of Durham were fined for not coming in good time to
help repair a broken mill bank.1
Lastly, a few words must be said about the miller himself.1
"What is the boldest thing in the world?" asks the medieval
riddle. "A miller's shirt, for it clasps a thief by the throat daily ",
is the answer, and serves to indicate the unenviable reputation of
the miller during this period. The Coventry Leet Book,2 and the
Red Paper Book of Colchester3 (both fifteenth-century docu-
ments it is true), tell us by inference of some of his tricks, in their
injunctions forbidding the miller to water or change corn sent to
him, and give worse for the better. Nor shall he keep hogs, nor
more than three hens and a cock, and especially are gluttonous
geese to be banished from his premises. But no great time need
be spent on this matter, for Chaucer has dealt so faithfully with
the Miller in the Canterbury Tales that, to use his own phrase,
"there is namor to seyn".4
Just as the peasant was not allowed to grind his corn wherever
he thought best, so he was forbidden to bake his bread at home or
anywhere, save in a special oven constructed for the purpose, and
belonging to the lord. Of course, it is clear that very many
peasants had not the means of baking at home: the construction
of an oven was a semi-skilled affair, and many houses could not
have included one in their flimsy structures without grave risks
and great difficulty. So the lord's oven must not be looked upon
solely as a seigneurial oppression. Undoubtedly it provided a cer-
tain income for the lord, often at no trouble to himself, for he
generally rented it to an individual or to the peasants as a body,
and, save for repairs from time to time, had no further concern
in the matter. Still, so long as the baker did not exact too large a
fee for his work, the village oven or bakehouse was a communal
convenience.
1 Durham Halmote Rolls, 30, and cf. 39, 87, 103; Ramsey Cart, m, 243.
2 Cov. Leet Book (E.E.T.S.), n, 397-
8 Benham, Red Paper Book, 18., 4 C.T. Prologue and A. 3120 ff.