164 MANORIAL ADMINISTRATION
responsibilities were many.1 He carried out the general agri-
cultural policy which had been decided on in consultation with
the steward, and had to deal with the intricate details which
arose continually on every field and pasture, and to keep a watchful
eye lest any services due to his master were evaded or ill-
performed. He had to know just what he might demand as laid
down by extent and customal, but within these limits his powers
were very extensive. We see him directing the work of the
peasants, now ordering a ditch to be dug or scoured, now sending
them to carry wood for the winter, now setting them to make new
wattles for the fold. At his own discretion he determined how
various men's work might best be expended. The peasant on the
Glastonbury manors, for example, was bound to do whatever
handiwork the bailiff should desire,2 and again and again in the
customals the phrase adpreceptum ballivi or quod ballivi voluerint
occurs.
Naturally, with powers such as these he was not the most
popular man on the manor, and had to be protected by the lord
in the exercise of his duties. Thus we find that if a man assaulted
the bailiff of a Berkshire manor he was fined sixpence, whereas
his violence to another man would only cost him twopence.3
Nevertheless, angry or desperate men were not easily put off,
and would often attack the bailiff or any other men who tried
to hinder them, or to seize their goods, so that we have many
examples of savage fights in which the bailiff was involved.4 Not
that all bailiffs were the aggrieved parties. Far from this being
so, there is, as we should expect, a continuous outcry against their
excesses and harsh behaviour. "The churl like the willow
sprouts the better for being cropped", was the belief of some of
these men, who earned for themselves the reputation of flayers
of rustics (excoriator rusticoruni). At frequent intervals we hear
of bailiffs who compelled men to buy ale from them at double its
lawful price, while others extorted illegitimate carrying or harvest
services. Sometimes they winked at some infringement of
1 For a very detailed account of the bailifFs activities and responsibilities,,
see Fletat 161, and Walter of Henley, 87.
1 Glas. Rentalia, 102, 146, 205.
* Hist. MSS. Com. vi, 583.
* See, for example, Thatcham, n, 272; Select Coroner's Rolls, 10; Ramsey
Cart. I, 428, etc.