THE REEVE AND THE AUDITORS 175
little here and there, we need not be surprised. This side of the
reeve's activities was sufficiently common knowledge for Chaucer
to comment on it:
Ful riche he was astored pryvely:
His lord wel koude he plesen subtilly,
To yeve and lene hym of his owene good,
And have a thank, and yet a cote and hood.
Not only this: he was so able to conduct the manorial affairs that
he even lent his lord moneys arising from the estate, and did this
in so clever a way that the auditors were unable to get the better
of him.1 And this was no easy matter, for, as we have already seen,
the annual audit was a very searching enquiry, and whether
bailiff or reeve made the return, the proceedings were the same.
Everything had to be accounted for, and what wonder if the un-
fortunate reeve faltered at times, and found himself obliged to
invent a reason for the outlay of certain moneys, or the loss of an
ox, or the defection of certain rents. So from time to time we
stumble across entries which show that something like this has
happened: a reeve is fined 6s. 8d. for "many things concealed'*2
in his accounts, or is found guilty of returning certain tenements
as empty when in fact they were still occupied,3 and so on. The
whole working of the account will be explained later, and it will
be seen what a formidable matter it was for the reeve, and how
thankful he must have been once it was over.
Although the lord had the right to require his men to serve as
reeves, he was not so harsh as to demand this service gratis.
There were emoluments and allowances which compensated in
some part for the heavy burdens of office. Nearly always the
reeve was given a direct money payment, small indeed when com-
pared with that received by the steward, or even that of the
bailiff, but considerably more than was given to any of his fellows
who were employed by the lord. It will be found that the reeve's
pay is at least double that received by the ploughmen or carters,
and usually was paid by the lord.4 In places, however, as on the
Battle Abbey manors, it was exacted from the peasants, and in
1 C.T. Prologue, 587. a Rogers, Prices, II, 210.
8 Levett, op. cit. 150; and see below, p. 191.
4 See, for example, Winton Pipe Roll, passim.