GENERAL IMPRESSIONS 219
ance: the culprit was not left solely ad misericordiam doming but
had both the custom of the manor and the clemency of his
fellows to cling to. These helped him, but still left the lord with
something, as a glance at the margin of any Court Roll in which
the amerciaments are written will show. It has proved quite
impossible to work out any figures which would be useful here:
on some manors year by year the revenues from this source are
trivial, on others they are considerable, but seem to bear little
relation to the size of the manor or its annual turnover. In all
probability what we require in order that we may get any
valuable statistics here is a very detailed enquiry into the whole
administration and organisation of each of these manors. On
some the lord insisted on money payments for things which were
freely allowable on others; many lords took heavy annual pay-
ments for leave of absence or permission to marry off the manor,
while others made but a token fine sufficient. Yet, by and large,
it remains true that the manorial courts were a source of revenue
sufficiently valuable to form a separate paragraph in the great
annual rendering of account by the reeve's compotus.
After looking over many hundreds of Court Rolls before the
Great Pestilence certain impressions abide, for what they are
worth. First, the courts rapidly developed in technicalities: men
soon found that they could avoid a charge by riding off on some
point of pleading. At Wakefield, for example, the plaintiff does
not name the day or hour on which certain goods were stolen
from him and his claim fails accordingly.1 A. charged B. with
assault and carrying off his bow and arrows. B. pleaded that he
was not bound to answer, because he was charged with two
offences one of which might be true and the other false.2 Many
pleadings of a similar nature will also be found in the books of
instruction for young lawyers, published under the title of The
Court Baron? which illustrate well the complexity of manorial
law even by the fourteenth century.
Secondly, we cannot fail to notice how comparatively powerless
the Court often was to enforce its own orders. We read in many
rolls that such and such a thing is to be done, "as hath been
oftentimes commanded", but just as frequently the entry appears
1 Wakefield Rolls, I, 104. 2 Op. cit. II, 15.
8 Selden Soc. iv, 24, 41, 48, 67, 76, etc.