rter, and
to sell his meadow grounds by the acre. And in the time of Henry IV
still more and more was let, and in succeeding times. As for the days'
works of the copyhold tenants, they also were turned into money.'[149]
Such leases had been used long before this, but this is the date of
their great increase. In the thirteenth century a lease of 2 acres of
arable land in Nowton, Suffolk, let the land at 6d. an acre per annum
for a term of six years.[150] It contains no clauses about
cultivation; the landlord warrants the said 2 acres to the tenant, and
the tenant agrees to give them up at the end of the term freely and
peaceably. The deed was indented, sealed, and witnessed by several
persons. The impoverished landlords also let much of their land on
stock and land leases. The custom of stocking the tenants' land was a
very ancient one: the lord had always found the oxen for the plough
teams of the villeins. In the leases of the manors of S. Paul's in the
twelfth century the tenant for life received stock both live and dead,
which when he entered was carefully enumerated in the lease, and at
the end of the tenancy he had to leave behind the same quantity.[151]
It was a common practice also, before the Black Death, for the lord to
let out cows and sheep at so much per head per annum.[152] The stock
and land lease therefore was no novelty. In 1410 there is a lease of
the demesne lands at Hawsted by which the landlord kept the manor
house and its appurtenances in his own hands, the tenant apparently
having the farm buildings, which he was to keep in repair. He was to
receive at the beginning of the term 20 cows and one bull, worth 9s.
each; 4 stotts, worth 10s. each; and 4 oxen, worth 13s. 4d. each;
which, or their value in money, were to be delivered up at the end of
the term. The tenant was also to leave at the end of the lease as many
acres well ploughed, sown, and manured as he found at the beginning.
Otherwise the landlord was not to interfere with the cultivation. If
the rent or any part thereof was in arrear for a fortnight after the
two fixed days for payment, the landlord might distrain; and if for a
month, he might re-enter: and both parties bound themselves to forfeit
the then huge sum of L100 upon the violation of any clause of the
lease.[153] There is a lease[154] of a subsequent date (the twentieth
year of Henry VIII), but one which well illustrates the custom now so
prevalent, granted by the Prior of the Monas