ings or pence to the
lord. Occasionally they are required to make some payment in kind, a
cock or a hen, some eggs, or other articles of consumption. These
money payments and payments of articles of money value are called
"rents of assize," or established rents. Not unusually, however, the
free tenant has to furnish _precariae_ or "boon-works" to the lord.
That is, he must, either in his own person or through a man hired for
the purpose, furnish one or more days' labor at the specially busy
seasons of the year, at fall and spring ploughing, at mowing or
harvest time. Free tenants were also frequently bound to pay relief
and heriot. Relief was a sum of money paid to the lord by an heir on
obtaining land by inheritance. Custom very generally established the
amount to be paid as the equivalent of one year's ordinary payments.
Heriot was a payment made in kind or in money from the property left
by a deceased tenant, and very generally consisted by custom of the
best animal which had been in the possession of the man, or its
equivalent in value. On many manors heriot was not paid by free
tenants, but only by those of lower rank.

The services and payments of the villains or customary tenants were of
various descriptions. They had usually to make some money payments at
regular periods of the year, like the free tenants, and, even more
frequently than they, some regular payments in kind. But the fine paid
on the inheritance of their land was less definitely restricted in
amount, and heriot was more universally and more regularly collected.
The greater part of their liability to the lord of the manor was,
however, in the form of personal, corporal service. Almost universally
the villain was required to work for a certain number of days in each
week on the demesne of the lord. This "week-work" was most frequently
for three days a week, sometimes for two, sometimes for four;
sometimes for one number of days in the week during a part of the
year, for another number during the remainder. In addition to this
were usually the _precariae_ or boon-works already referred to.
Sometimes as part of, sometimes in addition to, the week-work and the
boon-work, the villain was required to plough so many acres in the
fall and spring; to mow, toss, and carry in the hay from so many
acres; to haul and scatter so many loads of manure; carry grain to the
barn or the market, build hedges, dig ditches, gather brush, weed
grain, break clods, drive sh