Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 5.djvu/371

 IN CHARTERS, RENTALS, ACCOUNTS, &C. 275 Although the above extracts are enough, perhaps, to make it probal)ie that the berbiage and the sheep rents are iden- tical, a decisive proof of their identity is sup])lied by a rental of the see of Exeter, A.U. 130b, ])rinted in Dr. Oliver's Mo- nasticon, (pp. 4:27 — 430.) From the manors in Devon and Cornwall I have selected the following notices : " Criditon. Ue beibiagio ad terminum de la Hockeday uno anno 26 oves matrices, et alio anno 12 oves matrices et 5 hoggs." '• Summa totius berbiagii in Devon 189 oves matiices et 17 hoggs uno anno, et alio anno 184 oves et 22 hoggs, et solvuntur a la Hockeday." In Cornwall the bishop's berbiage was paid at " Calemay," that is, the feast of St. Philip and James, instead of Hocke- day. e. g. : " Polton. . . . Sunt ibidem ad Calemay 206 oves matrices de berbiagio p!Eeter defectum et acquietantiam, et 14 hoggs et dimidium, et 20 agni." " Lawytton. . . . Item de berbiagio 69 oves et di. ped." "S. Germanus . . . De berbiagio 71 oves 3 ped." " Tregaer . . . Berbiagium ... 38 oves matrices, 3 ped. ovium, et 1 ag- nus." "Kaergaul. . . . De berbiagio, 4 oves 1 hogastr'." The render of aliquot parts of sheep may appear paradoxical, and the reader may feel curious to know hoAV Roger the clerk, mentioned in the Testa, contrived to deliver to the bishop of Exeter the half and one eighth of a sheep ? or how the tenants of Polton and Lawitton managed to drive into his pastures the flock of 206 ewes, 14 yearlings and a half, or of 69 sheep and one moiety of a " pet" lamb ? If indeed the berbiage was rendered in the form of meat, cadit quaes tio ; but 1 apprehend that the delivery of so large a supply of a perishable article on a single day in each year would have overstocked even an epi- scopal larder of the 12tli or 13th century; nor docs the lan- guage of the record admit of that construction. A lawyer is, indeed, less startled at the difficulty than a layman is likely to be ; for he knows well that oiu* ancestors were often called upon to render the service due " pro tertia parte unius mihtis," and he has read in our law reports the case of the West India planter who recovered a verdict in an action of " trover for 10 negroes and a half'" At all events the form of reservation was not new in 130S; for we find, about 400 years before, in the •i See 3 Ktble's Rep., p. 785.