Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/105

 tenants paying rent in kind, with the important addition that they were forced to pass their lives in the district where they had first seen the light of day. It should be noted that any "villani" not having domiciles of their own were compelled to enter the service of others who were more fortunately situated in that respect.

During the twelfth century the house-wife's plan of preparing bread for the table, in the absence of public bakehouses, common in some neighbourhoods, was to knead the dough into large flat cakes and lay them on the hearth in full glare of the fire, where they were permitted to remain until thoroughly baked. Bread from pure wheat of the best quality was a luxury unattainable except by those of high station or wealth, the bulk of the people having to content themselves with an inferior quality, brownish in colour and made from rye, oats, and barley. The amount of this indispensable commodity to be sold at a specified price was regulated by law, and the punishments for not supplying the proper measure, or for "lack of size " as it was termed, were—for the first offence, loss of the bread; for the second, imprisonment; and for the third, the pillory or tumbrel. In 1185 the maximum charges to be made for certain provisions were settled by an act which decreed that the highest price for a hen should be 1/2d., a sheep 5-1/2d., a ram 8d., a hog 1s., an ox 5s. 8d., and a cow 4s. 6d.

In the ensuing century no restrictions were placed upon the tenants of the Fylde as to the course of husbandry to be pursued, but each on renting his farm or parcel of ground cultivated it according to the dictates of his own inclination or experience, the only stipulation being that the soil should suffer no deterioration from any ignorant or imprudent action on the part of the holder. Oats and barley mixed, and a light description of wheat, very inferior to the best grain, were the favourite crops, the former being known as "draget," and the latter as "siligo." Arable land was let at 4d. per acre, and the annual yield of each acre sown with wheat, usually amounted to 12 bushels, the value of the grain itself averaging about 4s. 6d. per quarter. Demand notices were sent in two days after the rent had become due, and if not complied with in two weeks the landlord distrained without further