276 ON CERTAIN OBSCURE WORDS Polypticoii Fossatense, published by Baluzius% that some of the'tenants of that monastery " solvunt mense maio verveces 9^ cum agnis." In truth, the problem may be solved in various ways without resorting to the knife : thus a sheep of a certain age or condition may have been conventionally estimated at some multiple of another of a different age or state ; and this actually happened with the ceorles of Hurstborne, who, as early as the 10th century, rendered, among other customary dues, ewes and lambs to their lord at Easter, and reckoned a young sheep at the half of an old one^ ; or four persons, each liable to | of a sheep, might unite in delivering one whole sheep ; and thus it was that the Geburi before the Conquest may be said to have supplied, each of them, the keep of half a dog^. Or, lastly, the value of the fractional animal may have been paid in monies numbered ; for the practice of fixing an alternative of money in lieu of a rent in kind has universally prevailed from the earliest times'". With regard to the nature of this rent, a very early question arose whether it was a real ox 2i personal charge : i. e., whether the custom attached to the land or to the status personae. In an assession or arrentation roll of the lands of the earldom of Cornwall, anno 7 Edw. III. the following entry occurs under Calstock manor. "Mem. quod tenentes supraclicti non oner- antur de berbiagio quia berbiagium una summa continetur in extenta'. Levantur {sic) de aliquibus nativis ratione personse et non ratione tenementi." Yet I find the berbiage rent sub- sequently paid by several free as well as native tenants. In a register of the Black prince's letters &c. extending over the years intervening between 25 & 39 Edward III., there is a mandate to enquire whether berbiage is due "ratione san- guinis," or " ratione terrse ;" but no return to it is there re- corded. It is evident indeed that the prince's officers 500 years ago knew as little as (it may be less than) we know about the natiu^e of the rent ; and as they were removed, per- haps, by a like interval of 500 years from the date of its origi- « 2 Capitularia Reg. Franc, f. 1390. nem vel 2. denarios." For the learning on ' " We tala'5 two geong sceap to eald sheep, and tlieir treatment, under tjie vari- sccapan." — Kemble, Dip. Anglo Sax., vol. oiis names of oves, multones, castores, agni V. p. 147. et hogastri, the reader must consult that K " Duo et duo pascant unum molos- learned lawyer and practical farmer, the sum." Rectitudincs singularum persona- author of Fleta, lib, ii. c. 79. rum, in Thorpe's Ancient Laws of Eng- ' This refers to an old extent or survey, land, vol. i. p. 435. possibly that of the Queen Isabella, which h The Gebur in the Rectitudincs (?/6/,s-M- is also extant among the Augmentation liTii) " Dare debet ad pascluun 1 ovem juve- Itccords.
