e
land, which transferred the burden of getting laborers from the
landlord to the lessee-tenant. The payment was called a "farm" and
the tenant a "farmer". First, there were stock-and-land leases, in
which both the land and everything required to cultivate it were
let together. After 50 years, when the farmers had acquired
assets, there were pure land leases. Landlords preferred to lease
their land at will instead of for a term of years to prevent the
tenant from depleting the soil with a few richer crops during the
last years of his tenancy. The commutation of labor services into
a money payment developed into a general commutation of virtually
all services. Lords in need of money gladly sold manumissions to
their villeins.

The lord and lady of some manors now ate with their family and
entertained guests in a private parlor [from French word 'to
speak"] or great chamber, where they could converse and which had
its own fireplace. The great chamber was usually at the dais end
of the great hall. The great hall had been too noisy for
conversation and now was little used. There were also separate
chambers or bed-sitting rooms for guests or members the family or
household, in which one slept, received visitors, played games,
and occasionally ate.

Some farmers achieved enough wealth to employ others as laborers
on their farms. The laborers lived with their employer in his
barn, sleeping on hay in the loft, or in mud huts outside the
barn. The farmer's family lived at one end of the barn around an
open fire. Their possessions typically were: livestock, a chest, a
trestle table, benches, stools, an iron or bronze cauldron and
pots, brooms, wooden platters, wooden bowls, spoons, knives,
wooden or leather jugs, a salt box, straw mattresses, wool
blankets, linen towels, iron tools, and rush candles [used the
pith of a rush reed for the wick]. Those who could not afford rush
candles could get a dim light by using a little grease in a
shallow container, with a few twisted strands of linen thread
afloat in it. The peasants ate dark bread and beans and drank
water from springs. Milk and cheese were a luxury for them. Those
who could not afford bread instead ate oat cakes made of pounded
beans and bran, cheese, and cabbage. They also had leeks, onions,
and peas as vegetables. Some farmers could afford to have a wooden
four-posted bedstead, hens, geese, pigs, a couple of cows, a
couple of sheep, or two-plough oxen. July was the m