had
apparently already diminished and was diminishing in numbers, so that
for the cultivation of the demesne the lord was coming to rely more on
the labour of his tenants, and consequently the labour services of the
villeins were being augmented.[35] The agricultural labourer as we
understand him, a landless man working solely for wages in cash, was
almost unknown.

All the arrangements of the manor aimed at supplying labour for the
cultivation of the lord's demesne, and he had three chief officers to
superintend it:

1. The seneschal, who answers to our modern steward or land agent, and
where there were several manors supervised all of them. He attended to
the legal business and held the manor courts. It was his duty to be
acquainted with every particular of the manor, its cultivation,
extent, number of teams, condition of the stock, &c. He was also the
legal adviser of his lord; in fact, very much like his modern
successor.

2. The bailiff for each manor, who collected rents, went to market to
buy and sell, surveyed the timber, superintended the ploughing,
mowing, reaping, &c., that were due as services from the tenants on
the lord's demesne; and according to _Fleta_ he was to prevent their
'casting off before the work was done', and to measure it when
done.[36] And considering that those he superintended were not paid
for their work, but rendering more or less unwelcome services, his
task could not have been easy.

3. The praepositus or reeve, an office obligatory on every holder of a
certain small quantity of land; a sort of foreman nominated from among
the villeins, and to a certain extent representing their interests.
His duties were supplementary to those of the bailiff: he looked after
all the live and dead stock of the manor, saw to the manuring of the
land, kept a tally of the day's work, had charge of the granary, and
delivered therefrom corn to be baked and malt to be brewed.[37]
Besides these three officers, on a large estate there would be a
messor who took charge of the harvest, and many lesser officers, such
as those of the akermanni, or leaders of the unwieldy plough teams;
oxherds, shepherds, and swineherds to tend cattle, sheep, and pigs
when they were turned on the common fields or wandered in the waste;
also wardens of the woods and fences, often paid by a share in the
profits connected with their charge; for instance, the swineherd of
Glastonbury Abbey received a sucking-pig a year, the inter