d to the
drainage, _etc._, were of necessity neglected, and finally the hope of
keeping up the struggle was abandoned. The spirit which prompted the
reply of the Chatteris tenant when he was ordered by the manorial
court to put his holding in repair can be understood: "_Non reparavit
tenementum, et dicit quod non vult reparare sed potius dimittere et
abire._"[83] If he left the manor and joined the other men who under
the same circumstances were giving up their land and becoming
fugitives, it was not with the hope of greatly improving his
condition. Some of the fugitives found employment in the towns, but
this was by no means certain, and the records frequently state that
the absent villains had become beggars.[84]

The declining productivity of the soil not only affected the villains,
but reduced the profits of demesne cultivation. It has already been
seen that the acreage under crop was steadily decreasing, as more and
more land reached a stage of barrenness in which it no longer repaid
cultivation. This process is seen from another angle in the frequent
complaints that the customary meals supplied by the lord to serfs
working on the demesne cost more than the labor was worth. According
to Miss Levett:

This complaint was made on many manors belonging to the Bishop of
Winchester in spite of the fact that if one may judge from the
cost of the "Autumn Works" the meals were not very lavish, the
average cost being 1 _d._ or 1-1/4 _d._ per head for each
_Precaria_.... The complaint that the system was working at a
loss comes also from Brightwaltham (Berkshire), Hutton (Essex),
and from Banstead (Surrey), as early as 1325, and is reflected in
contemporary literature. "The work is not worth the breakfast"
(or the _reprisa_) occurs several times in the Winchester Pipe
Rolls.... By 1376 the entry is considerably more frequent, and
applies to ploughing as well as to harvest-work.[85] At Meon 64
acres of ploughing were excused _quia non fecerunt huiusmodi
arrura causa reprisae_. A similar note occurs at Hambledon
(_Ecclesia_) and at Fareham with the further information that the
ploughing was there performed _ad cibum domini_. At Overton four
virgates were excused their ploughing _quia reprisa excedit
valorem_.[86]

Miss Levett quotes these entries as an explanation for the tendency to
excuse services, forgetting that the lord could usually d