m. But even when the demesne was still being
managed for the lord, it had already become necessary in some cases to
allow one man to hold two or more of these portions, for the
productivity had so declined that one was no longer enough. Now, with
the leasing of the demesne, the lord no longer had an interest in
maintaining the working population of the manor at a certain level,
but was concerned with the problem of getting as much rent as
possible. When the demesne and the vacant bond tenements began to be
leased, the land was given to the highest bidder, and the competitive
system was introduced at the start. This led to the gradual
accumulation of large holdings by some tenants, while other men were
still working very small portions, and others occupied holdings of
every intermediate size. The uniformity of size characteristic of the
early virgates disappeared. In this chapter these points will be
considered briefly, and a study will also be made of the way in which
these new holders managed their lands.

In the first place, as the more destitute villains were giving up
their holdings and leaving the manor, and as no one could be found to
take their places on the old terms, the landlords gave up the policy
of holding the land until someone should be willing to pay the
accustomed services and let the vacant lands at the best rents
obtainable. Freeholders, and villains whose land was but lightly
burdened, and those who by superior management had been able to make
both ends meet, were now able to increase their holdings by adding a
few acres of land which had been a part of the demesne or of a vacated
holding. The case of the man at Sutton, who took up three virgates and
a cotland, has already been mentioned. Another case of "engrossing,"
as it was called, dated from 1347-1348 at Meon, where John Blackman
paid fines for one messuage with ten acres of land, two other
messuages with a virgate of land each, one parcel of four acres, and
another holding whose nature is not specified.[87]

Legislators who observed this tendency issued edicts against it. No
attempt was made to discover the underlying cause of which it was
merely a symptom. The first agrarian statutes were of a
characteristically restrictive nature, and no constructive policy was
attempted by the government until after a century of futile attempts
to deal with the separate evils of engrossing, enclosure, conversion
to pasture, destruction of houses and rural