ks.

In conclusion, I will give two illustrations of the relations between
the garrison of a castle and those outside. The first refers to
Swansea. There is a curious Charter of King John to the good men of
Swansea, in which he releases them from the "custom of eating" forced
on them by the men of the castle. This would be a solid variation of
the liquid scot-ales or free drinks which officials and garrisons were
in the habit of exacting from their neighbours, and which were among
the most persistent grievances in the Middle Ages.

The second concerns Builth, and is taken from the Patent Rolls of
Edward II. in 1315. Builth was then in the hands of the king, to whom
the townsfolk appeal for redress of grievances. The community complain
that, though they are only bound to carry timber to the castle twice a
week, they are often forced to carry it three times a week and more,
and victuals too; and the men of the castle compel them to plough
their lands and cut their corn, and hold them to ransom if they
refuse; and they carry away from the houses of the said complainants
divers kind of victuals--lambs, geese, hens, &c.--and pay only one
quarter of their value, or nothing at all; and though the complainants
gave the keeper of the castle L120 that they might be free from such
oppressions, he took the money and oppresses them just the same.
Further, the courts which the people have to attend are multiplied;
and recently the court was held at a time when so great a flood had
happened that neither horsemen nor footmen could approach the court,
and so thirty-six men and women, fearing the cruelty of the bailiffs,
entered a boat and were overwhelmed in the rush of the river. And one
night men of the castle, maliciously seeking occasion against the
commonalty of the town, went out of the castle and pretended to
besiege it and shot arrows at it; and then secretly re-entered the
castle and declared the townsfolk had been attacking the castle. And
on this account many burgesses were imprisoned in the castle and
ill-treated, and their swine maliciously killed. And things are so
intolerable that many of the greater burgesses have left the country,
and the residue, without speedy remedy, cannot remain.

Life was evidently dull in a castle: one had to play practical jokes
to relieve the monotony; and life was anything but pleasant outside a
castle. The castles of Wales are much more attractive to us to-day
than they were to those who l