The most irksome tasks were the transport services, called in Scotland
the duties of _arriage_ and _carriage_. The load of a sumpter-horse was
usually eight bushels--the weight of a sack of wool, or a quarter of
corn. A wain-load was apparently nine seams. The goods carried were
chiefly provisions--grain, pulse, malt, honey, bacon, suet, salt, and
wood. A castle or monastery was _farmed_--that is, supplied with
food--by the nearest manors belonging to the lord. The farming was done
according to a regular cycle, each manor sending supplies in its turn
for so many days or weeks. We have a list of thirty-five villages which
took turns to farm Ely Minster--some for three or four days, some for a
week, some for a fortnight.
Everything contributed in this manner did not travel in waggons, or
packs and panniers; oxen and swine were driven to the head of the barony
to be slaughtered, especially at Martinmas; if the drovers came from any
distance, they received drove-meat. Arriage and carriage were not very
burdensome when fulfilled by the removal of so much wool, or cheese, or
corn, or bacon, to a neighbouring town; but they became serious when a
tenant had to ride or drive from the heart of England to the coast and
home again. Some tenants were called _pouchers_, because they were
required to carry goods in a poke, pouch, or bag. In the Channel
Islands, on the first spring-tide after the 24th of June, the poor who
possess neither cart nor horse have the exclusive right to cut _vraic_
(wrack, sea-weed), on consideration that it is conveyed on their backs
to the beach. Thus cut and conveyed it is called _vraic à la poche_, and
distinguished from _vraic à cheval_.
When fish was wanted at Rochester, the tenants of the four hydes of
Hedenham and Cuddington, near Aylesbury, were called out; two of the
hydes brought the fish from Gloucester into Buckinghamshire, and the
other two hydes carried it on to Rochester: it is likely that they were
sent to fetch the dainty lamprey, still sought for at Gloucester. The
_langerodes_, or long journeys, were very troublesome to the tenants,
but could not be dispensed with while there were no regular mails, and
no public conveyances. A person undertaking a _langerode_ either
received some remuneration or worked out his rent by serving as a
carrier; in general he was not inclined to leave his home and farm, and
found it more convenient to pay the price of the service, which enabled
the lord to find another carrier. No services were more frequently
commuted than the duties of arriage and carriage, and a body of
professional carriers was gradually formed by the habit of constant
commutation.