under the King's seal. If he does, he shall be set in the stocks—to which end there shall be stocks in every town. The "prudhommes" of the hundred shall have a seal to use at their discretion—the name of the county to be written round the seal, and across it the name of the hundred. Any servant or labourer found in a city or town or elsewhere, wandering without a letter patent sealed with such a seal, to be put in the stocks till he finds surety to return to his service, or to serve in the town he comes from, till he gets a letter to depart for reasonable cause. But he may freely depart at the end of his term of service, and serve elsewhere, provided he is sure of work there, and has a letter. Anyone found with a forged letter to have forty days' prison, or till he finds surety for returning and serving. He is not to take more wages than is limited—servants have long asked "outrageous" wages, much greater than in past times. Servants are so dear that husbandmen cannot pay their rents or hardly live on their lands. Then follow the rates of wages. A bailiff for husbandry, 13s. 4d. a year and his clothes—one suit a year. The "master hind," 10s., the carter and shepherd the same. The oxherd and cowherd, 6s. 8d. A woman labourer, 6s. A ploughman, 7s. at most—"without clothes, courtesie ou autre regard par covenant." Anyone who gives or takes more shall pay the value of the excess, and the second time, double, and the third time treble, or forty days, if he cannot pay. Able-bodied beggars are to be treated as those who leave their hundred without "letters testimonial," except religious persons and hermits having letters from their ordinaries. Impotent beggars are to remain in the towns they are in, and if the people of the towns cannot feed them, then in the hundreds where they were born.
The 13 Richard II. abolished the fines. But every new statute begins by saying that the former laws are not observed.
In Henry VI.'s time the wages of a bailiff had gone up to 23s. 4d., a year, and clothing worth 5s., with meat and drink. A chief hind, carter or head shepherd, 20s., and clothing to value of 4s., with meat and drink. A common servant of husbandry, 15s., and clothes to 40d. A woman, 10s., and clothes to 4s., with meat and drink. A child of fourteen, 6s., and clothes to 3s., with meat and drink.
