whose services were still more complicated; and if their days were spent in working, their nights must have been passed, one would think, in a sleepless endeavour to remember where and how the next day was to be employed. Certain days, called boon-days, were supposed to be given to the lord at his request, and not under compulsion—and these again were divided into ‘dry’ and ‘beery,’ according to whether beer was provided or not. Acorn-gathering, weeding, harrowing, hay-carrying, and a host of other employments are specified. One tenant in Debden paid thirty feet of candle by way of rent—at least such appears to be the meaning of the mediæval Latin in which the service is mentioned. Certain provisions relating to timber and carriage lived on. I have in my possession a licence, dated November 6, 1851, to cut down 20 pollards to use on the premises, and five ash trees to be sold, one-third of the proceeds to be paid to the lord ‘according to the custom of the manor,’ with a receipt for 19s. 4d. in the margin. And the tenant of Alderton, in 1832, still undertook to do two days’ carting yearly with a good team. SOCIAL LIFE IN THE 13TH CENTURY. You will ask me, perhaps, where and how all these people lived. It is probable that there were clusters of rude hovels round Debden Green, Loughton Hall, and Alderton Hall, and that the tillers of the soil dwelt there. Some few copyholders, if such they can be called, may have lived on their own small estates away from the villages. But the strip system of cultivation probably prevailed, though the traces of it in later times are very slight. Before passing on, I must just mention that, by some curious accident, one or two Court-rolls of very early date have been preserved. 13th century rolls of that sort are rare—and this is dated 1270. The entries are brief and mainly concerned with land; but they tell us that one man insulted the official in the court; that another thievishly took of the lord’s corn in the lord’s barn; and that Walter Linge stole sheep all over the country and was seen at the lord’s fold; ‘and when the shepherds would take him, he fled from them.’ ORIGIN OF SOME LOCAL PLACE-NAMES.