I. _The Obligations of the Warden of a Lay-fief._ It was the duty of every custodian to preserve the lands from neglect, together with all houses, “parks” (a term explained under chapter 47), fishponds, mills, and the other usual items of the equipment of a medieval manor. All outlays required for these purposes formed, in modern language, a first charge on the revenues of the estate, to be deducted before the balance was appropriated by the “grantee,” or paid to the exchequer by the “committee.” It was the guardian’s duty, moreover, to restore the whole to the heir in as good condition as the produce of the land might reasonably permit. Henry’s Charters directed that the guardian should redeliver the land stocked with ploughs “and with all other appointments in at least as good condition as he received it.”[398] ----- Footnote 398: Blackstone, _Great Charter_, lxxviii. considers this “an indulgence to guardians, by only directing them to deliver up the land ... in as good condition as they found it, not in as good as it would bear.” Sometimes, the heir after coming of age, could not recover his lands at all. The Statute of Marlborough (c. 16) gave such a ward a right to a _mort d’ancestor_ (cf. _infra_, p. 325) against a mesne lord, but apparently not against the Crown. The Statute of Westminster I. (c. 48) narrates that heirs were often carried off bodily to prevent them raising actions against their guardians. ----- Magna Carta did not attempt to abolish wardship, which continued in full force for many centuries, with only a few of its worst abuses somewhat curtailed. The whole subject was regulated in 1549 by the Statute 32 Henry VIII. c. 46, which instituted the Court of Wards and Liveries, the expensive and dilatory procedure of which caused increasing discontent, until an order of both Houses of Parliament, dated 24th February, 1646, abolished it along with “all wardships, liveries, _primer seisins_, and _ouster les mains_.”[399] This ordinance was confirmed at the Restoration by the Statute 12 Charles II. c. 24. ----- Footnote 399: See S. R. Gardiner, _Documents_, p. 207. -----