Manors averaged about ten miles distance between each other, the land in between being unused and called "wasteland". Statutes after a civil war proscribing the retaking of land discouraged the enclosure of waste land. Some villeins bought out their servitude by paying a substitute to do his service or paying his lord a firm (from hence, the words farm and farmer) sum to hire an agricultural laborer in his place. This made it possible for a farm laborer to till one continuous piece of land instead of scattered strips. Looms were now mounted with two bars. Women did embroidery. The clothing of most people was made at home, even sandals. The village tanner and bootmaker supplied long pieces of soft leather for more protection than sandals. Tanning mills replaced some hand labor. The professional hunter of wolves, lynx, or otters supplied head coverings. Every village had a smith and possibly a carpenter for construction of ploughs and carts. The smith obtained coal from coal fields for heating the metal he worked. Horse harnesses were home-made from hair and hemp. There were water mills and/or wind mills for grinding grain, for malt, and/or for fulling cloth. Most men wore a knife because of the prevalence of murder and robbery. It was an every day event for a murderer to flee to sanctuary in a church, which would then be surrounded by his pursuers while the coroner was summoned. Usually, the fugitive would confess and agree to leave the nation and never return. It had been long customary for the groom to endow his bride in public at the church door. This was to keep her and her children if he died first. If dower was not specified, it was understood to be one-third of all lands and tenements. The county offices were: sheriff, coroner, escheator, and constable or bailiff. There were 28 sheriffs for 38 counties. No longer did the sheriff buy his office and collect certain rents for himself. The sheriff now was a salaried political appointee of the King and employed a deputy or undersheriff, who was a lawyer, and clerks. If there was civil commotion or contempt of royal authority, the sheriff had power to raise a posse of armed men to restore order [posse comitatus: power of the county]. There were about five coroners in each county and they served for a number of years. They were chosen locally under the sheriff's supervision. The escheator was appointed annually by the Treasurer to administer the Crown's rights in feudal land in the county. The constables and bailiffs operated at the hundred and parish level to detect crime and keep the peace. They assisted sheriffs and Justices of the Peace, organized "watches" for criminals and vagrants at the village level, and raised the "hue and cry" along the highway and from village to village in pursuit of offenders who had committed felony or robbery in their districts.