It may not be uninteresting, before I close this chapter, to give some examples of the gafol or rent paid upon lands whether held for lives, or as, more strictly, lǽnland. They are extremely valuable from the insight they give into the details of social life, and the daily habits of our forefathers. Twenty hides of land at Sempringham were leased by Peterborough to Wulfred for two lives, on condition of his getting its freedom, and that of Sleaford (both in Lincolnshire): upon this estate the following yearly rent was reserved. First, to the monastery: two tons of bright ale, two oxen, fit for slaughter, two _mittan_ or measures of Welsh ale, and six hundred loaves. Secondly to the abbot’s private estate: one horse, thirty shillings of silver or half a pound, one night’s _pastus_, fifteen _mittan_ of bright and five of Welsh ale, fifteen _sesters_ of mild ale[574]. ----- Footnote 574: Cod. Dipl. No. 267. an. 852. The mitta and other measures are unknown. However the sester of corn was one horse-load (Hen. Hunt. lib. vi. an. 1044); _quære_, What he could carry, or what he could draw? In the middle of the eleventh century, the sester of honey was thirty-two ounces. Cod. Dipl. No. 950. ----- A little earlier, Oswulf, a duke in Kent, devised lands to Christchurch Canterbury, which he charged with annual doles to the poor upon his anniversary. Forty hides at Stanhampstead were to find one hundred and twenty loaves of wheat, thirty loaves of fine wheat[575], one fat ox and four sheep, two flitches of bacon, five geese, ten hens, and ten pounds of cheese. If it fell on a fast-day, however, there was to be (instead of the meat) a _wey_ of cheese, and fish, butter, eggs _ad libitum_. Moreover, thirty ambers of good Welsh ale, on the footing of fifteen _mittan_, and one _mitta_ of honey (perhaps to make into a drink) or two of wine. From his land at Burnan were to issue one thousand loaves, and one thousand raised loaves or cakes; and the monks themselves were to find one hundred and twenty more of the latter[576]. Footnote 575: They are called _clean_. These probably were made of flour passed oftener through the boulter. The common loaf had no doubt still much bran in it, and answers to our _seconds_. But it is probable that bread was generally made of rye. Footnote 576: Cod. Dipl. No. 226. an. 805-831. The sufl-loaf which I have translated _raised_, is I presume derived from the word _sufflare_, and was probably carefully leavened. We unhappily have not the Anglosaxon receipt for beer; but I presume the text implies that fifteen _mittan_, whatever they were, of malt were to go to the amber. Oswulf’s character for splendid liberality will induce us to believe that he meant the monks to have an _Audit_ ale of their own, as well as our worthy Fellows of Trinity College Cambridge. -----