Cornage.
In addition to the ordinary agricultural services in respect of the arable land, there is mention, in the services of Boldon and other places, of special dues or payments, probably for rights of grazing or possession of herds of cattle. This kind of payment is called 'cornagium,' either because it is paid in horned cattle, or, if in money, in respect of the number of horned cattle held.
Drengage.
There are also services connected with the bishop's hunting expeditions. Thus there are persons holding in 'drengage,' who have to feed a horse and a dog, and 'to go in the great hunt' (magna caza) with two harriers and 15 'cordons,' &c.[96]
Hunting services.
Booths at the fairs of St. Cuthbert.
So of the villani of 'Aucklandshire' [97] it is recorded that they are 'to furnish for the great hunts of the bishop a "cordon" from each bovate, and to make the Bishop's hall (aula) in the forest, sixty feet long and sixteen feet wide between the posts, with a buttery, a steward's room, a chamber and "privat." Also they make a chapel 40 feet long by 15 wide, receiving two shillings, of charity; and make their portion of the hedge (haya) round the lodges (logiæ). On the departure of the bishop they have a full tun of beer, or half a tun if he should stay on. They also keep the eyries of the hawks in the bailiwick of Radulphus Callidus, and put up 18 booths (bothas) at the fairs of St. Cuthbert.'
The last item, which also occurs in the services of Boldon, is interesting in connexion with a passage in a letter of Pope Gregory the Great to the Abbot [p072] Mellitus (A.D. 601), in which he requests the Bishop Augustine to be told that, after due consideration of the habits of the English nation, he (the Pope) determines that, 'because they have been used to slaughter many oxen in the sacrifices to devils, some solemnity must be exchanged for them on this account, as that on the day of the dedication, or the nativities of the holy martyrs, whose relics are there deposited, they may build themselves huts of the boughs of trees, about those churches which have been turned to that use from temples, and celebrate the solemnity with religious feasting, and no more offer beasts to the devil, but kill cattle to the praise of God in their eating, it being impossible to efface everything at once from their obdurate minds: because he who tries to rise to the highest place rises by degrees or steps, and not by leaps.' [98]
The villeins of St. Cuthbert's successor are found 500 years after Pope Gregory's advice still, as a portion of their services, yearly putting up the booths for the fairs held in honour of their patron saint—a fact which may help us to realise the tenacity of local custom, and lessen our surprise if we find also that for the origin of other services we must look back for as long a period.