Note 547 — Chapter III · THE QUESTION OF TENANT RIGHT
Reading edition
Norden, The Surveyor’s Dialogue, Book I.: “Surveyor. The tennant leaveth commonly one either in right of inheritance, or by surrender, to succeed him, and he by custome of the manor is to be accepted tenant, alwaies provided he must agree with the lord, if the custome of the manor hold not the fine certain as in few it doth.... Farmer. You much mistake it, for I will show by ancient court rolls that the fine of that which is now £20 was then but 13s. 4d., and yet will you say they are now as they were then? Surveyor. Yea, and I thinke I erre little in it. For if you consider the state of things then and now, you shall find the proportion little differing; for so much are the prices of things vendible ... now increased as may well be said to exceed the prices then as much as £20 exceede the 13s. 4d."