Note 439 — Chapter II · THE REACTION OF THE AGRARIAN CHANGES ON THE PEASANTRY

If the common was so large that it had been unnecessary to “stint” it, why did the city object to the lord putting additional beasts on? I take the situation to be that the Prior—probably tempted by the profitableness of sheep-farming in the latter part of the fifteenth century—diminished the pasture which the city could use, by putting on many more beasts than ever before, which, in the absence of a recognised “stint,” he was able to do without violating any custom, as he would have done if there had been a customary limit, as on many manors.