We bear steadily in mind, therefore, that this government had also its happily patriarchal side. Though most of the fines in the manor courts are inflicted entirely in the lord's interest and though all of them come into the lord's coffers, yet quite a considerable proportion are also in the interest of general peace and decency. We should not expect a churchman, any more than a lay lord, to condone theft, trespass or poaching; these offences are very prominent in the rolls. My lord prior of Durham is specially vexed by this last offence; over and over again we come across such an entry as “it was enjoined to all the tenants [at Shields] that none should permit his little dogs to wander into the rabbit-warren”; “we commanded all the tenants of this [same] township that none should keep dogs to chase rabbits, under pain of 6s. 8d.” Thomas Rois, whose dogs devoured a peacock, is fined 18d.; the Master of the West-Spital at Heworths is presented as “a common poacher, with his servants, in the prior's warren.” There is an interesting entry about pea-gleaning at Wolveston in 1378: “It was ordained by common assent that, when the hayward blew his horn, they should come to gather peas; and, when he blew his horn again, they should depart from the said peas under pain of 6d., and also that none should gather among other peas than his own, except the poor”.