This is only one instance of the medieval rustic's resignation to fate—or, shall we say, to a somewhat slipshod and disorderly Providence? We have seen that the customs differed in detail not only from manor to manor, but even from group to group within the same manor; so that these variations, like the rudimentary character of even the most definite arrangements, left room for endless misunderstandings and bickerings between landlord and tenant, or peasant and peasant.

One great difficulty, it will be seen at a glance, came from the minute and irregular subdivision of holdings. Each of these carried with it a similar subdivision of dues; as we have already seen peasants themselves divided theoretically into fractions between different lords, so the peasant's services and tributes became correspondingly fractional, even down to half a farthing and half an egg.

Again, the wages were often given partly in food or in kind; to the peasant who for his work-day could claim three herrings and a loaf, the age and condition of the herrings must have been very important; or again, if his wage consisted of a measure of corn, this depended greatly on the quality of the grain and the personal equation of the measurer. Moreover, weights and measures differed sometimes to an almost incredible extent from district to district, or even within the bounds of the same manor.