that religious festivals and bad weather would no longer diminish the
lord's profits; on the other hand, the tenant could devote himself
entirely to his holding free from annoying labour services.[74]

The state of agriculture at the time of Domesday was apparently very
low, judging by the small returns of manors,[75] but by the time of
Edward I it had made considerable progress. During the reign of Henry
III England had grown in opulence, and continued to do so under his
great son, who found time from his manifold tasks to encourage
agriculture and horticulture. Fruit and forest trees, shrubs and
flowers, were introduced from the continent, and we are told that the
hop flourished in the royal gardens.[76] At his death England was
prosperous, the people progressing in comfort, the population
advancing, the agricultural labourers were increasing in numbers, the
value of the land had risen and was rising. Then came a reaction from
which England did not recover for two centuries, and Harrison, who
wrote his description of England at the end of the sixteenth century,
says that many of the improvements began to be neglected in process of
time, so that from Henry IV till the latter end of Henry VII there was
little or no use for them in England, 'but they remained unknown.'

The Hundred Rolls of Edward I, which embody the results of the labours
of a commission appointed by that monarch to inquire into encroachments
on royal lands and royal jurisdiction, show clearly that there had
been since the Domesday Survey a very great growth in the rural
population, a sure sign that agriculture was flourishing; and on some
estates the number of free tenants had increased largely, but the
burdens of the villeins were not less onerous than they had been.

It was in the thirteenth century that the practice of keeping strict