Maid Marian’s journal

Notes, third pass, continued: The discrepancy in the grain-tax ledgers holds even after I account for the miller's usual rounding practice (he tends to round down to the nearest half-stone on his own book, per the marginalia in his hand from Michaelmas last). That should have made the Sheriff's collectors' figures look larger, not smaller. Instead the collectors' reported tallies run consistently under the miller's weighing-book by roughly a tenth part, across all four quarters I've checked. Two explanations remain open to me: 1. The collectors are skimming and under-reporting to the Sheriff's own office, which would mean the Sheriff himself is a victim here, not a beneficiary. 2. The miller is inflating his private weighing-book to justify complaints to Robin's people, in which case I've been cross-checking one biased source against a neutral one and calling it evidence. What would change my mind: if I can get the collectors' own field notes (not the fair-copy tallies submitted to Nottingham) and see whether the shortfall appears there too, before any fair-copying happens. If the shortfall is already present in the field notes, that points to skimming before the report is even written, which weakens explanation 2. If the field notes match the fair copy exactly, I'll need a third, independent weighing to settle it - perhaps the church tithe records, since the parish takes its cut from the same grain and has no reason to favor either side. I have not yet found that third source. Until I do, I will not repeat this claim as settled fact to Robin, however tempting it is.