diff options
Diffstat (limited to '44894-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 44894-0.txt | 6367 |
1 files changed, 6367 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/44894-0.txt b/44894-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2a4feb5 --- /dev/null +++ b/44894-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6367 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44894 *** + +Transcriber's note: + Minor spelling inconsistencies, mainly hyphenated words, have been + harmonized. Italic text has been marked with _underscores_. + Obvious typos have been corrected. A "List of Illustrations and + Diagrams" has been added so as to include the illustrations and + diagrams not in the "List of Plates." Please see the end of this + book for further notes. + + + + + [Illustration: HEALTH AND BEAUTY IN MODERN TOWN PLANNING + + A street in the Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, N.W.] + + + + + SOCIAL LIFE + IN ENGLAND + THROUGH THE CENTURIES + + BY + + H. R. WILTON HALL + + Library Curator, Hertfordshire County Museum; + Sub-Librarian, St. Alban's Cathedral; Author of + "Hertfordshire: a Reading-book of the County" + &c. + + + BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED + 50 OLD BAILEY LONDON + GLASGOW AND BOMBAY + 1920 + + + + +PREFACE + + +In the course of the last ten or twelve years there has been a +very marked development of interest in local history, and with it +a desire not merely to "know more about the past" but a desire to +appreciate intelligently the real value of those things, still to +be seen, which speak of the gradual building up of the social life +of the Nation, which rightly handled will play an important part in +the work of reconstruction pressing upon us now, with its enormous +difficulties and anxieties. + +Much has been done in schools of all grades to utilize the +material at hand--the things which can be seen in the locality--as +an educational medium, opening out great possibilities for the +development of curiosity, interest, personality, and power of +initiative on the part of the children which, though it may not +seem to yield any immediate results which can be appraised by +examination methods on the lines of any "Syllabus", are "neither +barren nor unfruitful". + +Just now there are a number of schemes in the air for the +institution of "Regional Survey" in schools, and a tendency amongst +enthusiasts to get it put into school time-tables as a Syllabus +Subject. However admirable the intention may be, and is, it is not +as a Subject, but rather as a method in education, that its real +value lies. "Regional Study" embraces so many subjects and they +cannot be enterprised all at once, either by children or by anybody +else. + +This little book is intended to be suggestive, to stimulate +interest and an intelligent curiosity, but it may serve as +a foundation for conversational or more formal lessons and +investigations under the teacher's direction, as his personal +predilection, opportunities, taste, and judgment shall determine. + +In the work of "Regional Study", where carried on with +discrimination and with a commonsense apprehension of "relative +values" it may be truly said:-- + + "Nothing useless is, or low; + Each thing in its place is best; + And what seems but idle show, + Strengthens and supports the rest". + + H. R. W. H. + + HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY MUSEUM, + ST. ALBAN'S, _September, 1919_. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAP. Page + + I. INTRODUCTION 1 + + II. MEN WHO LIVED IN CAVES AND PITS 3 + + III. THE PIT-DWELLERS 6 + + IV. EARTHWORKS, MOUNDS, BARROWS, &C. 11 + + V. IN ROMAN TIMES 15 + + VI. EARLY SAXON TIMES 19 + + VII. EARLY SAXON VILLAGES 22 + + VIII. ANGLO-SAXON TUNS AND VILLS 26 + + IX. TYTHINGS AND HUNDREDS--SHIRES 29 + + X. THE EARLY ENGLISH TOWN 33 + + XI. IN EARLY CHRISTIAN TIMES 35 + + XII. MONASTERIES 37 + + XIII. TOWNS AND VILLAGES IN THE TIME OF CNUT + THE DANE 41 + + XIV. CHURCHES AND MONASTERIES IN DANISH AND + LATER SAXON TIMES 46 + + XV. LATER SAXON TIMES 50 + + XVI. IN NORMAN TIMES 52 + + XVII. IN NORMAN TIMES (_continued_) 54 + + XVIII. IN NORMAN TIMES: THE CHURCHES 56 + + XIX. CASTLES 58 + + XX. CASTLES AND TOWNS 61 + + XXI. IN NORMAN TIMES: THE MONASTERIES 64 + + XXII. EARLY HOUSES 69 + + XXIII. EARLY HOUSES (_continued_) 72 + + XXIV. EARLY TOWN HOUSES 75 + + XXV. LIFE IN THE TOWNS OF THE MIDDLE AGES 79 + + XXVI. THE GROWING POWER OF THE TOWNS 85 + + XXVII. THE VILLAGES, MANORS, PARISHES, AND PARKS 89 + + XXVIII. TRACES OF EARLY TIMES IN THE CHURCHES 93 + + XXIX. TRACES OF EARLY TIMES IN THE + CHURCHES (_continued_) 97 + + XXX. CLERKS 100 + + XXXI. FAIRS 104 + + XXXII. MARKETS 108 + + XXXIII. SCHOOLS 113 + + XXXIV. UNIVERSITIES 118 + + XXXV. CHANGES BROUGHT ABOUT BY THE + BLACK DEATH 122 + + XXXVI. WOOL 125 + + XXXVII. THE POOR 127 + + XXXVIII. CHANGES IN HOUSES AND HOUSE-BUILDING 131 + + XXXIX. THE RUINS OF THE MONASTERIES AND + THE NEW BUILDINGS 135 + + XL. THE NEW HOUSE OF THE TIME OF QUEEN + ELIZABETH 139 + + XLI. LARGER ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN HOUSES 142 + + XLII. CHURCHES AFTER THE REFORMATION 147 + + XLIII. BUILDING AFTER THE RESTORATION: HOUSES 149 + + XLIV. BUILDING AFTER THE RESTORATION: CHURCHES 154 + + XLV. SCHOOLS AFTER THE REFORMATION 159 + + XLVI. APPRENTICES 168 + + XLVII. PLAY 171 + + XLVIII. ROADS 175 + + XLIX. ROADS--RAILWAYS 182 + + L. GOVERNMENT 190 + + LI. SOME CHANGES 195 + + + + +LIST OF PLATES + + + Page + HEALTH AND BEAUTY IN MODERN TOWN PLANNING + _Frontispiece_ + + IMPLEMENTS AND ORNAMENTS OF STONE, BRONZE, AND IRON + AGES 8 + + STONEHENGE 13 + + REMAINS OF A ROMAN HOUSE, EXCAVATED AT SILCHESTER 20 + + THE VILLAGE GREEN, EXTON, RUTLAND 28 + + CROSS AND CHURCH, GEDDINGTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 37 + + CHOIR OF CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL 57 + + THE OLD PALACE, HATFIELD 72 + + FACSIMILE OF A PORTION OF A NORMAN DOCUMENT 88 + + CASTLE AND BUTTER MARKET, DUNSTER, SOMERSETSHIRE 105 + + CLOISTER QUADRANGLE, MAGDALEN COLLEGE, OXFORD 120 + + WOLLATON HALL, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 137 + + INTERIOR OF ST. MARY-LE-BOW, LONDON 157 + + A SCHOOL PLAYGROUND SCENE 164 + + CRICKET, 18TH CENTURY 172 + + THE NEW INN, GLOUCESTER 181 + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS AND DIAGRAMS + + _Chipped Flint Weapons_ 5 + + _Lake-dwelling_ 10 + + _Round Barrow_ 12 + + _Long Barrow_ 12 + + _Dolmen at Plas Newydd, Anglesea. The scene of + Druidical religious rites_ 14 + + _Roman Pottery Kiln found at Castor, Hunts_ 18 + + _Saxon Brooch found at Abingdon, made of gold + encrusted with coloured glass_ 23 + + _Diagram of a Saxon Village Settlement_ 23 + + _Ploughing. From an old Saxon Calendar in the + British Museum_ 31 + + _Saxon Church at Bradford-on-Avon_ 40 + + _Agriculture. From an eleventh-century manuscript + in the British Museum_ 43 + + _Ploughing. From an eleventh-century manuscript in + the British Museum_ 45 + + _Wooden Church at Greenstead, Essex_ 47 + + _Consecration of a Saxon Church_ 49 + + _Saxon Doorway, Earl's Barton, Northampton_ 51 + + _Domesday Book_ 55 + + _Norman Capital, Buckland Church, Berks_ 56 + + _Norman Capital, Hanney Church, Berks_ 57 + + _Norman Capital, St. Bartholomew's Priory Church, + London_ 57 + + _Rochester Castle: The Keep_ 59 + + _The White Tower, Tower of London_ 60 + + _Norman Castle_ 63 + + _Ruins of Furness Abbey_ 65 + + _Foundation of a Minster_ 67 + + _Bath Abbey_ 68 + + _The Jew's House, Lincoln_ 71 + + _Diagram of the Shape of a House of a Villein_ 72 + + _Old House, Cleveland, Yorkshire_ 74 + + _Shop of the Middle Ages now standing in Foregate + Street, Chester_ 77 + + _A Cradle of the Fourteenth Century now in a + London Museum_ 78 + + _The Shambles, York; a street that preserves its + narrow, mediæval character_ 81 + + _Hospital of St. Cross, Winchester_ 84 + + _Seal of Guild Merchant, Gloucester, 1200_ 85 + + _Court-house of Godmanchester, Hunts_ 88 + + _Manor House, Thirteenth Century_ 91 + + _Saxon, Norman, and Later Architectural Features_ 93 + + _Effigy with Crossed Legs in the Temple Church, + London_ 96 + + _Spire of Norwich Cathedral Fourteenth Century_ 98 + + _A Scriptorium, from a miniature painted in an old + manuscript_ 101 + + _Writing before the Norman Conquest_ 103 + + _Morris Dancers, Fourteenth Century_ 107 + + _Market Cross and Portion of Shelter, Winchester_ 109 + + _Market Scene in the Middle Ages_ 111 + + _A School, Fourteenth Century_ 115 + + _Part of Winchester College, built in 1692_ 117 + + _Gloucester Hall, now Worcester College, Oxford, + founded 1283_ 119 + + _Gownsman of Fifteenth Century. From an old print + of Chaucer's Clerk of Oxenford_ 121 + + _Labourers felling a Tree, Fourteenth Century_ 124 + + _Spinning Wheel, Fourteenth Century_ 126 + + _Wayfarers, Early Fourteenth Century_ 130 + + _The Moat House, Ightham, Kent_ 131 + + _Part of the House called Plas Mawr, Conway, + Wales_ 134 + + _Old Timbered House, at Presleigh, Radnorshire, + dated 1616_ 138 + + _Moreton Old Hall, Cheshire, built 1550-59_ 140 + + _Diagram of a Large House_ 142 + + _Hall and Staircase, Knole House, Kent, 1570_ 143 + + _A Room in an Elizabethan House_ 144 + + _Blickling Hall, Norfolk, built 1619_ 145 + + _Monument in Chelsea Church, London; date about + 1630_ 148 + + _House at Rainham, Essex, built during the reign + of Queen Anne_ 150 + + _Doorway from a House in Gt. Ormond Street, + London_ 152 + + _Pews in a Church at Stokesay, Shropshire, rebuilt + 1654_ 155 + + _King Edward VI's School and Alms Houses, + Stratford-on-Avon_ 159 + + _Charity School, Gravel Lane, London_ 162 + + _Bluecoat Boy_ 164 + + _Schoolmaster and Pupils, early Seventeenth + Century_ 166 + + _Richmond County School. A modern council school_ 167 + + _Apprentice, Sixteenth Century_ 169 + + _Apprentices, Eighteenth Century_ 170 + + _The Game of Bob-apple, Fourteenth Century_ 171 + + _Boys' Sports_ 173 + + _Diagrams of Layouts for a Boy's Game_ 174 + + _Cart, Fourteenth Century_ 176 + + _A Toll-gate, early Nineteenth Century_ 179 + + _Coach, early Nineteenth Century_ 180 + + _George Stephenson's Locomotive "The Rocket"_ 183 + + _Building a Railway in the early Nineteenth + Century_ 186 + + _Sankey Valley Viaduct_ 188 + + _The Town Hall, Carlisle, built in time of + Elizabeth_ 190 + + _Police Officer and Jailer, early Nineteenth + Century_ 192 + + _Hayes Barton Farm, Devonshire_ 197 + + _Modern Industry_ 200 + + + + +SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND + + + + +CHAPTER I + +Introduction + + +A little boy, who had been born in a log-cabin in the backwoods +of Canada, was taken by his father, when he was about eight years +old, to the nearest settlement, for the first time in his life. The +little fellow had never till then seen any other house than that +in which he had been born, for the settlement was many miles away. +"Father," he said, "what makes all the houses come together?" + +Now that sounds a very strange and foolish question to ask; but it +is by no means as foolish a question as it seems. Here, in England, +there are towns and villages dotted about all over the country. +Some of them are near the sea, on some big bay or inlet; others +stand a little farther inland, on the banks of tidal rivers; others +are far away from the sea, in sheltered valleys or on the sunny +slopes of hills; some stand in the midst of broad fertile plains, +while others are on the verge of bleak lonely moorlands. What has +made all the houses in these towns and villages come together in +these particular spots? There must be a reason in every case why a +particular spot should have been chosen in the first instance. + +In trying to find an answer to this question with reference to any +town or village in our country we have to go back, far back, into +the past. We may have to go back to ages long before there was any +written history. As we go back step by step into the past we learn +much of the people who have lived before us--of their ways and +their doings, and of the part they played in the life and work of +the country. + +The little Canadian boy's question can be asked about every town +and village in the land. There are no two places exactly alike; +each one has its own history, which, however simple it may be, is +quite worth knowing. The busy manufacturing town, with its tens and +hundreds of thousands of people, where all is movement and bustle, +has its history; and the lonely country village, where everybody +knows everybody else, has often a history even more interesting +than that of the big town--if we only knew what to look for, and +where to look for it. + +One summer day, years ago, a party of tourists was climbing +Helvellyn. One of the party was an elderly gentleman, who was +particularly active, and anxious to get to the top. After several +hours' stiff climbing the party reached the summit; and there, +spread out before them, was a lovely view of hills and dales, +of mountains and lakes. Most of the party gazed upon this fair +scene in quiet enjoyment; but our old gentleman, as soon as +he had recovered his breath, and mopped his red face with his +pocket-handkerchief, gave one look round, and then said in a +grieved tone: "Is that all? Nothing to see! Wish I hadn't come." + +He saw nothing interesting, because he did not know what to look +for, and he might just as well have stopped at the bottom. He came +to see nothing, _and he saw it_. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +Men who lived in Caves and Pits + + +Man is a very ancient creature. It is a curious fact that we have +learned most of what we know about the earliest men from the +rubbish which they have left behind them. Even nowadays, in this +twentieth century, without knowing much about a boy personally, we +can tell a good deal about his habits from the treasures he turns +out of his pockets. Hard-hearted mothers and teachers call these +treasures rubbish, but the contents of a lad's pockets are a pretty +sure indication of the boy's tastes, and in what things he is +interested. + +The earliest traces of the existence of man in our part of the +world are found in some places which are now many feet above the +level of the sea. There, in the gravel, are the roughly-chipped +stone tools and weapons which those early men used, tools which +they lost or threw away. Almost every other trace has quite +disappeared. Remains belonging to the same period have been noticed +in caves in various parts of the world. + +The illustration on p. 5 shows two of these very early stone +weapons. You will find collections of these, and also of later +weapons, in any good museum. These earliest sorts are usually +labelled "Palæolithic Stone Implements". The curator of such a +museum, we may almost certainly say, would be willing to help you +to see the specimens which he has under his care, and you would +learn more about them in that way than by just glancing at a +picture. + +Here, in Britain, caves have been found where these early men have +left their stone implements and remains of their rubbish. Some of +the best known of such cave-dwellings in Britain are near Denbigh +and St. Asaph in North Wales, at Uphill in Somersetshire, at +King's Car and Victoria Cave near Settle, at Robin Hood's Cave and +Pinhole in Derbyshire, in Pembrokeshire, in King Arthur's Cave in +Monmouthshire, at Durdham Down near Bristol, near Oban, and in the +gravels in the valleys of the Rivers Trent, Nore, and Dove, in the +Irish River Blackwater, near Caithness, and in a good many other +places. + +So, you see, the remains of these early men cover a pretty wide +area. In thinking of the life of those early days we must remember +that the aspect of Britain was very different then from what it is +now, for in that far-back time these islands were a part of the +Continent of Europe, and the North Sea and English Channel were +just valleys, with rivers flowing through them, tributaries of the +Rhine. There were no insurmountable obstacles to cross between the +Continent and these regions, and animals and early man gradually +roamed into this part of the world. Geology teaches us a good deal +concerning the changes the surface of the ground has undergone. The +land was very much higher than it is now--Snowdon, for instance, +was at least six hundred feet higher then--and the climate was very +much colder. That race of men, apparently, has quite died out. In +the course of ages rivers and seas have flowed over the places +where these stone tools had been dropped, and, year after year +throughout the ages, the drift brought down by the rivers covered +them inch by inch and foot by foot. Great changes have taken place +in the surface of the land, some suddenly, but most of them very, +very slowly. The land has risen, and sunk again, and long, long +ages of sunshine and storm, of ice and snow, of stormy wind and +tempest, have altered the surface of the country. + +Those very ancient men, who lived in the Early Stone Age, are +called Cave-dwellers, because they lived apparently in caves, and +River-drift Men and Lake-dwellers, because the roughly chipped +tools are found in the _drift_ of various rivers and lakes. + +The Cave-man's weapons and tools were made of chipped flint, which +he found broken on the surface of the ground, and these he chipped +into shape. They are usually more or less oval, sometimes roughly +in the form of a spear-head. Others are borers, or awls, for +piercing holes in skins. For rougher work he had hammer-stones, +with flat edges, and sharp bits of stone for scrapers. Amongst many +other places where these relics have been found in considerable +numbers is the Thames valley. They are met with in the higher +gravels, on levels now many feet higher than they were in the +Cave-man's day, for the surface has risen considerably; and we +conclude that there must have been a good many of these people in +that neighbourhood. + + [Illustration: _Chipped Flint Weapons_] + + + + +CHAPTER III + +The Pit-dwellers + + +Other remains, not so ancient as these oldest stone implements +but still very ancient, are found nearer the surface than the +remains of the River-drift Men. They are the remains of people +who, like the Drift-men, knew nothing of metals; and they, too, +used stone weapons and tools, but these were now better made. They +had learned to shape and finish their tools by rubbing, grinding, +and polishing them, and they were a much more advanced race of men +than the Cave-or Drift-men. These later men, Neolithic Men, did not +depend upon the broken and chipped flints which they found lying +about on the surface, but discovered that it was better to dig up +whole flints, and to select those which were best suited for their +purpose, grinding them into the shapes which they wanted, and then +polishing them into more shapely and finished weapons. + +For the most part we have to go to somewhat desolate parts of +England to find traces of them now. In fact those traces would long +ago have disappeared had they not been in places which were so wild +and difficult to get at that it was not worth any man's while to +cultivate them. The spade and the plough would very soon remove +all traces of them. In fact, the plough _has_ removed many traces +of these ancient men, and most of the specimens of their tools and +weapons, which you can see in museums, were found by men whilst +employed in ploughing and preparing the land for crops. + +You must not suppose that we can fix a date when these men first +appeared, as we can fix an exact date for the landing of Julius +Cæsar, or the sealing of Magna Carta. Neither can we say for how +many centuries they occupied land in what we now call Britain. It +was a long period, at any rate, and during that time their manners +and their customs changed very, very slowly. + +The lowest forms of savage life seem very much alike all the world +over. Savages are hunters, and do not as a rule cultivate the soil. +Now hunters must follow their prey from place to place, so that +we should expect these early men to have no settled homes. But +even the earliest Pit-men had advanced beyond this lowest stage, +for they had flocks and herds, and dogs. They found out that they +could tame some of the animals which they came across, and that +they could use them in various ways which the earlier men had not +thought of. They need not always go a-hunting for their food, and +they could have a supply at hand if they looked after it. They +discovered that they had a use for the wool and the milk which +these animals yielded, and so they developed into being a pastoral +people, owning flocks and herds. Then, too, they hit upon the art +of making rough pottery from clay, shaping the various vessels +which they wanted by hand, and baking them in a fire to harden +them. It seems that they found out a way to spin thread from the +wool, and also discovered how to weave it into a kind of rough +cloth, although they used skins for garments. No doubt these folk +hunted as well; but they were mainly a pastoral people, and at +first did not till the soil. Races of men who did not till the soil +are called Non-Aryan. They chose for their settlements the tops of +hills, and avoided the narrow valleys and low-lying lands. + +The Pit-dwellers are so called from the simple fact that they had +their homes in pits--not, however, dug anywhere and anyhow. The +hole in the ground is the simplest notion of a house. When in your +summer holiday by the sea you see the little boys and girls digging +deep holes in the sand to make "houses", they are doing in play +what the early Pit-dwellers did in real earnest. + +The pits were usually some six or eight feet in diameter, and they +probably had cone-shaped roofs, formed by poles tied together +and covered with peat. In the centre of the hut was the hearth, +which was made of flints carefully placed together. The hut would +hold two or three people, and the fire on the hearth was its most +important feature. The hut in the centre of the group belonged to +the head of the family, and other huts were ranged round it. + +Surrounding the group was an earthen rampart for further +protection, and these earthworks can still be traced in many parts +of the country. The huts have gone, of course, and all that can +be seen in most cases now is a number of circular patches in the +turf, slightly hollowed. People living in the neighbourhood will +very likely speak of them as "fairy rings". It is from a careful +examination of these hollows that learned men have been able to +gather much information concerning the habits of these Pit-dwellers. + +We English folk speak proudly of "hearth and home"; they are the +centre of our social life, and the idea has come down to us through +all these long, long ages. The hearth and the fire upon it was the +centre of the life of these men, and the head of a family was also +its priest. + +Some of the best known of these pit-dwellings are found +near Brighthampton, in Oxfordshire; at Worlebury, near +Weston-super-Mare; and along the Cotswolds, looking over the Severn +valley; and at Hurstbourne, in Hampshire. + +At this last place "nine of these early habitations were +discovered, some of which were roughly pitched with flint-stones, +and had passages leading into the pit. A few flints irregularly +placed, together with wood ashes, showed the position of the +hearths, where cooking operations had been carried on. The sloping +entrance passages are peculiar and almost unique in England, though +several have been met with in France."[1] + + [1] _English Villages_, P. H. Ditchfield. + + [Illustration: IMPLEMENTS AND ORNAMENTS OF STONE, BRONZE, AND + IRON AGES + + Older Stone Age: 1. Flint pick (Thames). 2. Bone pendant + (Devon). 3. Scraper (Kent). Later Stone Age: 4. Deer antler + pick (Norfolk). 5. Arrow-head (Yorkshire). 6. Flint and pyrites + for striking fire (Yorkshire). 7. Celt in original haft (Solway + Moss). 8. Bowl (Thames). Bronze Age: 9. Pin (Ireland). 10. Celt. + 11. Drinking-cup (Berkshire). 12. Spear-head (Thames). 13. Pin + (Thames). Early Iron Age: 14. Iron currency-bars. 15. Brooch + (Dorset). 16. Hand comb for weaving (Hampshire).] + +In the course of time this race seems to have learned something in +the way of cultivating the ground. The hill-tops, where they built +their huts, were only suited for their cattle, and in order to find +soil which they could till they had to go outside their earthwork, +and some distance down the hill-slope. By their way of digging the +ground, they gradually, in the course of many years, carved broad +terraces, one below the other, on the hill-sides. There are some +very marked traces of such terraces still to be seen near Hitchin +and Luton.[2] + + [2] Also between Hitchin and Cambridge, at Clothall, in Herts, + on the Chiltern Hills, on the steep side of the Sussex Downs, in + Clun Forest, in Carmarthenshire, and in Wilts. + +But Pit-dwellings were not the only habitations. There were +Lake-dwellings. One was found in the year 1892, near Glastonbury, +where sixty circular mounds were noted, each the remains of a +Lake-dwelling, in an area of three acres. There is another at +Hedsor, in Buckinghamshire; and such Lake-dwellings, of much later +periods, have been found in other parts of the world, and are met +with yet in some parts of South America on the big rivers there; +in the Island of Borneo, in the Caroline Islands, and on the Gold +Coast of Africa. + +These dwelling-places of the Lake-dwellers were set up on sharpened +stakes, or piles, driven into the bed of the lake or river. On +these piles a platform was laid, upon which a wooden hut of wattle +and daub was built, and a rough kind of bridge connected the +dwelling with the shore.[3] + + [3] See p. 10. + +In the course of time--how long ago it is still quite impossible +to say--a race of men, more advanced than these early Pit-dwellers, +found their way to this part of the world. They were more +civilized, and were Aryans; that is, they were cultivators of the +soil. You may be pretty sure that fighting took place between the +two races. + +The newer race preferred to make their settlements near running +streams. In the middle of each settlement there would be an open +space, or meeting-ground, usually a small hill or a mound, round +which their huts were built. Beyond this was the garden-ground, +then the ground where the grain was grown, and beyond that the +grazing-lands. These men began cultivating at the bottom of the +hill-sides and valleys, and, as they required more ground, they +would advance higher up the slopes. + +Gradually to this race came the knowledge of metals, and at that +point we reach the Bronze Age. Although polished stone implements +were still in use, men had begun to make spear-heads, chisels, and +daggers of bronze, which is an alloy of copper and tin. What a +great discovery that was, and how we should like to know how the +discovery came to be made! It shows a vast advance in intelligence, +power of observation, and perseverance in making experiments. This +advance gradually led them on to the discovery of the tougher +qualities of iron, and how to "get at it", and to make use of it. +Thus we reach the Iron Age. + + [Illustration: _Lake-dwelling_] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +Earthworks, Mounds, Barrows, &c. + + +There are still remaining, in many parts of the country, curious +mounds and stones. We can say very little about them here; for, +though learned men have discovered much, there is still a good +deal to be explained concerning them. Old-world stories put most +of these strange objects down to the work of witches, fairies, or +giants; some ascribe them to the Romans, or to Oliver Cromwell, +others even to the devil. But most of them really belong to this +period of which we are speaking--the very early part of our +history, of which there is no written record. + +Earthworks are of many kinds, but the very earliest are usually +found on hill-tops. There are some which enclose considerable +spaces of ground, bounded by an earthen rampart, with a ditch +outside. Sometimes there are two such ramparts. Frequently they +are spoken of as British Towns or British Camps. They appear to +have been enclosures into which the cattle were driven in time of +danger, and in which a whole tribe could take refuge and hold out +against their enemies. + +Then there are big mounds or heaps, called Barrows. All over the +world, not only in Europe, but in northern Asia, in India, and in +America, burial-mounds of various sizes have been met with. Some of +these are oval in shape, and are called Long Barrows; others are +round, and are called Round Barrows. The Long Barrows are thought +to be the older kind, and were apparently the burial-places of +great leaders. The Round Barrows were also burial-places, but those +who raised them burned their dead. The great pyramids of Egypt are +barrows, only they are made of stone, not of earth. + +At Silbury, in Wilts, there is a huge mound, covering about five +acres of ground and some one hundred and thirty feet in height. + +Many interesting things have been brought to light when these many +varieties of barrows have been properly and scientifically explored +by men who have the knowledge and intelligence to "see" what there +is to see, and who do not attack these old earthworks with the idea +of coming upon some long-hidden hoard of gold or silver. Indeed, +much damage has been done by folk who, from time to time, have +rifled these mysterious old earthworks with that one, sordid idea. +There is much yet to be done in the way of scientific exploration, +and much to be learned. + + [Illustration: _Round Barrow_] + + [Illustration: _Long Barrow_] + +The circles of stones at Stonehenge and Avebury seem to have been +connected with the worship of these early people. + +A writer, who has given much attention and study to the subject, +gives us some idea as to how these huge stones were got into +position at Stonehenge. He thinks that they must have been dragged +thither by enormous numbers of men from the Marlborough Downs. +"Trunks of trees ... pierced with holes for levers would furnish +rollers to propel the stones to very near their destination. Then +it is necessary to suppose the site of Stonehenge occupied by a +mound, artificial or natural, the ascent being by an easy incline +from the quarter whence these stones were brought. On the top of +the mound we must suppose as many holes dug as there were upright +stones to be placed. On the arrival of each stone it would be +dropped into its hole; and, when all were thus placed, there would +only remain the more easy task of laying on the imposts, each end +of which has evidently been mortised on to the perpendiculars. The +earth would then be dug away, leaving the structure complete."[4] + + [4] W. Long, in the _Wilts Arch. Mag._, p. 121. + + [Illustration: STONEHENGE + + [See page 12]] + +In 1918 Stonehenge was given to the nation, and we may hope that +what is left of it will be carefully preserved in the time to come. + +Avebury appears to have been made up of a vast circle of unhewn +stones enclosing two other separate double circles. They are in +ruins now, and more than six hundred and fifty of these huge stones +have been destroyed. There are now standing upright only fifteen; +sixteen have been overthrown, and eighteen are known to be buried. +It seems that folk, who did not understand or care about these very +ancient stones, broke them up and carried the pieces away to make +boundary walls or to mend roads, and for any other purpose as they +thought fit. + +The remains at Avebury are believed to be much older than those at +Stonehenge, dating back a thousand years or so before Christ. Those +at Stonehenge, which covers a very much smaller area, seem to +belong to the Iron Age, some two hundred years before Christ. + +There are many single stones, especially in Cornwall and Wales, +which also seem to have been connected with religious rites, but of +this we know nothing for certain. Some are Dolmens--flat stones, +each on four uprights. In later times they have served as boundary +marks. + +In various parts of England there are deep lanes or cuttings, +which have received curious local names. There are no less than +twenty-two such cuttings in different parts of England all known +as Grim's Ditch. These, no doubt, formed boundaries, separating +various tribes. + +The White Horse, cut out of the slope of Uffington Hill, and +several similar objects in Wiltshire, as well as the crosses--also +cut in the turf--at Whiteleaf and Bledlow, may also belong to this +period. Some learned men, however, have thought that they are of a +later date. + +From these early men, then, the Ancient Britons appear to have +descended, and they were settled here a good many centuries before +the coming of the Romans. Many of the wild tales and legends still +told in country villages, about giants and fairies, have come down +to us from these early times. + + [Illustration: _Dolmen at Plas Newydd, Anglesea. The scene of + Druidical religious rites_] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +In Roman Times + + +Here, then, at the time the Romans first came to Britain, were +tribes of Britons who had been established in the country for +centuries, living their lives according to the customs of their +forefathers, and more or less cultivating the land. The Romans +invaded the country, and, in time, subdued the people. They +remained masters here for nearly four hundred years, but they did +not make such a permanent impression on this country as they did on +France and Spain. + +We are to-day masters of India, but we have not made India English, +nor are we trying to do so. The natives there go on cultivating the +land according to their custom from time out of mind. They preserve +their own manners, customs, and religions. In places where they +come much in contact with our fellow-countrymen they are influenced +to a certain degree; but in India to-day the English and the +natives lead their own lives, each race quite apart from the others. + +So it was with the Romans in Britain. They formed colonies in +various places and built towns all over the land; they had country +villas dotted here and there, some little distance from the chief +towns, and built strong military stations in suitable districts. +These posts were kept in communication by means of good roads. + +To trace out the network of Roman roads is a study in itself, and +much has been learned therefrom. Some roads are still quite easy +to trace, as far as their course is concerned, for many of our +great main roads to-day run upon the top of them; and from time to +time, when excavations are being made for sewers, or for laying +water-pipes, or tubes for trunk lines of telephones, the actual +metal and foundations of the Roman tracks are found, many feet +below the present level of the road. It is sometimes stated that +the Roman roads were always straight, and that all obstacles were +cleared to make room for them. Whilst it is quite true that this +"straightness" and directness was one of the characteristics of +these roads, the makers of them were skilled engineers, and they +not infrequently found that some older trackway, not particularly +straight, was better suited for their purpose, as it avoided some +of the natural difficulties of the country. When they used these +older ways they took care to raise the surface and lay the metal on +firm foundations, so that the traffic along them could be as rapid +as along the new, straight roads--and the Romans were great people +for getting about rapidly from point to point. One of the most +frequent deposits of "rubbish" which the Romans have left behind +is "oyster shells", often met with in quantities. They are found +in places many miles away from the river-mouths where the oysters +were cultivated; so that the question arises: "How did these shells +get there?" Either they must have been brought very rapidly from +the coast far inland, or the eaters of them did not mind eating +them when they were very "high". At any rate, there the shells have +been found, showing that distance was no obstacle in the way of +getting, not only the things which they reckoned to be necessaries, +but expensive luxuries as well. Although the main Roman roads are +still in use, there are a great number of cross-roads, which for +centuries have been out of use, and their exact courses can only +be traced with difficulty, passing as they do through what are now +quiet, secluded places, long overgrown by grass and underwood and +cultivated fields. + +Many Britons must in the course of time have adopted Roman ways +and Roman civilization; but the bulk of the Britons, living away +from the Roman centres, kept to their own customs, and cultivated +the ground in the way their ancestors had done. They prospered, on +the whole, as the Romans kept the various tribes from quarrelling +with one another. + +No doubt, in districts such as that which we now call Hampshire, +and along the Thames valley, where wealthy Romans had their country +villas, Roman methods of farming were in use. The Britons would see +something of Roman ways of doing things, and perhaps tried to copy +them. + +But the Romans have not left many marks upon our towns and +villages. It is quite true that a large number of our present +towns and cities are on the _sites_ of, or near, Roman towns; +but, in most cases, we have to dig down into the earth to find +Roman remains. The most important Roman city, Verulam, has quite +disappeared, and the most complete remains of a Roman town, +Silchester, are near to what is now a quiet country village. The +present cities of London, Winchester, Gloucester, Lincoln, Chester, +Carlisle, and the towns of Colchester and Leicester, and several +others, can hardly be said to have sprung from Roman towns, though +they stand on their sites. + +Most of the Roman cities were built in districts where the Britons +had been strong, or where they were likely to give trouble. +Carlisle and Gloucester were, for instance, military towns because +they were on the borders of the Roman territory. London and +Winchester were trading cities, and they developed much in Roman +times. + +But, when the Roman power was withdrawn, there was, in those +cities at any rate, a British population which had adopted very +extensively Roman customs and ideas. For a time things went on much +as they had done while the Romans were here; in fact, until the +struggles with the Saxons began. + +As a matter of fact, the coming of the Saxons began a good while +before the Romans actually left. Various tribes of Saxons attacked +different parts of the coast, and with varying success. Colchester +had to keep a sharp look-out for them on the east coast; and the +Romans built Portchester Castle, in Hampshire, to guard the south +coast. + +Christianity had found its way to Britain during Roman times, and +that helped in the work of civilizing the Britons. But we do not +know very much of the early British Church. Christianity probably +made more headway among the population in and near the Roman towns +than in the wilder districts. The foundations of an early Christian +church have been found at Silchester. + +Silchester was a very important Roman town, although now, as we +have noted, but a small village stands on the spot. Much careful +excavation work has been carried on there, and more is known of +this Roman city than of any other in England. Other sites of Roman +cities are waiting a similar careful exploration, amongst them +Verulam, by the city of St. Alban. + + [Illustration: _Roman Pottery Kiln found at Castor, Hunts_] + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +Early Saxon Times + + +The conquest of South Britain by the Saxons took a long +time--considerably over one hundred and fifty years. A great many +people are born, and live their lives, and die, in such a period of +time as that. It was only little by little that the various tribes +of Saxons got a footing in England. They were the stronger and +fiercer race, and the Britons were gradually subdued or driven into +the mountainous regions by them. + +Those early tribes of Saxons, who came to Britain, brought with +them, of course, their own special manners and customs. As they +settled down, the face of the country was gradually changed by +them. They disliked and suspected everything Roman, and destroyed +the towns and villas. They hated the idea of walled towns. These, +therefore, were left in ruins, and the great highways, being +neglected in most places, were, in the course of years, overgrown +with brushwood and hidden in thick forests. + +In some parts of the country the Saxons seem to have completely +swept the Britons away, and almost all traces of them vanished; +but in other parts there certainly were some of them left, because +we have still their marks upon our language. Although most of the +place-names in use now are Saxon or Danish, there are still a good +many of British, or partly British, origin. + +The names of many of our rivers are British or Celtic, such as +Axe, Exe, Stour, Ouse, and Yare. So are many names of hills; +and in some parts of the country the names of the villages are +partly British and partly Saxon. Take, for instance, such a common +name as Ashwell. Some learned men think that it is made up of +two words "Ash" and "Well", both meaning pretty much the same +thing, _ash_ being British for "water", and _well_ being Saxon +for "watering-place". Now, if the Saxons had quite got rid of the +Britons, they would not have known that a particular place was +called "Ash"--they learned to call it "Ash" from the natives, but +they did not know what it meant. They knew that there was a spring +of water there, which they called a "well"; and so, to distinguish +it from other wells in the neighbourhood, they got into the habit +of calling it "Ashwell"--and the name has stuck to the place. In +North America, in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa there +are many instances of English names being grafted on to original +native names, and often you find places with well-known English +names and others with picturesque and descriptive native names +almost side by side. + +In some such way as this many other place-names, partly British +and partly Saxon, were formed; and they teach us this--that Saxons +and Britons must have lived near each other closely enough for the +Saxons to take up and use some British names. + +There are some English counties in which you will hardly find one +place-name which is not Saxon. This shows us that the Britons +were either killed or completely driven away. That is the case in +Hertfordshire. But in Hampshire, while most of the names are Saxon, +there are many partly Saxon and partly British. The same thing can +be noticed in the county of Gloucester. The Britons, then, must +have been in these districts long enough for the Saxons to pick up +a good many place-names. They did not understand the meaning of +them, and so tacked on to them names which they _did_ understand, +much as British settlers have done in various parts of the world +during these last few centuries. + + [Illustration: REMAINS OF A ROMAN HOUSE, EXCAVATED AT SILCHESTER + + [See page 17]] + +The place-names of the old towns and villages all had a +meaning, and when we can get to know what that meaning is it +tells us something of the history of the place. But we have to be +very careful in studying place-names not to jump to conclusions +as to what the name means. To get at the truth a knowledge of +the old language and the alterations it has undergone, and also +of the different ways in which the word was spelt, according to +the earliest documents that can be found, is necessary. In days +gone by, before the study of the old forms of the language was +properly grasped, antiquaries often made guesses at the meaning of +place-names which have turned out to be very misleading. So we must +not be in a hurry to jump to conclusions, and should be always on +the look-out for more and better information. We frequently meet +with the syllable _ing_ in a place-name. "Ing", amongst those early +Saxon settlers here, usually meant "the sons of". When they made a +new home in this strange land the little band naturally gave the +place the name of their family. Thus, the sons of a man named Offa +were known as Uffingas, and called the name of the place where they +settled Uffinggaston, or Uffington--and the name stuck to the place +long after the family itself had died out. The sons of Rede settled +at Reading; the sons of Billinge, the Billings, at Billingham; the +sons of Hôc at Woking and Wokingham; the Ardings at Ardington; the +Thurings at Thorington--and so on. You must not, however, conclude +that every name you come across with "ing" in it has the same +meaning; but it will be quite worth while to ask for information +about it from someone who knows, or who can put you in the way of +getting information upon the point. + +We cannot go further here into other syllables found in a large +number of place-names, such as _feld_, _yard_, _stock_ or _stoke_, +or _ham_, but it is quite possible for you to find out first of all +what is the meaning of the name of the town or village in which +you live, and what that tells you about its history. + +The Saxons made their settlements at first away from the Roman +towns and British villages. In the course of time, in a good many +cases, they made settlements very close to these old sites, and we +know that Saxons lived in such places as Winchester, Gloucester, +and London. We find, especially in Hampshire and Gloucestershire, +that near, or in, certain villages with Saxon names, Roman remains +have from time to time been dug up. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +Early Saxon Villages + + +It is with the coming of the Saxons that the history of our towns +and villages really begins. For, though there are not a few places +which show some connection with Romans, Britons, and Pit-dwellers, +it is mainly from Saxon times that we can follow the history of the +places in which we live, with any certainty. + +When the Saxons came to Britain they brought their own ideas with +them, of course. Nowadays, when English folk go to settle in a +distant land, they take their English notions with them. They find, +however, in the course of time, that they have to modify or alter +them somewhat, according to the circumstances in which they are +placed. They may find that roast beef and plum-pudding do not at +all suit them in the new climate. If they are wise, they will see +whether the food-stuffs used by the natives, and folk who have +lived out there for many years, are not more suitable, even though +they may be inclined to despise such food at first. + +Now the Saxon tribes which first settled in England in the fifth +century belonged to a race of people bold, strong, fierce, and +free. But they could not make their new homes exactly what their +old ones had been in the land whence they had come. + +Like those other Aryan people, who had made their way to Britain +in the Stone Age, they lived together in families. When the family +became too large, some of the members had to turn out, like bees +from a hive, though not in such great numbers, and set out on their +travels to form new settlements, or village communities. + +This idea of a village community had come down to them through +many generations. The early Saxon idea of a village community was +something of this sort:-- + +All the men of the family had equal rights; though there was one +who was head of the family, and who took the lead. The affairs of +the family were discussed and settled at open-air meetings, called +folk-moots. The spot where these were held was regarded as a sacred +place. The tilling of their land, their marriages, their quarrels, +their joining with other villages to make war or peace, were all +settled at the folk-moot. The question whether the younger branches +of the family should leave the village and go out and form another +was fixed by the folk-moot also. In the course of time many such +little swarms left the parent hive, and settled farther away. But +they always looked back upon the old settlement as their home, and +the head of the family as their chief. They were all of one _kin_, +and in the course of time they began to look upon their chief as +their king. + + [Illustration: _Saxon Brooch found at Abingdon, made of gold + encrusted with coloured glass_] + +Now what was the nature of the old Saxon village settlement? In +its general arrangement it was very like the old Pit-dwellers' +settlement. There was the open space where the men of the village +met, the sacred mound where the folk-moot was held. The houses in +which the family dwelt were placed close together, round the hut of +the head of the family. + + [Illustration: _Diagram of a Saxon Village Settlement_] + +Outside these was a paling of some sort, so that all the houses +were within the enclosure, or "tun", as it was called; and here +calves and other young stock were reared near the houses. Beyond +the enclosure, or tun, was the open pasture-ground and the arable +land, or land under cultivation. Beyond these would be the +untouched forest-land, or open moorland. + +Each man of the tun had a share in these lands; not to do with as +he liked, but to use according to the custom of his family. The +arable land was divided into strips, and shared amongst the men. +However many strips of land a man might have, he could not have +them for all time. The strips were apparently chosen by lot, and +changed from time to time, so that all had an equal chance in +having the best land. In the same way the number of cattle a man +might turn out to graze on the pasture-land was regulated. The +folk-moot, or meeting of the people, was a very important assembly, +and through it the little community was governed. + +Such was the mode of life to which the Saxons who came to England +had been used; but they were not nearly as free when they landed +here as their ancestors had been. More and more power had come into +the hands of the chief or king, and to him the people looked for +protection and guidance. In times of war, or when the tribe was +invading new lands, the power of the king increased. By the time, +then, that the Saxon tribes began their settlement in England, they +were very much under the rule of their chiefs or kings. The kings +had rights and powers over their followers which had gradually +grown up by long custom, and none of those followers ventured to +dispute such rights and powers. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +Anglo-Saxon Tuns and Vills + + +A good many Britons no doubt settled down with the Saxons as +slaves, and that probably accounts for so many of the natural +features of the country--the rivers and the hills--keeping their +old British names. The British villages must have had names, but +those villages were apparently destroyed, and the slaves would be +settled near the homesteads which the conquerors set up. + +In fixing on a place for a "tun" the Saxons would choose a valley +rather than a hill, usually near a running stream, or a plentiful +supply of water. At the present time nearly all over England we can +find villages which have not been touched by modern improvements +and alterations, and most of these show something even now of their +Saxon origin. + +For instance, in the county of Rutland there is a village named +Exton, which has for many centuries kept several features which +show its connection with Saxon days. Its name, Ex-ton, seems to +be compounded of the British word "ex", which means "water", and +the Saxon "ton" or "tun", which means the "enclosure"--"the tun +by the water". There, sure enough, flowing by the village, is a +stream, a tributary of the River Gwash; just such a stream as the +Saxons loved. In the middle of the village is the triangular open +space, or village green. Round it the houses are thickly clustered +together, with hardly any garden ground at the back or in front, +and most of them with none at all. Outside the ring of houses are +small grass fields or closes, where calves and cows feed, and +poultry run. These little fields form a kind of ring round the +village, and the hedges enclosing them represent the old fence +of Saxon days, which formed the "tun". Beyond this are wider +pasture-grounds and big plough-lands, stretching away in several +directions up the gentle slopes. + +You will be able to find a good many villages which have some +resemblance to Exton; they answer very closely to the Anglo-Saxon +vill and the Anglo-Saxon town, for town and village were laid out +on the same principle. + +Now look at some little sleepy country town, and you will see much +the same arrangement as in the village. The wide open space in the +middle, where the town pump stands, and where the market is held, +answers to the village green. Though this is often spoken of as the +Market Square, it is usually more like a triangle in shape than a +square. + +The old houses round the market square are built very closely one +into the other, and with queer narrow alleys leading to houses +behind those in front; much in the same way as the houses are +clustered round the village green. Round the outskirts of the town, +at the back of the houses, are small green closes or paddocks. +Beyond them are the larger meadows and pastures; then the wide +corn-lands and woods; and, not far away, the heath or common. + +The Saxon settlements, the "tuns" or "vills", whether they +afterwards became what we now understand as "towns" or "cities", or +remained what we call villages, had all the same chief features. +Just as ordinary schoolrooms and railway stations are all pretty +much alike, because they all have to serve much the same purpose, +so the Saxon settlements were very similar in their general plan. + +There was the open place, where people met and the folk-moot was +held, surrounded by the houses of stone or wood in which the people +lived. Around these lay the grass yards or common homestead; and, +beyond them, the wide arable and pasture-lands, with patches of +moorland and forest. + +But outside the actual "tun" there would be something connected +with the Saxon settlement which you would be sure to notice. After +you had passed the boundary to the tun, you would see no hedgerows +or walls dividing the land into fields. The arable land was one +huge field. Its position would depend, of course, upon the nature +of the soil and the lie of the land. You would not expect to find +it down in the water-meadows, through which the river flowed; it +would be higher up, out of the reach of floods; perhaps on the +hill-sides. + +Then you would see the huge field, ploughed in long strips, about +a furlong in length, that is, a "furrow long",[5] and one or two +perches in breadth. Between the ploughed strips would be narrow +unploughed strips, on which, in places, brambles would grow. +The heath-lands and moorlands were uncultivated tracts, where +rough timber and underwood grew, which was cut and lopped by the +people of the vill under certain conditions. There were no formal +spinneys,[6] nor wide stretches of old timber, such as we nowadays +expect to see in a forest. In places the forests contained old +timber, and were thick with undergrowth, and infested with wild +animals, such as wolves and boars. The name forest was often given +to an uncultivated district, not much differing from a rough +common, where sheep, cattle, and swine could pick up a living. + + [5] A furrow, or furlong, was, roughly speaking, the distance the + plough would travel up or down the field before it was turned. + + [6] Spinneys are plantations of trees growing closely together. + + [Illustration: THE VILLAGE GREEN, EXTON, RUTLAND + + [See page 26]] + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +Tythings and Hundreds--Shires + + +Though the Saxons, as they settled down in England, formed "tuns", +which at first had very little to do with one another, that state +of things probably did not last a very long time. In fighting the +Britons they had to act together; and, for the sake of protection +and help, these separate communities had to combine. Somewhat in +this way ten families in a district would form a tything; and the +heads of the villages would, from time to time, meet together to +consult on various matters in which they were interested. + +Then larger areas would need to be covered, as the country became +more settled. Ten tythings would make a hundred; and, from time to +time, men from all the places in the hundred would meet together +and hold hundred courts. The meeting-place for the hundred was +always some well-known spot, selected originally because of its +convenient situation--some particular tree was a favourite place; +and, as the folk met there regularly so many times in the year, the +spot was easily kept in mind from one generation to another. At the +meeting criminals were tried, disputes settled, and in the later +times, when monasteries had become common, some sort of record was +often made of the important matters decided upon, and kept with +the documents belonging to the monastery, as being a safe place in +which to keep them. Scraps of these ancient records have been met +with on old parchments which in later times have been used over +again for another purpose. + +Most of the English counties are still divided into hundreds. In +those days the hundreds were not all of the same size, because, +owing to the nature of the soil, some tuns were far apart from one +another, and a tything might cover a wide district, and a hundred +a much larger area. If the hundred was small, that would show that +the tuns were pretty close together, and that the district was +populous. If, on the other hand, the tythings and hundreds were +large, that would show that the district was thinly peopled. + +We have seen that new settlements were formed by portions of the +family leaving the old home, and making a new tun in the most +suitable place they could find. It would happen, no doubt, in +favourable districts, that new tuns would spring up not very far +from the mother tun; and, in the course of time, there would be a +good many more tuns in the tything than there were originally. The +fact seems to be, that when once the boundaries had been roughly +agreed upon, they were not often altered. From being a combination +of families, or tuns, the tything got to be a district; and it +kept its name of tything long after the number of tuns in it had +increased. + +It was much the same with the hundreds. In time they were +represented by certain districts, whose borders were known to the +people living in them. The hundreds all over the country have +not altered their boundaries to any great extent until quite +recently. In Hampshire to-day there are thirty-seven hundreds; in +Hertfordshire there are only eight; and Middlesex has now the same +six hundreds which it had twelve centuries ago when a good part of +the county was forest land. + +As to the time when the hundreds became grouped into shires we +cannot speak definitely; the change was brought about gradually +and quite naturally. It is not at all likely that all the various +kingdoms in England came together on some particular occasion and +said: "Now we'll divide all our kingdoms into shires". But the +hundreds did become grouped into shires, doubtless because it was +necessary that they might act together in matters which concerned +all. + + [Illustration: _Ploughing. From an old Saxon Calendar in the + British Museum_] + +There is nothing like a threatened danger from without to draw men +together. We have seen this in a most remarkable way during the +Great War. In the tun, no doubt, the villagers fell out with each +other; however fairly the strips of land were shared somebody was +sure to get what he did not like, and to grumble about it. Some +of his fellow-villagers would take his side, and say it was a +shame; and others would take the opposite side. But if the cattle +belonging to the tun over the hills, or on the other side of the +marsh, had been seen on the wrong side of the mark, or boundary +which separated the lands of the two tuns, the dispute about the +strips in the field would be forgotten, and away the people would +go in a body towards the offending tun "to see about it". + +In much the same way, when the boundaries of a tything or hundred +were invaded by another tything or hundred, the differences between +the tuns would be dropped, in order to preserve the rights which +they had in common. + +There was strife among the Saxon kingdoms which lasted for many +years, especially between the three great rivals, Wessex, Mercia, +and Northumbria. The lesser kingdoms were under the dominion, +sometimes of one, sometimes of another of these rivals. All this +fighting and settling down put more and more power into the hands +of the kings. Instead of each village fighting for itself, and +leaving all the others to fight for themselves, it was found to +be a much safer and wiser policy to join together for common +protection. Now if people join together, whether in peace or war, +to win a football match or to take a city, somebody must be in +authority to give the necessary orders. Hence the power of the +king, and the officers acting under him, grew up _by custom_, until +the overlordship of the king was so firmly established that no one +dared call it in question. + +Apparently from the smaller Saxon kingdoms we get our older shires. +Whether the overlord happened to be the King of Mercia, or the King +of Wessex, the under-king continued to rule over his old kingdom, +or share. When, at length, in the ninth century, the King of +Wessex was acknowledged as the overlord or King of England, Wessex +and Mercia, and a part of Northumbria, were gradually divided +into _shares_, or shires, over each of which the King of England +appointed a reeve to look after his interests--the shire-reeve or +sheriff. The King of England still appoints the high sheriff of +each county. An eorlderman, who, in the case of the older shires, +was at first no doubt a descendant of the old under-king, looked +after the business of the shire itself. + +Amongst the older shires we have Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Essex, +Middlesex; while the newer ones were all named after some important +central town, which in each case gave its name to the shire; such +are Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. You can easily pick these out +from a list of the counties of England at the present time. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +The Early English Town + + +At first, as we have seen, the Saxons were an agricultural people, +and each village or tun produced all that it needed for its own +support. But in peaceful times a tun might produce more than it +needed; and by and by something like trade and exchange between +one place and another would begin. There were many places, as for +example London, which in Roman times had been great places for +commerce, to which ships had come bringing various kinds of goods. +In time, as the Saxons settled down, they began to have new wants, +and some of them began to be attracted towards places where there +were more people than in their native tuns. Some men found that +they could make certain articles of common use better than their +neighbours could. Thus certain trades took their rise. Those who +worked at them would gradually give up the agricultural labour +in which everybody else in the tun was employed. We do not know +the causes which led certain of these agricultural tuns to become +trading-places, but it is quite certain that they did gradually +grow to be what we now call towns. + +We find Saxon towns springing up near the places where some of +the Roman towns had been, in some cases on the actual site of the +Roman city. In Gloucester and Lincoln, for instance, some of the +streets to-day follow the actual lines of the Roman streets. These +towns are, however, really Saxon towns, not old Roman towns turned +into Saxon towns. The men of these Saxon towns had lands on the +outskirts of the towns, just as the village men had. Even to-day +you will notice that there are many towns which possess lands +called by such names as the Townlands, Townfield, or Lammas Land. + +The men in these towns were, from the very first, more inclined to +hold out against an overlord than the men in the villages were. In +the first place, their numbers were greater; and then they had more +varieties of occupation than the villagers, or, as we may say, had +wider interests. In the trading towns, like London and Southampton, +they came in contact with traders from other lands, and trade +brought them more wealth. They, too, had their folk-moots, and they +had more business to transact in them than the country villagers +had. They were very particular to keep a tight hold on their +rights, and were always on the look-out to gain fresh privileges if +they possibly could. + +The fence or wall, which surrounded the town, was made much +stronger than that round the village; and men saw the use now of +the thick walls of the old Roman cities which their ancestors had +despised, for they had wealth and goods which needed protection. + +We have seen that the power of the king gradually increased; and, +as it did so, the king and the town became more necessary to each +other. The town was wealthy; but it could not stand by itself +against all the rest of the country. The king had the power of the +country at his back, and could protect it if he would. The town had +to give something to the king in return for this protection. But we +shall presently see more of the relations between king and town. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +In Early Christian Times + + +One great and important factor in the making of Saxon England +was Christianity. The first Saxons who came were heathen, and +they wiped out the British Christianity, where they settled, as +completely as they wiped out Roman civilization. Towards the end of +the sixth century Christian missionaries were at work in the north +and in the south of what we now call England, and from that time +onwards the Church played an important part in the making of the +nation. + +So, side by side with the development and political growth of the +country came the spread of Christianity and the organization of the +Church. We find that the folk in the Saxon kingdoms, following the +lead of their kings, became Christian as a matter of course. Over +and over again we find the kings giving up Christianity and going +back to paganism, and their people following them, also as a matter +of course. The conversion of England took many years to accomplish, +and mixed up with the Christianity was much paganism, which was not +overcome for many centuries. The dioceses[7] of the early Saxon +bishops were, roughly speaking, of the same extent as the early +kingdoms, and the bishops and their clergy travelled about as +missionaries. + + [7] A diocese is the district over which a bishop rules. + +As the lords or thanes of the various vills, following the example +of their kings, accepted Christianity, their people followed +their example. In the open places of the tuns and vills, where +the folk-moots were held, Christianity was preached and the cross +set up. That, probably, was the origin of most of the village +and market crosses. Then, in the course of time, in some cases, +a church was built on a part of the old sacred open spaces. You +cannot help noticing to-day how in many towns the chief church is +by the market-place, and in the villages by the village green. In +other cases we find the church and manor-house are outside the +present village. That may be because the thane's or lord's land +was outside the vill or tun, and he built the church on his own +land, not on the common public land in the middle of the tun. It +may have happened, also, that at the time the church was first +built the houses were there also; but, owing to changes many years +afterwards, the people have removed to another spot some distance +away--possibly to the side of a busy main road. Then the original +village has dwindled away; the houses, having fallen into ruin, +have been pulled down, and no trace of them is now left. + +A priest would be appointed by the bishop, to work in a tun, and a +portion of land would be set apart in the common fields to maintain +him and to aid in carrying on the services of the church. In course +of time there were certain dues and fees given to him, the paying +of which became a recognized custom. Somewhat in this way glebe +lands and tithes took their rise, and became a part of the land +system of the Saxon people. + +Along with the growth of churches in the tuns and vills was the +founding of monasteries. Small bodies of men bound themselves by +simple rules to live and work and worship together. Frequently +they made their settlements in lonely, desolate places, which they +worked to bring under cultivation. So there sprang up settlements, +or convents, of these religious people, living under their own +rules. Work and worship went side by side. It was a new kind of +life, different from the life in the "tun" which the early Saxons +were used to; but in time it had a mighty influence in the land, +and played an important part in the making of England. + + [Illustration: CROSS AND CHURCH, GEDDINGTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE + + [See page 36]] + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +Monasteries + + +The Saxons learned to respect the quiet simple lives of the early +monks. They saw them toiling hard in their fields, bravely facing +many difficulties and hardships, and turning the wilderness into a +garden. At first each monk, from the abbot downwards, had to take +his share in the toil, wherever it was, and the monastery, as well +as the vill, had to produce all that it needed. + +Men who were not very good or very religious began to respect the +lives and works of the monks. We find thanes and kings not only +allowing monks to settle on some of their unoccupied land, but +making over to them some of their own land, on condition that +they and their children after them might always have a share in +the prayers of these good men. We see, too, that whole vills came +gradually into the hands of some monasteries; so that the convent +became the lord of the vill instead of a thane or a king. + +Some convents made rapid progress, while others never prospered, +but in the course of time disappeared. We have seen that the vill +and the "town" grew up in much the same way, and were formed on +the same plan. There are, however, a good many towns which grew up +round monasteries in the first instance. + +For example, King Offa II, at the end of the eighth century, +founded the monastery of St. Alban, giving to it a wide extent of +land round the ruins of the old city of Verulam. The monastery was +built, and much land brought under cultivation. We find the sixth +abbot, Ulsinus, two centuries later, encouraging people to settle +round the walls of the monastery. That monastery lay near one of +the great roads of England; many people were coming and going; so +houses were built and a market was established. Churches, too, were +erected for the use of the people who settled in the town. The +abbot was the lord of this "town", and the people dwelling in it +were his tenants. He, like any other lord of a "tun", or "vill", +was responsible for the keeping of order and good government on his +land. + +St. Edmund's Bury, or Bury St. Edmund's, grew up round a monastery +which had been established in a lonely place; and there, also, +arose in time a flourishing town, under the rule of the abbot. + +A number of towns, which to-day are cathedral cities, grew up round +the churches where the bishop and his principal clergy had their +homes and chief centres of work. + +These things only came about very gradually. The monks who settled +first at Bury, or those whom King Offa settled by the ruins of +Verulam, never dreamed that in the years to come their convents +would be great landowners, with many hundreds of tenants. But +it was so; and the monasteries at length formed one of the most +important classes of landowners in the country; their special +rights and privileges coming to them so gradually, and so +naturally, that no one realized exactly what was taking place. + +Those who entered a monastery, or embraced "the religious life", +intended to keep out of the world, and apart from its cares and +worries as much as they could. But the lands left to them had to be +looked after and cultivated. These did not always lie close round +the monastery--very frequently they were tracts of land in distant +counties--and somebody had to look after them. New possessions +bring new responsibilities; and so we we find that the monasteries +had not only to attend to the daily round of worship and work +inside the walls of the monastery, but had to carry on all the +business belonging to great estates as well. + +So in time a monastery had to use the services of many men besides +monks; the monks became great employers of labour one way and +another, and this attracted to their towns a good many skilled +workmen. + +The times when the Danes ravaged the greater part of the country +were very trying to the life of English villages and towns. These +sea-rovers came, at first, as plunderers, and the destruction of +towns, churches, and monasteries was very great. Some monasteries, +like Crowland[8], suffered several times, and many were never +rebuilt. But gradually the invaders themselves settled in England. +They did not bring with them an entirely new land system. As they +settled down to farming and village life, we find that land was +held in almost exactly the same manner as under Saxon customs. + + [8] In the Fens. + +Of course there were some differences, and those who have studied +the subject closely can indicate a good many points in which the +Saxon and Danish land customs differed from each other. The dangers +to which the Saxons had been exposed by the attacks of the Danes +had put a great deal of power into the hands of the thanes and the +king. Thus, by the time the Danes had settled in England, every +vill and tun had got into the hands of some lord or thane, or was +in the king's hands. In Danish settlements there seems always to +have been an overlord, who led his people in war and ruled in time +of peace; though there was a class of freemen amongst them which +had special rights and privileges. You will remember that when +King Alfred came to terms with the Danes at the Peace of Wedmore, +in the year 880, it was agreed that the part of England east of +the old Roman road, Watling Street, which ran from London to +Chester, should be regarded as Danish territory. In that district +you will find a good many Danish place-names as well as the +older Saxon place-names--names which end in "by", "ey", "ness", +"wic", and "thorpe". A great many will be found in Lincolnshire, +Northamptonshire, and farther north. But some will also be found in +other parts of the country. For instance; there is in Hampshire, +in the valley of the River Meon, quite a little nest of Danish +place-names--a fact which shows that Danes settled in that district +even in the midst of what may be called a Saxon stronghold. + +But the Danes were something more than tillers of the soil; they +were traders too, and "tuns" became in many places more like our +"towns" and trading-places than ever they had been before. In time +we find the largest towns in the Danish part of England--Leicester, +Lincoln, Derby, Nottingham, and Stamford--binding themselves +together to protect their trading interests. + + [Illustration: _Saxon Church at Bradford-on-Avon_ + + _This little building, one of the earliest stone churches, lay + hidden for centuries, but was rediscovered in 1857. The monastery + once attached to it has long since perished._] + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +Towns and Villages in the Time of Cnut the Dane + + +Now let us see what an ordinary village was like in the time of +King Cnut, when Saxon and Dane were living pretty comfortably +together, side by side, under good government. + +We find that each vill or tun had a lord, an eorl, or thane, who +practically owned the place and everything in it, though he could +not do entirely as he liked. There was the land which belonged to +him, and which was in his own hands, or occupation, as we say; +that was called his demesne. The rest of the land was also his, +but it was let out to people who had lived on the land from time +out of mind--the cheorls or villeins. The lord's house was on his +demesne. The villeins' houses were all together in the tun, with +the grass yards for the cattle close to them, and the open fields +and pasture-lands outside the tun, just as they had been in the +olden days. + +There seems to have been two classes of villeins--geburs and +cottiers. + +The geburs were the higher class. They appear very frequently to +have held about one hundred and twenty acres of land; they had to +work on the lord's home farm two or three days a week, or pay him +certain produce of the land as a rent; and they had to provide one +or more oxen for the village plough, when there was ploughing to be +done on the lord's farm, or in the common field. + +In the Danish part of the country there appears to have been a +class of freeholders, in some places, called socmen, but there +were not very many of them. They, no doubt, had had their rights +granted to them for distinguished service in the Danish wars. + +The cottiers held only about five acres of land. They had to work +for the thane or lord on certain days of the week; but, as they had +no oxen, they had no ploughing to do for him. + +Below the geburs and the cottiers were the theows, thralls, or +slaves, who could be bought and sold. They were captives taken in +war, or men who, for their crimes, had been doomed to slavery. + +We must remember that the overlord might be the king or a bishop, a +monastery or a thane. Their rights over their vills and tuns were +much the same in each case, and their duties to those vills and +tuns were also similar. + +A very large number of vills and tuns were under the lordship of +the various bishops and monasteries. It was so with towns like +Winchester, Reading, Bury St. Edmund's, and St. Alban's. The custom +had grown up quite naturally and in the course of many years. + +It is pretty clear that the overlord did not always reside in his +vill or tun. The tuns or vills of the bishopric of Winchester, +for instance, were scattered about in the various parts of the +diocese. It was the same with other overlords. But we find in every +place a steward, and in each town the king's reeve or the lord's +reeve. These acted for the overlord, whoever he was, and saw that +the villeins and cottiers did their proper proportion of work at +the right time; they saw that the lord's tolls at the markets, +fairs, and ferries, were properly enforced. The steward was a most +important officer in every town and village, and a great deal of +power was in his hands. + +Then in the ordinary country vill there was the faber, or smith; +the mason; the pundar, or man who looked after the fences and +hedges and drove stray cattle into the pound. Then there was the +carpenter, and even the bee-keeper, for honey was an important +ingredient used in the making of the drink of the community. The +simple ordinary trades were found in the country villages then, +as they are now; but the craftsmen, the most skilled workmen, had +become for the most part dwellers in the towns. Even in very early +times we find craftsmen in towns formed into trades' unions or +guilds, to protect their special trades. + + [Illustration: _Agriculture. From an eleventh-century manuscript + in the British Museum_ + + _Below are shown the workers carrying their burdens home at the + end of the day._] + +Now the land was shared amongst the villeins and cottiers in +strips, usually containing an acre or halfacre, in the common +fields of which we have heard before. The villein did not have all +the strips belonging to his holding set out side by side--they +lay in different parts of the great open field. Crops had to be +sown according to the custom of the vill or tun, and according to +a fixed order. Wheat and rye would be sown one year on a part of +the great field; barley, oats, and beans the next year; and the +third year the land must be left fallow. The lord's land had to be +treated in the same way. + +On the pasture-land and in the meadows the villein and cottier had +the right to turn out a certain number of cattle, according to the +size of their holdings. The crops, whether of hay or corn, had to +be cleared from the fields by certain fixed days, so that cattle +might be turned out to graze. You will still find, in some towns, +that certain of the freeholders, or burgesses, have the right to +turn a certain number of cattle on certain lands for a part of the +year between fixed dates. + +Then, on the rough commons or heaths there were also grazing rights +for the lord and his tenants. The tenants might "top and lop" the +trees growing there at certain times, but they might not cut the +trees down--that was the lord's right. There were also rights of +cutting turf and heather, and the turning of hogs into the forest; +all these rights were ruled by "custom", which bound both the lord +and the tenants. + +These "customs", although they were very similar, were not the same +in every place--each community had its own special "customs" which +were clung to most rigidly from generation to generation. However +much inclined the lord or his reeve might be to try to get rid of +the old "customs" in order to get more power into his own hands, +or to make more out of the tenants, he was forced to respect the +"custom" of the place or there would be grievous trouble. And it +was a good thing that both lords and tenants had thus to respect +each the right of the other, for it has helped to foster from the +very early days that spirit which makes for liberty, which we +value so highly, so that a man may live his life in security and +freedom. + +The lord, or steward, or reeve, held courts or meetings at regular +intervals. At first these took place in the open air, like the old +folk-moots; but in time they came to be held in a court-house. The +court was a meeting, presided over by the lord or his steward, to +see that the customs of the place were kept up; to call to account +those tenants who had failed to do their share of the work; to put +new tenants into the places of those who had removed or died; and +to punish offenders. + + [Illustration: _Ploughing. From an eleventh-century manuscript in + the British Museum_] + +This last right, of punishing offenders, was one thought to be of +vast importance. In the early days the men of the tun were bound +together to keep the peace, and to see that it was kept; and they +were strong enough to keep evil-doers in check. In the trading +tuns or towns especially the right was valued very highly; but, at +the time we are now treating of, the right to exercise punishment +was in the hands of the overlord, though the men of the place had +still some voice in the government of their town. The right to have +a gallows was one eagerly sought for, and held very firmly; not +because people particularly wanted to hang one another, but because +the gallows represented to them the highest power of government. +The towns had lost most of their rights in this respect, but they +had never forgotten those they had had, and were always on the +alert to get back any lost right, or to gain a new one which should +help them to obtain the privilege of self-government. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +Churches and Monasteries in Danish and Later Saxon Times + + +In speaking of our towns and villages we are obliged to make +mention frequently of churches and monasteries. At the time when +Cnut was king, each vill or tun had its church and its priest to +minister in it. There were parts of the land, in the common fields +and pasture, mixed up with the villeins' strips, set apart for +the support of the services of the Church, the maintenance of the +priest, and the care of the poor. In time various dues and customs +were also paid to the priest for certain things which he was +expected to do. + +There are very few churches still standing which have any parts of +their structure dating from before the time of King Cnut. In the +early days churches were very simple buildings, built mainly of +wood, and in the Danish wars most of them were destroyed. + +In the tenth century there was a very general belief that the +world was coming to an end at the end of the thousand years after +the establishment of Christianity; so there was not much actual +church-building going on. But in King Cnut's time a revival of +interest in church-building took place, and there are in a good +many of the old churches of England little bits of work in the +walls, or very rude carvings over the doorways, which belong to +this time. Unless such work is pointed out to you by one who +understands something about these matters, you will not be likely +to discover it for yourself, any more than you are likely to +discover the traces of the pit-dwellings, of which we spoke in an +early chapter. + +These parish churches and parish priests were under the control of +the bishop, who had his chief church or cathedral in some important +place in his diocese. Those cathedrals were generally served by +colleges of clergy, called canons. + + [Illustration: _Wooden Church at Greenstead, Essex. Built in 1013 + as a temporary shelter for the body of St. Edmund during its + removal from London to Bury. The illustration is copied from an + engraving dated 1748, when the building was entire, though much + decayed_] + +These were the public churches. But besides them there were +colleges and monasteries, which were private societies of men +living together. Some of the religious houses were in towns, as we +have seen, and others were in wild desolate places. Every religious +house, whether a monastery for men or a nunnery for women, had its +church, which was the private chapel of the house, and not open to +the public. In the course of years these private chapels were built +as huge churches, much larger than the parish church. Even now you +may see standing close to a big college church a much smaller +parish church; as, for example, St. Margaret's Church, which stands +by the side of Westminster Abbey. As more land came into the +possession of these religious houses, the monks had more business +with the outside world; for, as landlords, they had to see that +their lands were turned to good account, and cultivated according +to the notions of the day. + +The monasteries, especially in their early days, were great centres +of good and useful work. Those who founded them, or gave them +lands, did so because they felt they were doing excellent service +for the people, and they wanted to have a share in the work, and to +be remembered in the prayers of the monks. Founders of religious +houses believed that they were getting something worth having in +return for the lands which they gave. + +In the wild times of the Danish invasions the monasteries were +looked upon as places of safety for the weak and helpless. But +they were not always safe places. Sometimes, when the country was +in a disturbed state, people would send their valuables to the +nearest monastery. In time the Danes got to know of this, and many +a religious house was attacked and sacked by them on account of the +tales they had heard of the marvellous wealth hidden there. + +A story is told of a worthy person living near St. Alban's +monastery at a time when a visit from marauding Danes was expected. +One market-day he sent a number of heavy iron-bound chests, guarded +by armed men, through the market to the monastery. Everybody, of +course, turned to look, and talked about the affair. As a matter of +fact the chests only contained stones; the treasure was carefully +hidden somewhere else, till all danger was thought to be over. That +plan was used to put the Danes "off the scent" as we should say. + +All the land that did not go with the tuns and vills in early days +was apparently regarded as belonging to the people, and was called +the folk-land. There was a great deal of this unoccupied land, and +it was not regarded at the time as being of much use to anybody. +The king came to be regarded as the custodian or guardian of these +folk-lands. Little by little they became the property of the king, +until practically he could do what he pleased with them. It was +from these folk-lands--which in early times were probably scraps of +land which nobody thought to be worth very much, since the nearest +vills or tuns had never taken them in--that kings gave land to +bishoprics and monasteries. By and by these rough lands became very +valuable; but in most cases it was the labour, the skill, and the +brains of the monks in the early days which turned the waste lands +into fruitful fields. + + [Illustration: _Consecration of a Saxon Church, from an ancient + manuscript of Caedmon's Poems_] + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +Later Saxon Times + + +Every old town and village has got its oldest house, of course. You +will most likely have heard people trying to be funny about it, and +saying they think it must have been built in the year One. There +is, we may pretty safely say, no house now standing exactly as it +was in the days of King Cnut and the later Saxon times. But even +yet there are some buildings standing, and still in use, which have +certain parts which were erected in those times. These buildings +are mostly churches, and in various parts of the country, indeed in +almost every county, something belonging to this age can be pointed +out. + +Churches built of stone in those days had very thick walls with +very small windows. The east end of the chancel was usually +semicircular, forming an apse. The wall between the chancel and +the nave was pierced by a narrow, low, round-headed arch. Most +of the windows had plain, round-headed arches, and in some of +them, dividing the opening into two parts or "lights", were stone +pillars with bulging stems. Some of the doorways had triangular +heads, others had round heads. There are some very curious bits +of sculpture over some of these doorways. The meaning of them was +quite plain, no doubt, to the people who carved them, but they are +very difficult for us to understand. They represent the ideas which +the Saxons had of good and evil, and of the strife continually +going on between them. + +King Edward the Confessor had been brought up in Normandy, +where church-building was in advance of anything in England. +He encouraged Norman ideas in building, as well as in other +directions, and so prepared the way for the coming of the Normans. +Some parts of the buildings connected with Westminster Abbey were +built at that time. + +We do not know much of Saxon castles, though the Saxons had their +strongholds and fortified places. + + [Illustration: _Saxon Doorway, Earl's Barton, Northampton_] + +The houses in which the people lived were most of them in those +days built of wood. There was not much difference, except in size, +between the house of the king, the thane, and the villein. There +was the hearth, on which was the fire; and the room or hall in +which it was placed was the chief building, close to which, very +gradually, other buildings arose. Apparently the buildings had a +framework of timber, filled in with wood wattled together like +hurdles. In the more important buildings stone gradually came into +use. + +The monasteries and convents each had the buildings in which the +monks lived grouped round the church. After the Danish wars the +buildings improved, stone taking the place of wood. + +Even in the towns wood was chiefly used for the ordinary houses; +though, as we should expect, stone was used in the more important +buildings and in the wall round the town. + +What we understand by comfort in a house was absent. There was the +fire on the hearth in the middle of the floor; in this room the +people of the house, from the highest to the lowest, had their +meals; and there, on the floor, most of them slept at night. +Cooking was done almost entirely in the open air. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +In Norman Times + + +When Duke William of Normandy became King of England, the power of +the Crown was greater than it had ever been before. All the old +folk-land had become king's land. Many knights had followed Duke +William from Normandy into England, and expected to be provided +for by their leader. The lands belonging to King Harold, and +those of the Saxon eorls who had died fighting at Senlac, King +William regarded as his own. These he granted to his followers, +on condition that they acknowledged him as their overlord, and +followed him in war when required. This was a stricter condition +than had ever before been required in England. The Normans were +used to it, and it did not seem at all strange to them. + +Neither was it so very strange to the Saxon nobles and thanes. Most +of them were allowed to keep their estates if they took the oath of +allegiance to the king as the Normans did. Of course they grumbled: +it was only natural that they should do so; but if they did not +acknowledge the king in this way they were looked upon as rebels, +and lost their lands. + +King William was very careful, in the grants which he made, not +to put too much power into the hands of his nobles. The old vills +of Saxon times were now pretty generally called manors. When the +king granted land, it was not given in huge slices--whole counties, +halves, and quarters of counties--to this great follower of his or +to that one. Between the old vills, or manors, there were often +wide stretches of the king's own land, the old folk-land. If he had +granted to a Norman knight a quarter of a county or so, he would +have been giving away much of his own land. Besides that, the king +did not mean his followers to become too powerful. He granted the +land in separate manors. It is quite true that in every county we +can, so to speak, put our finger on some Norman knight who came +over with William I, and say that he got the lion's share of the +manors in that county. Thus in Hampshire there was Hugh de Port, +and in Hertfordshire Eustace de Boulogne. But their manors did not +all lie side by side, nor were they conveniently close together. +Just as a villein's holding was spread out in various fields, so +the manors, or fiefs, which a knight held under King William were +often scattered over various counties. + +At the time of the Conquest a very large number of manors belonged +to bishoprics and monasteries. Now the Normans were a Christian +race. The Norman Conquest was not like the Saxon or the Danish +Conquest--a rush of heathen, bent on plunder and bloodshed. Bitter +as the strife was, it was not as bad as those invasions had +been. There was something which the Normans and the later Saxons +both respected, and that was their religion. The Normans were a +particularly religious and devout people, stern and cruel as they +were. The lands of the Church and of the monasteries were not +interfered with to any extent. King William, however, took care +that they were in the hands of people whom he could trust. + +The story is told that the Saxon abbot, Frederick of St. Alban's, +who did not love the Normans, once remarked to King William that he +owed his easy conquest of England to the fact that so many of the +manors were held by monks and clergy, who could not and would not +bring out their men to fight. + +The king replied that that must be mended; for enemies might again +invade the land, and he must have men whom he could depend upon +to meet the foe. At that time a great tract of land between St. +Albans and London belonged to the Abbey, and the abbot allowed +Saxon outlaws to infest it, who were a great nuisance to the +Normans. As the land had been given by former kings, the king +at once took half of it back again, in order to clear out the +outlaws. Abbot Frederick had said too much. He fled away to the +Camp of Refuge at Ely, and King William would only accept as abbot +a Norman and a friend of his--Paul de Caen. That was a very good +appointment for St. Albans. The great tower of the Abbey Church, +still standing, was built by him--more than eight centuries ago. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +In Norman Times (_Cont._) + + +The king, then, granted manors to his followers, and to such Saxon +eorls and thanes as were willing to hold their lands on the same +conditions as the Normans. If they objected, as from time to time a +good many of them did, they had to go. + +Now, though every manor had a lord, where the lord held many manors +it was quite impossible for him to be living in the manor-house of +each of them, and looking after his estate himself. He could, if +he chose, let out some portions of these manors to a man beneath +him in rank, on exactly the same conditions as the king had +granted to him. The man must swear to be his vassal, and appear, +when required, with his proper number of men, to fight his lord's +battles. He, in his turn, might let parts of the lands to others +under him. + +By this means the king could command a pretty large army. He would +summon his great vassals, they would summon their vassals, each of +whom would in turn summon his followers; and so from every manor +men would be called to fight. It was something like the old nursery +tale: "The fire began to burn the stick; the stick began to beat +the dog; the dog began to worry the pig; and so the pig began to +get over the stile". + + [Illustration: _Domesday Book. From the original in the Public + Record Office, London._ (_1/8 original size._)] + +If the lord was not living in the manor-house there was someone +there to represent him and to look after his interests. In scores +of manors the people never set eyes on their overlord; but they +felt the grip of his power through the steward of the manor. Now, +though the steward could not go against the customs of the manor +openly, there were many ways in which he could make himself very +disagreeable to the people under his care. He was there to grind +what he could out of the tenants for the lord, and he took care to +grind for himself too. It seems to have been quite an understood +thing that he was to get what he could out of the manor for +himself, so that very often villeins and tenants had anything but +an easy, pleasant life. + +The Norman Conquest did not interfere with the customs of the +manors, and the life of an ordinary manor went on very much the +same in King William's reign as it had done under King Edward +the Confessor. About twenty years after King William I had come +to the throne, that great survey, recorded in Domesday Book, was +made. Learned men who have studied the Domesday Book closely have +discovered many things connected with the life of people in England +at this period. We can even see what parts of the country suffered +by opposing King William, and which districts had submitted quietly +to him. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +In Norman Times: The Churches + + +When we speak of Norman times we must bear in mind that they lasted +for over one hundred and thirty years--say from 1066 to 1200. That +period covers a good many years, and consequently a good many +changes took place. Now this period is marked by a particular style +of architecture known as Norman or Twelfth Century. + +With the coming of William the Conqueror to England began a great +period of building in this country. There was what we may almost +call a "great rage" for founding or establishing religious houses +and churches, and for building castles. All the religious houses +have gone, and nearly all the castles, but in their ruins we can +see specimens of Norman work. In a large number of old churches we +can see very good examples of this style. In Hampshire especially +there is scarcely one old church, even in the most out-of-the-way +village, which has not some Norman work to show. + + [Illustration: _Norman Capital, Buckland Church, Berks_] + +You will expect to find that the style of building altered somewhat +during that long time. In the beginning it was very plain, but +gradually it became more ornamental. At first there were plain, +round-headed arches and heavy stone pillars, with boldly cut caps +to them. But in the time of King Henry II, and later, we find the +mouldings of the arches, and the caps of the pillars, ornamented +more and more with bold carvings. There is a vast difference +between the plain, almost ugly, Norman work, in St. Alban's +Cathedral, which was begun about the year 1077, and the Norman +work which can be seen in Durham Cathedral, or the west door of +Rochester Cathedral. The St. Albans builders had no stone at hand +to speak of, but any amount of Roman tiles from the ruins of +Verulam. They could not build anything very ornamental, but they +could and did build something vast and imposing. In most of the +cathedrals there are still to be seen very fine specimens of later +Norman work. + + [Illustration: CHOIR OF CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL + + The Transition work is to be seen especially in the columns and + arches on either side of the choir [See page 57]] + + [Illustration: _Norman Capital, Hanney Church, Berks_] + +We see, towards the end of the period, from the way in which the +Norman arches were used to intersect each other and form two +pointed arches within a round-headed arch, that a change in style +was showing itself. Towards the end of Norman times, in the reigns +of Richard I and John, we reach what architects call the Transition +Period, when the Norman style was gradually changing into the Early +English or Pointed Style. The choir of Canterbury Cathedral is one +of the best-known specimens of this Transition Period. Just as +changes took place in the style of the buildings, so, too, the life +of the nation changed. All the changes were not improvements; some, +indeed, were changes for the worse. + + [Illustration: _Norman Capital, St. Bartholomew's Priory Church, + London_] + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +Castles + + +The passion for building castles in England had begun before the +Norman Conquest; but during the Norman period a great many castles +(about eleven hundred, it is said) were built in various parts +of the country. They were not all of the same size, strength, or +importance. Some were royal castles, belonging to the king, who +placed each one in charge of a constable or warden. These were +necessary for the defence of the country. We should expect to +find important castles, for instance, at such places as Carlisle, +Ludlow, Gloucester, Dover, and London. We can, too, trace lines of +castles along the Scottish and Welsh borders; and there were no +fewer than twenty-five in the county of Monmouth alone. + +Many castles were placed on the sites of Saxon strongholds, and +of strongholds dating from still earlier times. Others were built +where the overlord thought they would be of service to him in +protecting his interests and keeping his tenants in order. So it +often came to pass that the castles were built close to, or in the +very heart of, a town or city. Frequently the castle was at once +the protection and the terror of the neighbourhood. + +It is curious to note that some of the greatest castle-builders of +the time were bishops. There was Bishop Gundulph of Rochester, who +built the Keep of Rochester Castle and the White Tower in the Tower +of London. There was Bishop Henry de Blois of Winchester, who built +a number of castles on lands belonging to his bishopric. Strange as +it may seem to us that bishops should be great rulers and leaders +of armies, it did not strike the people of those days as at all +extraordinary or improper. A bishop was as much a ruler as the +king, and had territories to look after and keep in order. In those +days he was quite as able to carry out these duties as the boldest +baron of them all, and could give and take hard knocks with the +best of them. + + [Illustration: _Rochester Castle: The Keep_ + + _Rochester Castle was built by Bishop Gundulf between 1077 and + 1108, under the order of William Rufus. The magnificent Keep (70 + feet square and 104 feet high) was added about 1126._] + +The great castle-builders had no love for the traders in towns and +cities; indeed they looked down on that class. But they found them +very useful. Towns attracted traders by land and by water; and +every town, every bridge, and every ferry belonged to some lord or +other. No goods could be brought into or taken from a town, or +carried across bridge or ferry, without paying toll and custom to +the overlord. But he had certain duties to perform in return, in +protecting the town and its trade; and the better the protection +the more traders came to pay toll, and the better it was for +everybody concerned. + +So we find, near many of our ancient towns and cities, a castle, or +its ruins--or perhaps only the site is left--where the lord of the +town kept a number of men to protect the town and district, even +when he was not there himself. + +If there was no love lost between the lord of the castle and the +townsmen, there was still less between the latter and the soldiers. +The soldiers were inclined to take liberties, and to be insolent +and oppressive. As they had it in their power to "make trouble", if +not kept in good-humour, the townsmen put up with much for the sake +of peace and quietness. + + [Illustration: _The White Tower, Tower of London, built by + Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester, 1078. The exterior was restored by + Wren, but within the Norman work is little altered_] + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +Castles and Towns + + +However useful a castle might be in protecting the overlord's +tenants and property, the sense of security was always a great +temptation to quarrel with other lords. With strong kings, like +William I and Henry I, the danger of disorder was not so great, as +these monarchs knew how to keep their great barons in check. But +in the time of King Stephen, during the long years of civil war, +the barons were divided into two parties, and each castle became a +centre of strife. + +The baron in his castle had his men to keep. These he did not pay +in regular wages. He fed, clothed, and armed them after a fashion; +and, to give them something to do, would rake up some old grievance +with a neighbouring baron, make an attack upon his property, and +let his men plunder, burn, and kill to their hearts' content. Then +the other baron would retaliate. + +It is easy to see that the conditions of life in England were most +unsettled in the reign of King Stephen. There was no safety in town +or village, and the dwellers on the manors must have suffered most +severely. Their own lord would send and gather in all their store +to victual his castle from time to time: his enemy would send _his_ +men to seize what they could. It made very little real difference +to the villeins which side won; _they_ suffered, as they were +heavily oppressed by both parties. Their own lord expected his dues +just the same, war or no war, famine or no famine, whether he or +his enemy had carried off the best part of the corn and cattle or +not; and he would take his pick of the men on his manors to fill +the places of his men-at-arms who had been put out of action. + +Many of the barons became little better than monsters of cruelty, +and their castles "nests of devils and dens of thieves". One +of the very worst of these was Geoffrey de Mandeville, who had +large estates in Essex and Hertfordshire. His castle of Anstey, +in Hertfordshire, was a den of fearful wickedness. He and his +men neither feared God nor regarded man; nothing was sacred to +them--they spared neither church nor monastery, town nor village. + +Dreadful tales are still told of the cruel deeds done in the deep +dungeons of nearly all these old castles by the "bold bad barons" +of the time of King Stephen. + +When Henry II became king he put a stop to these disorders, and +large numbers of the castles were pulled down; but the evils they +had caused lived long after, and were the source of much trouble. + +It is said that "Everything comes to those who know how to wait", +and the townsmen, under the rule of a great lord, knew how to wait. +Great as the lord of the town was, whether he was baron, bishop, or +the king himself, he could not do without the town--and the town +knew it. People were sometimes short of ready money in those days +just at the very time when they needed it most urgently. + +You will remember that the Crusades began in the reign of King +William I. Now and again the crusading "fever" took hold of +some of these Norman barons, and many wanted to go to fight the +Turk--especially when there was not much fighting going on at home. +But crusading was a costly business, and of course there was a good +deal of rivalry between these crusading knights as to who could +raise the best-furnished troop of men. The baron would be glad to +get together as much money as he could. So the chance came to many +a town to advance money to their lord. He, in return, would grant +to the town the right to collect the tolls and customs payable to +him for a term of years; or perhaps on condition that they allowed +him so much every year out of the tolls collected. + +Bishops, too, were often in urgent need of money, for there were +many calls upon them. The monasteries were, at this period, +beginning to do so much expensive building, that often they, too, +were glad to get money by granting to the townsmen privileges for +which they were willing to pay. + + [Illustration: _Norman Castle (based on that of Coucy in + the north of France). Coucy (built between 1230-1242) was a + magnificent example of a feudal fortress. The "keep" was round + instead of rectangular._] + +Then there were other towns, not depending so closely on a baron +or bishop or monastery, which wanted to gain similar privileges +of levying toll and custom. These would petition the king for the +right to be given to them too, to levy dues, in return for a large +sum of money paid down, or for a yearly payment to the king. + +The towns were becoming strong, and they gained considerable rights +during this Norman period. As far back as the time of King Cnut +we find, in some districts, towns banding themselves together +to protect their trade and interests. This was the case with +Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Stamford, and Lincoln. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +In Norman Times: The Monasteries + + +The hundred years after the Norman Conquest was a great period +of building. It was a time for establishing or _founding_ new +religious houses. Something like three hundred and ninety-eight +such houses were opened during this period, so that they played a +very important part in the history of the times. The Normans were +not very much interested in the English religious houses which +they found already established here. In fact, a good many of them, +since the times of the Danish invasion, two hundred years before, +had got into very bad order, and were in need of reform. Little +by little, as Norman bishops and abbots were appointed over these +Saxon religious houses, reforms did take place, but not always very +easily or quietly. + +At the time of the Conquest the religious houses in Normandy were +in a far better state than those in England. Their members lived +better lives, did better work, and set a much better example +of godly living and working. There were several new orders or +societies of monks, which had their head-quarters on the continent +of Europe. These interested King William's companions more than the +old English monasteries, because they and their fathers had helped +to establish them. + +So we find, as the Normans received lands here in England, and +founded religious houses, most of them were connected with the +monasteries across the sea, and were ruled by abbots who lived +across the sea. Such branch houses were generally called priories, +and the kings and barons who founded them gave them manors and +parts of manors, sometimes taking them from the older Saxon +monasteries and cathedrals.[9] + + [9] The Cistercian houses here in England, however, were always + known as _abbeys_, though Citeaux, their head-quarters, was in + France. + + [Illustration: _Ruins of Furness Abbey_ + + _Built about sixty years after the Norman Conquest. Much of it + was destroyed in the time of Henry VIII._] + +Then, too, there were the old Saxon houses, St. Alban's Abbey, +Westminster Abbey, and Glastonbury Abbey: they were reformed and +improved, and to them, too, lands were given in various parts +of the country, often far away from the mother house. Thus St. +Alban's Monastery had important lands in the neighbourhood of the +River Tyne, and a daughter house was opened there called Tynemouth +Priory. So, you see, there were two kinds of priories in England: +one class attached to English religious houses, and the other to +Norman or foreign religious houses. In time the foreign priories +received the name of alien priories. + +In time a good deal of ill-feeling arose towards these alien +priories, as the people in England did not like so much money going +out of the country, especially in war times. King John was the +first king to seize these priories when he fell out with France. +Later, King Edward I, in 1295, seized the property of about one +hundred of the alien priories in various parts of England to help +to pay his war expenses. There were several of these alien houses +in the Isle of Wight, and, thinking that the monks might be aiding +his enemies across the English Channel, the king sent the monks to +other houses on the mainland, a long way away from the coast, to +keep them out of mischief. When the war was over, the property was +restored to these priories, and the monks returned to them. This +kind of thing happened over and over again. + +All these religious houses had some interest in the land, and all +of them, to a greater or lesser degree, were landlords. In some +cases the lands given to them were manors which had been managed +and tilled in the same way for hundreds of years. The only change +was that the lord of the manor might be a society or religious +house instead of a baron. Each of the manors had its steward, its +villeins, and so forth, like any other in the land. But a good deal +of the land given to these new religious houses had never been +occupied before. + +Though some of the monasteries, like St. Alban's and St. Edmund's +Bury, were in towns, there were others, especially those founded +in these Norman times, far away from towns, in pathless woods or +deep dales, like Rievaulx, in Yorkshire. Others, like Ramsey and +Thorney, were in lonely fens and marshes. Here the monks themselves +set to work, as in the earlier days, and tilled the ground, +keeping up their regular services in their little churches most +carefully--praying and working. Gradually their lands improved; +other lands came to them; more labour was needed; and so, little by +little, tenants took holdings on their lands, and farmed them for +the "house", on much the same conditions as in the older manors. + + [Illustration: _Foundation of a Minster_ + + _From a thirteenth-century drawing in the British Museum._] + +We find that in many of the monasteries attention was given to +other occupations besides agriculture. Some, especially those in +towns, like St. Alban's, became in this period great seats of +learning. All of them copied the books they used, and some of them +were particularly famed for their writing and illuminating. In +fact, they were the book-producers of the age, and very little of +the work of learned ancient scholars could have come down to us had +it not been for the careful, painstaking work of simple monks quite +unknown to history. + +Some of the abbeys in the west of England, like Bath Abbey, had a +good deal to do with opening up the wool trade, which in the Middle +Ages became the staple trade of the south and west of England. +Flaxley Abbey, in Gloucestershire, developed iron-smelting. The +iron mines in Furness were developed there by the monks, and +also in the neighbouring Walney Isle, off the Lancashire coast. +At Rievaulx, in Yorkshire, there were ironworks near the abbey, +and at Malvern Priory there was ornamental tile-making carried +on, specimens of the work done there remaining in a good many +Worcestershire churches still. Monks gave great attention to their +gardens, and were very clever in fish culture; and in many simple, +homely ways they showed men how to develop the natural resources of +the land. + +In the monasteries men could quietly think and work, and use the +talents they had, without being called away to fight or do the +unskilled work of the world. In these early times there were no +other places where men could lead quiet, thoughtful lives, and +"think things out", and then put them into practice. The men in +the monasteries were not all equally good or religious or clever, +but the work done in and through these old institutions was most +important and most valuable to the country. + + [Illustration: _Bath Abbey. Founded 676; rebuilt in the + Perpendicular style, 1499_] + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +Early Houses + + +When we go from a big modern manufacturing town into an old town +or village, we cannot help noticing the old buildings, the ancient +churches, the old town hall, the alms-houses, and the old houses +with their plastered fronts, tiled roofs, and huge chimney-stacks. + +As years go by, the number of these old houses gets less and less. +In the course of time, many of the smaller ones especially, which +have been neglected and allowed to fall into bad repair, become +dangerous to live in. The sanitary inspector and the medical +officer of health condemn them as unfit for human habitation, and +the houses are shut up. Then, perhaps, they stand empty for some +years; mischievous boys throw stones and break the glass left +in the queer little windows; bill-posters paste notices of all +kinds on the doors, walls, and window-shutters; holes are knocked +in the plaster, bits of the woodwork are torn away, chalk-marks +are scrawled on the walls, and the buildings very shortly look +disgracefully untidy. Then some day the "house-breaker" appears +on the scene, and the houses, which have stood for centuries, are +cleared away, and modern buildings take their places. + +Thoughtful people who know something of the history of the town or +village are always sorry to see old buildings disappear; because +there is much to be learned from them, and they help us to recall +many things of great value and importance which we very easily lose +sight of. + +But, old as the houses in our streets and villages are, there are +very few of them which date back more than three hundred or three +hundred and fifty years. Most of them only date back to the time +of Queen Elizabeth--the latter part of the sixteenth century. + +There are, however, a number of fine old houses which have work in +them of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and some people +can point out to you traces of work in some old houses of an +earlier date than that. There is at Lincoln, for instance, a fine +old stone house called "the Jew's House", which was built late in +the twelfth century. Of course, since it was built, it has, from +time to time, been altered to suit the needs and the fancies of the +various folk who have lived in it. But stone houses for ordinary +people, both in towns and villages, were very rare then--wood was +the common material. Of course in parts of the country where stone +was plentiful, and wood scarce, stone would be very largely used. +For instance, amongst the Cotswolds stone has always been the +handiest material for building walls, and for covering roofs. In +the course of centuries much of this stone has been used over and +over again, and has been "weathered" into a very beautiful tone, +such as only time can give. Such old buildings are much loved and +appreciated by folk who have an eye to see the beauty of colouring. + +Nowadays, both in town and country, houses are commonly "bunches of +bricks". The Romans knew how to make bricks or tiles, and in places +near old Roman cities Roman tile is still to be seen, which has +been used up over and over again in the walls of old buildings. The +big tower of St. Alban's Cathedral is built of Roman tiles which +had been used centuries before in the walls of Roman houses in +Verulamium.[10] That tower has been standing as it is now for over +eight hundred years. + + [10] Commonly called Verulam, but Verulamium was its Roman name. + +But in Saxon times the _art_ of brick-making was lost, and Saxons +and Normans, it appears, were quite ignorant of it. There is an +old brick house--Little Wenham Hall, in Suffolk--which is believed +to have been built in the latter part of the thirteenth century. +That is the oldest brick house in England. In the fifteenth century +the art of brick-making had been rediscovered, and it seems to have +been imported from Flanders. We find specimens of such brickwork in +places near the east coast, and this old brickwork is more pleasing +to the eye than our modern brick. Here, again, time has done its +work in beautifying. The old palace at Hatfield is one of the +brick buildings of this period; but brick did not come much into +use until quite a century later. In the county of Middlesex, where +there is found clay which is very suitable for brick-making, the +art was not used to any great extent till the time of King James I. +After the Great Fire of London, in the year 1666, there was a great +demand for bricks, and the use of that material has quite changed +the character of the houses in our towns and villages. + + [Illustration: _The Jew's House, Lincoln_] + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +Early Houses (_Cont._) + + +For many centuries the houses of the villeins and cottiers did not +alter very much in their general plan. You will remember that in +those old pit-dwellings the hearth and its fire were the centre +of the home. The room, or space round the fire, gradually became +larger, especially in the houses of the thanes and eorls, till we +get the hall, with the hearth in the middle and the hole in the +roof to let out the smoke. + +All through the later Saxon and Danish times, and in the Norman +period, the hall was the most important part of the house. As +the years went on, and the style of building altered, the walls, +the windows, and the roof became more beautiful and ornamental, +becoming most magnificent in the fourteenth century, or Decorated +Period. Gradually other buildings were added to the hall for +comfort and convenience. + + [Illustration: _Diagram of the Shape of a Villein's House_] + +So far as we know, the house or hut of the villein was a very +simple affair before the time of the Norman Conquest. Two pairs of +poles were set up, sloped, and joined at the top, and connected by +a ridge pole as shown in the illustration. The space between was +then filled in by other poles and wattle-work. This was plastered +with clay, and covered with turf or rough thatch. There seems to +have been a pretty regular length for this building, which was long +enough to take four stalls for oxen. That required about sixteen +feet and was called a "bay". The villein and his oxen were all +housed under one roof at first. When another bay was added, the +size of the house was doubled, and so on. In the course of time the +houses were improved; side walls were raised of wood framing, and +the sides were filled in with wattle and covered with clay. + + [Illustration: THE OLD PALACE, HATFIELD + + [See page 71]] + +As the years went on, these houses or huts grew out of date, and +were replaced by others in much the same style, but gradually +improving in comfort and workmanship. In the villages there was +not much alteration down to the fourteenth century. When a house +in a manor or village was pulled down, and was to be rebuilt, the +manor court kept a sharp eye upon the building operations to see +that the new walls did not encroach upon the highway, or upon the +lord's land. No addition could be made to the house without the +consent of the overlord. Customs in the villages changed very, very +slowly, and so it is that, though the houses in out-of-the-way +villages have been rebuilt over and over again, there are many +lath-and-plaster houses standing now round village greens, built +between two and three hundred years ago, on old foundations which +date back to Saxon times. + +We gave as an instance on p. 26 the case of Exton, in Rutland. +There the houses even to-day, in spite of the fact that they +have often been rebuilt and somewhat modified in the course of +centuries, occupy the same sites as they did in Saxon times. No +one would dream of laying out a village on those lines to-day, and +in the great changes which we know are greatly needed in housing +all over the country, and which are bound to affect every village +in the land more or less and to change the whole aspect of these +old-world villages, it will be well if some _specimens_, at least, +can be preserved to us, so that those yet to come may be able to +see how our ancestors for many generations were housed. But the +health of the people will have to be safeguarded most carefully, +and much of that which is old will have to give place to that which +is new. + + [Illustration: _Old House, Cleveland, Yorkshire_ + + _The remains of a common type of rural dwelling in the Middle + Ages. The wooden frame which supported the steep-pitched roof can + be seen._] + +So for many hundreds of years an ordinary village house was, to +our way of thinking, a very wretched, comfortless place. Even as +late as the time of Queen Elizabeth a countryman's house is thus +described:-- + + "Of one bay's breadth, God wot, a silly cote, + Whose thatchèd spars are furred with sluttish soote + A whole inch thick, shining like blackmoor's brows + Through smoke that down the headlesse barrel blows. + At his bed's feete feaden[11] his stallèd teame, + His swine beneath, his pullen[12] o'er the beam." + + [11] _feaden_, that is, feed. + + [12] _pullen_, that is, poultry. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +Early Town Houses + + +Houses in towns have been more frequently rebuilt and altered in +various ways than those in the villages. The chief material used in +building was wood, as it was in the villages, and one of the great +dangers in the Middle Ages was that of fire. In the towns this +danger was greater than in the villages, and fires happened more +frequently. + +The leading men in a town had more money to spend, and the increase +of business, or a desire for change, led them to improve their +houses. It was easier for a wealthy townsman to get leave from the +"corporation", or guild which ruled the town, to rebuild his house +than it was for the villein in the village to get the leave of the +manor court. + +The thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries all saw a great +growth in architecture; they were the Early English, the Decorated, +and the Perpendicular Periods of architecture. In most of the old +churches, and in many of the old mansions, we have specimens of +all these periods; but not very many of the town houses founded +in the Middle Ages, and still standing, are much earlier than +the fifteenth century. In that age there was a great development +of woodwork, and there is hardly one old town which has not some +woodwork of that time in some of its old houses. + +The rich and prosperous townsman rebuilt his house according to +the fashion of his time; but through all the three centuries the +general arrangements of the dwelling-house did not alter very much. + +In some parts of London, and in many country towns, you can see +that some of the very old-fashioned shops in the main street are +reached from the pavement by a little flight of steps. Below the +shop there is a big light cellar, and the small boy or girl who +wants to look in at the shop window has to "tiptoe" very much in +order to do so. Now, that arrangement is just a little relic of the +old town house of the Middle Ages. + +The house was usually quite narrow, and had a gable facing the +street. It was built over a cellar of stone, often arched and +vaulted very much like a church. There were steps from the street +down to the cellar, and these steps had to be protected, or +accidents were certain to happen to careless foot-passengers. Then, +too, there were steps up to the room over the cellar, which formed +the shop and workroom in one. The front of the shop would be open, +like a stall, and there would probably be a passage through to the +back of the house. + +Above the shop would be another room or rooms, over which, in the +open space under the roof, was the great attic running through the +house. This attic was often kept as a store-room, and goods were +hoisted from the street by a crane; but in later times it would be +formed most likely into little sleeping-rooms, very small, very, +dark, and very unhealthy. Very often they led one into the other, +and had no windows or means of proper ventilation. + +Most of the work would be done in the shop, where the master, his +workmen, and apprentices all did their share. The apprentices would +sleep in the shop at night, and very probably the workmen as well. +It was quite a usual thing for all the establishment to work and +live and sleep on the premises. The rooms occupied by the master +and his family at first were few in number; separate bedrooms only +came into use very gradually indeed. + +The walls of the house above the cellar were usually of wood, and +the front towards the street was often skilfully and beautifully +carved. In some English counties still there are very fine +specimens of these old town houses; those at Chester, Shrewsbury, +and Ludlow, for instance, are famed all over the world. + + [Illustration: _Shop of the Middle Ages now standing in Foregate + Street, Chester_] + +We must not suppose that all the houses were equally splendid, or +equally well built; there was then, no doubt, bad building as well +as good. In fact there must have been some very careless building +in early days, and especially so in Norman times. It is a curious +fact that almost every big Norman church tower tumbled down because +it was badly built, even though Norman work looked very massive and +substantial, and was very imposing. + +Merchants and wealthy tradesmen took great pride in their houses, +and the woodwork and furniture in them were splendid. Kings and +nobles were no better housed than these wealthy townsmen, nor did +they have more of the comforts of life. + +But the poor! There were always the poor and the outcast in every +town; but they did not exist in the enormous numbers of later +years, or of the present day. Their wretched little hovels were +huddled together in close alleys, and life in them must have been +very cheerless and unwholesome. It was, however, _somebody's_ +business to look after them. The religious houses, the churches, +the colleges, all did their part in distributing food at their +gates daily. Many wealthy people, both nobles and citizens, did +likewise, and to give alms to the poor was a work of charity which +no self-respecting citizen thought of shirking. Then, too, the +guild or corporation kept a sharp look-out upon the poor; strangers +were turned out of the town, and the people punished who had taken +them into their houses without having the consent of the town +authorities. In old town records we often come across instances of +people being punished for "harbouring inmates". + + [Illustration: _A Cradle of the Fourteenth Century now in a + London Museum_] + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +Life in the Towns of the Middle Ages + + +Disease was one of the great dangers always lurking in a town. +Plague of some kind or other was never very far away, and it +frequently made its presence felt. People had not realized the +sinfulness of dirt. + +The best-drained buildings were the monasteries and colleges. Near +the ruins of every big monastery, from time to time, underground +passages have been discovered, many of them big enough for a man to +walk along upright, and leading nobody knows where. When these were +found, people shook their heads and said: "Ah, those old monks; you +don't know what they were up to! They made these secret passages, +going for miles and miles underground, so that they might get in +and out of the monastery, and be up to all sorts of mischief, +without anyone being the wiser." + +Many wonderful tales have been told about these underground +passages; but, as a matter of fact, most, if not all of them, +have turned out to be sewers, which the monks made from their +monasteries to a watercourse some distance away, so that the sewage +might be safely got rid of. The monks were usually in advance of +the townsmen of those days in sanitary matters. No doubt a sanitary +engineer of the present day would be able to point out how much +better the drainage-works could have been carried out; but the +monks set an example in this matter which, bit by bit, the rest of +the nation began to follow. + +The chief streets of the town and the market-place were paved with +huge lumps of stone, sloping towards the middle of the street from +the houses on each side of the way, a gutter or "denter" running +down the middle. All sorts of filth were flung into the gutter, +for there were no drains from the houses in early days. When a +heavy shower of rain fell, the water flushed the gutter more or +less. If the street happened to be pretty level, the gutter, or +denter, was just an open sewer all the year round; and it did its +deadly work in poisoning the worthy citizens, though they did not +realize it. Those towns were the best drained which were perched on +a steep slope, so that the contents of the gutter found their way +speedily to the nearest watercourse. By that means they got rid of +_some_ of the filth, but they did not improve the watercourse. + +There were no great manufacturing towns in those days. Most of the +ordinary articles used by the townsfolk were manufactured in the +town itself, and much of the work went on in the open air. The +butcher killed his animals in the street, before his shop, and +that added to the horrors and stenches of the gutter. But then all +the butchers in a town were located in one part of it. Even now +most old towns have got a Shambles, or Butchers' Row, or Butchery +Street, or place of similar name, near the market-place. Other +trades had their own parts of the town, where they made and sold +their goods. Cordwinder Street or Shoemakers' Row are still common +street names. The smith and the armourer did much of their work out +in the open street; the joiner put together there any big piece of +woodwork which he had in hand; the wheel-wright "shut" his tyres; +the chandler melted fat and made candles. The streets of the town +must have been very noisy and very "smelly". + +There were no footways for passengers. Wagons, drays, and +wheel-barrows there were, but carriages had hardly been invented, +and coaches and light-wheeled vehicles had not been dreamt of. +Travellers mostly went on horses or mules. + + [Illustration: _The Shambles, York; a street that preserves its + narrow, mediæval character_] + +No doubt the tradesmen were expected to clear up the mess they made +in front of their houses, and the apprentices had to sweep up. But +that usually meant only drawing the rubbish together to the great +refuse-heap close to the house, which the fowls and the pigs, to +say nothing of the children, speedily managed to scatter. Now +and then the town authorities would wake up and make a fuss, and +these heaps would be carted away to a spot outside the town; but +usually the street was looked upon as the handiest place into which +to fling any refuse from the houses. However clean the citizens' +houses might be inside, and however richly ornamented the woodwork +and the furniture, plague and pestilence were always very near. + +Still, though many persons died, and were buried close by in the +little churchyard, where for hundreds of years the dead had been +buried, people lived, and throve, and did good work. For one thing, +they lived a great deal in the open air, and they were not so much +afraid of draughts in their houses as we are. + +The water-supply of a town was a very important matter. Here, +again, the monasteries and colleges frequently led the way, and +showed how water might be brought by pipes from a distant spring. +It was not an uncommon thing for water to be brought in this way +to a "conduit" in the market-place, whence the people fetched it +as they needed. Many a good wealthy citizen has performed the +pious work of providing his town with a supply of water. Parts of +old water-pipes, some of wood and some of lead, laid for such a +purpose, have often been discovered in recent years. + +Usually, however, a town had to depend upon wells for its +water-supply, and water drawn from the nearest stream; and with +open gutters running through the town it is very easy to see that +many of these wells supplied water which, at times, could not have +been pure, however bright and clear it may have looked, and it +could never be relied upon as really fit for drinking purposes. + +In the villages the dangers arising from want of proper drainage +and from impure water were not quite so great as in the towns. Yet +even now, in this twentieth century, how to drain our villages +properly, and provide them with a good water-supply, is an urgent +problem in many places. For many years people have realized that +the evil exists, but we have been slow to apply the right remedy +because of the expense. And the nation has greatly suffered in +health in consequence. We have seen that the houses in the villages +were usually close together, and men had not realized that dirt +is one of the greatest enemies of mankind. There are a good many +people, even in our time, who see no great harm in having pigsties, +refuse-heaps, and manure-heaps close to their houses. + +One of the most loathsome of the diseases common in Norman times +and later was leprosy. The lepers were kept out of the towns, but +at first very little was done for them. The refuse of the markets, +and the food that was so bad that it had to be carted outside the +town, was thought to be good enough for them. Gradually, however, +we find hospitals for lepers established. They were not what we +understand by hospitals, places where sick folk could be doctored +and nursed and cured; they were religious houses which poor lepers +might enter, and in which they might have safe shelter, care, and +attention for the rest of their sad lives. They were always built +outside the walls of the towns. + +Other hospitals for poor and suffering people were also +established. They were not large buildings, with wards holding +scores of people. They were little religious houses, each with its +chapel and priests to carry on its services, providing homes for +small numbers--perhaps half a dozen or a dozen. Almost every town +had a number of these hospitals. + +Kings, bishops, earls, and citizens all took part in this good +work. Every founder expected that every day "for ever" he and +his family should be prayed for by the inmates. Some hospitals +were "founded" or established as thank-offerings for escape from +some great danger; some to "make up" for some wrong that had been +done and could never be put right, and to show that the founder +was "really sorry"; some were built for good reasons, others for +selfish reasons. Nowadays we arrange fêtes and demonstration, whist +drives, entertainments, bazaars, sales of work, jumble sales, +dances, for our hospital funds, Red Cross funds, and orphan funds, +and we are asked to buy tickets because "it's a good cause". We get +some enjoyment for ourselves and help the hospital; thus, as it +were, doing good and receiving good at the same time. We need not +look down upon our ancestors as being merely selfish creatures. + + [Illustration: _Hospital of St. Cross, Winchester, founded 1136. + Under the archway beneath the tower the wayfarers "dole" is still + distributed_] + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +The Growing Power of the Towns + + +Back in early Saxon times we find that the inhabitants of a town +were banded together to keep the peace, thus forming a society +pledged to each other--the Peace or Frith Guild. It lost nearly all +its _real_ power in later Saxon and Norman times. But it did not +actually die out, and it appears that from this Frith Guild what +we now understand by a corporation took its rise. The guild was a +great power in some of the Saxon towns; only those belonging to it +could trade in the town, and its members were very slow to admit +outsiders to share in their privileges. + +We have seen that the free, or nearly free, tuns gradually came +under the power of an overlord--the king, a bishop, a baron, or a +monastery, as the case might be--and very little real power was +left to the guild. The overlord appointed a reeve to look after his +interests, and the government of the place was in his hands. Yet +the old Frith Guild seems to have regulated matters connected with +the _customs_ of the town, which did not interfere with the lord's +rights. + + [Illustration: _Seal of Guild Merchant, Gloucester, 1200. The + city gates are represented in the centre._] + +When we reach Norman times we have come to a period during which +the towns improved their position. The Norman Conquest led to +increased trade with the Continent. The great building operations +here attracted skilled workmen and craftsmen to this country. +These men naturally found their way to the towns rather than to +the villages. They were protected and encouraged by the Norman +nobles, who preferred _their_ work to that of the Saxons. Although +they might be foreigners, these strangers had ideas of freedom +and liberty which fitted in very well with the town's ideas of +self-government. Then, too, these craftsmen were bound together in +trade societies or guilds, and that made them strong and worthy of +consideration in the places where they settled. + +A charter to a town granted and secured to it certain privileges, +and a town with a charter became a borough town. The king granted a +good many charters to towns during the Norman period. A town which +wished to get a charter had to pay heavily for it. But it was quite +worth while for the town to secure the right which a charter gave +it--the right to manage its own affairs. What a town most desired +was to be free from the authority of the king's officer, to choose +its own port-reeve, who could preside over the court of the town, +so that the town might not have to appear before the hundred court. +By paying an annual rent to the king, however heavy the amount +might be, the town hoped to escape from the many extra fees and +taxes which the king's officers put upon it. It could then settle +its own disputes, raise its own taxes as it needed them, and punish +its own evil-doers. + +In many cases bishops, barons, or religious houses were the +overlords of districts containing important towns, and those towns +managed to get charters from their overlords as other towns had +from the king. By so doing they could get out of the power of the +sheriff or shire-reeve. Charter or borough towns have most of them +been very particular to preserve their rights and privileges. + +If you live in a small country borough town, or a city, you +will notice that two different benches of magistrates sit in +the town-hall to hear police cases; and there are two different +courts of justice, though held often in the same room. There +are first of all the Borough Sessions, at which the mayor of +the borough presides, and which deal with cases arising in the +borough, whether trifling or serious. Then, on another fixed day +in the week, in the very same building, another body or bench of +magistrates sits. These gentlemen usually come in from country +places outside the town, and the cases brought before them have to +do with the mischief done in the villages and country parishes. +These magistrates have nothing at all to do with offences committed +within the borough. These are the county magistrates, and their +court is called the Petty Sessions, or the County Sessions. + +Some offences are too grave for the borough or county magistrates +to settle, and they have to be tried by a higher court of justice, +which has greater powers than the Court of Petty Sessions--the +Court of Quarter Sessions. The bench of this court is made up of +magistrates drawn from all parts of the county, and a jury of +twelve men, householders, from different parts of the county, has +to be sworn to hear the evidence in the cases to be tried. The +jury decides whether the man is proved to be guilty or not, when +they have heard all that can be urged for and against him, and the +magistrates decide what his punishment is to be, according to law. + +There are some cases too grave or too complicated for the Court of +Quarter Sessions to decide, and these have to stand over to the +Assizes. These Assizes are held three times a year in the county +town of each county, and every prisoner in the county jail must be +accounted for. The court is presided over by one or more of the +king's judges. These are trained lawyers, and they attend in the +king's place, and are treated with much pomp and ceremony. + +The sheriff of the county, properly attended, must meet the judge +or judges upon arrival. Formerly when judges on circuit travelled +by road from one county town to the next county town, the sheriff +of the assize town to which they were travelling met them some +distance from the town with a band of horsemen in quaint, old-time +uniforms, armed with javelins; and in a similar way attended them +for some distance out of the town when the assize was over. In most +places the javelin men have disappeared, or nearly disappeared, and +this guard of honour is supplied by mounted policemen. But there +are a good many quaint old customs and ceremonies still observed in +connection with the holding of the assizes. + + [Illustration: _Court-house of Godmanchester, Hunts_ + + _An open court in which law proceedings were conducted in the + Middle Ages._] + + [Illustration: FACSIMILE OF A PORTION OF A NORMAN DOCUMENT + + Part of the accounts of the sheriffs (who acted as the king's + bailiffs) of London and the various counties for the year 1130-1. + The portion shown refers to Middlesex, and was photographed from + the original in the Public Record Office, London + + [See page 92]] + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +The Villages, Manors, Parishes, and Parks + + +We have seen that in Norman times the whole country was, so to +speak, the king's. There were the great lords who held "fiefs" or +possessions directly from the king, which consisted of manors in +various parts of the country--sometimes a number of manors pretty +close together, but often with big stretches of unoccupied land +between them over which the king had full control. Out of these +unused districts the king could, and often did make new grants of +land. + +As years rolled on, the manors became more valuable, and new manors +were formed. In the earlier days the manor and the parish meant +much the same thing; but in course of time, though the boundaries +of the parish did not alter much, the number of manors increased in +some parishes from one to two or three, or even more. + +In many cases the mode of life on these manors went on unchanged +for centuries, the tenants of these different manors going to the +original parish church and the parish priest ministering to the +people in all the manors in his parish. In other cases daughter +churches, or chapels of ease, were built in the newer manors, and +provision was made for the support of a priest to minister to them. +These have in some instances been erected in the course of time +into separate parishes; but many remained as parts of the mother +parish, though they might be several miles away from the parish +church. + +All through the Norman times there was a tendency to make new +manors, and this gave rise to so many difficulties that the +practice was stopped in the time of King Edward I. + +In all parts of England to-day we have parks belonging to big +mansions; and our big towns and cities have their parks too; but +these are usually recreation-grounds for the people, and most of +them are quite modern, with bandstands and sports' grounds, clumps +of shrubs, flower-beds, and stretches of greensward. A park in +Norman and in Early English times was very different in appearance +from our parks, whether in town or country. Just as the king had +his great forests for hunting wild beasts, so in the later Norman +times the great lords were anxious to enclose pieces of waste and +forest land for the same purpose. + +As we have seen, there were in early times vast tracts of wild, +uncultivated, unenclosed land, partly wooded and partly heath land, +between the manors, which belonged to the king. The king alone +could give leave to make a park. In the reign of King Henry III +especially we find many such parks were "empaled". Of course the +nobles had to give something to the king for this privilege. + +Many of the old parks in England, now celebrated for their fine +timber and beautiful scenery, date back to this period; but they +were at first much wilder, and the trees then were neither so many +nor so fine as they are now. The deer remaining in some of them +to-day just serve to remind us of the "wild beasts" with which they +were stocked. + +The laws for preserving the wild beasts and the game in these +parks and forests and chases were very strict, harsh, and severe. +Many of these new parks took away from the villeins, who lived +in the neighbourhood, certain rights and privileges which their +forefathers had had "time out of mind". + +Though the land could not be bought and sold outright, manors +became divided and subdivided, let and underlet, for various terms +of years, and in many curious ways, so that in time the profits, +or the income, of a manor, instead of going straight to the lord +of the manor, might be going to half a dozen different persons and +places. For instance, the half of a manor might be divided amongst +several people for, say, twenty years, or for the lives of three or +four people; but at the end of the twenty years, or on the death +of the last of those persons, it must go back to the lord of the +manor, who could keep it in his hands or let it out in other ways +to quite a different set of people. + + [Illustration: _Manor House, Thirteenth Century_ + + _Built by Robert Burnell, Bishop of Bath, and Chancellor to + Edward I at Acton Burnell, Shropshire._] + +It is not very difficult to understand that the management of an +estate of many manors, broken up into many small portions, became +very complicated. Records of all these various transactions had to +be made in writing: and carefully kept, and copied and re-copied +time after time. People who understood all the "ins and outs" of +the laws relating to the possession of land became very important +and very busy. + +There are immense numbers of documents, some of them dating back +to Norman and even earlier times, still in existence. The Record +Office, in London, has many thousands of documents connected +with the king's business; the borough towns and cities and the +monasteries each had their own records, but most of these latter +records disappeared in the sixteenth century; every old estate +has such documents; and many of the old manors have still records +going back many centuries. Of course thousands more of these old +documents have been lost, some destroyed purposely, and others +through carelessness and ignorance. Some have been burnt in times +of danger, when their owner, knowing that there were documents +amongst them which might get him into trouble and cost him his +head, set fire to bundles of papers and parchments. Others have +been stored away in dark, damp cellars and forgotten for years and +years, and rats and mice have nibbled them away, or mildew and damp +have caused them to rot. + +Those that we have left can still be read, and it is surprising to +find in many cases how well they have been preserved all through +the centuries. The letters are very often beautifully formed, and +the whole clear and distinct. They were written in Norman French +and Latin, the latter being the language in which law business was +carried on for many centuries.[13] + + [13] Notice a fine specimen, written before the Conquest, given + on p. 103, and the illustration facing p. 88. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +Traces of Early Times in the Churches + + +In most villages the church is the chief old building in the place, +and it is a good thing to be able to tell the time to which its +different parts belong. It will help us to fix in our minds the +different periods, or steps, in the history of our country. + +A little party of holiday-makers were one day strolling through +a country churchyard in which was a very old church. They were +not much interested until one of the party saw in the wall of the +church a slab to "an honest carpenter", dated 1765. "How very, very +old!" he exclaimed, and called the attention of his companions to +it, and they all wondered and marvelled. Yet in that same wall were +bits of work which belonged to a past age, not just a hundred or so +years back, but a thousand years back. They had not been trained to +read "the signs of the times". + +Never be ashamed to ask questions about an old building. It will +be a very strange thing indeed if you cannot find, in every town +and village, _somebody_ who has a keen interest in old buildings +and who will delight in pointing them out to you. Nearly every +local newspaper in the country, from time to time, prints odds and +ends connected with the history of the neighbourhood. If there is +anything about an old building that you want explained, you can +easily write a short letter to the editor of the paper, and there +is sure to be someone who will take the trouble to answer your +question, and help you to understand, and to distinguish between +things "that differ". + + [Illustration: _Saxon, Norman, and Later Architectural Features_] + +An old parish church has a good deal to tell us about the history +of the parish and its people, and if you know something of the +history of the place in which you live you will know something +_worth knowing_ of the history of your country, which will help +you to be a good citizen. But this knowledge can only be picked up +little by little, and you cannot learn "all about it" in the course +of a few days. + +There are, as we said in a former chapter, some few churches which +have little bits of Saxon work left in their walls and windows. +In a great many more we shall see some Norman work, especially in +pillars and arches and doorways. That Norman Period takes in the +reigns of all the kings from William I to the time of King John, +from the middle of the eleventh century to the end of the twelfth, +down to the time of Magna Carta. + +When we come to the time of Magna Carta we are in the thirteenth +century, when pointed arches came into use. Through the reigns of +King Henry III and King Edward I a great deal of building in that +style went on. In almost every parish some alteration was made in +the church in that century; and probably in the chancel there are +one or two old window's which will be pointed out to you as having +been first put in during that century.[14] + + [14] In the "Lancet Windows", shown in the illustration on p. 94, + you have a specimen of that thirteenth-century or Early-English + style. + +You may perhaps find a very old battered figure of a man in chain +armour, the sort of armour in which King Edward I went fighting in +the Third Crusade, in Wales, and in Scotland; in which Simon de +Montfort and Wallace and the Bruce fought. Some of these effigies +have the legs crossed--some at the ankles, some at the knees, and +some at the thighs. It used to be said that these represented +crusaders; but nobody seems really to know what was the meaning of +the cross-legged effigies. + +Then there are some flat stones, lying in the pavement, with +inscriptions running round the edge in strange worn letters, with +perhaps an ornamental cross also cut the whole length of the +stones. These are the cover-stones of the graves where some great +baron or landowner was buried, and they belong to the thirteenth +century, and some are even of earlier date. They are called incised +slabs. + +In this same century another kind of cover-stone for a grave came +into use, especially in the southern and eastern parts of England. +Metal was fixed in the incised slabs, and the portrait of the +knight and his lady, the merchant or the lawyer, the bishop or +priest, was engraved on the metal, showing the person in the kind +of dress worn during life. It is said that there are about four +thousand of these brasses still left in England. Some of them +have been sadly damaged and worn. They do not all belong to the +thirteenth century, as this kind of memorial of the dead was used +during several centuries--in fact, well on into Queen Elizabeth's +reign, at the end of the sixteenth century. The oldest brass in +England, showing a man in armour, is in Surrey, in Stoke D'Abernon +church. Brasses are very valuable, as they show us the kinds of +armour and dress worn in particular centuries. + + [Illustration: _Effigy with Crossed Legs in the Temple Church, + London_ + + _The feet are placed upon a lion, indicating, it is said, that + the knight took part in the Crusades and was killed in action._] + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +Traces of Early Times in the Churches (_Cont._) + + +The fourteenth century is covered by the reigns of King Edward +II, King Edward III, and King Richard II. The architecture +became much more ornamental, and there is a good deal of fine +stone-carving.[15] Many beautiful window-heads and doorways belong +to this period. A good many aisles were added to the old naves; +many of the old Norman towers were rebuilt and crowned with +graceful spires; but the work is not all equally good. + + [15] See "Fourteenth-century Doorway", on p. 94, for a specimen + of this style. + +It will be noticed that the most beautiful spires are very +frequently met with in districts that are flat and destitute of the +natural beauty which mountains and hills, valleys and woodlands, +give to a landscape; and it looks as if the people in different +parishes had tried to outdo their neighbours in erecting graceful +spires on their church towers. + +There are a great many tombs in the churches in various parts of +the country, and much money was spent upon them in this and in +the next century. They are raised some two or three feet from the +ground; the sides are divided into panels and ornamented with rich +carvings and shields of arms, brilliantly coloured and gilded. On +the top of the tombs are to be seen effigies carved in stone of the +man and his wife, lying on their backs, with hands clasped. The men +are usually in armour, and their wives in the dress of the time, +with strange-looking head-dresses. Many of the effigies are much +defaced and battered, but there are others of them well preserved +still. It was in the latter part of the fourteenth century that +great attention began to be paid to shields of arms, and heraldry +became an important science. + +But in the middle of the fourteenth century, during the reign of +King Edward III, there came a time of great distress. There were +the long years of war with France, years of famine and the Black +Death. That meant a period of great distress for the country; all +classes suffered, and there was much discontent and disorder. These +bad times left their marks upon the buildings, especially upon the +churches. In some churches work can be pointed out to you which +was begun before the time of the Black Death on a grand scale, but +finished off in a much plainer manner--apparently years after it +was begun. The work had been started, but bad times stopped it, and +it had to wait. Those who had begun it never saw it finished, for +the pestilence carried them away; and, long afterwards, those who +did finish it were not well enough off to carry out the design as +it was at first intended. + +Still, all through these centuries much was spent on the churches, +not only by the great nobles, not only in monastery buildings +and the cathedral churches, but on the ordinary town and village +churches as well. + + [Illustration: _Spire of Norwich Cathedral Fourteenth Century_] + +The wealthy wool-merchants, especially in the fourteenth century, +spent much on the building and decoration of churches. Some of the +finest churches in the eastern and western counties of England +owe much to them. Then, too, it was quite a common thing for the +various trade guilds in a town to have a little chapel, or an +aisle, or an altar in the parish church, which the guild undertook +to keep up. One guild tried to outdo the others in this matter. All +the craftsmen of those days belonged to a trade guild of some sort, +and much good artistic work was done, which found a place in the +churches. + +People took a keen interest in their churches, and we find them +leaving money towards their upkeep, towards making a statue, or +doing some carving, or even keeping a light burning. Whatever may +have been their reasons for so doing, the fact that they did so is +very clear. + +They used their churches in ways that may seem strange to us; but +they looked upon them as their own, and were evidently in many +cases proud of them. Each parish annually chose its churchwardens, +who had charge of the buildings and the furniture, and these were +responsible to the bishop, as well as to the people of the parish. +Every now and then the bishop visited the parish, or sent someone +to do so in his name. Enquiry was made as to how the priest and the +people carried out their duties towards each other. Complaints were +heard, and attempts made to set matters right. Some of the reports +which were made on such occasions have come down to us, and show +often much disorder, and at times much that was evil. But we must +not forget that good was also being done then, which was not talked +much about. + + "The evil that men do lives after them, + The good is oft interred with their bones." + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +Clerks + + +Changes took place much more slowly in the Middle Ages than they +do now. First of all, the population was very much smaller, and +hundreds and hundreds of acres now covered by big manufacturing +towns were then unoccupied land. + +At the time of the Norman Conquest the whole population of England +only numbered about two million people; and in the time of King +Henry VII it was only four millions; so that in the course of four +hundred years the population had only doubled itself. + +The people were not crowded into the towns. For instance, in the +time of King Edward III, Colchester was one of the large towns, yet +it had only three hundred and fifty houses, in which three thousand +people lived, all told. There were only nine larger towns in the +country at that time. + +The bulk of the people were living in the villages, in the various +manors, not in the towns. Many things prevented the population from +growing very rapidly--disease, famine, and war kept it down. Death +was the punishment for a very large number of offences, so that it +is not to be wondered at that the population did not increase very +fast. + +The population was divided into two distinct classes--those who +were clergy, or clerks, and those who were not. By "clergy" we +understand, in these days, "ministers of religion"; but the word +had a very different meaning in the Middle Ages. + +In early Saxon times religion and learning were very closely +related. Colleges and monasteries were centres of learning, and +bishops, abbots, priests, and monks took the lead in matters in +which a knowledge of reading and writing was required. Folk who had +a leaning towards learning naturally became connected with colleges +or monasteries. They began as scholars, and then were admitted, or +ordained, to one of the lower orders of the ministry--often when +they were still only boys. + + [Illustration: _A Scriptorium, from a miniature painted in an old + manuscript (written in 1456) in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. It + depicts a clerk writing._] + +There are many thousands of boys to-day who are choir-boys. In +early times those admitted to such an office as that had to be +ordained, or set apart for the purpose, by the bishop. That +ordaining made them clerks or clergy; and they were then under the +authority of the bishop or his officers. If they did wrong, they +were tried and punished in the bishop's court. + +In the course of years there grew up, side by side, two different +set of courts of justice, the Church Courts and the King's Courts, +which were each guided by different laws. The laws which ruled the +Church Courts were much more merciful than those which ruled the +civil or King's Courts. Death was the punishment for almost every +offence tried in the King's Courts and in the Manor Courts; but in +the Church Courts the punishments were much less severe, and the +culprit had a much better chance of "turning over a new leaf". + +If a man was brought before the King's Court charged with a crime, +he could call for a book. If he could read a few sentences, that +was taken to show that he was a clerk, and he could claim to be +tried by the Church Court. That is, he could claim "benefit of +clergy". + +You can readily see that such a state of things, however good it +may have been at the first, was dreadfully abused in the course +of time. What at first had been merciful and just became in time +mischievous and dangerous. The great struggle between King Henry II +and Archbishop Thomas à Becket had to do with the power of these +two sets of courts, the King's Courts and the Church Courts--it had +to do with government, _not_ with religion and religious matters. + +Clerks, or the clergy, were drawn from all classes of society, from +the royal family down to the serfs on the manors. In fact, before +the time of the Black Death, the only way in which a serf could +become a freeman was by buying his freedom or by becoming a clerk. +A serf who wanted his son to rise to a better position than his +own would try to get him made a clerk; for the moment he became a +clerk he was a free man. But to attain his purpose the serf must +first have the permission of his master or overlord. All overlords +were not tyrants by any means. The serf might do his master a good +turn--save his life, for instance--and in return his master would +set him free, or allow his son to be taught by the priest and +ordained; or he might let him join a college or monastery. + +Many and many a priest, clerk, or monk rose from being a serf or a +villein in this way; so many, in fact, that a writer in the twelfth +century complains that villeins were attempting "to educate their +ignoble offspring". Later still, Piers Plowman complains that +"bondsmen's bairns could be made bishops". + +There was a very sharp line of division between clerks and those +who were not clerks, and the privileges which clerks had, led to +much squabbling and many disorders. + +Kings and nobles employed clerks on their business, for the simple +reason that they were able men, and had some "book learning", and +so, in that way, were better educated than most of those who were +not clerks. From the clerks, too, were drawn the men whom we now +call lawyers. We have seen that there was a vast deal of writing to +be done in those days in connection with the towns and the manors. +Among these clerks were good men and bad men: some who loved +learning for its own sake; some who found that it paid better than +anything else; and others who misused their privileges, did much +evil, and brought the name of "clerk" into sad disgrace. + + [Illustration: _Writing before the Norman Conquest. From a + charter of Cnut (1018) now in the British Museum_] + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +Fairs + + +The word "Fair" calls up to our minds all sorts of wonderful +sights and sounds--the stalls with their wonderful "fairings" +and "goodies"; the shows and the shooting-galleries; the "flying +horses", the "conjurors", the performing dogs, and Punch and Judy; +the wonderful caravans and coco-nuts; the musical instruments of +all sorts, from the mouth-organ and "squeaker" to the steam-organ +of the roundabout. + +Many such fairs are still held in every county and they connect the +present day very closely with the life of bygone days. It is "all +the fun of the fair" which draws people to them mostly nowadays, +but in some of them there is still important business done; people +are attracted to them for trade as well as for pleasure. + +Some of these fairs are held in big towns, such as Lincoln +and Carlisle. At Barnet a great horse fair is held every year +in September. But some big fairs are held away from any large +town, such as the big sheep fair at Weyhill, in Hampshire. At +Stourbridge, in Cambridgeshire, a fair is still held; it is quite +an ordinary one now, but in the Middle Ages it was one of the +most important fairs, not only in England, but in Europe--a great +gathering, where East and West met to do business with each other. + +In some places the business part of the fair has quite died out, +and a few stalls, a roundabout, a shooting-gallery, and swings are +all that can be seen on a fair-day. + +The word "fair" comes from an old word which means a "feast" or +festival. There are many villages which still have their annual +village feast, more important to the village than Christmas or +a "Bank Holiday". Houses are turned out and cleaned from top to +bottom; everything must be made fit to be seen "for the feast". It +is a great meeting-time for families, and the boys and girls who +have gone away to work in some big town try to get back for a few +hours to their native village, to "the old house at home". + + [Illustration: CASTLE AND BUTTER MARKET, DUNSTER, SOMERSETSHIRE] + +In the beginning the village feast was connected with the parish +church--it was the festival of the saint after whom the church +was named. That day was a holiday, and all the people went to +church as a matter of course. The church was the gathering-place, +and, in the porch and the churchyard, and on the village green, +friends, neighbours, and relatives met and had a time of +rejoicing. + +So many people coming together attracted pedlars and hawkers, +who spread out their goods on the green, in the churchyard, and +in the church porch itself. People who met but seldom used the +chance of doing a little business with each other. Little by +little, then, the "feast" became a "fair", and in many cases was +a very important business and trading meeting. + +Now it did not suit the ideas of people in those days that +outsiders should come into their village and buy and sell as they +chose. You know how the boys living in one street even nowadays +object to the boys from another street coming to play in their +street--"You go and play in your own street". So in very early +times the lord of the manor began to regulate these things. +Outsiders who brought their goods for sale had to pay a "due" or +"toll" to the lord of the manor to be allowed to trade; and the +right of receiving tolls for fairs became one of an overlord's +privileges. + +The people in the towns, who were more interested in trade than +the people in the villages, saw how very important and profitable +a fair was--that it was something "with money in it"--and the +towns were very anxious to get the right to hold one or more +annual fairs. But the overlord, the king, had a voice in the +matter, because each stall set up, and each bale of goods, +brought in "by right" an income. + +The king had the right to grant, almost to whom he pleased, the +privilege of holding a fair; and the privilege was much sought +after. Towns, as we saw in a former chapter, got charters from +the king, which very often gave to them this right. But it was +quite a common thing for the king to make a grant of an annual +fair to a religious house which he wanted to benefit without much +cost to himself, and the profits of the fair went to support the +house. The king's nobles did the same kind of thing in their own +domains. + +All the shops in the place where the fair was held had to be shut +while the fair was on, and nothing could be bought or sold except +in the fair. The tradesmen of the place had to pay their tolls to +the person or public body to whom the fair had been granted, just +as the strangers coming into the town did. + +Fairs lasted in some cases for only one day; in others for two, +three, or more days, and sometimes as long as a fortnight, during +which time, whether the inhabitants liked it or not, all trade +had to be carried on only in the fair. That was one of the things +which caused jealousy between the trading class and the religious +houses, and often led to much ill-feeling and disorder. + +Then, too, the king could grant to any person the right to go to +any fair in the country without paying toll and duty. Of course +those persons to whom the king granted this right had to pay him +very heavily for this privilege, but you can see that it was +quite worth their while. Foreign merchants and Jews[16] often had +such privileges granted to them, and that partly accounts for +the great dislike there was to these classes of people. + + [16] The Jews were expelled from England A.D. 1290. + +Many of the religious houses had entered into trade too, and very +often the same privilege of putting their goods on the market was +granted to them. Members of a religious house could often travel +from place to place without having to pay any of the tolls and +duties which other folk had to pay. That might be quite right and +reasonable when they were on some religious duty or errand of +mercy, but when it was connected with buying and selling the goods +produced or manufactured on the monastery lands it was "rather +hard", as we should say, on the traders. The grievance grew up +gradually, but it caused very often a bitter feeling between the +towns and the religious houses in them, which over and over again +led to riots and bloodshed. + + [Illustration: _Morris Dancers, Fourteenth Century_ + + _From an illuminated manuscript in the Bodleian Library, Oxford._] + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +Markets + + +One of the pleasantest sights, to a Londoner at any rate, is the +market-place of an old-fashioned country town on a market-day. +In many such towns the weekly market is held, in the open air, +in the same place where it has been held for centuries. Probably +none of the houses round the market-square is as old as the +market, but the buildings, altered and rebuilt as they have been, +take us back several centuries, and speak of days long gone by. + +A good many towns have built covered markets. Some of them are +near the old market-place, but in other cases the market is now +held in quite another part of the town. Cattle-markets, which +used to be held in the open street in a busy thoroughfare, are +now often held in places more suitable for that purpose some +distance away from their old quarters. + +Corn-markets are held in most market-towns, frequently on the +same day as the general market, and many towns now boast a +corn-exchange. Then, too, in some places there are markets held +in connection with the chief trade of the neighbourhood. + +The market-house is often a curious building. You may almost +speak of it as "a big room on legs". There is a large room +standing on stone or wooden arches. The open space underneath +serves to shelter some of the market-stalls, and a staircase +leads up from the street to the room above, where the town +council holds its meetings. On the roof of this building is +a turret containing a clock, and perhaps a fire-bell and a +market-bell. There is such a quaint old market-house still +standing at Amersham, in Buckinghamshire, but so many of these +old buildings have been pulled down to make way for larger +structures, in which the town can carry on its business, and +where the various officers can have their offices, that the town +hall is mostly now a smart modern building. + + [Illustration: _Market Cross and Portion of Shelter, Winchester_] + +The stalls set up on the market-day are of the same simple kind +as those which have been used for centuries. It is curious to +notice how the different trades keep to different parts of the +market-place--butchers in one place, greengrocers in another, +and fishmongers in another. Just as the trades had their special +quarters in the town, so they had in the market. Things have +altogether changed as far as the shops are concerned, but the +setting out of the market is almost exactly the same to-day as it +was five hundred years ago. + +The market cross still remains in some towns, but the cross +itself has in many cases disappeared long ago. In some places the +steps and the lower part of the cross still remain, but there is +a kind of open shed built round it to form a shelter. Some of +these shelters are very ornamental, like those at Chichester and +Winchester.[17] It is not an uncommon thing for such a cross as +that to be called the Butter Cross,[18] from the fact that around +the cross was held the butter-market. Some of these shelters are +quaint rather than beautiful, and cover the town pump, which is +now carefully locked up. In some places a drinking-fountain stands +where once the cross stood. At the cross a good deal of business +was done. The mayor or his officers would read out public notices +there on the market-day, that everybody might hear. Not far from +the cross was the cage, where folk who had been "taken up" were set +for a time. The stocks, the pillory, and the whipping-post, in the +seventeenth century, were usually here in the market-place, not far +from the cross. + + [17] This was built in the fifteenth century; but of course + it has been restored since then. At the end of the eighteenth + century the authorities of the city actually sold it to a + gentleman who proposed to place it in his own pleasure-ground; + but the people of the city drove away the workmen who were sent + to remove it, and so it had to remain in its ancient place. + + [18] Such a Butter Cross is seen in the view of Dunster, facing + p. 105. + +There is much to see in a market-place on a market-day. If the +market-day is Saturday, you will find the place thronged with +people, especially at night; and even quite small towns are then so +crowded that you wonder where the people come from. + +Fairs, in the Middle Ages, provided for much of the wholesale trade +of the country, and markets for the retail trade. The two were very +much alike, and the rights to hold an annual fair and a weekly +market mostly went together. + + [Illustration: _Market Scene in the Middle Ages. The market cross + is taken from an old print of the market cross at Malmesbury_ + + (_Note the Pillory, the Whipping-post, and the Stocks._)] + +Some places had, and still have, more than one market a week. In +many places the market has quite died out now, but in the early +days one of the first steps of a "tun" towards becoming a "town" +was to obtain the right to hold a market. There are many of our +modern towns which have grown up in manufacturing districts, +near great railway centres, or near docks and railway stations, +which have no market. Nearly all of our old towns have, or at one +time _had_, the right of holding markets. + +Nobody can set up a stall in a market as he pleases. On the +market-day you will see the beadle going about from stall to +stall taking the toll from each stall-holder. In many cases he +wears an old-fashioned dress trimmed with gold lace. He reminds +us of the time when no one except a freeman of the town could +trade freely. The stall-holders were "foreigners", and had to pay +to the town a toll for permission to sell in the town. In our day +you can go and settle in any town you please, and open a shop +just as you like, but you cannot so easily take a stall and sell +in the market: you must pay the market toll even now. Such tolls +go towards the expenses of the town. + +In the market the town and the country meet. In these days, when +the produce of the country can be quickly sent into the heart of +the largest town, the country provision-markets are not of as +much importance as they once were, but they are very useful and +very popular still. + +There are many places where the market beadle rings a hand-bell, +or a bell in the clock-tower, to give notice of the opening and +closing of the market. In former days, if a man dared to sell +anything before the bell was rung in the morning, or after it had +rung in the evening, he was very severely punished. Even now, +goods may not be sold in the market before or after the regular +market hours. + +There were proper town officers appointed by the mayor and +corporation to look after the markets, and to see that goods were +sold at the proper market price, and that there was no cheating +in weight and measure, and in the quality of the goods sold. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +Schools + + +The earliest schools in England were held in the monasteries, +and were intended for boys and young men who were to be trained +as priests, missionaries, or monks. There were famous schools at +Canterbury, York, and Jarrow in the seventh and eighth centuries. +In King Alfred's time, at the end of the ninth century, great +attention was paid to the teaching of both boys and girls. Later +still, in the tenth century, we find the teaching of the young +attracting great attention. + +Latin was taught in these schools, and many of the scholars +became famous students and deep thinkers. In the course of time +others, besides those intending to become monks and priests, were +also taught, and became clerks and found various employments, as +we have seen, in civil business. + +Gradually other schools sprang up, outside the monasteries and +cathedrals, which were not meant for monks or priests, though +they were at first connected with monasteries, colleges, and +cathedrals. For instance, in Norman times, not very long after +the Conquest, there were grammar-schools at Derby, St. Alban's, +and Bury St. Edmund's. + +When we think of these schools we must not picture to ourselves +great buildings to hold two or three hundred boys, such as +we see now; nor must we suppose that there was a great rush +of pupils to them. Boys did not go to school from nine till +twelve, and from two till four, with plenty of time for cricket, +football, and sports of all descriptions. School work was very +hard, and was regarded as a serious business. There was a great +deal of learning by heart to be done. You see, books were few +and costly, and a man's best reference library was his own +well-stored memory. No doubt this hard work helped to train the +memory, and was good discipline for the scholar. + +In the monasteries and colleges, where boys were trained to sing +in the choir, they had to learn their services by heart; for +books were not provided for them--a book was much too valuable in +days when they were all written by hand, and when printing first +came into use they were still far too costly for ordinary monks +and choir-boys to have one apiece, or even enough for several +to "look over". In the ordinary services there were long psalms +and passages of Scripture attached to them which differed for +every day, and the boys had to know these perfectly in Latin. For +hours and hours every day the little fellows were drilled in the +services till they were word-perfect. There were something like +seven services to be learned for each of the three hundred and +sixty-five days of the year. + +We talk of Latin nowadays as a dead language, but it was anything +but a dead language in the Middle Ages. School was held all day +long from quite early in the morning; and during school-hours woe +betide the lads if they talked in any other language but Latin. + +Choir-boys had to be taught in the song-school as well, how to +sing their services, and the music was just as difficult as the +words and had also to be learned by heart. + +In the parish churches the priest and the parish clerk had boys +whom they trained to help in the services. The services were much +simpler and shorter than those in the monasteries; but they were +in Latin, and had to be known by heart. + +In the grammar and other schools the boys were drilled in the +works of old Latin scholars in much the same way, and in +some cases in Greek authors as well, with a certain amount of +arithmetic and science. + + [Illustration: _A School, Fourteenth Century_ + + _From an illuminated manuscript in the Bodleian Library, Oxford._] + +There were no long weeks of holidays to look forward to at +Christmas, Easter, Whitsuntide, and in the summer; but during +the year there were many holy days kept, which were holidays, on +which neither schoolboys nor villeins did their ordinary work. +Thus, no doubt, schoolboys managed to get a fair amount of play, +and found time for getting into mischief. + +For instance, at St. Alban's we read that in the year 1310 the +boys were forbidden to wander or run about the streets and roads +without reasonable cause. If a lad did so, he was to be sought +for and punished by the master "in the accustomed way"; and every +boy knows what that was. Then, too, the scholars must not bear +arms, either in school or out of school. That was to prevent them +from fighting with the townspeople. It is very curious to notice +that even nowadays there is often no love lost between "grammar +boys" and "town boys"; they can get up a quarrel almost as easily +in the twentieth century as they did in the thirteenth. It shows +itself whenever there happens to be a heavy fall of snow, and +sometimes tempers get "lost, or mislaid". + +Boys took part in acting the earliest plays that were represented +in England. At first the plays dealt with religious subjects, +and were called "Mysteries" and "Miracles"; and these plays and +shows became very popular in England. Geoffrey de Gorham, in +early Norman days, taught a school at Dunstable, and wrote one of +these plays called St. Catherine. He borrowed vestments from St. +Alban's Abbey, in which to dress some of his characters; but on +the following night his house somehow caught fire, and his books +and the borrowed vestments were destroyed in the flames. + +In the cloisters of some of our old cathedral churches and +colleges, such as Gloucester and Westminster, on some of the old +stone benches, there are holes and scratches still to be seen +where schoolboys of long ago played games with marbles and stones. + +By the thirteenth century there seem to have been schools in +all the chief towns. Though they may not have held very many +scholars, they were not intended for the sons of well-to-do +people only; they were for poor scholars as well. Thus, at St. +Alban's, provision was made for sixteen poor scholars, and the +same kind of provision was quite common. There was some chance, +even in those days, for a lad with "brains" to get on in the +world. In fact, we know that in those Middle Ages a good many +men rose "from the ranks" to hold high office in the state. +There was, for instance, Thomas à Becket. He was born in London, +and not ashamed to be known as Thomas of London. Then there was +Thomas Scot, who rose to be Archbishop of York and Chancellor +of England in the fifteenth century, who was known as Thomas +of Rotherham, after the place where he was born. William of +Wykeham, that great founder of schools, is still known by the +name of the little out-of-the-way Hampshire village where he +was born--Wykeham. Winchester College, the first of our public +schools, was founded by him. His real surname was Longe, and the +motto he chose--"Manners Makyth Man"--is worth putting up in +every school in the land. We need to live up to that motto as +much in these days as ever. + +But there were dunces in those days too, who made little or no +use of their opportunities, and others who turned them to bad +purposes, even as there are in this twentieth century. + + [Illustration: _Part of Winchester College, built in 1692_] + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +Universities + + +Now, just as the tide flows and ebbs, so in England did interest in +learning rise and fall during the Middle Ages. Schools of all kinds +had their good times and their bad times. Sometimes we find the +thirst for learning being shown in one direction; then it almost +died away for a time, revived again, and took another direction. + +At first we see it going in the direction of making monks and +priests and missionaries; then in that of making able men who could +take part in the civil business of the manor, the town, and the +country; and then, in the thirteenth century, it began again to +take a turn towards learning for learning's sake. + +As we get near to the thirteenth century, we find the beginnings of +our English universities. A university was a corporation or body of +learned men who bound themselves together to teach, and who got the +sole right of appointing teachers in their districts. A man could +only have leave to teach after his knowledge and ability had been +well tried by them; and when that leave was given he was said to +take his degree. + +The opportunity of getting wider knowledge and higher teaching +attracted scholars, lads and young men who had had their early +teaching in the small colleges and grammar-schools. They were +encouraged and in many ways helped to go to the university. Gifts +were left to their old schools to help the likely boys to go to the +university; many of the monasteries and colleges sent their pupils +there, and it was looked upon as a pious work and a work of mercy +to help poor scholars in this way. + +Scholars flocked in hundreds to various universities, and we find +Oxford and Cambridge rising as university towns. We cannot say +exactly when this began, but we read that in King John's reign, in +the year 1209, there was a great "town and gown" riot at Oxford. +Three of the gownsmen were hanged as a punishment; so about three +thousand of the rest left Oxford and went to other universities, +and Oxford was deserted for a time. These facts show that by the +beginning of the thirteenth century, just when the Early English +style of architecture was coming into fashion, universities, with +their "higher education", were very important institutions. + + [Illustration: _Gloucester Hall, now Worcester College, Oxford, + founded 1283_ + + _From a drawing made in 1673, when a considerable portion of the + thirteenth-century building still remained little altered._] + +At first it seems that the scholars at the university lived in the +town, where they chose or where they could, attending the various +lecture-halls. Then various people seem to have hit upon the plan +of setting up houses in the town, and letting the rooms to the +scholars, so that a number of them might live together. Thus they +were divided up into different sets. These houses were called +hostels, and we find them at Cambridge in the beginning of the +thirteenth century. + +Early, too, in this same century a new religious order found its +way to England--the Friars. The Dominican Friars were a very +learned teaching order, and when they settled at Oxford they +greatly strengthened the work of the university and kept it alive +and active. + +A Surrey man, Walter de Merton, Chancellor and Bishop of Rochester, +was the inventor or founder of colleges at the universities such as +we know them to-day. In the hostels the scholars did pretty much as +they pleased, chose their own officers, and made their own rules. +There was much disorder after a while; many quarrels and fights +took place between one hostel and another, as well as with the +townsfolk. Merton spent twelve years in thinking out his plan, and +at last, in the year 1264, he founded or established the first of +the Oxford Colleges. + +The old monasteries and colleges in the early times had been +founded to keep up a continual round of worship, work, and +learning; the special work of these new colleges was to promote +learning and fellowship. In many ways they were like the older +convents; but the work of education was the chief object of these +new foundations, and we find teachers and taught, governors and +pupils, living under the same roof, under rule and order. + + [Illustration: CLOISTER QUADRANGLE, MAGDALEN COLLEGE, OXFORD] + +Merton's idea was soon afterwards followed at Cambridge, where +Peterhouse was opened in the year 1284. During this century, too, +we find a rival university springing up at Stamford; in fact in +the year 1333 a number of masters and scholars left Oxford for +Stamford; but, owing to the opposition of Oxford and Cambridge, +it was gradually snuffed out, though there are still standing +some interesting buildings which were connected with it. College +after college, at both Oxford and Cambridge, has been founded since +then; each one has its own special laws and government, which have +been altered from time to time. For many centuries now Oxford and +Cambridge have been cities of colleges, and these "ancient seats of +learning" are quite unlike any other places in the country. + + [Illustration: _Gownsman of Fifteenth Century. From an old print + of Chaucer's Clerk of Oxenford_] + +Many old customs are kept up still at Oxford and Cambridge; the +scholars and officials of the colleges and universities go about in +their gowns, as they have done for centuries, and each university +has still rights and privileges in the government of the town which +have naturally come to it in the course of time. The town and the +townsfolk have their special interests and government; so that +there are two authorities, side by side, responsible for law and +order. The gown and the town depend upon each other; and in days +gone by they have, times without number, misunderstood each other, +and quarrelled, and fought. + +In the reign of King Edward III Oxford was the most famous seat of +learning in Europe. Many of its students were foreigners, but, as +everyone could talk Latin as well as he could his native language, +they had no real difficulty in making themselves understood. + +Within the last hundred years, in order to meet modern +requirements, universities have been founded at Durham, London, +Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, and Bristol. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +Changes Brought About by the Black Death + + +In the middle of the fourteenth century, in the reign of King +Edward III, came the Black Death. It carried off half the +population of the country at least, and all classes of society felt +its effects. + +We have said that in some of the old parish churches you can +see, by some of the work done just after this time, that the +builders were very much poorer than they had been, and had to +finish off in a very plain fashion work begun on a grand scale. +You must remember, too, that there were several different kinds +of landowners or overlords--the king, the great lords, bishops, +colleges, and monasteries. The manors, of which these estates were +made up, in the course of centuries were divided and subdivided +in many ways as the land became more valuable. Many people might +thus have an interest in one manor which a couple of hundred years +before had been in the hands of one person only. That made law +business very complicated when these little parcels of land changed +hands. + +Though manors could not be bought and sold outright, little by +little money was paid to have bits of manors and the various +rights in manors let out, or leased, for a term of years. This +was especially the case with property in towns, and with lands +belonging to corporations, like colleges and monasteries, which +were often scattered about in various parts of the country. + +On the manors in the country districts the same thing was going +on, though perhaps more slowly than in the towns. It became much +more convenient for the villeins and cottiers, and other tenants of +a manor, to pay a rent to the lord instead of actually working on +the lord's land. At first this rent was paid in the produce of the +land--a few hens or eggs, a calf or a lamb, or so much corn, till +by and by we find actual payments in money as rent. + +Then, too, a class of labourers had gradually sprung up on the +manors. As the tenants and villeins began to pay to the lord a +quit-rent, instead of working so many days a week on the land, +the lord of the manor had to employ persons to do the work on his +home-farm. These would naturally be the cottiers and serfs on +the manor--the "landless men"--who thus became what we know as +labourers. + +All these had to be accounted for in the manor court, which was +held regularly every few weeks. If a labourer was missing he was +sought for, and brought back to the manor, which he might not leave +without his lord's permission. It is quite true that if he could +only remain unclaimed in some borough town for a year and a day he +was no longer bound to the lord of his native manor; but the towns +did not encourage strangers, as we have seen. If, however, labour +happened to be wanted in the town, no doubt his being there would +be "winked at" and no notice would be taken of his "harbouring" +there; and in this way numbers managed to get their freedom. + +But it was not an easy matter for a labourer to get away from his +native manor. After the Black Death, labour became very scarce, +for on some of the manors almost every tenant and labourer died. +All over the country land-workers were wanted badly; and tenants +and landlords, when they were so hard pushed, were glad to employ +almost any man who appeared, and they did not trouble to ask whose +"man he was" or whence he came. + +The wages of the labourers, of course, went up; but before very +long the landlords saw that that would not do; it made their +farming so much more expensive, and so their incomes tended to grow +less and less. Law after law was passed to get the labourers back +to their native manors, and to keep down the price of labour. + + [Illustration: _Labourers felling a Tree, Fourteenth Century. + From a manuscript in the British Museum_] + +All classes of overlords, and especially the colleges and +monasteries, had much difficulty in working their lands, and so the +custom of letting them out in farms increased a good deal after the +Black Death. + +At first the owners let out these farms with a certain amount of +stock on them. They were let for so many years, or for so many +lives. At the end of the time the farm had to be given up and the +stock replaced as it had been at the first. The land belonging +to the farm was mixed up with the land of other tenants in the +manor, in the big unenclosed fields, and had to be farmed still +according to the old customs of the manor. Some of the very oldest +farms existing to this day began in this kind of way, and there +are possibly a few of the very oldest farm-houses which were first +built early in the fifteenth century. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +Wool + + +The two great industries of England in the Middle Ages were +agriculture and wool-raising. The wool was the finest grown in +Europe, and attracted hither merchants from the Continent. They +travelled through England--in the Cotswold and Hampshire districts, +for instance--and bought wool largely. But in pretty early days +England began to manufacture cloth of various kinds; and that, +too, became an important article of export. This manufacture was +especially strong in the eastern and western parts of the country. + +Weavers from Flanders were encouraged to settle in various parts of +England, by several of the Norman kings, soon after the Conquest. +This was the case in Gloucestershire, for example; but the +manufacture declined in the reigns of King John and King Henry III. +In the reign of King Edward III it was again introduced. + +As the country began to recover from the effects of the Black +Death, the cloth trade became a very flourishing industry, +and English wool-merchants became a very wealthy and powerful +body. These have left their mark on the churches of the land +pretty plainly. At the end of the fourteenth century, and in the +fifteenth, some of the finest Decorated and Perpendicular work +was done, and a large number of churches, especially in Suffolk, +Gloucestershire, and Somersetshire, have magnificent towers, which +were built at this period. It is pretty safe to say that where +to-day you find a little village with a big church--very much +larger than the place now needs--with a good deal of work belonging +to the Decorated and early Perpendicular periods, that those +places were once engaged in some branch or other of the wool and +cloth trades. + +Many of the fine brasses of which we spoke in a former chapter +cover the graves of merchants "of the staple", as these great wool +and cloth traders were called. Then, too, some of the very finest +timbered houses, with their richly carved fronts, as in Chester and +Shrewsbury, were built at this same time. + +We have spoken before of the trade guilds. These, too, after the +Black Death period, increased in power and wealth. Each guild +looked well after the interests of its own craft. It regulated +the number of apprentices which a craftsman might have, the hours +of work, the rate of pay; it made provision for helping its +members in sickness and need; and it saw to burying them decently +when they died. Guilds took a lively interest in their parish +churches, helped sometimes in forming new schools, hospitals, +and alms-houses, and had regular times for meeting together for +business and for feasting. They were good to their members, but +very hard on those who were not of their number. + + [Illustration: _Spinning Wheel, Fourteenth Century_] + +From the members of these trade guilds in a town the town guild, or +corporation, was formed to rule the town according to its ancient +customs and charters, and to obtain for the town as many new rights +and privileges as possible. There is much in the corporation of a +great city like London, with its many companies, or guilds, which +is connected with city life and work of the Middle Ages. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +The Poor + + +From early Christian times in England to relieve the poor was +looked upon as a Christian duty, and every church and religious +house took its part in the work as a matter of course. You will +remember that in early days there was not much moving about of +people from one manor to another, so that it was not at first +difficult to know the sick and the needy in each place, whether in +town or country. Many religious houses or hospitals were founded +for the purposes of relief. They were not on a large scale, +but there were a good many of them. In the fourteenth century +pilgrimages were very popular, and many pilgrims were always to be +found on the road. + +We must remember that there was another side to a pilgrimage +besides the religious one. A pilgrimage was one way of travelling +and seeing the world. Indeed it was almost the only means by which +a poor man could travel and have change of scene. Permission was +given for that purpose because it was regarded as a religious act. +It is not at all surprising that folk who wanted to see the world +often took advantage of a pilgrimage from no very religious motive. +Pilgrims could always find food and lodging at a religious house +on their way, and there were scores of places in England to which +pilgrimages might be made, to say nothing of a journey to the Holy +Land, or to the shrine of St. James of Compostello, which were two +grand pilgrimages. + +In time pilgrimages became somewhat of a nuisance, for many of the +people taking part in them were anything but pious; and, towards +the end of the fourteenth century, strict measures were taken to +prevent beggars and servants from wandering from one hundred to +another on pretence of going on a pilgrimage. Each had to have a +letter, properly signed by an officer of the hundred, giving him +leave. + +But beggars and wanderers increased. We find some towns, in Tudor +times, taking steps to put down beggars. In the early part of the +sixteenth century vagabonds found in London were to be "tayled[19] +at a cart's tayle", and collections were made for the poor weekly, +and distributed at the church door. In the year 1536 there were +fifteen hospitals and four lazar-houses in the city of London. At +the dissolution of the religious houses all these were seized, but +the city managed to save St. Mary Spital, St. Thomas's Hospital, +and St. Bartholomew's Hospital. The city found that it could not +get enough money to keep even one of these going, so a tax was +levied for the purpose. Bishop Ridley and others tried to draw up a +scheme for finding work for the poor, teaching them to make caps, +feather-bed ticks, nails, and ironwork. + + [19] That is, whipped at a cart's tail. + +Other towns tried the same plan, and the king and Parliament issued +many orders about the treatment of the poor and vagabonds. But +it was much easier to issue these orders than to carry them out, +and the beggars increased in numbers and in impudence in spite of +all. In 1547 it was ordained that a sturdy beggar might be made a +slave for two years, and, if he ran away, then he was to remain a +slave for life. The sons of vagabonds were to be apprenticed till +they were twenty-four years old, and their daughters till they +were twenty years of age, and, if they rebelled, they were sent to +slavery. The idea was to train them to work. + +In all this the difficulty was, how to find the money to carry out +these schemes. The king had swept away all the goods and gifts +which had been made to monasteries, churches, and hospitals; the +free-will offerings of many generations had gone into the pockets +of the king; the institutions which had been founded to help the +poor had become the private property of the king's favourites. It +was not likely that people would be very keen to offer their money +for the relief of the poor, and though urged to give what they +could, they were very backward in doing so. Later on, in Queen +Elizabeth's reign, the dwellers in each parish were urged to find +work for the labourers in their parish; but the beggars still +wandered and the poor still abounded. + +In the year 1572 some very severe laws were made concerning +vagabonds. A man who was convicted a third time of being a vagabond +was to be punished with death. Habitations were to be found for all +the poor belonging to a parish; no strangers were to be allowed to +settle in a parish; and each parish was to be taxed for the relief +of the poor. At the same time, every parish was to find something +to do for all the poor who were able to work. Usually a stock of +wool, hemp, and flax was bought, and the poor were supposed to +be taught to spin. Each county was also to provide a House of +Correction, where those who would not work should be forced to do +so. + +To keep down the number of poor people in a parish, order was given +that only one family might live in one house, and no new house +might be built in the country unless it had four acres of ground +attached to it. In the cities of London and Westminster, and for +three miles round them, no houses were to be built except for +persons worth a specified amount. Houses might not be divided into +tenements, nor might lodgers be taken in. + +All this was to keep people as much as possible in the places where +they belonged. The churchwardens and overseers had to attend to the +relief of the poor. There are, belonging to a good many parishes +in England, old account-books, showing how these officers raised +and spent money on the relief of the poor. Some of these books go +right back to this time, though most of them begin a good deal +later. These officers had to keep a very sharp look-out. Of course +they did not want the poor-rate to be any higher than they could +help, so strangers coming into the parish were quickly tracked and +hindered from gaining a settlement there. Vagabonds and strolling +players were hurried out of the parish, and in some cases whipped. +The stocks, the whipping-post, and the cage were set up near the +churchyard gate, and they were in pretty constant use. + + [Illustration: _Wayfarers, Early Fourteenth Century. From a + manuscript in the British Museum._] + +The officers were very anxious, too, to prevent any travellers +from falling ill in their parish. Those who were sick, and could +possibly be moved, they shifted on to the next parish, lest they +should become chargeable to the parish. Some parishes spent a good +deal of money, and the officers much time, in conveying people out +of their bounds. That led, we may imagine, to many disputes between +parishes, and gave the court of Quarter Sessions a lot of work +to do; for amongst the many things which Quarter Sessions had to +attend to was the carrying out of the Poor Laws. + +Parishes had to look after and to support their own poor in much +the same way right down to the early part of the nineteenth +century, less than a hundred years ago. + + [Illustration: _The Moat House, Ightham, Kent. An example of a + fortified manor house of feudal times. A large portion appears to + be work of the fourteenth century_ + + (_From an engraving published in 1845_)] + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII + +Changes in Houses and House-building + + +In the time of King Edward III, that is, in the fourteenth +century, there was a great change in the arrangement of castles +and castle-building. We cannot say much about it here, it would +take too long; but the changes made show that there was a desire to +make the castle not merely a strong defence against an enemy, but +also a dwelling-place for the baron, his family, his servants, and +men-at-arms. Many buildings were added for comfort and convenience. +In fact, a castle became a kind of little town. + +William of Wykeham, that great master-builder, was not only a +builder of churches and colleges, but a castle-builder as well. +The great Round Tower at Windsor Castle, and other parts of that +building still in use, are his work; but in later times it has +been much restored. The general arrangement of the Tower of London +will give us an idea of the sort of habitation a castle of the +fourteenth century was intended to be. In fact, we may say that +every old castle, which is still inhabited, has considerable +indications of work done in this and the following centuries, to +fit it to be a comfortable dwelling-place as well as a fortress. + +A good many houses, too, were protected by walls, and sometimes +even called "castles", though they were not what we usually +understand by the term. Many of these were moated houses, the moat +forming the first line of protection. Then came the battlemented +wall, within which the house proper was built. + +The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were stirring war times, +and the nobles kept up bands of armed men, who lived close to, and +even in, their strong houses and castles. In the fifteenth century, +during the long period of the Wars of the Roses, there was much +work for these "men-at-arms to do". This constant warfare weakened +at length the power of the barons. Sometimes the Yorkist king, +sometimes the Lancastrian king, was in power; and whichever side +got the upper hand the king seized the property of the nobles on +the other side. + +As a matter of fact the nobles killed each other off, and when +Henry Tudor, a Lancastrian, became king, there was an enormous +amount of power in his hands; and he used it so as to keep a closer +grip of it. + +The towns and the traders had no liking for war, and they were +quite satisfied to see the government of the country in the hands +of a strong king. The new nobles, whom King Henry VII made, had +most of them sprung from the merchant and trading class. + +These new men, and even the king's own friends and supporters, were +not allowed to keep bands of armed servants or retainers, able to +turn the scale of a battle against the king. The Earl of Warwick, +the "Kingmaker", had played that game several times; and it was +through Lord Stanley bringing his men over from King Richard III's +side to the side of Henry in this way that he had won the Battle of +Bosworth, and placed the English crown on Henry's head. + +After becoming king, Henry VII determined that these bands of armed +men, who would follow the whistle of their lord, must be put down. +He therefore set to work cautiously, but he had his way. The nobles +might no longer keep hosts of servants in livery as they pleased. +The king cut down the numbers, so that he might be in a position to +say to any of his nobles that his good word he did not want, and +his bad word he cared nothing at all about. + +You will remember the story of King Henry VII and the Earl of +Oxford. The king went to pay the earl a visit, and his host, to +show him honour, had two long lines of stout retainers, all armed +and dressed in his livery, drawn up to meet him. He did all in his +power to show honour to the king. When the visit was over, the king +said to the earl: + +"I thank you, my lord, for your good cheer, but I may not endure to +have my laws broken in my sight; my attorney must speak with you." + +Then there was "trouble"; and the earl thought himself very +fortunate in getting out of the "scrape" by paying a small fine of +ten thousand pounds. It was very awkward for a man to be a noble +in Tudor times. He never knew exactly where he was. The king might +be making a great fuss with him one day, clapping him in the Tower +a few days after, and then chopping off his head and ornamenting +London Bridge with it. + +Well, this did away with the necessity for big fortified houses +which might contain barracks for soldiers, and so we find that the +new houses, built in Tudor times, were less like fortresses than +they had been before. More attention was now paid to the size and +convenience of the rooms. This sixteenth century was a great time +for the building of large houses; indeed, the new nobles had better +ideas of what a comfortable house was than the older barons had. + + [Illustration: _Part of the House called Plas Mawr, Conway, Wales_ + + _It illustrates the architectural change from the mediæval + fortress to the Tudor mansion which took place in the sixteenth + century_] + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX + +The Ruins of the Monasteries and the New Buildings + + +In early Tudor times our towns were much more picturesque than they +are to-day. That was chiefly owing to the fact that there were in +every town so many religious houses, colleges, and hospitals. These +buildings all had grounds of their own in the town, some more, some +less; but these open spaces and garden grounds, though they were +not open to the public, all helped to make the town airy, and to +give variety to the view. + +The buildings themselves were all different, and many of them were +hundreds of years old. Towers, spires, turrets, gables, gateways, +and archways in all styles of architecture abounded. There were, of +course, many things in the towns which we should not have liked, +but they had a pleasant variety and picturesque appearance which +our modern towns have not. Thousands of streets in our towns are +just rows and rows of houses--brick boxes with slate lids--all +alike, all ugly, and very dull and dreary to look at and to live in. + +In the reign of King Henry VIII all the religious houses were +suppressed, and given up into the king's hands. The life that had +gone on in them for centuries came to an end. Both in town and +country districts there were many people besides those who actually +lived in them to whom this made a great difference--people who, +in one way or another, got their living out of the monasteries. +Shutting up the monasteries threw all these people, so to speak, +out of work, and created what we call a "very difficult problem". +That meant a great deal of suffering. + +Nowadays, if a factory which has employed a number of people +is suddenly closed, it means suffering for those who have been +employed there and for their families. Now, though the monasteries +did not employ people in the way in which a factory does, it did +affect in many ways those who lived and worked and depended on them. + +In these days, if people are thrown out of employment in one place +they are free to go and seek it in another; but that was not the +case in the reign of Henry VIII. If they wandered from their native +towns and villages they were treated as vagabonds. It is true +that the new persons, to whom the monastery lands were granted, +were supposed to do for the people on the land--the poor and the +sick--what the monasteries had done for them. But what they were +_supposed_ to do and what they _did do_ were very different things. + + [Illustration: WOLLATON HALL, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE + + An Elizabethan mansion, built 1590-1. The Italian style is here + pervaded by a Gothic influence + + [See page 142]] + +It is pretty easy to see how things worked. A wealthy man managed +to get a grant of the property of several monasteries at a very +cheap rate. He did not want these places to live in; he wanted to +make money out of them. The first thing that he did was to strip +the buildings of everything which would fetch any money. The lead +was usually the most valuable part of what the king had left. The +roofs would be stripped, the graves broken open to get at the +leaden coffins, and the windows smashed for the sake of the lead. +Then the building was left standing a ruin. The poor people of +the district had been used to receive food daily at the monastery +gate, and no doubt had grumbled at the quality and quantity of the +food often enough. But now it was no use going to the monastery +gate, for the place was a ruin. They could not go to the new lord's +house, for that might be miles away. Even if they did find him, +he might be the owner of three or four such ruined monasteries. +How could he be quite sure that they were the poor he was bound to +relieve? And so the poor folk lost the daily food on which they had +depended. + +Then as regards the land. The new landlord, perhaps, might farm his +fields; in which case the rents, instead of going to the monastery, +went into his pocket. But he was not always on the spot, and very +frequently the land was let out to tenants; an agent or steward +collected the rents, and the tenants never saw their landlord. But +many of these new owners found that the management of the estates +caused them a lot of trouble; and, naturally enough, from their +point of view, they wanted to get as much money out of the property +as they could at the least cost to themselves. + +Now there was in this sixteenth century still a great demand for +wool, and many of these landlords found it would save trouble to +turn these monastery lands into sheep-runs. A very few men could +look after a great many sheep, and there would be no bother about +keeping up buildings and barns. If the people were got off the +land, there would be no poor to bother about relieving. So it +came to pass that much land, which had been cultivated for many +centuries, went out of cultivation, and the people were turned +adrift. It was a hard state of affairs. The rights which they had +had to relief from the religious houses were taken from them, and +the means of getting their living also taken away; they were robbed +of their employment, and punished for wandering, for not working, +and for begging. + +There were, of course, many instances in which the new landlord +came and lived near the old monastery. In some cases the old +buildings were altered and turned into a dwelling-house; in others +the building material was used for building a brand-new house close +by. When this was the case the old custom of relieving the poor +who came to the gate did not quickly die out. + + [Illustration: _Old Timbered House, at Presleigh, Radnorshire, + dated 1616_] + +For instance, at Standon in Hertfordshire, there was a house +belonging to the Knights Hospitallers. When the house was +dissolved, much of the property at Standon went to Sir Ralph +Sadleir, who had been secretary to Thomas Cromwell, the "hammer of +the monks". He owned Standon Lordship, and when the poor were no +longer relieved at the Hospitallers' House in the village, they +trooped from Standon up to Standon Lordship, about fifty of them, +every day. That custom of relieving the poor was kept up there for +many years. + + + + +CHAPTER XL + +The New Houses of the Time of Queen Elizabeth + + +There were, in the days of Queen Elizabeth, in all parts of +the country, hundreds of bare, gaunt ruins where once had been +flourishing houses and centres of life and work. It may seem +strange to us that the materials left were not sold and cleared +away, and the sites made tidy. We must remember, however, that +people could not build houses either in town or country as they +chose. In Queen Elizabeth's reign the laws against building new +houses were very strict indeed, so that there was not a very great +demand for building material. Then, too, the quantity of such stone +and wood in all these many buildings, in every town and almost +every village, was enormous, so that the material was not worth +much. The ruins were left, a sad and sorry sight, for many a long +year. + +In the towns some of the buildings were turned by their new owners +into private houses, and the parts of the monastery were put to +strange uses. Nobody seemed to mind; the spirit of destruction +seemed to be in the air. Then, as years went on, and buildings +needed repair, or roads wanted mending, the old ruins were the +handiest places from which to get a load of stone; and so, with +leave or without, many loads of stone were carted away from them. + +We said just now that there was no encouragement given to the +building of new houses in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and yet +most of the most picturesque old houses in our towns and villages +still standing were built at that time. These, however, were not +new houses; they were rebuilt on old sites, _improved_ according to +the ideas of the time. + + [Illustration: _Moreton Old Hall, Cheshire, built 1550-59. + An example of the half-timbered, Elizabethan house for which + Cheshire and Shropshire are specially famous_] + +You will notice in country places a great many houses built +somewhat after this style. Many of them are now cottages, but they +were not built for cottages; they were the ordinary houses in which +yeomen lived in the sixteenth century. + +There was the hall or house-place--an oblong room in the centre--on +to which other rooms were built, forming a wing at one end, or +often a wing at each end, with gables towards the street, and +projecting upper stories. A great deal might be said about this +kind of house, but there is only space for a very short account of +it. + +The house was built upon a foundation of stone or brick, so that +the wooden sill should be above the ground-level. Into this wooden +sill strong upright posts of timber, quite rough, some eight or +nine inches square, were set. The posts at the angles were larger, +often being butts of trees placed roots upwards, so that the upper +story might project. Then on the main posts beams were laid, the +ends projecting, upon which the framing of the upper story was set. +It was just a timber skeleton, into which other timbers were set +eight or nine inches apart. In later times these timbers were wider +apart, and curved or diagonal braces were often used, but at first +the uprights were pretty closely set. + +The spaces between the uprights were then filled in with lath and +plaster, flush with the woodwork. In some parts of the country +brick was used instead, set in herring-bone fashion. In later +times, when the lath and plaster had decayed, the spaces were often +filled in with brickwork laid in the ordinary way. Then again, in +other cases the woodwork of the house shrank and left gaps between +the lath and plaster and the wood, so the whole of the outside has +been covered with plaster, or weatherboarded and painted or tarred, +or hung over with tiles. + +The windows were small, and sometimes in the upper story one was +built out, forming an oriel. The roofs were high pitched, in many +cases tiled, but more often thatched. In these old houses the +chimney-stack is a great feature outside, and the huge fireplace, +with its wide chimney-corners, takes up half the house-place +inside. From most of these nowadays the old hearth is gone, and a +small chimney-breast has been bricked up to take a modern range; +but the old chimney-corner, with its funny little window, can +usually still be traced. + +There are quite a large number of village inns of this kind. Very +often these are the oldest and most picturesque buildings left in a +village, except the church. It is these old-fashioned houses which +make village scenery so pleasing to the eye after the dreary rows +of bunches of brick, with holes in them for windows, covered in +with slate, which fill the streets of our towns, all alike, and all +ugly. + + + + +CHAPTER XLI + +Larger Elizabethan and Jacobean Houses + + +We have said that the Tudor period was a time of building of big +houses and mansions. Every county in England has some such houses +to show. Many of them were built of stone, some partly of brick and +stone. Their style shows that the English or old fashion of Gothic +building was dying out. Italian ideas and Italian ornament were +coming into favour. No doubt one reason why so much of the old work +was ruthlessly destroyed was because it was out of fashion. It is +astonishing, even in these days, how much good work is destroyed +just because it has gone out of date. Among the most famous of +these houses we may mention Burleigh House "by Stamford Town", +Haddon Hall, and Knebworth; and, belonging to a rather later date, +Hatfield House. + +For a big house the idea was to build it round a quadrangle. +Smaller houses were in plan very like the half-timbered houses of +the yeomen, only on a larger scale, and more richly ornamented. The +hall and its wings were extended considerably, and, with a handsome +porch, formed in plan a big capital E, thus:-- + + [Illustration: _Diagram of a Large House_] + +Some people have thought that this plan was chosen in honour of +Queen Elizabeth, but the truth is that it was the most convenient +form, and fitted in best with the ideas of the time. It had grown +up quite naturally, in the course of many generations, from the +simple hall with the hearth in the middle, the beginnings of which +we saw in the huts of the pit-dwellers. + + [Illustration: _Hall and Staircase, Knole House, Kent, 1570. The + broad heavily-carved staircase of oak was a special feature of + Elizabethan houses_] + +Quite early in the fourteenth century brick had begun to come into +use for building, but the first bricks were probably imported from +Flanders. Hull, which had been founded by King Edward I, had many +buildings of brick, and by about the year 1320 it had brick-yards +of its own. Flemish weavers were encouraged to settle in England by +King Edward III, and they used brick in buildings which they set +up. There are a good many houses in the eastern counties and in +Kent still standing, which show Flemish and Dutch ideas. + + [Illustration: _A Room in an Elizabethan House. A reconstruction, + in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, of panelling and + furniture removed from a house at Bromley by Bow, London_] + +Cardinal Wolsey's palace at Hampton Court is a good specimen of the +brickwork of his time; and all through the reign of King Henry VIII +the chief material used was brick, terra-cotta[20] being employed +for mouldings and ornament. This was chiefly the work of Italian +artists, and they produced also some very beautiful ceilings in +plaster-work[21] for many of their fine houses. + + [20] _Terra-cotta_ is a compound of pure clay, fine sand, or + powdered flint. + + [21] See the picture on p. 144. + +After King Henry VIII's quarrel with Rome fewer Italians were +employed, and English artists were left to work out these new ideas +in their own way. From about the middle of the sixteenth century +the use of terra-cotta dropped out, and moulded and shaped bricks +began to be used, though stone was used for the more ornamental +portions. + +When we reach the reign of King James I, we find that the leading +architect was Inigo Jones. We do not hear very much of architects +during the Middle Ages. The man employed to do the actual work +was allowed to select his own materials and carry out his own +ideas pretty much in his own way. But in the sixteenth century +the architect became a more important person than the craftsman, +and the craftsman had to work according to the pattern and design +provided for him. + +The Jacobean[22] houses show that the old English styles of +building were being left behind, and a newer type of house, plainer +and heavier, was taking its place. The Civil War was a very bad +time for architects and craftsmen, but after the Restoration a +better time came to them again. + + [22] _Jacobean_ means of the time of James I and on to James II. + +The Great Fire of London, which swept away almost every mediæval +building in the city, gave a great _impetus_, or push forward, to +building. You can quite understand that, with so much building +going on, the work would be somewhat hurried and very much plainer +than it had been. So London became a city of bricks and mortar. +Middlesex has large quantities of good brick-earth; and though +bricks were made in that county long before the Great Fire, the +Great Fire developed the industry greatly. There was a worthy old +Royalist knight of Hammersmith, Sir Nicholas Crispe, who, after +the execution of King Charles I, went over to Holland, as so many +other Royalists did. There he watched very closely bricks and +brick-making, and when he came back to England he introduced many +improvements in the art of brick-making along the Thames valley. + + [Illustration: _Blickling Hall, Norfolk, built 1619. Illustrates + the typical features of a Jacobean Mansion_] + + + + +CHAPTER XLII + +Churches after the Reformation + + +Not very long after the dissolution of the monasteries the churches +had a very bad time to go through. It is perfectly marvellous +how rapidly some people, who were in power, discovered that the +valuable ornaments and fittings in them were so very wicked and +superstitious, that the only thing to do was to seize them for +the use of the king as his private property. No attempt was made +to apply the money taken for the benefit of the parishes; it was +shamefully and shamelessly squandered. The buildings were very +badly treated, and everything in some of them that could be defaced +and destroyed was so treated. The changes made in religion under +the Tudor kings and queens were so many, and so violent, that +ordinary everyday people could not understand them, and deeply +religious people were driven in opposite directions. There was +bitter persecution for all who did not fall in with the will of the +Tudor sovereign, whether Catholic or Protestant, and good men had +to suffer and to die on both sides for their faith. + +All who did not attend their parish church, and take part in the +services which those in authority considered to be most fitting, +were regarded as bad citizens, and treated as such. We cannot +wonder that the parish churches were allowed to go to decay. +English people had spent much money on their churches right up to +the time of the Reformation. Then they saw the gifts they and their +forefathers had made abused or stolen. People were not disposed to +do much for their churches after that. In some cases, especially +in country places where the leading people were Catholics or +Puritans, it seems as if they purposely let the parish church, to +which they were compelled to go by law, get so thoroughly out of +order that they might be able to say there was no church to go to. + + [Illustration: _Monument in Chelsea Church, London; date about + 1630_] + +Many of the houses built during Tudor times had secret chambers and +hiding-places, which were known only to a very few persons. And +such hiding-places were much used, in the times of Queen Elizabeth +and King James I, by priests, who ministered in secret to those who +clung to the old faith. + +But though the churches were much out of repair, in some of them +stately and costly monuments were erected in the sixteenth and +early part of the seventeenth centuries. They were different from +the monuments set up before the Reformation, and were usually +built against a wall. They were of various coloured marbles, the +effigies lying under circular-headed canopies, supported by columns +in the Italian style. The effigies of man and wife were usually +represented clad in robes of state, coloured, their children +kneeling round the tomb in various attitudes. + +By and by, instead of the effigies being represented as lying on +their backs, with hands clasped, they were shown lying on one +side, supporting their heads on their hands. There are many such +monuments, for instance, in Westminster Abbey, and in almost every +old town church one or more can be seen. + +It became a very common practice for one of the old chapels, built +on to the parish church in mediæval times, to be set apart as the +private burial-place of a great landowner. Many new chapels were +built for this special purpose. In them we may see specimens of the +different fashions in monuments from Tudor days, or earlier, right +down to the present time. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII + +Building after the Restoration: Houses + + +The most notable architect after the Great Fire of London was Sir +Christopher Wren, and his masterpiece is, of course, St. Paul's +Cathedral. He designed, too, most of the city churches. The style +was adopted in various parts of the country by various noblemen for +building great houses. Brick was regarded as too mean a material +for such very grand houses, and stone was used for facing them. + +In the houses which Wren built brick was very largely used. He +introduced rubbed bricks, and had them laid with very close joints. +We have some very fine examples of such brickwork in gables of +various forms in the early part of the eighteenth century--the +reign of Queen Anne. + + [Illustration: _House at Rainham, Essex, built during the reign + of Queen Anne_] + +Designs for houses did not improve in beauty as the eighteenth +century went on. Many of the houses were very substantially built, +and were arranged with an eye to comfort and convenience. The hall, +which had been the centre of the old English home, became smaller +and smaller; the kitchens were placed below the ground-level, and +in towns were often reached by a flight of steps down from the +street to the area, which is still so common in London streets. + +The front door of the house became the great ornamental feature of +the building, approached by a flight of steps often protected by +very handsome iron railings. Attached to many of the railings still +are light upright posts for carrying an old-fashioned oil-lamp. +Just a few of these lamp-carriers have extinguishers, which were +for the use of the link-boys, when on dark nights they had safely +lighted the master of the house through the dangers of the streets +to his own front door. + +The brickwork of these houses had become very plain, and less and +less stone was used for ornament--a little over the principal +windows, and the boldly cut quoins at the angles of the house. Most +of the windows were merely oblong openings in the blank wall. + +The great point aimed at was to get a handsome doorway. Sometimes +a portico was built out, supported by stone pillars having +richly-carved capitals. In other cases a canopy, supported by +half-columns, or by brackets, was placed over the doorway. Stone +was sometimes used for these canopies, but wood was more common. +These wooden canopies and brackets are often very fine pieces of +joinery and wood-carving. The canopy sometimes takes the form of a +kind of big shell, the ornaments and pattern being finely moulded, +and the cornice being deeply and boldly cut. These canopies were +painted, and the tops covered with lead to protect them from the +weather. As you walk along streets of an old town, which has not +been too much modernized, you will be almost sure to see some +specimens of this kind of work. + +The thick panelled doors of these houses are often grand pieces +of work, which would rejoice the heart of a joiner who loves his +craft. So many boys now are taught something of joinery at school +that there must be a good many of them who know enough to see the +beauty there is in a good piece of work, even though it may be +quite plain. + +Another feature in these doorways is the window over the door, +intended to give light to the hall. We call it the fan-light, +because it was usually made somewhat in the shape of an open fan, +and you will find in fan-lights some very pretty designs cleverly +put together. + +About the middle of the eighteenth century stucco came into +fashion. It was easy to handle, and ornamental patterns could be +readily produced. The ornamental stone and woodwork was imitated +in plaster. Like all mere imitations of good work, it soon became +poor, and showed itself to be a sham; but it was very fashionable. +There was such a rage for it that the brickwork of a house was +often covered with a smooth coat of it, and the whole painted +white, or cream colour. Some of the old houses of good sound brick +were covered in this way, and it was often used to cover up very +poor bricks and brickwork. Good plaster-work, no doubt, often +served a purpose in keeping out damp, but it was very formal, and +not very beautiful. + + [Illustration: _Doorway from a House in Gt. Ormond Street, + London, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London_] + +In the middle of the same century a fancy for Gothic architecture +revived, and many brick buildings were built with pointed arches, +doorways, and windows, with turrets and pinnacles, all covered with +plaster-work and cement, imitating Gothic mouldings and carvings; +but it was only sham Gothic, and not at all satisfactory. + +Indeed, we may say that, as the century went on, houses did not +become more beautiful. As the population increased in the town, +streets of houses sprang up, some large, some small, built in +rows and crescents and terraces, in which all the houses were +alike; and very dull and drab and mean-looking many of them have +become. When they were built they were made to look neat, or even +smart, in front, but little care was taken about the appearance +and convenience of their backs. They were not arranged in such a +way that each might have a proper amount of light, and that a free +current of air could pass through them and around them. + +In some respects we have improved our houses, but we have much +to learn yet. We have, for instance, yet to see that _all_ our +houses, however small, shall have a proper number of bedrooms, +large, light, and airy--for we spend one-third of our lives in +them. We have also to see that both beauty and fitness shall be +properly considered in building a house. Too often no care is taken +to provide proper places where food and clothing can be kept, and +where that very necessary but unpleasant process of washing and +drying of clothes can be carried on without spoiling the comfort +and health of the household. Every house needs a bathroom of some +sort, as much as a grate; for where dirt is there is disease, +suffering, and death. We are thinking very much in these days about +the absolute need for better housing of the people; indeed, that is +one of the "big problems" which we have to tackle. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV + +Building after the Restoration: Churches + + +After the Reformation the churches, as we have said, were much +neglected for a long time. They were used in a different way from +what they had been in the Middle Ages--a great deal more was +thought of preaching and hearing sermons. People grew to be very +particular as to where they sat in church, and to have a seat in +accordance with their dignity and importance. Pews became very +important things. Churches were not heated in those days, though +the services were very long, for sermons often lasted for an hour +or two. No doubt one reason for making pews so high was to keep off +draughts. The great people of the parish seemed to try to outdo +each other in the height of their pews. Some of the grand pews +had canopies to them, like old-fashioned four-post bedsteads, and +they were hung round with curtains. In later times they even had +fireplaces, with "poker, tongs, and shovel" all complete. + +Gradually the whole floor-space got filled up with pews with high +wooden walls, some square, some oblong, all shut in with doors, and +with seats running round them. A little girl who was once taken to +a church which was fitted with these "horse-box" pews, when she +came home told her mother: "We went into a cupboard and sat on a +shelf!" The fashion of having pews shut in with doors lasted for +several centuries; indeed you may see them still in some churches, +though they are not nearly as high as they once were. + +The churches needed repairs from time to time in the seventeenth +century, and a few, a very few, new ones were built. But money was +not spent upon them as it had been in the Middle Ages. They were +patched up and mended for the most part as cheaply as possible. In +very few cases was any attempt made to make them as beautiful as +the houses which were being built at the time. + + [Illustration: _Pews in a Church at Stokesay, Shropshire, rebuilt + 1654_] + +After the Restoration there arose a great interest in bells and +bell-ringing. At the end of the seventeenth century a great many +rings of bells were hung in the old steeples and belfries, which +had to be altered to receive them. + +The monuments set up in the churches in the reign of King Charles +II were somewhat smaller than they had been. They were often +tablets on the walls, ornamented with curious carvings of skulls +and cross-bones, cherubs' heads, curtains, and festoons of flowers +and fruits, often finely carved. You will not find in churchyards +many grave-stones or tombs of an earlier date than 1660. The +head-stones were then very small, and had little on them except +"Here lyeth the body of" so-and-so, and the date. + +A great many churches were built in London after the Fire. They +were furnished with high pews, usually all of the same height, and +having doors. The woodwork, especially of the pulpit, reading-desk, +and organ-case, in these churches is mostly very fine. A celebrated +carver of this period was Grinling Gibbons, and he and his pupils +did a great deal of such work, both in churches and houses. + +In other parts of the country Wren's work was imitated in some of +the new churches then built, and in some of the old ones which were +altered or rearranged. One of the best specimens of work done at +this time is to be seen in Whitchurch, in Middlesex. + +Not very many new churches, however, were built until the beginning +of the nineteenth century, except in some of the towns which had +grown up from country villages. In and round London most of the +villages increased so much in size that the little old parish +church was much too small for the population. Galleries were put up +in them in all sorts of queer places, to provide more seats. More +room still being wanted, many churches were pulled down, and larger +buildings set up. + +The new churches of the latter part of the eighteenth and the early +years of the nineteenth centuries were simply big oblong rooms. +The outsides were often copies of parts of Grecian temples. They +were crowned with towers and spires somewhat like those on Wren's +churches, but not nearly so handsome. + + [Illustration: INTERIOR OF ST. MARY-LE-BOW, LONDON + + Although not considered one of Wren's best interiors, it gives + a good idea of the classical detail and carving employed by the + architect. The position of the pulpit, organ, and seats have been + altered since Wren's time] + +Inside, the church was fitted up with a gallery running along +two sides and across one end. In the end gallery a big organ was +placed, and on either side of it, high up, near the ceiling, +were smaller galleries, one for the charity-school boys, the other +for the charity-school girls of the parish. The galleries and floor +of the church were filled with high pews. On the floor opposite the +organ were three huge boxes, rising one above the other. The lowest +box was for the parish clerk, the middle one was the reading-desk, +and the highest was the pulpit, which was often provided with a +sounding-board, not unlike an umbrella. The altar was in a little +niche behind the pulpit. Chapels were fitted up in much the same +way. + +Under all these churches and chapels were vaults, in which people +were buried, but not in the earth. The coffins were placed on +shelves, one above the other, round the vault. On the walls of the +church above were often tablets to the memory of people lying in +the vaults below. These, by the nineteenth century, were for the +most part simply slabs of white marble, with black or grey borders. +There was hardly any carving at all on them; only inscriptions or +epitaphs, and texts. + +The churchyards were used for burials, and by the middle of the +nineteenth century most of them were crowded with tombstones. In +London nearly all are now laid out in open spaces; many of the +grave-stones have quite disappeared, and those which remain are +rapidly perishing. + +When we remember that the churchyards of the old churches had +been used as burial-places in many cases since the early days of +Christianity, and even before that, we can easily grasp the fact +that the earth had been used over and over again for burials. +About the middle of the nineteenth century the nation came to the +conclusion that burials in churches and crowded town churchyards +should no longer be allowed. The practice was dangerous to the +living. So cemeteries were opened in districts away from the towns +and homes of the people. Towns have grown so fast that many of +these cemeteries are now surrounded by houses, and in the midst of +big populations. + +About the year 1840 interest began to be taken in the old English +styles of building, and a taste for Gothic architecture arose +again. Since that time places of worship of all descriptions have +for the most part been built in some sort of Gothic. When you read +that such and such a church or building is in the fourteenth-or +fifteenth-century style, you must understand that it is not a +copy of a church built in the fourteenth or fifteenth century, +but that its window-heads, doorways, arches, and fittings are _in +the style_ of the fourteenth or fifteenth century. Most of these +modern buildings are of brick, only faced or dressed with stone. It +is pretty safe to say that there is no old church standing which +was built entirely in the fourteenth century, and has remained +unaltered from that day to this. Nearly all the old churches have +been restored, a good many of them several times during the last +sixty or seventy years. Unfortunately, through ignorance, a good +many interesting features in the old buildings were swept away +during these "restorations". An old building needs very careful +handling when we set about repairing it. + +In our towns almost every tower and spire which we see is a modern +building, though the _styles_ may vary from Norman to Perpendicular +and seventeenth century. Modern buildings, churches, halls, public +offices, and private houses are mostly imitations of the work +of past ages. There is no nineteenth-century style of English +architecture. Some day, perhaps, England may develop a new style +of architecture, such as the world has never yet seen, but at the +present time we seem to be only able to copy and adapt the work of +those who have gone before us. + + [Illustration: _King Edward VI's School and Alms Houses, + Stratford-on-Avon_] + + + + +CHAPTER XLV + +Schools after the Reformation + + +A little of the property which had belonged to the religious houses +was saved and turned to useful purposes. Just a very few of the old +alms-houses were allowed to continue their work, like St. Cross at +Winchester, and some schools and colleges were founded. + +There are quite a number of such schools which bear the name of +King Edward the Sixth. But Edward VI was only a lad of sixteen when +he died, and he had practically nothing to do with either the good +or the evil which was done in his name. In other towns besides +London, good men set to work and managed to get grants of some +small parts of the property of old religious houses, and adapted +them for school work. In some instances they were allowed to +have part of an old ruin, which they patched up and turned into a +schoolroom, and some of these queer old rooms continued in use for +many generations. At St. Alban's the lady chapel at the east end of +the Abbey Church was walled off from the main building in the time +of Edward VI, and from that time it was used as the Grammar School +until about a third of a century ago. + +It is quite true to say that a good number of our present +grammar-schools rose out of the ashes of the monasteries. But +they were not great buildings intended for hundreds of scholars. +Many of them were founded for ten or a dozen scholars drawn from +a particular town or district. The sum set apart for the upkeep +of the schools was usually very small, and not always readily +forthcoming. The master was always a man who had taken a degree at +one of the universities, but his salary was so small that he had to +engage in other work as well in order to make a living. If he was +an enthusiastic teacher, in some cases he attracted scholars from +outside, who were not on the foundation, from whom he got fees, and +in this way he increased his income, and was able to make a living. +Some schools had an usher as well as the master; and at times when +the number of scholars was very small they were left to the usher, +the master devoting his time to other work, and only drawing the +salary due to him. In such cases the school fell to a low ebb, the +number of scholars dwindled, and the buildings were allowed to fall +to decay. All of them had their ups and downs; at times doing good +work, at others doing very little at all. That went on for many +years. However, most of them are alive and active to-day, and many +of them have histories of which they may be proud, and a past which +should help them to excel in the future. + +Children were often taught in the church and church porch in +country places. John Evelyn was so taught in the early part of the +seventeenth century, and many more people could read and write than +we sometimes imagine; but knowledge was not within the reach of all. + +The condition of the poor occupied a good deal of attention, +and the poor laws were used to improve matters in many ways. At +Norwich, for instance, in the year 1632, a children's hospital was +provided for boys between the ages of ten and fourteen. They were +to be taught useful trades, and fed and clothed. For dinner they +were to have six ounces of bread, one pint of beer, and, on three +days of the week, one pint of pottage and six ounces of beef; on +the four other days, one ounce of butter and two ounces of cheese. +For supper they were to have six ounces of bread, one pint of beer, +one ounce of butter, and two ounces of cheese. For breakfast every +day they had three ounces of bread, half an ounce of butter, and a +half-pint of beer. + +About the year 1686 the Middlesex magistrates established what they +called a "College for Infants". This is what they said about their +plan:-- + +"The Justices, having observed great inconveniences from the loose +upbringing of parish children whereby very few of them come to +good. Order made that a great part of the Corporation House is +fitted up for that purpose, and excellent rules and methods are +therein taken for their education in true religion and virtue. +Order made for the parishes to send fifty children in all." + +Towards the end of the seventeenth century, and in the early part +of the eighteenth century, we find another sort of school coming +into existence--the charity-schools. These were intended to give +a simpler sort of education than that which the grammar-schools +were supposed to give. They were intended for what was called the +poorer classes. Now in the grammar-schools it was essential that +the master should be a man of some learning and standing--he +must have taken a degree at one of the universities. But in these +charity-schools it was not thought to be essential that the teacher +should have both learning and the ability to teach. They were +managed by governors, who drew up rules and regulations as to what +was to be done in the schools, and it was the teacher's business +just to carry out these regulations as best he could. So there was +much learning by rote. There was reading, in which the Bible was +the chief, sometimes the only, reading-book, a certain amount of +writing, and a little arithmetic. Where the master happened to be +a person of ability, some good work was done. Writing was often +very carefully and thoroughly taught, and the handwriting was far +in advance of most of the abominable stuff which we scribble in +these days and make do duty for writing. The girls were taught +needlework, and had to spend long hours every day at the task. It +is very interesting to read through the old order-books kept by +the governors of these old-fashioned schools, and to glean from +them something of the daily life in these humble schools. The rules +and regulations made from time to time seem to us very strange +and even ridiculous, and it is a very easy matter to make fun out +of them. But we must remember that at the time they were drawn +up the worthy governors had very good reasons for what they did, +and we cannot but honour them for doing their best according to +their lights. There were charity-schools in almost every town and +in a good many villages; some founded by bodies of men, others by +private individuals. The buildings varied according to the amount +of money which the governors had to spend upon them. Some are very +picturesque buildings. For instance, there is the Dewhurst School +at Cheshunt, founded in 1640, and Mrs. Lucie Fuller's School at +Watford, founded in 1704. + + [Illustration: _Charity School, Gravel Lane, London. From a print + published in 1819. The school was opened in 1687_] + +The scholars of these schools attended daily, on Sundays as well +as workdays. On Sundays and some other days they were all marched +off to church, where they sat in dreadful little galleries built +mostly high up in dark corners on either side of the organ. These +charity-schools were carried on in much the same way right down +to the middle of the nineteenth century. The scholars were mostly +dressed in the costume of the period at which the school was +founded; and very quaint and curious they looked. Almost the last +link now left of such dress is that in which a "Bluecoat Boy" may +still be seen. That dress is a relic of the dress worn in the +middle of the sixteenth century. The little charity-school boys +wore leather breeches--which in later times were altered mostly +to corduroy--coloured stockings; coats of a quaint cut with funny +little tails at the back, of brown or green or grey or black cloth, +and round, flat caps in colours to match their coats; pewter or +brass badges on their breasts, bearing the name or device or the +arms of the school, and two little pieces of fine linen fluttering +under their chins, called "bands". This was the ordinary boys' +dress in the eighteenth century, and the charity-school boys +continued to wear it long after it had gone out of fashion. The +charity-school girls had frocks and cloaks of a wonderful cut, in +colours corresponding with the boys' coats; white tippets, aprons, +and "such mob caps". In church they led the singing, what little +there was, and their hours in school were long, very long, but they +found time to get in a fair amount of play, and had plenty of time +for getting into mischief as the order-books of the governors bear +witness. + + [Illustration: _Bluecoat Boy_] + +People often laugh at these old-fashioned charity-schools and speak +of them with contempt. That is absolutely a wrong thing to do, +because they were founded many years before Parliament troubled +itself about the education of the people. We cannot too greatly +honour those worthy old-fashioned men and women who did what they +could to provide some teaching and training for poor boys and +girls, and to put them in the way of earning their own living. + +By the end of the eighteenth century people were beginning to +be concerned at the ignorance of the great masses of the people +in this country, and we find that in a good many places little +schools were being kept, taught by the parish clerk or by some +old lady; and here and there we find attempts being made to +form parish schools. These were for the most part on the same lines +as the older charity-schools, but maintained by subscriptions from +private persons. + +In the first year of the nineteenth century, Joseph Lancaster, a +member of the Society of Friends, took over a big disused barn in +the Borough Road, London, and set up this inscription over the +door:-- + +"All who wish may send their children and have them educated +freely; and those who do not wish to have their education for +nothing may pay for it if they please." + +He tried to teach, and keep in order, several hundred children at +the same time. He had them arranged in little classes of seven +or eight children spelling out verses from the Bible, printed +on large cards, under the guidance of an older child. Groups of +these little classes were under the charge of an older child +still, called a superintendent. Writing was taught in little +classes, the children tracing the forms of the letters in sand, +strewn on flat benches. Everything was regulated by rule, and +done at words of command, given by the head teacher. + + [Illustration: A SCHOOL PLAYGROUND SCENE + + From the painting, + "The Fight Interrupted" (1815), by William Mulready, R.A., in the + Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, London] + + +A few years later, a churchman, Dr. Bell, started a somewhat +similar method of instruction, by means of monitors, which he had +tried in Madras some thirty years before. + + [Illustration: _Schoolmaster and Pupils, early Seventeenth + Century. From a woodcut published in 1631_] + +Those were the beginnings of the primary schools of to-day. From +Lancaster's work there sprang a society, called the "British and +Foreign School Society", and from Bell's work another, known as +the "National Society". These two societies set to work vigorously +to see what they could do to improve education and to promote the +building of schools. They very soon found that the great need was +for teachers, trained for this special work--folk who not only +had knowledge as to _what_ to teach, but also who had been trained +_how_ to teach. That was the beginning of a new order of teachers, +and Training Colleges for Teachers was the outcome of their +efforts. These private societies led the way in the face of much +opposition; for there were hosts of people who "didn't see why" +there should be all this fuss about the education of the masses +of the people. At last, after much difficulty, in the year 1833, +Parliament made a grant of twenty thousand pounds to these two +societies, to be used by them in the work of building schools. That +was the beginning of State Grants for Education. + +Then in various parts of the country people were stirred to build +schools, aided by grants and advice of these societies; and that +was the beginning of our modern schoolrooms. In 1839 Parliament +really took in hand the work of Education, and Inspectors of +Schools were appointed, and the Education Department set up to +look after the work of Education in the country. Much was left +for private individuals to do; but, from that time, the work has +gone forward slowly, and the State has taken a greater part in the +work. In 1870 a great step forward was taken, and again and again +since then things have moved onward; and at last, in 1918, another +Education Act was passed which aims at making the Education of the +Nation more than it has ever yet been one of the very first duties +of the State. + +The school buildings which the two societies set on foot in the +course of time have become unsuitable for the work to be done in +them, and changes have had to take place. Since 1870 a very large +number of new school buildings have been erected; but changing +times already call for many alterations to suit them for the fresh +methods of carrying on the work in the best interests of those who +have to be taught in them. So many things have to be considered now +of which we knew but very little in the days gone by, and we can +never sit down and say that the work is complete, and that no more +improvements can be made. + + [Illustration: _Richmond County School. A modern council school + under the supervision of the Board of Education_] + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI + +Apprentices + + +From many of these old-fashioned schools boys and girls were +apprenticed. Connected with old parishes there are still funds for +placing out boys and girls to trades and crafts. All through the +Middle Ages, and right on into modern times, children were set to +work when quite young, and it was a common custom to send them away +from home for this purpose. The children of the upper classes, the +boys especially, were trained in the households of other nobles and +squires. The idea was to bring them up "hardy", though to us it +seems a somewhat unnatural way of doing it. An Italian, who visited +England about the year 1500, was much struck by this English +custom, and he did not at all approve of such young children being +given over to the bringing up by strangers. Both boys and girls +from quite well-to-do homes were very often thus sent out, when +they were between seven and nine years of age, and apprenticed for +seven or nine years, not only to learn some trade or craft, but to +private houses where they were set to do menial and drudging work +of all sorts. The idea was "that they might learn better manners" +than they would do at home. In many wealthy homes it is still the +practice to send boys to boarding-school when they reach ten years +of age for the greater part of each year, away from home and home +influence, before they are sent on to a public school and, later, +to a university. + +All through the Middle Ages the only way by which a man could +become a craftsman was by being first of all an apprentice, and the +rules by which a lad was bound to a master were very strict. Things +did not alter much in this respect in the sixteenth, seventeenth, +and eighteenth centuries. An apprentice was always bound for seven +years in the presence of magistrates. The master had to find his +apprentice in food, clothing, lodging, and to instruct him in his +art, or "mystery" as it was called. The apprentice lived in his +master's house, and was bound to serve him. + + [Illustration: _Apprentice, Sixteenth Century. From a + contemporary woodcut_] + +His master could chastise him if he was idle or "saucy", and even +have him sent to the house of correction for further punishment. +Both masters and apprentices could complain of each other to +the magistrates at the Quarter Sessions, and the hearing of the +complaints often took up a lot of time. According to many of the +complaints, of which records still exist, some of the apprentices +must have had rather a hard time--"seven years, hard". Some +complained of having to eat mouldy cheese and rotten meat; others, +of their ragged clothes; others, that their masters beat them with +pokers, hammers, pint-pots, to say nothing of whips and sticks; +prevented them from going to church; and others, that their masters +turned them out of doors, or ran away and left them. The masters, +on their side, often complain that their apprentices are idle, that +they rob them, that they stop out at night and keep company with +bad characters, and so on. So it seems they did not always get on +well together. + +But then there were the others--those who made the best of it. +Where the master did his duty, and the apprentice took pains to +learn, they got on pretty well together. It was not an easy life +for the apprentice, but it made him a craftsman. + +The children of those who belonged to the poorer classes were +apprenticed to unskilled occupations in a similar way, and if the +parents neglected to do this the parish authorities interfered and +found places and masters for them. + +In some parts of the country there were little schools where +children were taught straw-plait and lace-making. Some of these +lasted right down to days which people still living can remember, +in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. + + [Illustration: _Apprentices, Eighteenth Century. Two apprentices + at the looms of their master, a silk-weaver of Spitalfields, + London. A striking contrast in industry and idleness. After an + engraving by Hogarth published in 1787_] + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII + +Play + + +In all the many centuries of our history there have been boys and +girls; and, whatever has been going on in the world around them, +they have found time to play. In the Great War our soldiers could +not but be struck by the way in which the children in places under +bombardment took advantage of any lull in the firing to come out of +their hiding places, and go on with their games, in spite of the +ruin and desolation and danger all round them. + +Many of our English games go back so far in the history of man that +their origin is forgotten. Yet there are games which children play +now just as they did in the days of Queen Elizabeth; and those +queer rhymes, which you know so well, and understand nothing about, +have been repeated, some of them, since England began to be England. + +There is plenty to say about games, but not enough space to say it +all here. There are some games which come and go as regularly as +the seasons. The queer part of it all is: Who starts the game? As +sure as the early spring evenings arrive you will find boys playing +at marbles. Town or country, it does not matter, all at once +"marbles are _in_". Nobody says it is "marble season"; nobody ever +yet found the boy who brings out the first marble of the season. +Somehow a _something_ inside a boy tells him it is "marble" time, +and the marbles appear in his pocket. + + [Illustration: _The Game of Bob-apple, Fourteenth Century._ + _From an illustration in a manuscript in the British Museum_] + +It is just the same with "tops"; they come and they go with +absolute regularity. They come as if by magic, and by magic they +disappear. When the errand-boy, who has left school a month or two, +stops, basket on arm, to watch the game, you may be sure that it +is the height of the season. When the ground is occupied by the +little chaps who have just come up from the infant school, and +the errand-boy passes whistling by on the other side, it is quite +certain that the season is over and gone. + +These are games that want no clubs, associations, nor +subscriptions. Yet they are governed by time-honoured rules, which +have never been written down, but must be strictly observed, or +there is much talking and wrangling over the game. + +Sports have an important place in the life of towns and villages +nowadays; but, though cricket and football are old games really, +they have not always been as popular as they are now. Cricket, in +some form or other, was played in the thirteenth century when it +was played with a crooked or clubbed stick called a "cryc". Indeed +all games where a ball is used are more or less ancient. It seems +to have been played at Guildford as early as 1598, but modern +cricket only dates from the middle of the eighteenth century. Kent +seems to have led the way, and Hampshire was the home of the game +in 1774. + + [Illustration: CRICKET, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY + + After a painting made in 1745 by Francis Hayman, R.A.] + +Tennis, or "fives" was a favourite game for many centuries, and +it was quite a common thing in some places for it to be played +against the church tower, which was a very convenient place for +the game. Complaints were frequently made of the damage done to +and around the churches by the playing of unlawful and disordered +games of many kinds. At times attempts were made to put down the +playing of tennis. But by the time of Queen Elizabeth it had come +into favour, and the privilege of keeping tennis-courts was eagerly +sought for, and the game became very popular indeed later on; but +it went out of fashion again towards the end of the eighteenth +century, only to be revived again in our own times. + + [Illustration: _Boys' Sports. From a woodcut published in 1659_ + + _1, Bowling stones. 2, Throwing a bowl at nine pins, 3. 4, + Striking a ball through a ring, 5, with a bandy. 6, Scourging a + top with a whip, 7. 8, Shooting with a "trunck" or a bow, 9. 10, + Going on stilts. 11, Tossing and swinging on a "merry-totten"._] + +It is only within the last forty years that football has become +popular. Football of some kind has been played for many centuries, +especially in the streets of towns. Kingston, Chester, and Dorking, +amongst other places, have a custom of playing football on Shrove +Tuesday. The story as to how the custom arose is the same in most +of these places. + +Far back in the ninth century a party of Danes ravaged the district +and attacked the town. The townsmen made a brave stand against them +till help came. Then the Danes were defeated, their leader slain, +his head struck off, and kicked about the streets in triumph. That +is said to have given rise to the custom; but it was a very ghastly +football. + + [Illustration: _Diagrams of Layouts for a Boy's Game_] + +Football was not always regarded with favour. Folk often wanted to +play football when their lords and masters wanted them to practise +shooting with their bows and arrows; but they were frequently +told what a dangerous game it was, and over and over again it was +forbidden. Football was always apparently a game over which the +players fell out, much as they do now. Nearly four hundred years +ago a worthy gentleman wrote of the game:-- + +"It is nothyng but beastely fury and extreme violence, whereby +procedeth hurte, and consequently rancour and malice do remayne +with thym that be wounded". + +There are some places where the schoolboys of long, long ago +have left their marks. In the cloisters at Westminster Abbey, at +Canterbury, at Norwich, at Salisbury and at Gloucester Cathedral, +for instance, are some roughly cut marks in the old benches, +forming the "tables" or "boards" on which they played some almost +forgotten games with stones. + +Then, too, there is "hop-scotch" which at some seasons of the year +makes the sidewalks of many bye-streets so untidy with its rudely +chalked courts; rounders and "tip-cat"; battledore and shuttlecock, +to say nothing of skipping and many another game--all old, old +games, which are ever new, and never out of date. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII + +Roads + + +All roads lead to London and have done so for many a century, and +so we find, as we should expect to do, that roads from all parts of +the country converge towards it like the spokes of a wheel to its +centre. The same sort of thing is seen in all towns of any size. +Cross roads connect these main roads, and the nearer we are to the +town the greater is the number of these, and they are often as busy +and as important as the old main roads. But as we get away from the +towns into the more rural districts, the lesser roads which connect +the villages and hamlets with each other become fewer, more winding +and straggling. There are also green lanes and field paths, and it +is by following these, rather than the high roads, that the real +beauties of the country can be seen. A person dashing along the +main road in a motor-car, on a motor-cycle or a bicycle misses much +which a man on foot, who is not in a tremendous hurry, is able to +see and enjoy. + +Not very long after the Romans left Britain, and the raids of +Saxon tribes began to be felt, the roads, which during the Roman +times had been kept in good repair, were neglected. Some of them +gradually dropped out of use, and in the course of time grass, +brushwood, and trees grew close up to the track and in places +covered it, and it became in time a "lost" road. The roads which +remained in use, through neglect grew worse and worse, and all +through the Middle Ages very little was done to mend them. +Travellers for the most part journeyed on horseback, and trains +of mules and packhorses transported goods. Later on heavy wagons, +drawn by teams of eight, ten, or a dozen horses were used, and +frequently extra teams had to be hitched on at places where they +got into difficulties and came to grief owing to the badness of +the road. Often these long trains of wagons had to be "convoyed" +by bands of armed men on horseback. To repair "foul and noyous +highways" was regarded as a work of mercy, and we often find +good people in the Middle Ages leaving money in their wills to +be bestowed on the repair of a part of a highway. The religious +houses in many cases were expected to keep up good roads in their +own neighbourhood. There was once a hermit, who lived at Highgate, +near London. He, at his own cost, had gravel dug from the top of +Highgate Hill, and with it made a causeway down in the "hollow +way" between Highgate and Islington. In the fourteenth century +the Bishop of London made a way through his park at Highgate Hill +across Finchley Common to Whetstone, near Barnet, because the +highway was in such a dreadful condition. Those who used this road +had to pay a toll. + + [Illustration: _Cart, Fourteenth Century_ + + _From an illuminated manuscript in the Bodleian Library, Oxford_] + +After the dissolution of the monasteries the various parishes were +expected to look after the parts of the great roads which ran +through them, the landlords and tenants being required, according +to the size of their holdings, to furnish men and horses, wagons +and barrows, to work on the highways for so many days in each year. +But for some centuries the work was done in a very shiftless, +casual manner. The people in the parishes grumbled and did as +little as they could, for, as they said, it was not they who +wore out the roads, but the travellers from a distance who came +backwards and forwards with all their heavy loads. + +Traffic increased as the time went on, and it became necessary to +provide for the wants of the many travellers along the roads. The +old villages in very many cases stood away from the highways, and +so we find new hamlets springing up on the main roads, and some of +the new towns, like Uxbridge, Brentford, and Edgware in Middlesex, +and Buntingford in Hertfordshire, had their origin in this way. +Similar instance will be found in most other counties. + +In Queen Elizabeth's reign the roads all over the country were bad; +in some parts, owing to the nature of the soil, particularly bad. +In the south, in the Weald district, the iron workers were ordered +to mend their roads with the cinders from their furnaces, as the +stone found in that neighbourhood was too soft for the purpose. But +the roads did not greatly improve although the amount of traffic +upon them increased. + +Coaches came into use for long-distance travelling in the reign of +Charles II. One began to run regularly between London and Bath in +1667--a three-days' journey if no accidents happened--and another +started running from London to Portsmouth in the following year. +About the middle of the eighteenth century every week there passed +through the Borough from London on the way south, a hundred and +forty-three stage-coaches, a hundred and twenty-one wagons, and +a hundred and ninety-six carts and caravans. That was only the +out-going traffic, there was quite as much traffic returning to the +City. + +It was about the year 1754 that a great improvement of roads began +through the passing of the Turnpike Acts. The idea was that those +people who actually used the roads should bear the cost of their +upkeep, and companies, or "trusts", were formed to look after +certain roads, have them properly made, and kept in repair. At +certain distances along the road, a few miles apart, gates were +set across the road with a little house by each, in which the +toll-gate keeper lived, whose duty it was to open and close the +gate to travellers and take the specified toll. Different kinds of +vehicles had to pay different sums as toll, and so had flocks of +sheep and droves of cattle when being moved from one part of the +country to another. People actually living in the neighbourhood had +certain rights to use the way toll free. The toll-gate keeper was +usually a "crusty" person--a sort of spider lying in wait to catch +flies--and very often when a traveller drove up to the gate in a +hurry, anxious to get through, the toll-man would be particularly +slow in opening the gates and in giving change. + + [Illustration: _A Toll-gate, early Nineteenth Century. From a + contemporary painting_] + +Most of the main roads were thus improved, but not all of them. As +late as the year 1797 the turnpike road through Uxbridge, which +carried a very large traffic, was very bad indeed. There was +only one track which could be used in winter and that was eight +inches deep in slush and mud. Still, on the whole, the roads were +improving and coaches were able to travel more quickly. + +Mail-coaches were put on the road in 1785, and they increased +in speed and in numbers as the years went on, until just before +the advent of railways. Over ninety coaches a day passed through +Whetstone Turnpike, near Barnet; and in 1821 there were coaches +which did the seventy-two miles between London and Portsmouth in +ten hours. It was the same on all the great roads, and the coaches +were only one part of the traffic. + +In the "good old coaching days", noblemen and great folk travelled +the long distances in their family coaches in great state, attended +by servants; some riding before and after on horseback, and some +hanging on behind the coach. Other wealthy people used to travel +"post", and the carriages used were called "post-chaises". These +were drawn by four or six horses, with a "post-boy" or postilion +to each pair of horses. No matter how old he might be he was +always called a post-boy. A great many old-established inns all +over the country are still called "posting-houses". At these +inns such carriages and horses to draw them, and post-boys to +drive them, could be hired. These houses were about ten miles +apart, and that distance was called a "stage"; and in posting the +horses were changed at each "house" along the road. Nowadays, by +the name posting-house we understand an inn where vehicles and +horses can be hired; but probably not one of them could turn out +a post-chaise, four horses and a couple of post-boys, at five +minutes' notice. + + [Illustration: _Coach, early Nineteenth Century_] + +The railways gradually drove the coaches and the post-chaises off +the roads, but the introduction of cycles in the last quarter of +the nineteenth century, and the motor-car at the beginning of the +twentieth century have revived the use of the highways for traffic, +and there is a great time for the old roads just ahead of us to-day. + +There were many varieties of inns, often quite close together, from +the big posting-houses down to the obscure little ale-house. These +houses accommodated various classes of traffic. Even now, if you +live near to one of the big main roads you will notice that some +wagons draw up at particular houses on the road for "refreshment +of man and beast"--the hay-carts have their own special stopping +places, and so, too, have other sorts of heavy traffic; and they +have kept to the custom of the road from one generation to another. + + [Illustration: THE NEW INN, GLOUCESTER From an engraving + published in 1830. This building is still in use.] + +The old inns are often very picturesque buildings and there are +some famous ones in every county. The curious names by which they +are known is a study in itself, and quite an interesting one. + +Many of the old inns fell on evil days as the introduction of +railways gradually absorbed most of the road traffic, and many +of them were closed or turned into private houses. In the last +quarter of the nineteenth century life on the ancient highways +began to revive through the introduction of cycling as a means +of locomotion. Cycling became very common, and, by specially +catering for cyclists a good number of these old inns came again to +prosperous times. With the dawn of the twentieth century motor-cars +came on the road, and still further brought the highways into use. +But these raised "clouds of dust" and tore up the roads, and it +became a great problem how to make the roads suitable for this new +sort of traffic, and a good deal was done which improved their +surface greatly. Then came the Great War, and a continuous stream +of heavier motor-traffic had to be put upon the roads throughout +the country to supply the huge camps at home and overseas, and the +many new towns which have sprung up in districts which, a few years +ago, were quiet, unfrequented places. There is an enormous amount +of work to be done now in re-making the present roads and tracks, +and to provide for many new ones as well. We now realize that rapid +means of transit for both people and goods will have to be provided +on a far larger scale than we have hitherto attempted, if the +resources of the country are to be properly developed. Roads, more +roads, better roads are an urgent necessity. + + + + +CHAPTER XLIX + +Roads--Railways + + +In speaking of the roads in the last chapter, we have come right +down to the present day and its needs; but we must go back a bit, +as far as time is concerned, to say something about one special +class of road which has played an important part in the making of +England. The story of the roads began before the dawn of written +history--ages and ages before. The story of the railways belongs, +as we may say, only to yesterday. + +When we speak of a railway in these days we picture to our minds +a trackway, laid with parallel steel rails, along which long +trains of carriages and trucks are drawn by a locomotive engine. +The engine, indeed, is the first thing that a boy thinks of in +connection with a railway; and no wonder, for the "iron horse" is a +marvellous and interesting piece of machinery. But in the history +of our modern railways the _trackway_, or the _rail-way_ proper, +comes first. There were railways long before there were locomotive +engines; indeed, we shall not be far out if we say that there were +railways in England a few centuries before steam-engines of any +sort came into use. + +It was up in the North, in the colliery districts by the Tyne, that +the idea of tramways, along which trains of trucks, drawn by horses +or mules, seem to have first come into use; and they can certainly +be traced there as far back as the time of King Charles I (about +the year 1630). The first railway which Parliament allowed to be +laid in the South of England was the "Surrey Iron Railway". This +connected Croydon with Wandsworth, and, later on, it was extended +to Merstham. That was about the year 1801, and was intended to +convey merchandise, not passengers. For a time it was of great +service to mills and factories on the River Wandle. That was the +first railway in that part of the country, and the trucks were +drawn by donkeys! + + [Illustration: _George Stephenson's Locomotive "The Rocket", + which at its trial trip in 1830 ran 29 miles an hour_] + +A writer of that time, who thought that he was a very wise, +far-seeing man, gave it as his opinion "that it was not probable +that railways would ever come into general use!" Well, it is never +very wise to prophesy until you really know. + +Nearly every new invention has been scoffed at at first. Even in +this present century, when the early experiments in the use of +air-craft were being made, thousands of persons gravely shook +their heads in disapproval, declaring that man was never intended +to "fly". The Great War time has seen wonderful developments in +air-craft, and so many "impossible" things have been achieved that +we can realize, just a little bit, that air-craft has "a great +future" before it, greater than we can as yet grasp. + +It would be impossible to give here even a bare outline of the +story of the English Railways, but the making of these railways and +their use and development brought about rapidly many marvellous +changes which have affected the life of the nation. + +Seventy and eighty years ago, when railways were first being made, +they excited a great deal more attention and interest than they do +to-day. Railways were so new then, for one thing, and there were +so many of them being made about the same time for another thing. +There are hundreds of miles of railway going through quiet country +districts, which were made many years ago, and there are thousands +of people living in those districts who have been born since the +railways were made. To them the railway is as much an everyday +thing as the old parish church, the town pump, or the river. So far +as _they_ are concerned, the line has been always there--they never +saw the country-side before the railway came. But in the years--say +between 1830 and 1860--the work was watched with much interest, and +it excited much talk, both wise and foolish. + +What did the people who lived in a country village see? Long before +the navvies came, for years in fact, the coming railway was talked +about. The surveyor, with his attendants, carrying theodolite and +measuring-chain, as he went about his work "taking levels", was +very narrowly watched, and his sayings and doings were noted and +discussed, time after time. In fact, not unfrequently the surveyor +and his men had some very lively experiences, for there were lots +of places in which they were regarded with suspicion, and all sorts +of tricks were played upon them. Stephenson, when out surveying, +was threatened with more than one ducking in a horse-pond; guns +were fired at him, and he had to get through his work at all +sorts of odd times. There was one surveyor who took a professional +prize-fighter with him as his assistant, and he found work for +him to do besides merely helping him in land-surveying. Bulls +were sometimes turned loose in the fields in which surveyors were +busy, and they had to leave in a hurry. Surveyors were quite used +to meeting with all sorts of abuse, and being faced by angry men, +armed with brickbats and pitchforks. + +Then, when the road was staked out, and carts and men began to +arrive, and a whole town of huts for the workers on the railway +was set up on the broad hill-side, where the villagers and their +fathers before them, time out of mind, had ploughed, and sowed, and +harrowed, and reaped, and gleaned--tongues would wag still more, +and curiosity would be intensified. When the huts were finished the +navvies arrived. Strange folk they were to the villagers, speaking +a language of their own, and living by themselves--strong, powerful +men, doing great deeds of strength, capable of working hard, and +very often of drinking hard, and of fighting hard. The quiet little +inns and ale-houses became noisy and busy. The navvies brought +change and excitement with them; and also, at times, mischief, +strife, confusion, and drunkenness. For miles round the farmers +would complain that they could get no labour for farm-work. Young +men, attracted by the novelty, the higher wages, and the greater +numbers, turned navvies, "learned their works" and left the old +agricultural life of their forefathers for ever. Then, when the +navvies set to work, the villagers saw them busy, like ants upon +the hill-side, cutting a great cleft through it, many feet in +depth. As they came along, yard by yard, they saw a rough tramway +laid, along which long trains of trucks, drawn by a noisy, fussy +little engine, were being drawn, some full of earth and gravel or +stone which had been cut away. + + [Illustration: _Building a Railway in the early Nineteenth + Century_] + +Then, after many months' work, the men advanced out on to the open +plain. For weeks and months trains of trucks were constantly coming +laden with earth, which was tipped on to the lower ground, forming +an embankment, which gradually came nearer and nearer the river +bank. Down by the river bank, on the far side, and on the near side +as well, were men digging for weeks at a time. Then, these made +way for an army of brick layers and masons, and loads and loads of +brick and stone were brought along the line, or dragged by horses +through the old country lanes to the waterside. There, on each +side of the stream, what looked like big towers were erected, as +tall as the church tower, or taller perhaps, and still the earth +day by day was being brought along the way and tipped, adding to +the embankment yard by yard. Such earth, too; clay, perhaps, or +earth of such kind as the oldest man in the parish had never seen +in those parts before, because it had been brought from a place or +places many miles away. + +Then, when the brickwork on each side of the river was in position, +there was the building of a bridge to watch. There were several +huge arches of brick, or perhaps of stone, brought from far-off +quarries. But what were those queer, lattice-work things, looking +something like spiders' webs, which were brought down to the +waterside? There was nothing like that ever seen in the village +before. What did it mean? They saw these great iron lattice-work +sections hoisted in the air by steam cranes and swung slowly up +and round till they were placed in position, resting on the piers +of masonry. It must have been a wonderful sight to watch the river +being spanned by a huge bridge or by these girders, and to see the +different sections being fitted and fastened together. + +You may be sure that there was much shaking of heads and many +prophecies that this sort of thing was a flying in the face of +Providence--just as in our own time there has been over cycles, +motor-cars, and air-craft. How could those great trains and heavy +engines pass safely over such a flimsy-looking bridge as that? +It would be sure to snap in the middle. And when an accident +happened--and sad accidents did happen--many declared that it was +the Almighty's judgment upon men for thinking that they knew better +than their fathers before them. + + [Illustration: _Sankey Valley Viaduct, constructed by George + Stephenson on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (1826-9). + After a contemporary painting. By permission of the London and + North-Western Railway Company_] + +So the work went on, and in time the railway became an accomplished +fact and was no longer a wonder, and a race grew up to whom +railways became part and parcel of everyday life. + +But the railways brought many other changes. Those loads of earth +brought from distant parts of the line not only altered the +appearance of the country where they were deposited, but caused +other alterations as well. Grass soon grew on the slopes of +these embankments, but with the grass came up also strange weeds +and plants. These seeded, the wind scattered the seeds, and, in +the fields on either side of the line, these new weeds showed +themselves the next season. For a year or two, probably, nobody +noticed this very particularly; but, before very long, whole +districts might be overrun with varieties of weeds never seen in +that district before. + +In some places marshes had to be drained, and, in consequence, many +broad, shallow stretches of water disappeared. Such "sedgy pools" +in quiet districts were once the haunt of many varieties of wild +fowl. As the pools have disappeared the wild fowl which made these +their haunt disappeared also, and with them the wild flowers and +water-plants belonging thereto have died out as well. In much the +same way insects have been imported in the loads of earth and found +a home in a new district where they have, so to speak, "settled", +and have done in some cases good, and in other cases harm, to the +land. + +Many cuttings through the beds of gravel and rocks have taught us +something of the changes which have taken place in the earth's +crust. It has been possible to examine the structure of the soil of +many parts of England more thoroughly in the deep railway cuttings +and tunnels than could have been done in any other way. Geologists +have gathered much most valuable information from the soil and rock +dug out in railway excavations. + + [Illustration: _The Town Hall, Carlisle, built in time of + Elizabeth. From a drawing made in 1780_] + + + + +CHAPTER L + +Government + + +There was not much change for many centuries in the way in which +towns and villages were governed. + +The borough towns, which gained their charters back in the days of +King John, or King Henry III, had them confirmed by various kings +in later times; but the powers of the towns were not much altered. +The corporation of a borough was usually made up of men chosen by +the freemen; but, if the freemen did not admit many persons to the +freedom of the borough, the power of electing, in the course of +years, fell into the hands of a very few people. + +This was what actually happened in a very large number of cases, +and at the end of the eighteenth century there were many old +boroughs which were governed by "close corporations"--the bulk of +the people living in the borough having no voice in the management +of the affairs of the town. All that was altered in the early part +of the nineteenth century. Many of the old boroughs lost their +privileges, as they had become such small unimportant places. All +other boroughs now have regular elections of town councillors by +the inhabitants each first of November. The councils elect the +mayor on each 9th of November. + +The mayor, and some of the inhabitants of the borough, are also +magistrates and attend to police cases; while the town council +looks after matters connected with sewers, lighting, paving, and +cleansing the streets of the town. It has now also charge of +educational affairs in many of the big towns, a committee of each +county council being the educational authority in all other parts +of the country. + +In London and large towns, where there is much police court +business, there are special magistrates, trained lawyers, who +attend to nothing else. + +In country places, for centuries, the manor court governed the +manor; but gradually, and by Tudor times, most of the power of the +manor court, or court leet as it was sometimes called, had passed +into the hands of the Vestry. This consisted of the parish officers +and rate-payers in the whole parish. It was called the vestry +because its meeting-place was the vestry of the parish church, or +even the church itself. + + [Illustration: _Police Officer and Jailer, early Nineteenth + Century. A scene from "Oliver Twist" (Charles Dickens)_] + +The relief of the poor and the care of the highways provided the +vestry with most of its business. The churchwardens had special +care of the property of the church, but in Tudor times they were +also charged with the relief of the poor. To help them in this +work two overseers, at least, in each parish, were chosen every +year. All the rate-payers were liable to serve in turn if elected, +unless they could show a good reason for not serving. The elections +took place about Lady Day. The vestry fixed what rates were to be +made, and the overseers collected them. But the overseers had to be +admitted to their office, and all rates allowed, by two justices of +the peace, before they were legal. + +It became necessary, as the poor law business increased, to have +constables to help the overseers in keeping an eye on strangers, +vagrants and beggars who came into the parish. These, too, had to +serve for one year. In big parishes they were assisted by a beadle, +and had, with the help of all the inhabitants in turn, to keep +watch and ward at night. Very unpleasant work they had to do in +towns and places just outside towns. In London, and in many other +towns also, to help the "watch" there were special officers called +"watchmen", whose duty it was to parade the streets at night at +regular intervals, and "call the hour"--"Past two o'clock, and a +frosty morning". One of their duties was to arrest any disorderly +characters whom they might come across on their rounds. But as +each watchman carried a lighted lantern that, together with the +noise he made, gave ample warning to that sort of people, who could +usually, without much difficulty, get out of the watchman's way. +When he did come upon the track of any of these gentry he would +"sound his rattle" as a signal for the "watch" to come to his +assistance, and, if they could, arrest the offenders. This duty of +watching and warding had to be carried out until towards the middle +of the nineteenth century, when our present system of police was +established. Beadles and constables had to see to the whippings, +which were so common, and to setting people in the stocks and the +cage; to moving sick and diseased wretches on to the next parish, +and other unpleasant duties. + +The surveyors of the highways had to see that each person who was +liable did his share of the work of the highways, or paid for +having it done. But by far the most important business was that of +the churchwardens and overseers. They had to settle in what houses +the poor folk were to live, who were to look after them, what +allowance was to be made for them. The poor usually had their money +paid to them at church, monthly. Then the overseers had to see that +every able-bodied man was at work, often having to provide the +work, to place out apprentices, and to supply flax or wool for the +women and children to spin. Sometimes the poor were boarded out; +some of them lived in cottages, or in the poors' house which the +parish built. Then, too, these officers had to relieve beggars, and +persons passing through the parish. + +This work of providing for the poor was very difficult and very +anxious, especially at the end of the eighteenth and in the early +part of the nineteenth century. It was quite a common practice for +big parishes to "farm out" the care of the poor to the highest +bidder. That is, a man would contract with the parish authorities +to look after the relief of the poor in that parish for a certain +sum of money per annum, for so many years. + +Then poor law unions were formed, and union workhouses built, in +which the helpless poor might be better cared for, and vagrants and +wanderers find a night's lodging. These were looked after by Boards +of Guardians, especially elected for that purpose. We have not a +perfect plan yet, by any means, but much care and thought is being +given to this question, and many changes, which we hope will be +improvements in the administration of the Poor Law, are being taken +in hand. The difficulties of how to deal with the poor who, through +no fault of their own, cannot help themselves, and how to deal with +those who are lazy and will not work, are very great. + +The work of the old vestries has now passed to the parish councils, +the district councils, and the county councils. The work is +important, and has much to do with the welfare of our towns and +villages. We must not expect that these bodies can do everything at +once, or that they will make no mistakes. More people now than ever +have a direct voice in the work of these various councils, and it +is the duty of everyone to take a real interest in their work, and +to strive to improve it in every possible way. If we know something +of the past history of our towns and villages it will help us to +form a right judgment concerning difficulties which have to be met +in the present, and so to act that those who come after us may be +able to go on building upon our work, that there may be nothing +to undo, nothing to blame, but that future years may say of our +times:-- + +"They knew how to work, and they worked on right principles." "Do +justly, love mercy, walk humbly." + + + + +CHAPTER LI + +Some Changes + + +There was not much alteration in the outward appearance of the +villages and the "look" of the country round them for many +centuries. Indeed even now many of the villages themselves are not +greatly altered in their general arrangement. Down to the times of +the Tudor kings the old land and manor customs had gone on since +Saxon days, changing but very slowly. Many of the class which had +been villeins in the Middle Ages had become yeomen; some had got +lands of their own, and some land on the old manors, which they +rented. But they did not alter very much the old way of treating +the land, and it was only gradually that farm-houses sprang up away +from the villages. + +In some parts of the country these lonely farm-houses are more +common than in others. There are, for instance, a good many in the +Weald of Sussex which sprang up first as huts in forest clearings, +and afterwards became houses with farm-buildings attached to them. + +On the borders of great lonely heaths and commons we can often see +very old and very small cottages, with walls of clay, or wood, +or stone, according to the district in which they happen to be. +Long ago some squatter built his little hut here, and out of pity, +perhaps, or through carelessness, the lord of the manor took no +notice. There he remained, year after year, until custom allowed +him to look upon it as his own; and in time it actually became +his private property. Such squatters in lonely places were often +looked upon more or less with fear by the timid folk living in the +distant village. They did not care to do or say anything to upset +the stranger, fearing for the safety of their sheep, cattle, and +poultry. Many little holdings and small farms began in this way. + +Many of the farms, though they were separate holdings, still had +strips in the big fields of the parish. The crops were sown and +gathered according to the ancient customs, and the cattle turned +into them and out on the waste lands at certain seasons, just as +they had been in the Middle Ages. + +But about the beginning of the eighteenth century there was a +pretty general movement towards breaking up these big fields +into separate parts, and letting each farmer have his portion to +himself, so that he might know exactly what land was his and what +belonged to his neighbour. So it came to pass that Enclosure Acts +were passed for parish after parish. The old common arable fields +were divided among those who had rights in them. Then many of the +old wastes, heaths, commons, and marshes were treated in the same +way. + +That caused a great change in the appearance of the parish. Instead +of the fields in long, straight strips, with unploughed balks +between them, the strips belonging to each farmer were thrown into +one, and hedgerows planted. In time they became smooth fields, +separated from each other by hedges, in which grew here and there +timber trees. The old cart-tracks, winding across and round the +common fields, in time became lanes bounded by high hedges. The +trackways across many of the old wastes and commons in a similar +way were turned into lanes, and the waste broken up into fields. +Still, a good deal of the waste land was left, and has never yet +been enclosed. So far as we can see now, this is not likely to +happen, because we feel more and more every year that, for the +sake of the health and recreation of the people, it is absolutely +necessary to preserve as many open spaces as possible. Some of +these wastes and uncultivated, or only partially cultivated, +lands have been brought under the spade and the plough during the +war-time, and all over the country people have heartily set to work +to increase our "homegrown" food supply. + + [Illustration: _Hayes Barton Farm, Devonshire, the reputed + birthplace of Sir Walter Raleigh (1552). It is in the picturesque + Elizabethan style, with thatched and gabled roof, mullioned + windows, and gabled porch_] + +The fields, the hedgerows, and the lanes which delight us so much +in the country are, most of them, some two hundred years old. + +When the farm had its own separate fields allotted to it, it became +convenient for the farmer to live in the midst of his land. So +we find the farm-house and its buildings, with a few labourers' +cottages, a long way out of the village, and away from the church. +If you take notice you will find that from this outlying farm-house +there is usually a pretty straight field-path to the parish church. + +A good deal could be said about our forests and woodlands--their +importance, and the part they have played in the making of England. +In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries especially, there was +great attention paid to the cultivation of trees, and many of the +owners of private park-lands did excellent work in promoting the +growth of timber. But in the nineteenth century there seems to have +been a considerable falling-off in this respect, and far-seeing men +at times warned us that we needed to pay more attention to trees +and forests and to the growth of timber. The terrible blizzard +which swept over the country in March, 1916, brought down thousands +and thousands of fine old trees, and the needs of our army and navy +during the war-time has made sad havoc in parks and plantations, +so that one of the urgent needs of the days in front of us is +systematic attention to "afforestation", in order to "make good" +the terrible wastage. + +Hamlets have grown up away from the old village green, its church, +and its manor-house. The roads were often so bad that horses +frequently cast their shoes, tires came off wheels, and wheels came +off carts and coaches; so under many "a spreading chestnut-tree" a +little smithy and wheel-wright's shop arose. A smithy is always a +centre of life and news, as everybody knows. You can see to-day, +along many of our roads, sheds and shops being opened, where +broken-down cycles and motor-cars can be repaired and supplied with +odds and ends which they may happen to need. Round these hamlets +have in time sprung up, and in scores of places the hamlet has +become of more importance than the old village, and has grown into +a little town, with new churches and chapels and public buildings. + +In these war-years large numbers of quite new townships of enormous +size have sprung up in connection with the making of munitions, +and the provision of hospitals and camps, and as yet we know very +little about them as a whole. Some are only temporary, but others +have "come to stay", and in them new industries on a big scale will +probably be developed. All this means change--change of appearance, +change of ideas, change of methods. + +Then there are the districts where new industries and manufactures +have been planted. That is too large a subject to deal with here, +but think of the great changes these have wrought on the face of +the country in the coal and mineral districts of England in the +last two hundred years! + +Again, there are the railways. Notice how little townships have +grown up round the railway stations, especially on the main lines +in districts near a big town. Houses spring up for the hosts of +people who, like streams of human ants, hurry to the station to +catch the early morning trains, and, as the afternoon wears into +evening, come again from the station to snatch a few hours' rest at +home. + +We have said nothing of + + "The beauty and mystery of ships, + And the magic of the sea", + +and the part they have had in the making of our towns and villages. +This subject would require not only one but many books, and then +we shall only just have begun to think about it, and to find out +how little we know. Our wonderful Navy, our Merchant Sailors, our +Fishermen--what do we _not_ owe to them for what they have done for +us in the terribly anxious times through which we have passed and +are still passing! It is good, in spite of all the awful suffering, +to have lived through these years, and to have seen something of +what can be done by sacrifice of self, co-operation, and just +"sticking to duty"--on land, on sea, under the sea, and in the +air, in busy towns, and in quiet country places. + +Yes, the life of our towns and villages is a very interesting +subject. Nature and Man each works for and with the other; both +are full of mystery, life, beauty, and high inspiration, if we +could only use our eyes to see, our intelligence to understand, our +hearts to sympathize, and our hands to work, for the things that +are true, and lovely, and pure. + + [Illustration: _Modern Industry_] + +Transcriber's note: + There are four illustrations that were marked as [Illustration}. + They have each been given a caption. + + Page 72 [Illustration] is now [Illustration: _Diagram of the Shape + of a Villein's House_] + Page 142 [Illustration] is now [Illustration: _Diagram of a Large + House_] + Page 174 [Illustration] is now [Illustration: _Diagrams of Layouts + for a Boy's Game_] + Page 200 [Illustration] is now [Illustration: _Modern Industry_]. + + A paragraph break has been inserted on Page 143 after + [Illustration: _Diagram of a Large House_]. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Social Life in England Through the +Centuries, by H. R. Wilton Hall + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44894 *** |