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diff --git a/44894-8.txt b/44894-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 498fd7c..0000000 --- a/44894-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6755 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Social Life in England Through the Centuries, by -H. R. Wilton Hall - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: Social Life in England Through the Centuries - -Author: H. R. Wilton Hall - -Release Date: February 13, 2014 [EBook #44894] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND *** - - - - -Produced by Chris Curnow, Mary Akers and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - -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. 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