THE MEDIEVAL COUNTRYSIDE 25

like his wife's brother, had become priests, and were now im-
portant people; some, like his own brother, had lost their grip on
life, and had become a byword in the village. But there it was,
and each must abide his fate. As Sir William had often told
them, they were in the hand of God, and He and His holy angels
would protect them all their days. Then, as he rose to go, the
sound of the midday bell rang out clear over the fields. He
crossed himself, and after repeating an Ave, went quickly to his
own home.

Such, in my imagination, might have been a week in the life of
one of these peasants who will occupy our attention throughout
this book. It is imaginary, and a$ such may be sternly set on one
side by some. Nevertheless, there is little in it, I believe, that
cannot be supported by documentary evidence, and even that
little is sufficiently close to the documents to have a confident
chance of satisfying the majority of readers if they had time to
consider all the details which have gone to its making. It is true
that it represents but a few days in the life of one man, and that
at a particularly favourable moment of the year, and in a parish
blessed with a priest as worthy as was Chaucer's parson. The
remainder of this book will show clearly enough the difficult
existence which was all that most peasants could hope for.
Many such sketches would be necessary before any very clear
and valuable picture of the medieval scene could be obtained.
Yet a knowledge that medieval life was complex and infinitely
various must not dismay us, and prevent our attempting some
such synthesis. While medieval life had so many points at which
it was at variance with our own, so much of it was very like. The
life of the fields, in many particulars, has preserved its main
characteristics from earliest times. The rhythm of the seasons
carries with it all those whose lot it is to till the earth; and, despite
the unfamiliar conditions in which they lived, the people seem
as recognisable as does that countryside so vividly drawn for us
by the unknown author of Mum and the Sothsegger^ a poem of
* Edited for the E.E.T.S. by M. Day and R. Steele, 1936-