A SHORT HISTORY OF
ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

PLAN SHOWING ARRANGEMENT OF THE LAND

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A SHORT HISTORY OF
ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

FROM THE ANGLO-SAXON INVA-
SION TO THE PRESENT TIME

BY

MONTAGUE FORDHAM, M.A.

TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

WITH A PREFACE BY

CHARLES BATHURST, M.A., M.P.

AND A PLAN

V

LONDON : GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD.
RUSKIN HOUSE 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C.
NEW YORK : CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

First published in fgi6

(All rights reserved]

PREFACE

To those — and they are now many — who are earnestly
seeking for a true solution of our many agricultural
problems, industrial, social and political, the study of
the conditions prevailing in rural England from the
earliest historical times and of the vicissitudes, both
of our greatest national industry and of the classes
engaged in it, is an indispensable equipment. By-
such investigation alone can the difficulties of these
problems be appreciated, blunders in rural policy be
avoided, and antagonistic interests be reconciled. It
will be rendered easy and attractive by a careful
perusal of this little book, which skilfully summarizes
the chief features of English village life and English
agricultural history from Anglo-Saxon times down to
the XXth century. And a chequered and kaleidoscopic
history it is, replete with picturesque incident, remark-
able in the vicissitudes of fortune of both rural industry
and rural population, and, as regards the peasant and
(more recently) the agricultural labourer, infinitely
pathetic and at times tragic. Round this pathetic figure

vi PREFACE

Mr. Montague Fordham sympathetically weaves his
historical narrative. He pictures for us first the
ancient self-governing village communities with their
carefully partitioned open arable fields, their moots,
their reeves and their haywards ; then the feudal
conditions of Norman times, based upon military
organization, with their manors, demesnes, incidents of
tenure and communal rights ; the restlessness and
misery of the XlVth century, with its Black Death
and Peasant Revolt ; the growing commercialism of the
XVth and succeeding centuries, with its concomitant
transition from customary tenants and bondsmen to
tenant farmers and labourers : the continuous policy
and process of enclosures, so fruitful in the economic
development of England's agriculture, so fateful to
the social development of England's peasantry ; the
growth of Puritanism in the XVIIth century and
with it the disappearance of seasonal merrymaking
and gaiety from the villages, and their replacement
by religious rivalry and discord ; the spread of sheep
farming for cloth manufacture in the XVth and XVIth
centuries, and that of more enlightened and economic
methods of arable cultivation in the XVIIth and
XVIIIth, the latter associated with the honoured
names of Jethro lull, " Turnip Townshend," Bakewell,
Colling, Arthur Young and " Coke of Norfolk," when
England was self-contained in the matter of her food

PREFACE vii

supply and was pre-eminent among the nations of the
world in her agricultural processes and prosperity :
the disappearance of village industries, the waning
of the leadership of the Church, and the rise of
the country squire and the capitalist farmer in
the XVIIIth and XlXth centuries: the periodical
recrudescence during the last hundred years of
emancipatory labour movements, headed by such
sturdy countrymen as William Cobbett, Robert Owen
and Joseph Arch : the improvements in agricultural
machinery and rural science in the middle of the last
century : and finally the catastrophe of the great
agricultural depression which commenced in its late
seventies, which ruined landlords, farmers and labourers
alike and depleted the countryside both of men and
money.

The writer lightly and hopefully touches upon the
rural Renaissance of the XXth century, now rudely
interrupted by the great European War. He rejoices,
as all who really love their country must rejoice, at
the improved amenities of village life, at the increasing
facilities for a more rational system of education, and
particularly at the spread of the Co-operative move-
ment, invading, as it rightly does, every branch of
agricultural activity, and not merely affording to
the small-holder and allotment-holder the commercial
advantages enjoyed by the larger farmer, but also

viii PREFACE

welding together every class of the rural population
in a common effort to promote the industrial welfare
of the locality and to carry to the homes of the
humblest of its workers a due proportion of the
prosperity and happiness which such solidarity is
bound to engender.

The old Squires of England were not always wise
and were sometimes despotic, but they were, as a
class, imbued with a traditional sense of honour,
integrity, patriotism and sympathetic knowledge of
their poorer neighbours which are not so markedly
characteristic of the more progressive plutocracy which
has largely replaced them.

The war will in its results afford unparalleled
opportunities of awakening to new vigour the life
of our villages and the development of a healthy,
happy and largely increased rural community. The
spirit of comradeship, self-denial, dogged courage and
simple piety is abroad in the land, and is growing
with every month of the present struggle for our
national existence. It must be the aim of well
informed rural reformers to turn this spirit to good
account, and seek not by restriction, still less by
penal legislation, but by mutual goodwill and
sympathy to combine the freedom of life, social
intercourse, innocent gaiety and simple religious faith
of mediaeval rural England with an economic im-

PREFACE ix

provement such as that which marked the XVIIIth
century, but one of which all classes alike will feel
the benefit and by means of which the enterprising
manhood of our villages will not decay while a surfeit
of wealth accumulates in the hands of the few, but
will find a ladder easy of ascent by which they may
climb to a position of industrial independence and
social advancement.

The inspiring "call of the land" will thus be heard
and responded to by many of the most robust, physi-
cally and morally, of our fellow-countrymen and the
stability of the nation enhanced thereby.

CHARLES BATHURST.
LYDNEY PARK,
February 1916.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

THE material on which this short history is based
was first brought together for a series of lectures given
to a group of villagers, who devoted many evenings
in the winter of 1913-14 to the study of the his-
tory of country life. Any special quality that the
book has attained is largely due to the discussions
which took place on those winter evenings, in which
men and women of all ranks of life and points of
view took part. The lectures were a countryman's
lectures, prepared for country people: but in the book
I have considered also the needs of the student, to
whom I believe my work will be found of use.

The history of English country life contains within
itself the story of a number of little communities, each
one differing from the others in the details of social,
political and economic life. It is this wonderful variety
that gives to the study of rural life its charm and
interest. It is this same variety that creates difficulties
for the historian. In this short history these difficulties
are avoided to some extent by following only the main
stream of events, thus securing a relatively simple story.
There is another point of equal importance to be
borne in mind. Rural history contains within itself
the separate stories of two sections of society : the

xii AUTHOR'S PREFACE

people with the control of power, and those who are
controlled. A struggle between these two sections
arose in very early times, and has never entirely died
out. Sometimes, indeed, it burst forth into a storm,
as for example when the peasants revolted against
the upper classes in the XlVth century, and again
when in the XlXth century poverty-stricken agri-
cultural labourers combined into Trade Unions, and
organized strikes for higher wages and better con-
ditions.

I prepared the material with the greatest care, and
have written in, I hope, a judicial spirit ; but the his-
tory of the English countryside is a thorny subject,
and I can hardly expect to escape criticism and
perhaps correction. I welcome both.

I have only to make it quite clear that the book
is not based on special original research, but on the
writings of Prothero, Vinogradoff, Oman, Jusserand,
Hasbach, Slater, Tawney, Sidney and Beatrice Webb,
Cunningham and other recognized authorities.

Mr. Widlake of Bristol voluntarily prepared the
large manorial plan from which the frontispiece of
this book is reproduced : for the help I received from
him and other members of my classes I desire to
express my gratitude.

MONTAGUE FORDHAM.
RED CROSS BASE,

BOULOGNE-SUR-MER,
February 1916.

CONTENTS

PAGE

PREFACE BY CHARLES BATHURST . . . .V

AUTHOR'S PREFACE . . xi

PART I
MEDIAEVAL RURAL LIFE

CHAPTER I

THE ANGLO-SAXON VILLAGE COMMUNITY . . .1

The Celts under Rome — The Anglo-Saxon invasion — The
creating of a village community — The part taken by the
governing class — The structure of rural life — The village
community — Local government. The moots — The tuns and
the estates — The development of rural life

CHAPTER II

THE DEGRADING OF THE PEOPLE . . -17

The gradual depression of the people — Causes of degradation
in Anglo-Saxon times — Conditions in Edward the Confessor's
reign — The invasion of the Normans and its effect — Domesday
Book

CHAPTER III

THE MANOR AND THE VILLAGE . . . . 30

General character of the manors — The buildings — The land —
The people and their social organization — Local government —
Some general characteristics of the estate — Land tenure and
the law — Manorial records — Serfdom and the restrictions
which accompanied it

xiv CONTENTS

CHAPTER IV

PAGE

THE GROWTH OF FREEDOM . . . -49

The great national events: (i) wars, (2) plagues, and (3)
agitations — Changes in manorial life — The Black Death and the
land and labour difficulties — The thirty years' struggle — The
Peasant Revolt — Results of the revolt — Mediaeval village life

PART II
THE RECONSTRUCTION OF RURAL LIFE

CHAPTER V
CIVILIZATION AND ITS EFFECT ON RURAL LIFE . . 66

The intrusion of commerce — Personal freedom — Tenants by
custom replaced by leaseholders — Landless labourers — En-
closures, and the 'new agriculture' — The Church — Local and
central government — New people and new features

CHAPTER VI

FROM THE PEASANT REVOLT TO THE DAYS OF THE

STUARTS . . . . . -?2

Changes that followed the revolt — Prosperity and disorder in
the XVth century — Enclosures — Convertible farming — Growth
of wool trade and agriculture — Prosperity and the social life —
New interests and sheep farming — Parliament and sheep
farming — The peasants' action — Suppression of monasteries —
The raising of the standard of life — Government — Roads —
The Church, the gilds and poverty

CHAPTER VII
COUNTRY LIFE IN THE TIME OF THE STUARTS . . 95

Continuation of gradual change — The Civil War — Puritanism
and social life — Enclosures — Sport and game — Poverty and
'settlements' — Travellers and the roads — The Church and
Nonconformity — General character of the changes

CONTENTS xv

CHAPTER VIII

- PAGE

»THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION OF THE XVIIITH CENTURY . Io8

The control of power and the squirearchy— Corn laws — The
new agriculture and its leaders — Business and social intercourse
and sport — The roads — Enclosure — The labourers and poverty
— General conclusions

PART III
RECONSTRUCTED RURAL ENGLAND

CHAPTER IX
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY . . . • '33

Agriculture and industry — The establishment of the new
system — Class relationships — Agricultural conditions in outline
— Agriculture at the beginning of the century — The artisans,
small-holders, etc. — The labourers and William Cobbett —
Progress in the early Victorian period — The poor — The labourers
— Central and local government — The Church and Dissent —
Roads and railways — Sport — Conclusion

CHAPTER X

THE FINAL PHASE . . . . • J57

The agricultural disaster — Remedies suggested and adopted —
The labourers and their trade unions — Central and local govern-
ment— Social changes

APPENDIX
PART I

a. THE TUN, THE VILL AND THE PARISH . .163

t. SOCAGE TENANTS . . . . . 163

C. NAMES OF THE VARIOUS FEATURES OF COMMON,

ARABLE AND MEADOW LAND . . .164

</. SOME STATISTICS RELATING TO ENCLOSURES . .164

e. AGRICULTURAL RENTS IN MODERN TIMES . . 166

xvi CONTENTS

PART II

PAGE

ACTS OF PARLIAMENT AND A ROYAL ORDINANCE RE-
FERRED TO IN THE TEXT, AND SOME OTHER
SELECTED STATUTES, WITH SOME NOTES THEREON

I. STATUTES RELATING TO GOVERNMENT AND RIGHT

OF VOTING AT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS . 167

II. STATUTES, ETC., RELATING TO WAGES AND OTHER

LABOUR QUESTIONS . . . .167

III. STATUTES RELATING TO ENCLOSURES . . 1 68

IV. STATUTES RELATING TO DEPOPULATION, TILLAGE,
AND ENCLOSURE PASSED IN THE XVTH AND
XVITH CENTURIES . . . . .169

V. POOR LAW STATUTES . . . .170

VI. THE GAME LAWS . . . . . 171

VII. STATUTES RELATING TO IMPORTATION AND EX-
PORTATION OF CORN . . . .172

VIII. STATUTES RELATING TO ROADS AND BRIDGES . 173

IX. STATUTES RELATING TO HOUSING, SMALL HOLD-
INGS, ETC. . . . . . .174

X. STATUTES RELATING TO EDUCATION . • * 75

XI. STATUTES RELATING TO IMPROVEMENTS EFFECTED

BY AGRICULTURAL TENANTS . . . 175

XII. SUNDRY STATUTES . . . . .176

INDEX . . . . . -177

PART I

(ABOUT 450-1381)
MEDIAEVAL RURAL LIFE

CHAPTER I
THE ANGLO-SAXON VILLAGE COMMUNITY

ENGLAND has, from very early times, contained within
its boundaries corn-growing and pastoral districts,

but corn-growing took in mediaeval times
unL^Rome. a mucn more important position than it

does at the present day. Even in the
earliest historic times, the corn crop had great impor-
tance. Indeed the invasion of the Romans, though to
some extent a mere adventure, was certainly inspired,
in part, by the desire to secure control of a country
where not only was there mineral wealth, but also corn
that could be exported. The Romans on their arrival
in England found the country in the hands of the
Celts, a race of the type of the Irish, a brave and
imaginative people, with some civilization of their own
which included a knowledge of such arts as the work-
ing of iron, copper and gold, and also apparently a
love of music and poetry. Though there were even

2 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

in those days some small towns, the bulk of the popu-
lation must have been occupied in hunting and agri-
culture and lived in small and scattered hamlets. They
cultivated the land on some simple co-operative
system, employing as a rule, in accordance with a
custom common to many primitive nations, the method
to be described hereafter of strip farming. Under the
control of the Romans the country was developed,
hard roads were laid out through the land, towns were
built and the area under corn was greatly increased.
As time went on Christianity and the civilization that
accompanied Christianity spread, so that in the Vth
century, when the Romans withdrew from Britain to
defend their own country from Asiatic barbarians,
much of the land must have been under cultivation,
and a considerable section of the people were, it may
be assumed, intelligent, and on the whole well-to-do.

Such was the condition of this island when towards
the middle of the Vth century the Teutonic tribes,
Jutes, Angles, Frisians and Saxons, our
The Anglo- English ancestors, began to come across
invasion. the North Sea. The first arrivals doubt-
less came on friendly missions, but when
they found that the race who inhabited this country
had, owing to many centuries of peace under Roman
rule become unaccustomed to war, the newcomers must
soon have formed the plan of making the fruitful
fields of England their home. And as Asiatic bar-
barians began to push their way into their part of
Europe, more and more of the tribesmen crossed over
the ocean and spread through the country, driving
before them the main body of the Celts, who retreated
in some districts to the neighbouring hills, but generally

ANGLO-SAXON VILLAGE COMMUNITY 3

to the more mountainous parts in the North and West of
Britain. These newcomers were tough fighting farmers,
pagan worshippers of Woden and Thor with none of the
civilization of the Celts. They hung together in their
families and tribes, fighting and ordering their lives in
accordance with the ancient customs of their race.

It will be a help, in endeavouring to realize what

actually occurred, to picture as definitely as we dare,

the incidents in the advance of a party

The creating of these tribesmen. Let us take for illus-

of a viUage _

community, tration that section of the Jutes who,

landing in the south of Hampshire, pushed
their way up the Meon valley, driving before them the
Celts who must have withdrawn to the hills above
Petersfield, where to this day are found the scattered
hamlets characteristic of Celtic rural life. An advance
group of these immigrants, young men with their wives
perhaps, might have found themselves in the district
which afterwards became the Xllth century manor
pictured in the frontispiece. Arriving in this valley,
and crossing the stream at the point where the mill
stood later, they would see immediately before them
the remnants of a village which the Celts had deserted.
On the left bordering the river, would be the fertile
fields where later the meadows were plotted out, and
in front the stretch of country, partly cleared, which
in due time became the great arable fields. Here was
a place suited for a settlement. Some rough huts
would be quickly run up on the old Celtic site, near
enough to the river to make it easy to fetch water,
but yet far enough away to be above the mists and
possible floods ; and then a barricade of wood or wattle,
or perhaps a mud and flint wall, would be built round

4 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

the hamlet as a protection from night attacks. Whilst
this was being done, the man of the group who under-
stood woodwork, the carpenter, would, with the help
of the smith, be making a plough, or, more probably,
putting into working order one left by the Celts.
This done, the men, who might have brought with
them or perhaps captured from the Celts the oxen
they needed, would be in a position to begin the work
of cultivation. A part of the open land on the south-
west of the hamlet having been selected, the bush and
rough grass would be burnt, so that the ashes might
fertilize the soil, and the plough, which needed eight
oxen to draw it, would be started by the appointed
ploughman to plough each day a long narrow strip.
Such a strip, of which one name a * land ' * is common
at the present day, might also be called an 'acre,' a
word that seems in early times to have meant a day's
ploughing, varying in amount according to the nature
of the soil and the custom of the locality. Between
the ploughed acre strips would be left narrow belts of
grass, a foot or so broad, to act as boundary divisions ;
and similar broader belts, to be used as rough road-
ways, would be left to edge the dozen or so ploughed
acre strips that it was the custom to form into a group
sometimes called a * shot ' or * furlong.' When suf-
ficient land had been ploughed, the various strips
would be divided amongst the several families. The
division might be made by lot, or perhaps the leader*
of the party undertook to make a fair partition.
Whatever the arrangement, it was doubtless intended
that every man should have a fair share in the land,

1 Although this system was carried on throughout England,
the names for the various features varied with the, locality ; see
Appendix, p. 164.

ANGLO-SAXON VILLAGE COMMUNITY 5

having regard to the ever-changing quality of the soil
throughout the fields. In the first year an area of
land, part of that which afterwards formed the great
common field marked A in the plan, might
have been cultivated — 50 acres perhaps : next year
this land would be left to rest to renew its fer-
tility and the ploughman would reclaim a fresh
piece of land, part of the area B, to carry the corn
crop. In the third year the ploughman would per-
haps go back to A and plough up a piece there,
and in the fourth year take a fresh piece from B.
Then he might get to work again on the plots first
ploughed in A and later in B, and so by degrees
two great open fields of many strips grouped into
shots would come permanently under the plough and
be cultivated alternately. Each peasant family would
under the custom obtain a number of strips, scattered in
various parts of the fields, so that each might have a
part of the good land and a share of the bad : and
when the peasant family had harvested the crop, the
land would fall back again into common use for all to
feed their stock. Thus in a few generations, would
be created great open arable fields, with scattered
strips of the various peasant families. This arrange-
ment, a main characteristic of the English village
communities, prevailed in many places up to the XlXth
century, and can be studied to-day at Laxton in
Nottinghamshire, where it is still carried on in a
modified form. Whilst the arable land was coming into
use in this way, a similar arrangement was growing up
for the grass meadows. Here again according to ancient
custom, still prevailing at Yarnton in Oxfordshire, the
land was divided into strips, and the right to mow and
carry the hay was drawn for by the heads of the various

6 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

families. The hay once cut, the land fell back again
into common use and the stock fed over it. Usually,
a definite day was fixed on which arable or meadow
land became open to all. At Yarnton it was St.
Bartholomew's Day, but sometimes it appears that it
was Lammas Day, the first day of August of the Old
Calendar, the I2th of August of the present. * Lammas
land/ a field-name common in the country at the
present day, is derived from the custom of throwing
open the land, whether arable or grass, on Lammas
Day.

As generations passed the village grew. The central
part of the valley would then be roughly plotted out,
part of the land becoming the village green for the
fowls, ducks and geese, and part a cow common. A
rough boundary to the tract of country that went with
the village would be marked out, and within that
boundary would lie stretches of woodland, into which
the villagers would drive their pigs and other stock
to feed on beech-mast, acorns and nuts. The tract
of land within this boundary would be the 'tun,'1 and
the people, the villagers, would be called the ' tunsmen.'

Undoubtedly some such development created the
communities of East and West Meon and the neigh-
bouring valley villages, which are of the clustered form
characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon settlements.

Whilst the people on the land were gathering into

their little communities and creating their

tafcenbythe own ^aws anc^ customs, the governing

governing class was organizing the kingdoms as a

whole ; the features of this organization

that directly affected village life have now to be con-

1 See Appendix, p. 163.

ANGLO-SAXON VILLAGE COMMUNITY 7

sidered. England in the early days of the Anglo-Saxon
period was ruled by a number of chiefs or kings, large
and small, independent or tributary ; with them were
associated their nobles, of whom the more important
were the ' eorls ' and the lesser were the * thegns.' The
kings seem to have made it a practice to select some
part of the land as their private estates, which were
often scattered throughout the kingdoms. In addition
to this they claimed, by right of conquest, a control over
the land they ruled. This control was exercised it
appears, in some districts, not so much by the kings
and those attached to them as by the leaders of the
groups that settled on the land. It never amounted
to private ownership as we understand it to-day, but
took in time the form of certain definite rights. These
rights may for sake of distinction, since they appertained
in the first instance to the rulers, be called ' the rulers'
rights.' Briefly, they were six : —

(1) The first was the right to tribute or services. In
earlier times this right was very varied. In many cases
it involved personal service, such as riding with messages,
forming one of an escort, taking charge of the king's
dogs or even teaching a king's daughter embroidery.
More commonly the tribute took the form of corn or
other food or of useful materials — a provender rent —
thus an area of land might be subject to the duty of
feeding the ruler and his retinue for a day and a night
in every year, or to providing food for his dogs, or
honey to sweeten his food and to make wax for his
candles, or fleeces to be spun and woven into material
for clothes.

(2) The second was a very important claim that all
landholding men should conform to the * trinoda
necessitas' as it was called later, the famous threefold

8 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

duty of bearing arms, of repairing strongholds and of
keeping bridges in order.

(3) Then there was the right to administer justice.
This right appears as a rule to have been exercised in
early days only by way of appeal from the democratic
' hundred ' courts dealt with below ; later on it was
extended and became a valuable perquisite, for justice
was a luxury and no one provided it free. It is true
that trials took place under what was substantially a
committee, got together for the purpose of the trial.
This committee consisted of men of the litigants' own
class, but the president of the court might be the
king or someone who held under the king ; and he,
whilst conducting the proceedings, took at least a part
of the fees and of the fines imposed on a wrongdoer.

(4) Further, there was the right to regulate markets
and fairs and other forms of trading and fisheries, and
to take tolls in relation to these matters.

(5) There was also a vague right akin to owner-
ship, which seems to have held good, so long as the
cultivators installed on the land were not interfered
with. As a result a ruler or his representative
could take over and cultivate, or colonize with his
dependents, any land in the country districts not
actually in use.

(6) Lastly there was the right, that did not ap-
parently exist in early times, of levying king's taxes
or 'geld.'

The kings, in place of retaining these rights in their
own hands, proceeded in many cases to distribute them,
reserving for themselves, as a general rule, the right to
levy king's taxes, and also the right to claim from land-
holding people the performance of ' the threefold duty.'
In the earliest days grants of these rights were generally

ANGLO-SAXON VILLAGE COMMUNITY 9

made, for the benefit of the Church, to a bishop, to a
monastery, or to a religious community attached to the
worship of a saint. A king on his conversion to
Christianity, or maybe on repenting of his sins, would
as the form ran * for the love of Almighty God and his
faithful servant Saint Peter ' grant to a saint or to a
bishop his rights over a score of tuns ; then the saint's
representative or the bishop supervised the administration
of justice, collected the tribute, overlooked the markets,
and exercised the right akin to ownership over the
surplus land, giving in return for these rights prayers
for the soul of the king and his descendants. These
grants were not made to the Church alone : the kings
transferred the control of large areas of land to the
great nobles, or eorls, whilst the supervision of smaller
areas passed to the minor nobles, or thegns, men of the
king's household or bodyguard. Such grants were made
in return either for services rendered to the king or for
promises of future support, and were in many cases
subject to tribute or to other obligations. As a result
very considerable amounts of landed property passed
away from under royal control. Individuals who
secured rights from a king distributed them from
time to time amongst others, utilizing, perhaps, the old
estate boundaries that may have prevailed since Roman
times ; thus these rights came to be divided up
amongst many persons, women, it may be noted, as
well as men. At the same time, small plots of the
unoccupied land were often handed over to such of
the minor retainers of the kings or of the nobles or
prelates as desired to retire from fighting to take up
a farmer's life. Thus two new streams poured into
the country from the upper class of people, enlarging
the village communities : (i) a number of minor thegns

io ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

and other retainers who took up small holdings, either
as holders of definite plots of land or as sharers in the
common fields and various rights ; and (2) a class of
estate-holders, either bishops or other dignitaries of the
Church, or eorls or thegns — soldier-squires ; these men
had the control over the estates, as a rule large, lying
either in one block or in scattered areas. These estate-
holders not only possessed the rulers' rights of collecting
tribute, administering justice, supervising markets and
so forth, but they also in some cases took up land for
their own personal use, so securing for themselves a home
farm, the 'inland' as it was called, where they built barns
and halls. From these centres they exercised control
over the district, giving to the peasant farmers some
measure of protection and support, and drawing from
them in return something of the nature of a rent or
tribute in food or military or other services. Though
private property in land in the modern sense could
hardly be said to have existed in those days, one can
divide the land titles, so ar as they did exist, into
two classes, the first based in origin on settlement
confirmed by custom, and the second based on royal
grant. This latter was called ' bok ' — or book — land.

It is now possible to form some idea of the character
of rural society and the nature of the village community,
as it existed in the middle of the Anglo-
Saxon period, before it had been modified
through the growth of militarism and the
increase of taxation. Society was at that time beginning
to adjust itself into the form of a pyramid, with the
workers on the soil at the bottom and the king at
the top ; between were the eorls and thegns, bishops
and other Church dignitaries, various steps in the

ANGLO-SAXON VILLAGE COMMUNITY n

social scale. Thus the men of a village community
might live overshadowed by a small thegn or squire
controlling perhaps 500 acres of land, to whom they
rendered some slight services. The thegn might in
his turn be the vassal of a great eorl or bishop holding
half a county from the king. In some places the people
still held from the king himself. In others the com-
munity was completely independent, for undoubtedly
there were a large number of free villages and prob-
ably here and there unattached landholders dependent
on no man. Such conditions of complete independence
would, however, tend to disappear, as the estate-holders
brought more and more of the people under their
supervision.

The village community thus formed the bottom layer
of society. This community made its home in a tract
of land with roughly defined boundaries.

As a rule this tract had its centre in a
clustered village of from ten to thirty
families, the typical Anglo-Saxon form ; but the farm-
houses and cottages might be spread out in scattered
hamlets, a form more characteristic of the Celtic race.
Within the tun's boundaries would sometimes be
found the hall and home farm of an estate-holder, if
there were one in the district ; but the most charac-
teristic feature would be the great open arable fields
already described, cultivated and fallowed alternately,
the crops being wheat and rye, oats, barley and beans,
and perhaps peas and tares. There were also ' lot
meadows ' divided into plots, and the pasture commons,
the woods and the wastes for the use of all.

In their 'tofts' — farmhouses with farmyards and
gardens — lived the farmers, either * ceorls,' men of

12 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

peasant origin, or small thegns and other men of
military origin, all bound to take up fighting when
called upon and to come armed with at least iron cap,
shield and spear, to give battle for chief or king, whether
in defence of the country or for warlike expeditions.
Below these were a class of smaller holders, cottagers,
and even a few slaves descendants in some cases of the
Celts ; these men were liable to be called on to fight in
time of dire need for the defence of the country.

After the Vlth century, Christianity, taught by mis-
sionaries from Rome and by Celtic Christians, spread
with its civilizing influence throughout the land, and
ultimately there was found in every complete tun
the priest, a free man, and the * tun kirke,' the church
of the community. The priests were expected to take
a leading part in public affairs, and had even to
fight for the country in time of necessity. They were
supported in part by the gifts of the people, in part by
tithes, which, however, in early days, appear in some
cases to have been paid to the bishops : and also by the
profits of land in the common fields, with which the
village churches were very commonly endowed, through
the piety either of the estate-holders or of the peasantry
themselves.

The village communities were no mere jumble of

people, but were well organized for local business ;

this was dealt with, on democratic lines,

Local govern- fcy t^Q < moot > or viHage meeting, held

ment. The

moots. sometimes in the church, but more commonly

in the open air, either under the moot-tree
or on the moot-hill. There such questions would be
considered as the management of the common arable
fields, the fencing of that part of the land on which

ANGLO-SAXON VILLAGE COMMUNITY 13

the hay and crops were growing, and the arrangements
for ploughing and sowing, reaping and threshing ; and
there too would be decided the number of beasts, sheep
and pigs that might be turned out on the common
fields when not under cultivation, and the method of
dividing up the lot meadows. The collection of the
tribute of food, if such there were, would be settled at
the moot and plans made for rendering services, if any,
to the estate-holder and for providing the taxes. At
such meetings the village officials were appointed. Of
these the first was the reeve — who combined the duties
of manager of the communal land and of a village
mayor, for he supervised the agriculture and also
presided at village meetings ; he also, with the priest
and four or more tunsmen of good repute, represented
the village in negotiations with outside authorities.
Below the reeve was the 'hayward/ who under the
direction of the former undertook, with perhaps the
assistance of a 'field jury' or committee, the detailed
management of the cultivation of the land. Amongst
the other officials were the ' meadsman,' who saw to
the division of the meadow-land, the * woodreeve,' who
looked after the woodlands and the ploughmen who
ploughed for all. Finally there were the oxherds,
shepherds, swineherds and beeherds, who looked after
the oxen, sheep, pigs and bees. Without these men
it would not have been possible to proceed with the
Anglo-Saxon method of farming, which depended on
the stock being in the hands of the herdsmen, and the
peasant farmers being free to put in most of their time
on the cultivation of the arable.

Although encroachments on boundaries, overcrowd-
ing the commons with beasts, and similar offences, had
to be dealt with by the tun moot, the punishment of

14 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

serious crimes that were committed in the village was
dealt with by the ' hundred,' a larger unit than the
tun, being, it is thought, in origin a group of one
hundred families. The hundreds or ' wapentakes,' as
these were called in parts of East Anglia, held moots
or courts, which met from time to time to administer
justice. At this court leading landholders of the
district attended, and all or almost all judicial business
that arose in the hundred went first to it.

Whilst dealing with local government it is also
interesting to note that there was, in Anglo-Saxon
times, a shire or county moot. The shire moot, which
was in its character more aristocratic than the tun and
hundred moots, met twice a year and dealt with county
business and legal questions relating to such matters
as land titles. Moreover, taxes imposed on the shire
were there divided amongst the hundreds, which in
their turn divided up the amounts placed upon them
amongst the tuns. The tuns were then bound to
collect and remit to the hundred the shares that were
imposed upon them, and the hundreds in their turn
remitted the funds so collected to the shire.

It is important to realize clearly that the country-
side was in those days already divided in accordance
with two different systems, out of which
sPrang divisions which have lasted until
modern times. Of these two systems, the
typical features were: (i) the tun or township, the
democratic village community, a unit somewhat of
the nature of a parish, and (2) the estates, large and small,
supervised by an eorl, a thegn, or a dignitary of the
Church, or in some cases by the king himself, a form
of organization represented later on by the manors

ANGLO-SAXON VILLAGE COMMUNITY 15

and their lords. Every tun was regulated by its own
customs, and every estate was managed in its own
way ; there was no uniformity. Moreover, whilst most
of the tuns were of the form described above, and were
inhabited by the various classes of people already
referred to, this was not always so. There were villages
consisting of freemen of military origin, there were
villages of peasant farmers only, and there were slave
colonies working under the direction of a bailiff. The
variation of character both in the estates and the
village communities was, in early days, most marked *in
those parts of England where Celtic customs remained
unchanged, and later on in the districts which were
colonized by the Danes.

Conditions of life were always changing. The
custom of dividing yearly the strips of arable land by

lot disappeared in very early days, though
The develop- in a few places it continued for many
iTfent< J centuries.1 When it disappeared the

peasant families would have had permanent
occupation of their scattered strips, and whilst recog-
nizing the rights that existed in most communities of
grazing stock over all fallow land, they must have come
to consider themselves owners of the land they occupied.
Again, some of the larger farmers, as time went on,
kept their own ploughs and teams and cultivated their
land without having to resort to the common plough.
Moreover, /fn some places, as generations passed and
population grew, a third great open field would come
into cultivation : then a new rotation would be
introduced, every field in turn being cultivated in the

1 In Gomme's "Village Community" a case of such annual
redivision is mentioned as still occurring in the XlXth century.

16 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

first year with winter corn, wheat or rye, in the second
with spring corn, barley, oats, beans or perhaps peas or
tares, whilst in the third the land would be left fallow.
And, with these minor variations, came the more
important changes in the life of the people dealt with
in the next chapter.

CHAPTER II
THE DEGRADING OF THE PEOPLE

THE Anglo-Saxons created a village life of their own,
and this life, as time went on, gradually changed from
its simple ways until at last in the Xlth

century * was forced into a new frame«
the people. the manor of the Norman times. As this

change came the workers on the land were
gradually pressed down, until at last the greater number
of them were reduced to a condition of bondage. It
should, however, be understood that this degradation
was not merely the outcome of the Norman Conquest.
In many places it must have begun at least two
centuries before that event.

In Anglo-Saxon times the degrading of the people
arose from three main causes: (i) the distribution of

the rulers' rights, (2) the growth of the
Causes of ...

degradation military class and (3) the increase of the

ui Anglo- burden of taxation on the peasants.
Saxon times. LJ-

The transfer to religious bodies or to

private individuals of the kings' rights over the land
was the first step in the degradation of the country
people. Men of a distant village, provided with ample
surplus land to feed their stock and to extend their
arable or meadows whenever needed, rendering some

3 '?

i8 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

small tribute or service to the king and looking to him
for such justice as they could not administer themselves,
in their village meeting or in the hundred court, found
that the new holder of the rights took a far keener
interest in their lives than did his royal predecessor.
Should they wish to extend the arable or meadow land
to meet the requirements of an increased population,
the estate-holder had to be dealt with and some new
tribute or service might be claimed. If the men could
not arrange to extend the area of the arable land, the
holdings would have to be reduced in size all round, or
the younger men would find themselves without land
for their support. Many men thus squeezed out of
the community became the servants of the estate-
holders. Others similarly placed took some part of the
land that the estate-holder claimed, and the latter,
maybe, would provide them with stock on loan or on
lease ; if they succeeded, all went well, but if they failed
they sank down still lower in the social scale. Again,
the village quarrel which the peasants could easily have
settled amongst themselves might, under the new con-
ditions, be looked upon as a serious breach of the peace,
to be inquired into by the hundred court held under
the presidency of the holder of the profits of justice,
who took the fees and put into his own pocket the fine
that might have gone into the village chest and have
been spent for the good of the poor. In some cases the
supervision of justice by an eorl, bishop or other autho-
rity, which followed the alienation of the profits of
justice from the king, resulted in the setting aside of
the hundred moots and the creation of definite new
courts in their place. The informal village markets
must also at this time have become subject to stricter
supervision and to the exaction of tolls. Lastly, when

THE DEGRADING OF THE PEOPLE 19

the estate-holder needed men to cultivate his land and
could not obtain free labour, there is little doubt that
men were forced to work for a certain number of days
in the year on such of the land as he had appropriated
for his own use.

The growth of military needs was a further cause of
the degradation of the people. The constant struggles
among the various Anglo-Saxon states, and the greater
struggles between the Anglo-Saxons and Danes which
went on intermittently in the Vlllth, IXth, Xth and
even the Xlth centuries, made regular armies a
necessity. Soldiers "more skilful than the old-fashioned
Anglo-Saxon fighting farmers were required. Fully
armed men on horseback, with lightly equipped men-
at-arms, accustomed to war, were wanted, and the
kings looked to the country estate-holders to supply
their needs. The estate-holders were therefore on the
look out for retainers to fight for them when required,
and it became a common practice for men, otherwise
free, to be attached to the estate or to the person of
someone of higher rank than themselves. These bonds
sometimes involved the men in the duty of working on
their superior's estate, sometimes in performing other
obligations, such as folding sheep on his land. In other
cases they involved the definite duty, already referred to,
of attending the superior's court of law and of acting as
one of a committee of judges. The title of 'socman,'
so common in the eastern side of England, seems to
have arisen from this last custom, the word ' soc ' or
' soke ' usually implying, in early days, the duty of
attending at a superior's court. But all men were not
so bound, a large number being simply 'commended,'
as it was called, to a superior. Such men appear to
have been subject to one definite obligation only — to

20 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

fight when needed. To be attached to a superior had
certain advantages of real value in those troublous
times, when a man's life and property were insecurely
held. The men received their superior's support if their
land title was questioned, if any attack was made on
their personal liberty, or if prosecuted for crime ; whilst,
on his side, the superior was responsible for the good
behaviour of his men. Hundreds of these attached
men were to be found in Cambridgeshire. For ex-
ample, in the village of Arrington, in King Edward the
Confessor's time, there was one who owed allegiance to
Eorl Waltheof; another who, whilst owing allegiance
to, was also a member of the court of justice of the
Abbot of Ely ; a third was the man of ' Robert Wimarc's
son,' and a fourth a servant of the lady called * Edith the
Fair.' It was through this custom of attachment that a
feudal system began to grow, and with this growth the
military men secured predominance amongst the peasant
farmers and obtained larger holdings and probably the
best of the land.

The effect on village life of the increased burden of
taxation has also to be considered. It is easy to imagine
that neither the kings nor the sheriffs, who in this matter
represented them, would always find it convenient, after
the distribution of royal rights, to go behind the local
magnates in order to enforce the threefold duty on the
men of the villages. And, in fact, the kings began to
look more and more to the estate-holders to perform
this duty, by providing knights and men-at-arms and
by undertaking the repair of bridges and of strongholds.
A division of responsibility then arose. 'The large
estate-holders, eorls, thegns, bishops and others, under-
took the provision of trained soldiers, while the duty of
paying king's taxes fell on the peasant farmers. Thus

THE DEGRADING OF THE PEOPLE 21

the estate-holder's farm paid no taxes, whilst the rest
of the land, the land in the hands of the peasant
farmers, bore this burden. In early days the taxation,
if any, appears to have been slight, the king relying
on his tribute : but the people undoubtedly suffered
after the appearance of the Dane Geld, a tax im-
posed at the end of the Xth century for the purpose
of buying off the Danes, and continued from time to
time, at first as a war tax, and later as an ordinary
king's tax.

The conditions of life during the reign of Edward
the Confessor can be pictured with the help of Domes-
day Book. Everywhere, or almost every-
Conditions in , , /.

Edward the where, were to be found the estate- owners,

confessor's holding in many districts well-defined pro-
perties, including, as a rule, a home farm
with its great barns for storing a tribute of food, and in
some places a hall of residence. Below the estate-
holders, within the village community itself, the
classes described in the last chapter were still to be
found, though their relative positions were slightly
different. There were two distinct sections of culti-
vators : (i) the farmers of the upper class, who appear
to have belonged, as a rule, to the military families.
These men were called * geneats/ ' drengs,' ' radmen,'
and * socmen ' ; they seem to have had a good position,
holding perhaps 100 acres in the open arable fields, with
a share of meadowland and rights over the commons.
Such men were almost always attached to some
superior, and they usually paid some definite rent or
rendered military, or agricultural services for their land :
if these services were agricultural, they were clearly
defined and not excessive in amount. Moreover, they

22 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

were free men, and are so described in Domesday Book.
Below these military and other free farmers were
(2) the men of the old agricultural class, whose prede-
cessors for some generations had been true peasant
farmers, taking little part in righting. Such men might
be expected to be farming a ' yardland,' more or less,
a holding consisting of some thirty acre strips in the
open arable fields, with the corresponding meadowland
and common rights. These men would render tribute
in food to the estate-holder and might be bound by the
obligation of working one or even two days a week
on his home farm. In some cases they no longer
owned stock, but hired it from the holder of the estate.
The peasant farmers were not so free as the military
farmers, though only serfs in the sense that they were
forced to work. It was on these two sections of
society that king's taxes fell. Below the peasant
farmers were cotters, with five or so acres in the
common fields, forced at that time, if agriculturists, to
work on the home farm, if artisans, to render other
labour services connected with their trade, such as
making ploughshares or ox-yokes. Below the cotters
were a few slaves.

Though these conditions were widespread, they were
not universal. Life was somewhat differently organized
in the East of England. The estates there often consisted
of a small central property to which were attached
rights of a varied character, extending over many
independent men who might be living in many differ-
ent villages. Moreover, in that part of England, a
general state of freedom prevailed. This was largely
due to the influence of the Danes, who, after some
generations of fighting, had, by that time, settled down
and colonized a large part of East Anglia.

THE DEGRADING OF THE PEOPLE 23

In the winter of 1066 Edward the Confessor died.
Within twelve months Norman William was settled on
the throne, busily distributing the southern
1™ half of England among his followers, whilst

Normans and a few years later he was dealing in similar
fashion with the North. The land titles of
the Anglo-Saxon eorls, thegns, bishops and other
estate-holders were cancelled and new grants were
made. These new grants can be divided into two
classes. To such of his Norman followers as were his
immediate vassals, or prelates whose influence he valued,
William made extensive grants : some men received
a score of estates, others half a county, whilst others
obtained merely a small plot of land. The greater part
of England was divided amongst such men. Then, to
certain of the English estate-holders who accepted the
Norman rule and swore allegiance to the king, their old
estates in their entirety or in part were re-granted,
either by the king or by his vassals. All estates were
created on feudal conditions. Every landholder was to
be the vassal of the king or of someone who held an
estate directly or indirectly of the king ; there was to be
' no land without a lord.' Moreover, the land was held
subject to good behaviour and a definite obligation to
provide a certain number of fighting men. Although
the tenure was a new tenure, and its leading features
spread through the arrangements made between all
sections of landholding society, William seems to have
intended that in the relations between the peasant
farmers and their immediate landlords, no new obliga-
tions were to be created ; the actual cultivators of the
land were not to be disturbed in their holdings or
position. He was shrewd enough to see that the wealth
and strength of the country depended on a contented

24 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

peasantry, living on good terms with himself and with
the Norman lords, and able to provide a strong body
of fighting men. Nevertheless, whatever the king's in-
tention, the Norman Conquest came to the English
peasantry as an overwhelming misfortune. In a large
number of cases, the old Anglo-Saxon or Danish squire
or other holder of the estate, belonging to the peasants'
own race, with a knowledge of and respect for their
customs, disappeared. He was replaced by a Norman, a
man of foreign origin, who was not likely to be deterred
by Saxon or Danish customs from obtaining from the
peasantry sufficient tribute in food, in labour and in
money to give him the wealth he required for his
position. As a fact, the Norman lords proceeded to
crush down the varied population living in the villages,
reducing their rights and increasing their obligations.
As a result many of the freemen were depressed into
the position of the peasant farmers, and the peasant
farmers and cotters were burdened with heavier tasks
of labour. One simple example can be taken, to
illustrate this point, from the record of Domesday
Book. At Meldreth, a Cambridgeshire village border-
ing the upper Cam, there dwelt in the time of King
Edward the Confessor 15 socmen, freemen, possibly
of Danish origin ; 10 of these men were vassals of the
Abbey of Ely and seem to have had between them
some 300 acres of land, probably the fertile land
that lies by the river, whilst the others, holding
between them about half that area, were the men
of a Saxon Eorl Aelfgar. After the Conquest a
Norman lord took over the Meldreth estate and created
out of it a manor for himself. He appropriated some
land for his home farm, and for that he must have
needed labour. He could have given little considera-

THE DEGRADING OF THE PEOPLE 25

tion to the claims of the socmen. It is, indeed,
definitely known that they were degraded, since the
Domesday record tells that, twenty years later, the
Meldreth estate consisted of the home farm of the lord
and outlying peasants' land, and the population
comprised one slave and eighteen cotters, labourers,
apparently, with small holdings, the descendants of
the old freemen of the village. This story well illus-
trates what went on throughout England. The new
lords took a firmer grip on the land and people,
determined that both should be organized, not in the
easygoing Anglo-Saxon way, but on the business basis
of the manor. The people were to work harder for
their new masters.

During the first century of the Norman rule, arduous
feudal conditions were being introduced by the kings in
their relation to their immediate feudal tenants. The
marriages of children were controlled, and fines or
payments exacted. Then a right of wardship was
enforced, giving the king an opportunity of taking over
and managing, largely for his own profit, the estates of
minors. Corresponding exactions were in turn intro-
duced by the king's tenants into the arrangements with
their own sub-tenants, and so on from class to class
of feudal holders, until finally heavier burdens came on
to the shoulders of the peasants themselves. During
the same century there was introduced the custom
called 'astriction,' by virtue of which such of the
peasantry as were not of the class of freemen were
bound to remain in their homes. As a result of these
further changes, the position of the peasants became
definitely worse, whilst such genuine grievances as they
had were rarely remedied in the national courts,
since these courts made it clear that they would only

26 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

interfere in manorial matters as between the lord and
the freemen, and refused any relief to the lower class
of the peasantry. Nevertheless, in considering the
condition of the people it is well to realize that it was
against the interest of the lords to grind them too hard,
for the lords had to maintain a sturdy peasantry, able
to fight for them if needed. There is, indeed, good
reason to suppose that in many places the position
of the villagers was still tolerable. Especially would
this be so in districts controlled by the king himself, or
by a bishop or other Church dignitary, and in outlying
villages where the lord or his steward rarely came.

Whilst the Norman lords installed by William as land-
holders were organizing their estates into the manorial
form, the king, who needed money to carry
on tne state> decided to put a tax on the
land of England at the rate of 6s. on the
* hide.' The hide is a word of varied meaning, but
it usually implies an area of 120 acres. The tax there-
fore worked out at one halfpenny an acre of cultivated
land ; perhaps a quarter of the annual value. The
lords claimed that by custom the peasants' land alone
paid king's taxes, and probably also gave too low
statements of the area under cultivation. In any case,
William was not satisfied with the results of the levy,
and he decided to have an investigation into the
amount of land available for taxation. He therefore
ordered in the winter of 1085-6 that a record of the
condition of rural England should be prepared. Land
commissioners went to every county, and from every
tun came the tun's representatives, priest, reeve and
six tunsmen, to meet the commissioners and to tell the
story of their village. These delegates were called upon

THE DEGRADING OF THE PEOPLE 27

to give the names of their lord and his estates, to
report on the area of his home farm and the number of
plough teams he had ; they had also to tell of the area
of the land held by the peasantry and of their plough
teams, and as to what woods, meadows, pastures, mills,
fisheries and markets there were. They were then
asked for similar information of the conditions of their
village in Edward the Confessor's reign. Besides this,
they had to give the number of unfree peasant farmers
(at that time as a rule called ' villeins ' and looked on as
serfs), of cotters (also considered as serfs), of slaves,
and also to report if there were freemen. The infor-
mation so gathered was doubtless checked by refer-
ence to the representatives of the hundreds and of
the Norman colonists, who were bound to attend the
meetings of the commissioners. It was then recorded
by the commissioners. These collected records form
Domesday Book.

Three of these entries, giving a picture of three
properties, follow : they have been translated somewhat
freely.

(1) At Limpsfield (in Surrey) there are on the home
farm 5 plough teams : there are also 25 villeins and
6 cotters with 14 teams amongst them. There is a
mill worth 2s. a year and one fishery, a church and
four acres of meadow, wood for 150 pigs and two
stone quarries, each worth 2s. a year, and two nests
of hawks in the wood, and ten slaves. In King
Edward's time the estate was worth £20 a year, after-
wards £15, now £24.

(2) The king holds Lovecomb (in the Isle of Wight).
Sawin, a Saxon thegn, held it in King Edward's time,
free from all service except a land tax ; it was then
assessed for taxation as a hide, now for two-thirds of a

28 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

virgate.1 There is one ploughland in the home farm,
on which work 6 cotters and 2 slaves. In the time
of King Edward, the king's tribute had been computed
and was paid at the rate of £4 a year ; the estate is
now worth but £3 a year and yet the king draws £4
from it.

(3) Here (in Herefordshire) in the midst of the
woodlands, and outside the district of any hundred,
lives a solitary farmer. He owns a plough team of
eight oxen and has his own plough. Two serfs help
him to cultivate the hundred or so acres that he has
reclaimed. He pays no taxes and is the vassal of
no man. There is also a Welshman living here,
with a little holding for which he pays three shillings
a year.

Domesday Book does not deal with the whole of
England ; a few counties in the North, Northumber-
land, Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire, and
Monmouth on the Welsh border, are not included, but
within the area of inquiry the information is fairly
ample.

Authorities report that the total population recorded
in Domesday approximately consists of:—

(1) 9,300 tenants in chief and under-tenants, that is
to say nobles, ecclesiastics and others holding large
and small estates on feudal tenure.

(2) 35,000 socmen and other freemen, almost all of
whom are found in the north-east of the area
dealt with.

(3) 108,500 peasant farmers, here called villeins,
distributed fairly evenly throughout the area.

(4) 89,000 cotters similarly distributed ; and

1 The virgate is the Norman name for the Anglo-Saxon
yardland.

THE DEGRADING OF THE PEOPLE 29

(5) 25,000 slaves, almost all of whom were to be
found south of a line running from the mouth of the
Wash to the north of Hereford, the area in which, 800
years later, the worst paid and worst housed labourers
were to be found.

Domesday Book could hardly have covered the
ground completely, and it will not be an excessive
estimate to suggest that there were 300,000 heads of
families living in the area under consideration. These
heads of families must have represented as many as
900,000 individuals working on the land, for wives and
children would certainly have taken their share in the
labour. This, it is interesting to know, does not greatly
differ from the number of persons engaged in agriculture
in the same area at the present day.

The amount of land under cultivation is not clearly
given and cannot be stated with any certainty ; but
some authorities think that there were 9 million acres
of land under the plough, of which less than two-thirds
would bear crops in any one year. At the present
time there are about 10 million acres of arable in
the same counties. There was, in addition, meadow
land, perhaps a million acres in all, and a large area
of pasture commons and of woods and wastes. In
the same counties there are found to-day, some
12 million acres of pasture and meadow land.

It is easy, with the help of Domesday Book, to
picture the Normans busily engaged in the reconstruc-
tion of English country life, throwing estates together,
adjusting boundaries, and thus forming, wherever
possible, convenient units, and then collecting into
the hands of the owners of those units the control of
justice, of markets, and of other similar rights.

CHAPTER III
THE MANOR AND THE VILLAGE

IN the Xllth and Xlllth centuries, the manorial

system prevailed in England, built up by the Normans

on the foundations of the old estates, a

General structure forming a wall and roof, as it were,

character of ... '

the manors, over the democratic English village com-
munities. In these centuries England may,
then, be pictured as divided up into little manorial
kingdoms, in the main self-supporting, each with its
own governor — the lord of the manor — and its own
rules and customs. In some cases the manor would
take the form of a number of small or large holdings
lying in many places, a widely scattered estate ; in
others, the manor stretched over a great area, like the
Bishop of Winchester's manor of East Meon in Hamp-
shire, with its fifteen tithings or village communities
and 24,000 acres of land within its . boundaries, while
some manors extended to twenty or thirty acres only.
But the manor in its most characteristic form would
be a compact area coinciding with the ' vill,' * as the
village community was called at that time. Manors
were often divided one from another by broad stretches
of woods and waste lands, or perhaps by great forests
in royal ownership, while the roads by which they

1 See Appendix, p. 163.
30

THE MANOR AND THE VILLAGE 31

were connected would, unless of Roman origin, be
of the roughest description — mere broad grass tracks,
deeply furrowed by the wheels of carts and the feet
of cattle — often impassable in winter save for horses
and foot passengers.

The manor as it existed at this period, though
elaborate in form, was a straightforward organization,
well suited to the needs of the period and not unadapt-
able to the changes of time. The description which
follows will, it is hoped, make its general character
clear to the reader, who will be helped, in this analysis,
if he refers to the plan given as a frontispiece to this
book.

The buildings of a manor of any size would be :
The Hall and Barns and other buildings of the

Home Farm, the property of the lord of
buildings t*le manor 5 the Mill, also as a rule his

property; the Church, the Priest's House,
and the small farm-houses and cottages with their
outbuildings that formed the Village.

Outside the village would be the enclosed part of
the lord's farm, and in some cases one or two detached
farms, hired or owned by independent
The land. farmers, and a few small closes for young
stock. Then there would be all that re-
mained of the peasants' land of the Anglo-Saxon period,
by that time bound into the manorial estate and
controlled by the lord, but still occupied by the peasant
farmers and cotters — men of Anglo-Saxon or Danish
origin — and cultivated by them in accordance with
the ancient customs of their race. The characteristic
features of this part of the manorial estate would be

32 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

little, if at all, changed from what had existed before
the Conquest, There would still be :—

1 I ) The open arable fields, either two, or more commonly
three great areas, fenced either permanently or tempor-
arily from the surrounding land. These fields would con-
sist of many hundreds of strips, the ' acres ' or * lands/ the
divisions between the strips being marked by the old
narrow grass belts, the ' baulks/ or in some cases by
deep furrows. The ' lands ' would be still, as they had
been in the past, grouped together and surrounded by
broad grass headlands or rough grass roads, the ' head-
lands ' and ' way baulks/ so as to form divisions or
fields, the * shots ' or * furlongs.'

(2) The Lot Meadows. — Land set aside for hay, and
divided either permanently or yearly into strips.

(3) Commons. — Much larger in extent than the areas
that bear that name to-day, and consisting in part of
valuable pasturage for stock and in part of rough land.

(4) Woods and Wastes. — Wood and moor land, hill-
sides and marshes, open to all the village.

The social organization of the manor has next to be
outlined. At its head was the lord, whom Norman

law inclined to look upon as the owner of
The people ,11 r ,1

and their the land as well as a governor of the

social or- estate. The lord might be the king, a
ganization. ° . . . . ~:

monastery, or other ecclesiastical institution,

a bishop or some other Church dignitary, or a layman,
either some Norman noble holding many such estates,
or perhaps merely a modest squire, holding a few
manors, or one only.

Such manors would rarely, if ever, be bought and
sold. If they were vested in the Church, they would
remain in the hands of the Church, whilst if a manor

THE MANOR AND THE VILLAGE 33

were in lay hands it would, in the ordinary course, pass
from father to son, remaining in the same family for
many generations, unless it happened that the manorial
lord broke some feudal rule that caused his land to
escheat to and become vested in his superior. In such
cases it would be re-granted to some new owner to hold
on similar feudal terms as his predecessor. Not only
were such new grants made of old manors, but new
manors were created by the grant of the lord of a
manor of some part of his estate specially allotted.
This practice of so creating new manors ceased in the
year I29O.1

Few of the greater lords would be found in those
days permanently residing in any particular manor,
and in their absence the representative would be a
seneschal, a land agent or lawyer steward, who would
supervise several manors, having under him a bailiff
for each estate.

There might be, in a manor, a few free farmers,
socmen2 and other freemen. These men had a privi-
leged position, and stood between the lord and the
lower class of farmers, often acting as a barrier to the
encroachments of the former on the common and other
rights. Some freemen held their land on quite trivial
or nominal services, others continued, as had their pre-
decessors of the past, to hold their land subject to clearly
defined obligations, either military or religious, or, if
agricultural, of a superior kind, such as attending with
their ploughs on certain days in the year to plough
parts of the lord's lands. This class was not large
in number, save in parts of the north-east of England.
The main body of the farmers were no longer free but
definitely 'bondsmen,' and as such subject to the rule
1 See Appendix, p. 176. 2 Ibid., p. 163.

4

34 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

of the lord and his bailiff; nevertheless they would
hold doggedly to such old customs as had not been
destroyed in the years directly following the Conquest.

At the head of the peasants was still the reeve, at
that time sometimes called the 'provost' or 'praepositus,'
titles introduced by the Normans; below the reeve
there was still in most manors the hayward to manage
the husbandry, and in some manors a meadsman con-
tinued to look to the meadows, a wood-reeve to
supervise the woods, whilst a beadle collected rents ;
in large manors other officers might be found.

Of the bondsmen there were two main groups, some-
what similar to the two classes of non-military peasant
farmers that lived in the villages before the Conquest.
The ' villeins,' z as the Normans nominated the unfree
peasant farmers of the upper section, formed the larger
of these groups. The extent of their land varied, but
thirty acres in the open field was the typical villein's
holding. The second group, the cotters, as it is con-
venient to call them, held less land than the villeins,
five acre strips being about the average.

Amongst the peasantry were men who had special
positions in the village life, oxherds, shepherds, swine-
herds, gooseherds and beeherds, engaged in looking
after the oxen, sheep, pigs, geese and bees. With
them may be grouped such men as the thatchers, the
village ploughmen, and the ackermen or drivers of
oxen. These men were in a sense officials, and worked

1 The title 'villein ' is often used in contemporary and modern
writings to describe the bondsmen, that is, the peasants of the
classes that lay between the freemen and the slaves ; it has in
this book been limited to the class that lay between freemen and
the cotters, in accordance with the division as a rule made iq
Domesday Book,

THE MANOR AND THE VILLAGE 35

for both the bondsmen and the lord, and also perhaps for
the independent farmers, if there were any in the manor.

There were also craftsmen in the village, for a
community of this character, which had to be largely
self-supporting, could not progress without workers
able to make the ploughs and carts and other agri-
cultural implements, the shoes and articles in leather,
and to weave materials for the clothes. There were
therefore in the village communities blacksmiths,
workers in wood, leatherworkers, and weavers. These
craftsmen then, as ever since, appear to have taken a
leading position in village life.

From early times there were also to be found in
many villages a few landless labourers, a small class
that persistently increased generation after generation.

Although there might be men among the herdsmen
and the artisans who were free, and others who were
slaves, this was probably exceptional ; the mass of the
village population usually belonged to the intermediate
class, the bondsmen.

In addition to the men of the village community
there were, in most manors, some servants of the lord,
amongst whom were perhaps ploughmen, carters, and
herdsmen who worked for the lord alone, and in some
places there were slaves — a diminishing class. These
servants and slaves usually lived in the precincts of the
manorial hall.

Before dealing with the general character of the
life in the manor, it is convenient to give a short
account of the government of the manorial
government. estate and tne underlying community.

The village community, the vill, still
continued in these centuries as a definite public body.

36 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

There was no official corresponding to the steward
of a manor to record the rights, duties and acts of the
vill, and as a consequence comparatively little is known
of its constitution and character. But it is clear that
it was a unit subject to taxation, and was responsible
for order, whilst vills appointed at least one executive
officer, the constable, who dealt with these questions.
The vill continued to be represented in the hundred
court and in negotiations with outside bodies by the
priest, reeve and selected responsible villagers. The
powers and duties of the village community, although
they continued, were probably less important than
they had been in earlier days or became in later
centuries.

The more important minor authority at that time
was the 'halimoot,' a court of the manor that came
into existence in the Xlth or Xllth century, and
lost much of its power and importance after the
XlVth. This moot or court assembled, usually,
every three weeks and holders of land in the manor
were bound to attend. Its natural place of meeting
was the manorial hall ; though in some villages an
old custom prevailed of holding meetings in the open
air. At this court certain offences were dealt with —
bad ploughing, the breaking down of fences, the flight
of a peasant from his manor, and such misdemeanours
were punished ; whilst in some manors more severe
crimes were judged — for example, a thief might have
to be tried and perhaps condemned to death. Further
than this, questions of the rules and customs of the
manor were here settled: the introduction of a new
tenant on the death of his predecessor, the right of
a widow to dower, the transfer of land, the rents,
services and obligations of the tenants and their

THE MANOR AND THE VILLAGE 37

relations with the lord, all came before this court and
were adjusted from time to time. The lord of the
manor or his representative acted as the president of
the court, but the peasantry were the judges, and in
practice decisions were often left to an appointed
committee or jury of six or twelve men. Notwith-
standing the fact that in this court the decisions
rested with the peasantry, it is important to realize
that the absence of any effective right of appeal
against arbitrary action of the lord must have given
him a predominant influence in all questions that
affected his rights and duties.

It does not appear that the actual management of
the husbandry was settled by the halimoot. In large
manors containing many communities, such a course
could hardly have been followed. It is probable that
a 'foreman of the fields' and field juries were
appointed by the peasants to look after open arable
fields and commons, working in conjunction with the
bailiff, hayward and other officials ; and, where there
were many communities within the manor, there may
have been a corresponding number of such foremen
and juries.

The other local courts were the hundred moot and
the shire moot, inherited from Anglo-Saxon times,
and various courts of a feudal character ; these latter
courts were founded by the owners of the profits of
justice, and competed in the administration of judicial
business with the older democratic courts, which,
indeed, they sometimes superseded.

With these facts clearly understood, it is not
difficult to get an idea of the general character of a
manorial estate. The hall or manor house, detached

38 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

from the village, was the centre of its own life. It
consisted as a rule of a large hall, with one or two

smaller rooms ; near by would be the court-
general yard with a barn for storing corn, a dove-

character- cot, farm buildings and possibly rooms for
e^tate^ *** ^arm servants and slaves. Then there would

be a garden with fruit trees and veget-
ables, and often a vineyard. With the hall went the
home farm, the land of the Anglo-Saxon estate-
holder extended and called the * demesne.' It would,
in all probability, consist of a few enclosed fields
near the hall with a considerable number of strips
intermingled with the peasants' strips in the open
fields, and held subject to the same rules as the
peasants' land. The possession of these strips would
therefore carry with it a share in the lot meadows,
and a proportionate share in the rights over commons,
woods and wastes.

Unless the manor happened to be in the hands of
a small resident squire, it would be the seneschal or
the bailiff who would reside at the hall. But now
and again the lord of the manor would come with
his retinue of servants and retainers to visit his estate.
The life on such occasions would be rough and
simple : the retainers would camp in the big hall or
in the outbuildings, taking meals in the former, and
sleeping there on bundles of rushes, fern or straw.
The lord would reserve for himself and family the
private room or rooms, but would join his retainers
in the hall for meals. The lord, whose interests lay
in the main in outside affairs and not in husbandry,
might be expected to stay for a month or two of
every year in the manor, until he had consumed a
large proportion of the stores of food, gone through

THE MANOR AND THE VILLAGE 39

the bailiffs accounts and enjoyed some days' sport
in the woods and wastes. This done, he would be
off to another estate.

An important element in the manorial life was the
mill. If, as was a common custom, it belonged to
the lord, he would claim the right to grind the corn
grown in the manor, so that every bondsman and
perhaps even the freemen, had to come to the lord's
miller, who, holding a monopoly, probably often
charged undue prices, and so taxed unfairly the
people's small gains.

Important, though in a different way, were the
church and the church house. The church was not
only a religious, but also a social centre, and in it were
often held meetings, plays and even markets. But
commonly the village life centred in the church house,
where the village priest may have lived. Though simpler
than the lord's hall, this house would be built on the
same plan, with one large room, suitable for business
and social meetings of the villagers. The priest con-
tinued to be an important official in the community,
taking his part not only in the religious but also in
the social and public life. For his services he received
burial and other dues, a share of the tithes, and also
the gifts of his flock, whilst he would generally, like
his Anglo-Saxon predecessor, hold several strips of
land in the open fields.

In the village itself, which might straggle along a
rough lane, littered with refuse, would be the small
farm-houses of the peasants. The ordinary type of
farm-house would contain one large room common to
all. Above this room might be a loft, reached by a
ladder. Most of the houses would be, of their kind,
well built, for there is no reason to suppose that an

40 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

English peasant did not have the intelligence to
build himself a wind and weather proof house.
Materials would come from the woods and wastes,
where ample timber was, in most manors, to be had
for the cutting. The walls of his home might be of
logs, or of wattle daubed with clay, or of rough stones
like an old-fashioned Irish cabin, or of clay bats or
clunch or turf, according to what was procurable in
the locality. The roof would be thatched with reeds
or straw. There could have been but little furniture
in such a house, the only household belongings of the
peasant of any value being his cooking pots. Brush-
wood, fern or straw would serve for beds. A wood
fire would burn in the centre of the room, from which
the smoke would find its way through a hole in the
roof. Round the house would be a yard, some out-
houses and perhaps a garden : this little holding might
still, as in Anglo-Saxon times, be called a toft, a name
still in use at Laxton. Such a toft would be occupied
by a freeman or a bondsman. The former might
perhaps have an enclosed farm of his own, but such
a condition was probably rare, and the freeman's
holding would approximate to the villein's now to be
described ; the difference between the condition of
freeman and bondsman lying, not in the nature of their
land, but in the fact that freemen's obligations were
less arduous than bondsmen's, whilst the freemen were
not astricted and their rights were protected by the
national law. The extent of the villeins' holdings
varied in the same manor, and in this, as in almost
all other details, the holdings differed in one manor
from another. But every villein toft-owner would have
a definite holding that went with the house. This
holding, if of the ordinary type, would consist of—

THE MANOR AND THE VILLAGE 41

(1) A certain number of scattered strips divided
amongst the open arable fields. These strips were
cultivated for the peasant's private advantage from
the time that the land was ploughed until the crop
was off, after which the strips would in most manors
revert to common use for all to feed their stock.

(2) The right, enjoyed in most manors by freemen
and villeins only, to the hay crop on one or more
strips in the lot meadows, for which, in accordance with
ancient custom, an annual ballot would take place.

(3) The right to feed cattle, oxen, horses, sheep,
pigs and fowls on the commons and in the woods and
wastes, also over the lot meadows when the hay was
cut, and as a rule, in addition, over the arable land
when crops were off. This right must have carried
with it a claim on the services of the village herds-
men.

(4) A right to get from the woods and wastes, wood
for firing and building and for making fences and
tools, and also turf and stone or sand and other similar
material.

(5) The right, contested perhaps by the lord of the
manor, but enjoyed nevertheless, to catch game on the
same area ; this was a great privilege when winter
food was short.

And lastly, the peasant, if fortunate, would have —

(6) A small private close for the use of his young
stock.

The plan of a manor which forms the frontispiece
of this book shows, so far as is possible, the various
features and gives the holding of a typical villein, Jack
Straw, marked in black. This manor is one containing
a single village. In it the farming is presumed to be
carried on upon the three-field system, and Jack Straw

42 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

holds, it will be observed, ten acres in each field. This
thirty-acre farm was the normal villein's holding.

The peasants, whether freemen, villeins or cotters,

must have felt that the strips of land in the open

arable fields and the lot meadows were their

Land tenure Own, and that the commons, woods and

and

the law. wastes belonged to the community, basing

their claim on ancient custom. The Nor-
man lord on the other hand, since his ancestors and
their king had conquered the land, claimed that the
soil of the whole estate was his, and that, whatever
the title of the freemen, the bondsmen, at any rate, had
no definite rights, but held their fields, as the phrase
ran, 'at the will of the lord.' The difference between
the peasantry on the one hand claiming as the de-
scendants of the original settlers, and the lords claiming
by right of conquest — a quarrel inherited in part from
Anglo-Saxon times — continued through the manorial
period and led to much friction. The law, as before
explained, recognized the freemen as having a legal
title to their land and common rights, but gave the
lord a right to enclose woods and wastes not required
by the peasantry, a right explained and defined by
the Statutes of Merton and Westminster.1 Further than
that the law supported the lord of the manor as against
the bondsmen, since until the end of the XlVth century
the national courts of justice would not, as before
mentioned, interfere to give protection to a bondsman
who was being evicted or otherwise evilly treated in
matters relating to his land holding by his lord. The
bondsman was in the eye of the law the subject of the
lord, and so interference was not logical.2 But, what-
1 See Appendix, p. 168. = But see Appendix, p. 163 (B).

THE MANOR AND THE VILLAGE 43

ever the view of the law, custom was powerful, and
the interest of the lord often went with it, for he
naturally wished to keep on good terms with the men
on whose help he relied both in peace and war. The
bondsmen's families, therefore, must have had in a
large number of cases what amounted to permanent
tenancies, the land passing, generation after generation,
from father to son.

For their holdings the peasants, whether free or
bond, rendered various agricultural services or rents.
These services and rents fall under three main head-
ings : (i) Week-work, an obligation which compelled
the peasant to work a certain number of days per week
on the lord's land. (2) Boon-work, which compelled
him to undertake special work, as, for example, carting
corn to market for the lord. (3) ' Gafol,' a tribute in
cash or kind, such as a hearth penny per year, or a
dozen eggs at Easter, or corn or honey, or young stock,
fish or fowls. Bondsmen had also sometimes to pay,
in addition, taxes at the lord's discretion.

These services and rents varied not only in the
different manors, but in the various sections of the
community. Freemen's obligations were comparatively
light, and it appears that the freeman had never to
undertake the week-work ; villeins', which were
heavier, were different from cotters', while artisans'
and herdsmen's varied from the true peasant farmers'.
Moreover, the obligations of the men of the same
section varied with their holdings. A specimen of an
Oxfordshire villein's services — a thirty-acre man — as
rendered in the XHIth century, is given in illustration.1

1 This information, which is to be found in the Hundred
Rolls of Edward I, is based on the extracts from the Rolls given
in the late Mr. F. Seebohm's invaluable book on " The English
Village Community," pp. 43-4 (Longmans).

44 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

WEEK-WORK.

Valued at

s. d.

From 2 to 3 days' work a week : a total of 122^

days' work in the year ............ 6 9

BOON-WORK.

Six days' special work with one man ...... i o

One day's reaping with two men, food provided o 2
' Half a carriage ' for carrying wheat and the

same for carrying hay ............ o 2

Ploughing and harrowing one acre ...... o 6

A ploughing called 'graserthe' ......... o i£

One day's harrowing of oatland ...... o i

Making a quarter of malt ............ o i

One day's washing and shearing sheep ... o o£

One day's hoeing ............... o o£

Three days' mowing ............ o 6

One day's nutting ............... o o£

One day's carrying to the stack ......... o o£

Total

s. d.
GAFOL.— Horse load of wood o o

TAXES. — Tallage : once a year at the lord's will.

It will be seen from this example that the gafol
or tribute was not very heavy ; indeed the claim on
the man's time was everywhere the most serious
demand, especially at harvest, when there must often
have been a struggle between the bailiff and the men
for the labour necessary to get in the crops. But apart
from these special times the bondsman could hardly
as a rule have been greatly overworked, for though
he certainly laboured for long hours in the summer
the Church saw that he had his Sundays and saints'

THE MANOR AND THE VILLAGE 45

days free ; and saints' days were so numerous that he
must have had on an average one ' holyday ' a week.

The bondsmen of the second rank, the cotters, either
held a plot of land with their cottage or else a few
acres, averaging perhaps five, in the common field.
These men differed from the villeins in that it was rare
for them to have oxen, but they certainly had other
stock, and held with their land the usual rights over
the commons, woods and wastes, though they do not
seem to have shared in the lot meadows. Their services
were less in amount than those of the villeins. For
example, a Cambridgeshire cotter holding an acre of
land, was only bound to provide his manorial lord
with a hen at Christmas and five eggs at Easter, and
to do a day's work on Monday in each week ; whilst
if Monday happened to be a festival he was freed for
that day from his obligation.

The herdsmen, ploughmen, etc., rendered for their
land services in looking after the stock, or in ploughing
the land or in performing similar duties ; whilst the
artisans would pay by work done in their crafts or
trades.

The character of the bondsmen's tenure, and the
services, whether traditional or imposed by Norman
lords, were as time went on entered in
records*1 manorial records. The recording of titles
was of benefit to those tenants who had
better rights than the mere holding * at the will of the
lord ' ; for their rights were set down on their entry into
their holdings, and it became a custom towards the middle
of the XHIth century to supply the tenant with a
copy of the record of such entry or 'admission.' These
men so supplied with a copy of the record are later on

46 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

described as copyholders. But the recording of services
was looked on with suspicion by the peasantry. They
could, indeed, have had very little voice in preparing
these records and must have constantly doubted their
accuracy. It is interesting to note that in the rising in
1381 the manorial records were, we are told, constantly
searched for and destroyed by the peasants.

In considering the position of all the peasants below
the rank of independent farmers, it is important to

remember that their serfdom involved them
Serfdom and • • «_•_»• TM

the restric- m manv serious restrictions. These men

tions which were at that time astricted : they belonged
accompani< tQ ^ estat6j so tjlat a bondsman had no

right to leave the manor in which he lived
without the lord's consent. Indeed, so long as the lord
depended on forced labour for the cultivation of his
land, for which he in his turn had to provide some
form of rent or tribute, or render services to the king
or to his feudal superior, he could not very well allow
the villeins and cotters, the workers on his land, to
leave at their pleasure ; he might then soon be
without labour to work his land, and thus unable
to discharge his own duties and obligations. Men did,
however, arrange to leave in some cases, and then a
special tax called * chevage,' which took the form of
either a lump sum down or an annual payment, had
to be provided. It was this right to keep the man in
the manor, combined with the right to his labour, that
made him a serf, and the manor, even if it were a home
for the bondsman, was in some sense also a prison.
Moreover, the lord had control over the peasantry
and their sons and daughters in other ways ; for
example, before the marriage of a daughter, and some-

THE MANOR AND THE VILLAGE 47

times before that of a son, the lord's consent had to
be obtained and a fine called 'merchet' paid. In
various manors there were other claims, as, for example,
a sum might have to be paid on the lord giving per-
mission for a son to be educated for the Church, or
a fine rendered on the sale of an ox, a calf, or a nag,
or on a peasant entering into the land of his predecessor,
whilst on the death of a peasant, in some places,
the best beast on the land was claimed under the
title of a c heriot.' Again, in some manors the lords
seem to have secured the right of wardship, which gave
them the control of land during the minority of a peasant
owner. All these claims, taken together, amounted in
many villages to a considerable burden. But in others,
especially those under the king or under the Church,
the burdens would be light and life would be freer
in its character.

Ultimately, as generations passed, the various
arrangements between the lord and the peasants, both
freemen and bondsmen, were modified ; the so-called
4 customs ' or rules of the manor changing from time to
time as conditions changed. Payments in kind were in
many manors altered to money payments, and the
claims on the man's labour became less of a personal
character — it was sufficient for the peasant to provide a
labourer, and not necessary for him to work himself.
Concurrently, labour services tended in many manors
to be converted into money rents. As these ties were
weakened, the bondsmen became freer. But at times,
when there was a shortage of labour, the bailiffs were
inclined to go back to the old customs and demand
forced labour : and so in most manors a long struggle
went on, lasting with intervals of peace from one
generation to another, until at last, as will be seen

48 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

later, serfdom and forced labour disappeared and
irritating conditions were done away with. As these
changes came about the manor lost its position as a
controlling element in English rural life, and the village
life readjusted itself to new conditions.

CHAPTER IV
THE GROWTH OF FREEDOM

THE XlVth century was a period of much disorder
and of rapid change. From its commencement men's
minds seem to have been touched by a
national strong desire for freedom. Moreover, as the
events : years passed, new ideas and new conditions

(2) piagries, of life spread through the villages as an
tions(3) agita outcome °f tne great historic events that

marked the progress of the century.
These events were four: (i) the wars; (2) the plagues ;

(3) the religious and social reform agitations ; and

(4) the Peasant Revolt of 1381. Of these the first
three, belonging as they do to the national life that
lay outside the village boundaries, will be dealt with
separately and at once.

During almost the whole of this century England
was at war, first with Scotland and later with France.
Many villagers must have been drawn away to fight in
these wars, and this could not fail to cause want of
labour, both on the peasants' fields and on the lord's
land. At the same time money was needed for the
expenses of war, and heavy taxation was imposed.
Much of this taxation would fall directly on the lords
of the manors, who would have in their turn to extract
it from the peasantry, and there must have been
constant negotiations in reference to this question

5 49

50 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

between the lord's bailiff on the one side and the
village community on the other. As an outcome of
such negotiations, in return either for cash down,
urgently needed for war expenses, or for settled annual
payments, arrangements were made for freeing the
peasants from obligations, whether week-work, or
boon-work, or fines paid on the sale of stock, on
marriage of daughters or on leaving a manor. With
the wars, unsuccessful as they were, came also dis-
satisfaction and general disorder throughout the
kingdom, with a gradual weakening of the discipline on
which the manor depended.

Several very serious epidemics spread throughout the
country in the XlVth century, but by far the worst
was the Black Death, which attacked Britain in the
years 1348-1350. Coming from Asia, it swept across
Europe from east to west, devastating the countries
through which it passed. Crossing the Channel, it
spread throughout England. Perhaps half the people
died. When the plague had passed away, a new
problem had arisen. Instead of men wanting work,
everywhere there was work wanting men, and land
wanting labour.

In the history of the religious and social reform
agitations, which took place in the latter half of the
century, two persons stand out as conspicuous figures —
Wycliffe and John Ball : the former stood for religious,
the latter for personal and economic freedom. Not
very much is known about either of them. Wycliffe,
who lived from about 1325 to 1384, was probably first
a Fellow and later Master of Balliol College, Oxford.
He was a man of considerable personal charm, of
independent views and of strength of character, who
attained great prominence in both the religious and

THE GROWTH OF FREEDOM 51

political life of the time. He vigorously attacked the
extravagance of the prelates and aristocratic rectors,
and urged that the Church should surrender its wealth
and temporal authority. At the same time he main-
tained that power and dominion in spiritual matters
rested with God alone, and that everyone had within
himself the spiritual inspiration necessary for his
guidance. In the latter years of his life, just before and
after the Peasant Revolt, he spread his views by his
books, speeches and pamphlets, whilst an order of
poor preachers, ' simple priests ' as they were called,
went through the towns and villages, preaching his
gospel of spiritual freedom ; they based their teaching
directly on the Bible, which Wycliffe himself translated
into English. His followers were called Lollards, or
babblers, and towards the end of the century they
abounded everywhere. Unlike Wycliffe, John Ball
seems to have been of the people, and to have addressed
himself in the main to social problems. He was a
priest, who, during the years that intervened between
the Black Death and the Peasant Revolt, spent much
of his time wandering through the South of England,
preaching in churchyards and by roadsides the
doctrines that five hundred years later were revived
under the title of Christian Socialism. The pith of his
teaching is comprised in an oft-quoted sentence, " They
(the lords) have pleasure and fine houses : we (the
peasants) have pain and labour, the wind and the rain
in the fields : and yet it is of us and our toil that
these men hold their state." He taught, in fact, that
the fruits of labour belonged to the labourer, and looked
to the blotting out of the manorial lords, and the
lawyers and other classes who depended upon them.
His views were certainly out of favour with the author!-

52 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

ties, for he was three times imprisoned by the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury for his indiscreet utterances, and
at least once excommunicated ; after the failure of the
Peasant Revolt he was hanged, drawn and quartered.

In this time, when few could read, ideas were largely
spread by the repetition of ballads, rhymes and pithy
sayings. It was this custom that gave influence to
William Langland, whose poetic writings show wide
sympathies and great imaginative power and under-
standing of human life as he saw it. Langland, who
seems to have been a Shropshire man, held a subsidiary
position in the Church, making his living, apparently,
by singing psalms for the souls of men. His best
known work, describing a vision relating to Piers the
Plowman, written about 1362, includes many wonderful
pictures of the life of his time. Incidentally, Langland
proffers much advice to members of the various classes
of society with whom the poem deals. Addressing
" labourers landless, that live by their hands," the men
who " must highly be hired, or else he will chide," he
advises them to make the most of their present advan-
tage, which he realized would not be permanent : —

" I warn you, ye workmen, to win while ye imy ;
For Hunger now hither ward hastens full fast."

To the manorial lord or knight he asks for justice for
his tenant : —

" O'ertax thou no tenant, save Truth will assent !
And though thou amerce them let mercy be taxer ! "

And later, in the same strain, he writes : —

" Beguile not thy bondman, the better thou'lt speed ;
Though under thee here, it may happen in heaven
His seat may be higher, in saintlier bliss."

Langland's political economy differed from that of John

THE GROWTH OF FREEDOM 53

Ball in that he gave a place in his social scheme for
the lords and priests. If the knight would protect him
and his land, Piers says definitely : —

"I will sweat in thy service, and sow for us both."

To the true priests and monks Piers also promised
support : —

" They shall bread have and broth, and abide at their ease,
For religion, in reason, hath somewhat for certain."

Langland's lines must have been in everyone's mouth,
and have had their effect in stirring men's imagination.

Turning from the wars, the plagues and the
religious agitations which combined to unsettle life in
this century, the changes that belong to
fe. tne villages themselves have to be con-
sidered. Even before the beginning of the
century the marked tendency already referred to,
towards commuting the many obligations of the
peasants for money, had had its effect in many districts.
Definite changes had occurred in Bedfordshire and in
Buckinghamshire, in both of which counties the yard-
land, that is, the farm of thirty or so scattered acre
strips, with the rights that went with it, was, at the
beginning of the XlVth century, subject to a rent of
between i6s. and 2Os. a year or 'to services of that
value.' In other counties similar arrangements were
undoubtedly being made. It became, indeed, more
and more common for the old customs to be set aside
and for the peasant farmers and cottagers to hold their
land subject to the payment of definite money rents.
In this way many bondsmen were freed from their
obligations and passed into the class of rent-paying
tenants of the manor. It should be clearly understood

54 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

that these peasants, although they paid rent, were not
in the position of a modern leasehold tenant. They
held their land on terms founded on the local custom
and were generally in practice permanent tenants,
while their rents did not represent the economic value
of the land, but the value of the old customary services
or obligations under which it had been held.

While these changes in the social position of the
peasants were gradually going on, the lords of the
manors were themselves introducing other new condi-
tions. There was more sheep farming for wool, for
which at that time there was an increasing demand ;
and a custom was also growing up of letting off part of
the home farm and sometimes part of the waste, either
stocked or otherwise, on leases for lives or for a term of
years at rents representing the true annual value of
the land.

Undoubtedly, by the middle of the XlVth century
there were many manors in which, although the open
fields were still divided and managed as before, yet
they would be held by peasants paying money rents,
whilst the home farm might be worked by paid labour
or let at money rents, or, perhaps, employed in sheep
farming.

In the midst of this time of change came the Black
Death, from which arose quite definite results in village

life. Much land, of course, fell out of culti-
Deat^and the vat^on temporarily or permanently, and so
land and there might be for a year or two a shortage
difficulties °^ w^eat, rye and other corn. On the other

hand, the live stock would be greatly in
excess of the needs of the reduced population and
would go far to provide the needed food. At the same

THE GROWTH OF FREEDOM 55

time private savings and property vested in the parish
or any village gilds that there might be, would, when
shared amongst a reduced population, tend to bring
to the individuals who had survived the plague an
increase of wealth. The villagers who were left alive
were doubtless in a better position after the Black
Death than they had been before. The lord of the
manor on the other hand was in a very difficult posi-
tion. He depended on the labour of the peasants,
whether forced or paid for, and on their rents or
services. Many of the peasants were dead, and the
land of the dead, and such of the stock as had been
leased with it, were, unless there were heirs to take it
over, upon the lord's hands. Many of the free labourers
upon whom he might have relied to cultivate his land
were also dead. The lords of the manors had therefore
much land on their hands and few to cultivate it, whilst
their flocks and herds were in some cases wandering
untended over the estate.

Bailiffs were puzzled to find either labourers to work
or tenants to take land. It was not easy to find a
solution. The lords let some of the arable land to the
more enterprising peasants, who must have been glad
to increase their holdings, especially when they could
get land on good terms : later on, when affairs settled
down and times improved, these men must have
obtained the reward of their enterprise and become
comparatively wealthy : there were many such wealthy
peasant families in the next century. In other cases
the lords of the manors took up sheep farming, and
so avoided to a large extent the labour difficulty. But
these remedies, not being generally applied, only solved
the problem in a few places, while the want of labour
was widespread. Consequently, wages went up rapidly.

56 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

At the same time, the peasants took advantage of the
general dislocation of affairs to evade the rule of astric-
tion which bound them to their manors ; and, leaving
their villages, wandered through the land seeking for
employers in town or country who would pay higher
wages, or lords of the manors who would let them land
at a low rent. Such employers they found, especially
amongst city men of wealth, many of whom had taken
advantage of the position of the lords of the manors to
buy up estates.

The difficulties were, it will be seen, acute, and had to
be dealt with ; so the lords devised what they thought
would be a remedy. They decided to force men to
work at the old wages, and with this object secured
the issue of a royal ordinance and the passing of a
series of Acts of Parliament,1 known as The Statutes
of Labourers. " Many," we are told, " seeing the
necessity of the masters and a great scarcity of
servants," will not serve unless they receive excessive
wages ; so it was decreed that every unemployed man
or woman under sixty, not having land or property,
was bound to serve the lord or other employer who
required him or her to work, and to take only the
wages which were customary before the plague began.
The men were to appear in the market-places, tools in
hand, and undertake the work offered. The old rule
whereby the tenants were attached to their manors was
re-enforced by statute, and those who wandered about
the country were to be treated as fugitives from justice
and subjected to imprisonment and branding. This
is the general outline of this series of statutes ; and
although the laws were often evaded, they definitely
set the men against the lords and were one of the causes
1 See Appendix, p. 167,

THE GROWTH OF FREEDOM 57

of the struggle which lasted to the close of the century.
At the same time such of the farming peasantry as
remained working on their land were being harassed in
other ways. Although the details of the questions at
issue between manorial lords and their tenants are not
very definitely understood, there were certain questions
well suited to cause controversy. It was clearly to the
lords' advantage to enforce, whenever possible, the old
custom of work on the land instead of money rents,
and thus secure the labour that was needed. Such a
demand for forced labour, when made, would have been
a fruitful source of quarrel, for the peasant farmers
throughout the country must have known that in many
districts their fellows had obtained their freedom from
their obligations, and must have been stirred by the
knowledge to secure such freedom for themselves. More-
over, there was another grievance ; such of the larger
farmers as needed labour could not in practice have
got the benefit of the Statutes of Labourers, which were
so framed as to give the lords the first claim on
the labour of the unemployed. Finally, the two classes,
the labourers and the peasant farmers, both of whom
appear at this time to have improved their position and
become better off than they had been in the earlier
centuries, made common cause against the manorial
lords ; and for thirty years or so following the Black
Death there were riots, strikes and other disorders,
amounting almost to a class war.

This thirty years' controversy, which culminated in
the revolt of 1381, has many interesting features. Men
like the English peasants of that time, whether farmers
or labourers, belonging as they did to a class that had
co-operated in their work and their pleasure from the

58 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

earliest times, would have had little difficulty in organ-
izing themselves for the purposes of this struggle.

Nothing definite is known of their organi-
The thirty zation, though there are occasional refer-
struggie. ences in contemporary records to a 'Great

Society/ Possibly the organization of the
craft gilds may have been utilized ; undoubtedly the
village artisans or craftsmen, such as the millers, tilers
and carters, most of whom would have been gildsmen,
took a leading part in the rising of 1381. In any case,
in those days it would be easy to find in a village
men with special capacity for organization. Such men
would come quickly to the front. It is, indeed, riot too
much to assume that, in the years that preceded the
revolt of 1 38 1, there was someone in most villages in
the South and East of England who corresponded to
the trade union secretary of the somewhat similar
movement which took place under Joseph Arch, five
centuries later. There were, at that time, plenty of
inspiring ideas outside the general struggle for better
conditions of life. The ideal of a free community
without riches or poverty, was at the back of John
Ball's preaching, and many songs and sayings passed
from mouth to mouth emphasizing the same point of
view. The English translation of the Bible perhaps
also gave new thoughts to the people illustrative of this
teaching.

In the middle of this turmoil and disorder a
new blow was struck at the peasants. In the winter
of 1380-81 the government, who were in great want
of money, decided to levy a poll tax of a shilling a
head on the whole population over fifteen, beggars
only being excepted. This tax hit the village people
especially hard through its method of collection.

THE GROWTH OF FREEDOM 59

Every township or vill had to provide a definite sum
calculated at the rate of is. a head on the taxable
population, but between the various inhabitants of the
district the tax was graded in amount according to
the wealth and position of the taxpayer ; no one, how-
ever, paying for himself and wife more than a pound
or less than a groat. In a poor township or vill
every man or woman over fifteen had therefore to find
a shilling, since there would be no rich to bear the
brunt of the taxation by larger contributions. This
must have struck the people as extremely unfair. The
villagers found their way out of the difficulty and
seemed, as a rule, to have persuaded the village con-
stables— the officials who had charge over the collection
— to send in false returns of the number of inhabitants.
This practice was so widespread that the returns for
many counties showed a remarkably small number of
adults subject to taxation. The government soon
realized what had happened, and in the month of March
a fresh levy was made.

This sordid quarrel about the taxation, coming on
the top of all the other wrangles, brought matters to
a head, and in the late spring of 1381 the
7116 men of the villages revolted. Putting aside

Revolt. their work, they deserted their little farm-

houses and cottages, and leaving their
wives and children to labour, came drifting up
the lanes, joining with others until their numbers
mounted up to hundreds and to thousands. And as
they came they must have talked of the troubles of
the past and of the days that were coming, when the
old common life would be revived and there would be
no lords or bailiffs to make claims on their labour, and
all would live happily.

60 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

Although there were scattered risings in a large
number of counties, the main revolt of the country
people took place in Kent, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk and
Cambridgeshire, in which counties the movement was
widespread and well organized. At first the rising
appears to have been free from any great excesses,
the peasants themselves must have been of a naturally
orderly character ; but the discontented and degraded
people of the nation appear to have collected around
the peasant bands, therefore it is not surprising that
before the revolt was over there was much sacking and
burning of houses and killing of innocent men.

In the early days of the revolt the men of Kent, led
by Wat Tyler of Essex and John Hales of Mailing,
took the lead. They promptly occupied Canterbury,
liberated John Ball, who was in the archbishop's prison,
and then marched on London. Such lawyers as they
caught on their way were put to death, stewards' houses
were burnt and the manorial records of their hated
obligations were destroyed. The men reached London
and entered the city without opposition. Indeed the
city craftsmen and some, at least, of the leading
citizens seem to have been on their side. Meanwhile
the Essex men had concentrated at Mile End, and
the Hertfordshire men, under William Grindecobbe, at
Highbury and St. Albans. London was substantially
in the hands of the peasant forces. The boy king,
Richard II, v/ho had already attempted to address the
Kentish contingent from a boat on the river, pro-
ceeded on a Friday in June to Mile End, where he
made to a large assembly consisting mostly of Essex
men, certain definite promises. Serfdom would be
abolished, services and obligations set aside and all
holders of land were apparently to become free tenants

THE GROWTH OF FREEDOM 61

paying a fixed annual rent to their manorial lord.
Subsequently he issued charters bestowing freedom
and amnesty, and presented banners to the leaders as
a token of his approval. His promises, circulated
throughout the peasant forces, sent many home happy
and satisfied. They were, they thought, to be free men,
and to have permanent tenancies at a fixed rent.
However, the more disorderly section of the people
remained in London, and the sacking of houses and
the killing of innocent people went on all that day
and night. On the following day Wat Tyler was
killed, on the occasion of an interview with the king
at Smithfield where he had submitted fresh demands,
and the crowd was dispersed by a contingent of the
king's soldiers.

The rising, so far as it centred in London, was now
practically over and the peasants were hurrying back
to their homes, when the young king, acting doubtless
on his ministers' advice, repudiated his promises of
freedom and sent out men-at-arms on a mission of
repression throughout the country. The peasants
showed little fight, though one strong contingent col-
lected at the edge of the woods at Billericay in Essex ;
they were, it seems, completely beaten, and are said
to have lost 500 men. Events somewhat similar to
those that took place in and around London, occurred
throughout East Anglia, and where risings took place
promises were given and many charters were issued.
But in no cases were the promises acted upon. The
policy of repression was adopted everywhere, and those
of the peasants who showed fight were overwhelmed
by the better armed forces of the king or his retainers,
or of the local nobles or bishops who organized forces
for the suppression of the risings.

62 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

Parliament, convened in the following winter, sup-
ported the royal repudiation : the bondsmen were, in
the view of this authority, the 'goods of the lords
of the manors/ and such they must remain. But, in
coming to this decision, judgment was tempered with
mercy, for with some exceptions it was decided to
grant an amnesty to those who had taken part in
the movement.

The Peasant Revolt was a remarkable movement ;
never before or since has the English peasantry com-
bined on so large a scale or been so well and success-
fully led. They were defeated by a political ruse —
promises of freedom and reform, only made to be
repudiated at the first convenient moment. The
results were therefore slight in proportion to the
character of the rising.

It is true that personal freedom was ultimately
attained, but the change came slowly ; indeed, serf-
dom continued in many villages until the
reiSn of Elizabeth> and occasionally to a
far later date. Another of the peasants'
proposals, the appropriation of Church land, was not
dealt with for many generations, whilst the peasants
failed to secure what was perhaps their most important
object, the general commutation of services and the
institution of permanent tenancies at a fixed rent. Had
the peasants succeeded throughout England as a whole
in obtaining this particular demand, permanency of
tenure would have been secured. As a result, the loss
of land that accompanied enclosures in the following
centuries could hardly have occurred, and the creation
of a mass of destitute and landless people might
have been avoided.

THE GROWTH OF FREEDOM 63

Peasant life of the old style, already beginning
to decay in the XlVth century, had its peculiar
features of which it is desirable to obtain
some general impression, before proceeding
to consider the reconstruction of rural
England that began in the later years of that century.

The peasantry, who formed the bulk of the nation,
lived a hard life and were occasionally the victims
of great disasters, famines, plagues and devastating
armies. But there is little reason to believe that the
life was degraded : the peasants, indeed, lived in close
touch with nature, and from nature they derived not
only a certain breadth of vision but a definite religious
outlook on life. This outlook accorded with the
position held in those days by the Church, a body
powerful not only in spiritual but in material matters.
In the village the Church was represented by the priest,
a man who had much work to do outside his religious
duties. Not only had he land to cultivate, but much
public business fell to him. He took a leading part
in the parish meetings and other forms of local
government, worked with his parishioners in the gilds,
if such there were, and in the organization of amuse-
ments and social life ; relieved poverty with a share
of the tithes or other dues that came into his hands,
and generally kept in close touch with the peoples'
lives. Sometimes he himself belonged to the peasant
class, and in few cases could he have been much above
it, for the aristocratic rector, though not unknown,
must have been a rarity. The Church was also repre-
sented by the great monasteries and the prelates,
controlling as landholders a large part of the country-
side : they had a widespread influence even beyond
their own estates, through the help they gave in the

64 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

relief of sickness and of poverty, and their power to
protect the people from oppression.

The villager had much social life and many duties
outside the cultivation of the land. As a member
of the village gild he would have a part to play in
helping the priest in his care of the poor and sick ;
he helped, with funds, members on pilgrimage and
welcomed them on their return, and when death came
to any member, he provided prayers for the soul. The
gilds would arrange a religious and social meeting
on the day of the patron saint of the village church,
to which all the population would come ; and might also
organize plays and pageants. The peasant had too
his public duties, his village meetings and the courts
of the manor to attend, and he might be called to local
hundred and other courts. He had also to see that
the customs of the manor were enforced and the land
kept in cultivation. He would probably at some time
in his life have to act as a reeve, or a constable, or as
a foreman of the fields or other official, and at any time
he might be called off from work on his own or the
lord's land to repair bridges or fortresses, or perhaps
to fight for his lord, either in some petty quarrel or
in the nation's wars.

Although the rule of astriction tied men to the
manors, most of the young men of the peasant class
must have made an opportunity to leave their homes in
search of adventure. Many evaded lord and bailiff and
slipped away without leave, others left their homes on
military duties or on a pilgrimage by leave of the
Church. Men who had once got beyond the manor
boundary must have wandered as fancy took them
from place to place, meeting many strange travellers on
the strips of rough grass land that at that time served

THE GROWTH OF FREEDOM 65

as roads. The king himself was constantly moving
about with his retainers, in order to visit and draw
supplies of provisions and tribute from various parts
of the country. Abbots, bishops and nobles journeyed
from manor to manor, and such great men must have
had numerous followers. Pedlars, musicians and
beggars tramped from fair to fair, taking markets,
perhaps, on their route : hermits were settled in way-
side huts, and not only priests but robed monks and
friars were to be met with on the road.

For those countrymen who had no love of adventure
and did not wish to go far afield there were — at least —
markets and fairs to attend. The villages were largely
self-supporting, and there was no great amount of
national trade such as we have to-day ; but market
centres were numerous, and many great and important
fairs were held annually throughout England under
the protection of the king, of the Church or of some
great layman owning trading rights. Market day was
an occasion for social meeting even in the XlVth
century, and all the village must have gone to the fairs.

It will thus be realized that whilst the life differed
greatly from the life of to-day, it must have been full
of interest ; it obtained too a special character owing
to the democratic and co-operative spirit that prevailed
amongst the people, and influenced not only their
work on the land but also their social life and public
duties.

PART II

(ABOUT 1381-1820)
THE RECONSTRUCTION OF RURAL LIFE

CHAPTER V
CIVILIZATION AND ITS EFFECT ON RURAL LIFE

IN the Middle Ages statesmen looked to the land for
the provision of food for the nation and for the breed-
ing of a race of men able to fight for their

lords and for the kin- But from the XVth

century the breeding of men became, by
degrees, a secondary matter, for there was less and less
fighting for the peasantry to do. And at the same
time money and the accumulation of wealth began
more and more to influence men's minds. As a result,
a large part of the life of the country-side, like the
life of the rest of England, has been gradually recon-
structed on a commercial basis. Modern civilization
has come to us through the channels of commerce.

Broadly speaking, the changes in rural life that have
so come are these. In the first place, the restrictions
affecting the lives and the work of the
peasantry continued to disappear ; and by
degrees the bondsmen attained complete
personal freedom.

66

CIVILIZATION AND ITS EFFECT 67

The peasant farmers so freed lost ground in another

direction : they lost their hold on the land. The old

manorial tenant, the bondsman, although

custom* by ne nad no legal rights enforceable in the

replaced by national courts, had nevertheless a real grip

leaseholders. if -i v j .« - i /•

on the soil ; but during the period of

reconstruction the copyholders and other customary
tenants were largely squeezed out, to be replaced by
farmers who took land on annual tenancies or on leases
for lives or for years, holding on a less continuous tenure
than the old peasant families.

Concurrently, the number of hired labourers, a
very small body in early days, increased considerably,

and from the XlVth century onward the
labourers agricultural labourer has formed a definite

class in rural life.

Another change of great importance came about on
the appropriation and re-arrangement of land through

what are called enclosures. As used in
Enclosures— rural history, the word 'enclosure' indicates

the enclosing of the land within new boun-
daries, when any part of an estate is converted from
property subject to common control or common use
to private ownership : it contains the two ideas : the
fencing in of the land and the withdrawing of it from
a common use. Enclosures are responsible for the
dividing up of the land into fenced fields, parks and
woods, such as we see to-day. Enclosure has been
going on since the earliest times, and is still occurring
in a few places. In the XlVth century it certainly
became a common practice. These enclosures have been
carried out in many ways and have had many different

68 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

results ; but whatever the process employed, the rights
of future generations have been, with rare exceptions,
ignored. In old days, children born into a village com-
munity had prospective rights in the arable and the
commons, and were in that sense property owners : but
after enclosure, such children had lost such prospects,
they started life lower on the social ladder.

Whilst enclosures impoverished a class in one direc-
tion, they appear to have enriched England in another.

Especially was this so in the XVIIIth
-—and the century, when the * new agriculture ' ac-
cuttun?ri companied the enclosures. With it came

improved cattle, sheep and other live stock,
greatly increased crops of corn, widespread use of
turnips and other roots and of clover and similar grasses,
the development of labour-saving machinery and, as
a result, a remarkable increase in the productivity of
the land. The outcome was not, as in some other
countries, market gardening and small holding by little
men, but farming by big farmers holding from hundreds
to thousands of acres of land.

The position of the Church and its relation to
country life also altered in these centuries. In the

XVth century many prelates and parsons
The Church, were carried away by the new commercial

spirit, and some even took an active part
in commerce. There was much extravagance and
some arrogance and neglect of spiritual duties. The
estrangement between the Church and the people thus
created made it possible for Henry VIII and
Edward VI to appropriate, without a national protest,
much of its wealth. The Church then ceased to be the

CIVILIZATION AND ITS EFFECT 69

greatest landowner of the country and was replaced by
numerous private holders. At the same time this loss
of wealth compelled it to relinquish much of its work of
relief of poverty ; this responsibility for the poor was in
part taken up by private individuals and by voluntary
associations such as the gilds : whilst later, when the
voluntary method failed, the legislature intervened to
create the 'poor law,' which put the responsibility on
the nation. Meanwhile another change — in the direction
of independence of thought — took place in the religious
life, culminating in the movement with which the
Puritans were associated in the XVI Ith century. This
was followed by the foundation of the Nonconformist
movement, which stood outside the Anglican Church,
and from that time onward the villages of England have
been divided into two religious camps.

Concurrently with these changes came alterations in
government. From the XlVth century onwards that
section of the upper classes which consisted
Local and of the old landholding families, recruited by
government. tne town merchants and lawyers, have had
a growing influence in English public life.
After the fall of the Stuarts, this influence increased
and this section of society was able to gather into its
own hands the administration of Parliament, of rural
local government, administered in quarter and petty
sessions, and of rural justice.

The new forms that government took were accom-
panied by new work and responsibilities, and at the
same time methods of taxation and rating were revised
and put on the basis that prevails to-day.

Although the county gentry in their sessions con-
trolled the general administration of county affairs,

70 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

the village communities, gathered together under the
title of the parish, maintained their position, and were,
in the XVIth century, given a clear status when they
were made definitely responsible both for the roads
and for the administration of the poor law. These
two questions assumed an increasing importance as
time went on, and gave the parish officials much work
to do, until their transference to new authorities in
the XlXth century.

(The decay both of the manorial system and the
feudal organization that stood above it, and the intro-
duction of the commercial point of view,
New people developed a new style of countryman, who
features. verv gradually replaced the old type. The
lord, the governor of the manor, was re-
placed by the squire, the peasant gave way to the
farmer,)and the village craftsman lost ground through
the competition of the artisans and shopkeepers of
the country towns : dealers obtained an increased
importance, and where they aided their business by
money-lending, became a strong influence in country
life : whilst, of course,^ the labouring class grew. ] At
the same time England ceased to be primarily an
agricultural country, and trade and manufacture
became the main national interest.

fr wo incidents that occurred in Tudor times —
the breakdown of the system of entails and the dissolu-
tion of the monasteries — brought, for the first time in
English history, a very large amount of land into the
market, and although the old system of vesting land in
families was practically reconstructed by the lawyers,
two hundred years later, by their ingenious system of
land settlements, buying and selling of land became and

CIVILIZATION AND ITS EFFECT 71

has remained a regular practice. Indeed, the soil of
England has become the private property of individuals,
and as such, within certain limits, a marketable com-
modity.)

(Enclosures and the development of agriculture were
accompanied by the gradual spread of a certain sort of
order. Many rough woods were cut down, swampy
lands drained, commons ploughed up and put under
cultivation. The new fields had their clearly defined
boundaries, new hedges were planted, and old ones
were tidied up, ditches were cleaned out, farm tracks
improved, j At the same time, large and beautiful
mansions for the squires, better rectories and vicarages,
substantial houses and better buildings for the farmers,
have appeared in all parts of England. Finally the
roads began to improve : but it took a long time for
this change to come ; indeed, the roads of the old type,
the strips of grass land patched and mended here and
there by the parishes, were still the rule throughout
England in the XVII Ith century. In that century,
however, hard roads of modern character, running
between their grass borders, began to appear in
various parts of England. For such roads, few in
number, the specially formed bodies called Turnpike
Trusts were responsible. It was not until the XlXth
century that really good roads began to prevail in
England.

All the movements referred to in this chapter spread
throughout England by degrees, the commercial spirit
alone growing steadily. The other changes came
irregularly.

With the spread of these new movements came
two striking features of the social life — great wealth
and great poverty — the twin children of our modern
civilization.

CHAPTER VI

FROM THE PEASANT REVOLT TO THE DAYS OF
THE STUARTS

WHEN the peasantry returned to their small farms
after the great rising of 1381, the old struggle between

their class and the lords of the manors was
Changes that undoubtedly renewed in many of our
revolt6 English villages. The fixing of wages

continued arid was ultimately entrusted to
the justices of the peace,1 who retained this power until
the beginning of the XlXth century, although it was
rarely exercised in later years. The lords' attempts to
keep the peasants in their manors and to exact labour
on the lord's land instead of money rents was, it is
thought by some authorities, renewed in some parts of
England, though in other places the commutation of
services for cash payments continued. On their side,
the peasants organized strikes, whilst other disorders
took place in various parts of the country. On certain
points the peasants lost ground : a statute — the first of
the many game laws2 — passed in 1389, laid it down that
no one who did not own lands worth 40$. a year was
' to keep a dog to hunt, or use ferrets, netts, nor other
engines.' This, if and when enforced, must have meant a
very serious loss to the peasantry, for rabbits and other

1 See Appendix, pp. 167, 168. 2 Ibid. p. 171.

72

AFTER THE PEASANT REVOLT 73

game provided valuable winter food. A statute * was also
enacted directed to keeping the country people in the
country, by forbidding the apprenticeship of country
children to trades in the town ; and, about the same time,
the Universities closed their doors to the peasants'
children, and so probably put an end to the peasant
priests, a class that seems in earlier days to have taken
the side of the people in their controversies with the
manorial lords. Nevertheless, on the whole the peasants
steadily if slowly improved their position. Undoubtedly
the more intelligent of the lords of the manors, who must
have seen that it profited them little to spend their
lives quarrelling with the tenants, continued to commute
the old obligations and services for money rents, and
to deal with their estates by the new methods. Some
took up sheep farming ; others let off the home farm.
Some let off the whole manor : and we know that in
certain manors such leases were granted to the bailiffs
or to the village community as a whole. By the close
of the XlVth century the struggle was dying out,
and a new generation had arisen, imbued with new
ideas.

The period which began with the new century
divides itself naturally into two parts, the first extend-
ing up to about 1485, the beginning of the
and disorder Tudor period, and the second continuing

intnexvth from that time until the middle of the
century.

X VI ith century.

The XVth century appears to have been, on the

whole, a prosperous time for country people ; yet

there were certain strong cross currents of events that

seem inconsistent with this general condition. Un-

1 See Appendix, p. 167.

74 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

doubtedly it was a time of much disorder, whilst in
addition there were many plagues, more virulent cer-
tainly in the town than the country, and also several
years of famine, which may have been local rather than
national. It is difficult to reconcile these apparent
inconsistencies : the fact seems to be that the nation,
owing to the spread of trade, was getting rapidly richer,
and the country people, as a whole, benefited accord-
ingly. But at the same time this growth of prosperity
was checked by the disorders. These disorders were
widespread : it was not only that the Wars of the
Roses went on intermittently, but many of the great
nobles and large landowners carried on their private
quarrels by force of arms. The lawlessness of the
period had one interesting indirect effect: it gave a
special opening to those of the young men of the
villages who wished to free themselves from bondage
and secure an adventurous life. Such men, like the
' commended ' men of the Xlth century, attached them-
selves to a superior, and taking the 'livery' of some
great baron, some abbot or knight, secured * main-
tenance.' They were then of the retinue of their new
lord and were responsible to him alone ; in return they
fought for him in case of need. When, later on, these
retinues were broken up by the Tudors, a large number
of these men lost their employment and were thrust
down into the poverty-stricken class.

The peasants also fought in their own quarrels. The
Lollards appear to have fanned the flame which caused
turmoils early in the century, and there was in 1431 a
mob of peasants who combined under the leadership of
a certain Jack Straw but the principal peasant rising of
the XVth century took place under Jack Cade in 1450.
In this year the Kentish men, who were Cade's principal

THE XVTH AND XVlTH CENTURIES 75

supporters, came together in force, under the headmen
of their hundreds, to support this wild Irishman, who
to the peasants was * John Amendall.' Cade's men
gathered in the first instance at Blackheath, but with-
drew to Sevenoaks, where they defeated a royal force
sent after them. Later they returned to the neighbour-
hood of London, camping at Southwark, on the south
side of the river. Cade, who assumed the name of
' Mortimer,' rode unmolested through London and
proclaimed himself * Lord of the City ' ; but a few days
after this adventure he was beaten in a battle on
London Bridge. His followers, to whom pardon was
promised, scattered to their homes, but Cade himself
was caught and executed.

People, it is important to note, quarrelled not only in
the counties, but in the law courts, by that time con-
structed on the modern basis, and as a result many
lawyers, a new class created to plead in the new courts,
became rich.

tit was in this century that the development of
enclosures — the cutting of pieces of land out of the

manorial estate, fencing them in and con-
Enclosures, verting them to private use — went on on

such a scale as to be considered for the first
time a very serious matter. It will be clearly under-
stood that most estates were, at the beginning of
this period, still cultivated on the communal lines
already described ; peasants had, as a rule, their small
strips of land scattered over the open arable fields,
their plots in the meadowland, and their common
rights of pasturage and rights to wood for fuel
and other purposes, over the commons, woods and
wastes. i

76 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

How, then, were these rights destroyed and the
estates enclosed ? ^Enclosures were carried out in this
period (i) by definite agreement, (2) by gradual
adjustment and (3) by appropriation.)
t Enclosures by agreement occurred occasionally, when
the tenants and the lord of a manor came to a definite
arrangement for redividing and fencing in the land.
Under such an arrangement, the peasant owners of the
scattered strips gave up their holdings in order to obtain
a block of arable land, the open arable fields being, for
this purpose, rearranged and each man's strips thrown
together. The blocks of land so created were fenced in
and became the holding of the tenant, replacing his
many scattered strips. Such a process is going on
to-day at Laxton. Some portion of the commons,
woods and wastes might also be divided up, allotted to
the tenants of the arable and by them formed into fields
for pasture or even ploughed up for corn : whilst the
lord of the manor might obtain similar holdings on a
larger scale. Thus, perhaps in a single year, the open
arable fields with their many strips, the meadows and a
large part of the commons, woods and wastes might
disappear, to be replaced by fenced-in fields.

Enclosure by adjustment — a more gradual process-
was probably more usual than enclosure by definite
agreement. The tenants of the manor would in this
case exchange a strip here and a strip there, until by
degrees, in perhaps a couple of generations, the greater
part of the open arable fields and meadows would have
been rearranged into blocks, which the tenants would,
from time to time, fence in. In the same way, portions
of the commons might be enclosed, or colonized by the
tenants, without perhaps any formal agreement ; one
tenant taking a piece here, perhaps only a site for a

THE XVTH AND XVlTH CENTURIES 77

squatter's cottage, another land there, and the lord also

taking an area in to compensate him for his loss of
common rights. |

Both of these forms of enclosure produced finally the
same results, and when carried but fairly, were of benefit
to those immediately concerned. The old manorial
estate continued in a modified form and the general
character of the life was preserved. There still
remained in the village a large number of small holders
with many common interests, but |they could grow
more corn on their enclosed blocks of arable, and
their sheep and stock would do better on the enclosed
pasture.

/These two methods of enclosure, which had been
going on on a small scale since very early days, were
largely employed in the XVth century, so that, before
the end of that century, almost all of Kent, Essex,
Suffolk, Devonshire and Cornwall were enclosed,1 and
in the main in the occupation of small proprietors.

(Enclosure by appropriation, the third method, was
something entirely different. It consisted in the appro-
priation of the common pastures, woods and wastes, and
sometimes even the open arable fields and meadows,
and the very cottages of the peasants by the lords of the
manors or by other large holders of estates. As a rule,
in the XVth century, such appropriations were only
carried out on a moderate scale and were justified in
law by the Statutes of Merton and Westminster.2 If
they extended only to the taking in of a small part
out of a large area of common land, woods or wastes,
such enclosures would have little effect, for the village

1 It is suggested by some authorities that the open field system
never prevailed in parts of these counties.
3 See Appendix, p. 168.

78 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

might still have ample common land for the feeding of
the peasants' stock. But if these encroachments and
enclosures went on year by year, and the commons,
woods and wastes were greatly reduced, it might mean
ruin for the small peasant holder, whose system of
farming was such that, without his stock and his pasture
for stock, he would be beaten in his struggle for exist-
ence. He was even in worse plight when, as sometimes
occurred, a lord of the manor proceeded with one of the
great enclosures that swept away the whole of the
peasants' property, destroying even the villages, and
turning a large part, and sometimes the whole, of the
manorial estate into one great sheep farm. Such great
enclosures had begun in the XVth century, before the
reign of Henry VII, but it was not until the XVIth
century that they became so widespread as to threaten
a national disaster.^

Enclosure of the second type, by gradual adjust-
ment, was the characteristic method of the XVth
century.

(Following enclosure by agreement or adjustment, a
system of cultivation called 'convertible farming' was
adopted in some counties. Under this
method, the farmer's holding was divided
into six fields. Of these, three were set
aside for corn and farmed on the three-course system-
winter corn, spring corn and fallow ; of the other three,
one each year was allotted to the cows, another to
sheep and perhaps other stock, and the third set aside
for hay. After a certain number of years, there was an
interchange, and the arable fields were allowed to go
down to grass and the grass fields were ploughed up.
This method of cultivation, which has features in common

THE XVTH AND XVlTH CENTURIES 79

with the modern mixed farm, employed a greater
number of men than sheep farming, and also gave men
work in hedging and ditching. \

During the XVth century the manufacture of cloth
in home industries and small factories spread through-
out England, until, by the middle of the
wool trade century, it was said in Parliament that the

**<* making of cloth was 'the greatest living and

agriculture. . r ? . _,,

occupation of poor people. The weaving

shops, carried on largely in conjunction with small
farming, were widespread in the villages of Norfolk,
Suffolk, Essex, Kent and Cambridge, in the east ; in
Westmorland, Lancashire and Yorkshire in the north ;
in Sussex, Hampshire, Devonshire, Dorset and Cornwall
in the south, and also in some of the Midland Counties.
The cloth so made was eagerly bought up for export, as
English cloth had already attained a European reputa-
tion. This growth of weaving and the home industry
of spinning that accompanied it, went hand in hand
with an increase in the flocks of sheep. This increase
greatly impressed writers of the time, who constantly
refer to the enormous number of sheep to be seen in
England. Sheep farming for the sale of wool was
undoubtedly profitable, and all classes on the land
benefited. It does not follow that arable farming was
unprofitable. The government being, as a rule, sympa-
thetic to the cultivators and anxious to encourage
arable farming, legislation was directed towards keeping
corn at a fair price.1 Exportation of wheat was allowed
only when the price fell below 6s. 8d. a quarter, and im-
portation was not permitted unless it was above that
figure. This tended to keep the price uniform. Similar
1 See Appendix, p. 172.

8o ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

legislation was passed with the object of securing a
steady price for barley and rye of 35. and 45. a quarter
respectively. Uniformity of price has always been
beneficial to agriculture, since it eliminates the element
of speculation. Hop growing also extended in this
century, since the brewing of beer from malt and hops
then introduced, was beginning to oust the Anglo-Saxon
ale made of malt only.

With this prosperity and the weakening of the
manorial system, came the occasional taking over by

the more prosperous peasants of the land
Prosperity of their less successful neighbours. As a
social life. result, towards the end of the century,

instead of the typical old-fashioned village
community, consisting of two groups of peasants, one
holding perhaps, as a rule, thirty strips of land and
the other five, there were to be found not only a class
of landless men (who were doing well, for wages were
going up rapidly), but also men with holdings of all
sizes, from an acre up to a hundred or even more.
Thus was created a ladder up which men might climb.
Many of the peasants benefited by this change, and
some may have become freeholders ; but the bulk of
these successful men must have been holders of land
on the old manorial terms, copyholders as a rule,
paying a customary rent, well below the real value
of the land and standing together to maintain the
customs of their particular manor. Without being
very far from the truth, these peasant farmers may
be pictured as a burly, turbulent, good-natured, jovial
class, fighting for their old customs and using what re-
mained of the old manorial system as a bulwark against
the encroachments of the lord and the large farmers.

THE XVTH AND XVlTH CENTURIES 81

In addition to these customary tenants, other classes
were at that time rapidly increasing. On the lords'
land were the large farmers, freeholders or leaseholders,
men of substance, with great flocks of sheep, good
houses, and plenty of money in their pockets. And
again, in many villages there were to be found not only
spinning and weaving, but craftsmen and artisans carry-
ing on industries, such as worsted in Norfolk and iron
foundries in Surrey, Sussex, and Hampshire. As in-
dustries grew, traders came to the market towns
and villages to buy wool, cloth, and iron and other
materials, and cattle, pigs and fowls, corn and fruit for
the London market. Such men created a new element
in country life. The whole life was, indeed, at the
beginning of a great change: there was more enterprise,
more competition, more opportunity, and more variety.
But the changes did not come everywhere ; in the
North of England especially, where men were wanted
to fight against the Scots, the old system continued.
But on the whole the growth was rapid, and would have
been even more marked had there not been such sudden
misfortunes as plagues, famines and destruction of
crops by armies engaged in the wars or by bodies of
men retained for some private quarrel. When, towards
the end of the century, the wars and private quarrels
had died out and internal peace was being secured
under Tudor rule, it seemed as if the English peasantry
were on a broad high-road towards prosperity ; and that
England would become a country of enterprising small
holders, peasant proprietors of the type that are to be
found, even at the present day, in such places as the
Isle of Axholme, where the old system has developed
undisturbed. But, as a fact, a different fate was in store
for rural England.

7

82 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

The XVth century had brought from the towns
to the country a large number of new landlords, en-
riched lawyers and merchants. This influx continued
and increased, especially in the later years of the
century, when these men were better able
interests to secure land, since the law of entail had,

and sheep by a wai decision known as Taltarum's
farming

case,1 been so broken down that the land-
holders of the old families were more easily able to sell
their estates. There was also, at that time, (an increas-
ing number of big sheep farmers of the true agricul-
tural class!\ All these men made common cause with
the more enterprising lords of the manors to develop
the land on new money-making lines. It was this that
turned the tide against the peasantry towards the end
of the XVth century. The fact is that the demand for
English wool was increasing and, as a result, profits
from sheep walks must have been high. The bigger
men seem to have been determined to take advantage of
this position. To such men, the old-fashioned farmer
with his strips in the open arable fields, his common rights
and the manorial customs for which he stood, under
which the lord and the great landholders were limited
in the number of sheep that they could turn on to the
common, must have seemed an intolerable obstacle to
progress. So not only were the down and other lands
suitable to sheep farming appropriated and stocked with
large flocks, but, as Sir Thomas More, writing in 1515,
says : " The farmers were got rid of by force or fraud,
or tired out with repeated wrongs into parting with
their property." As a result, the ploughman was
replaced by the shepherd in many districts in England,
and the peasants were often cleared completely off the
1 Taltarum's case was decided in the year 1473.

THE XVTH AND XVlTH CENTURIES 83

land. A ballad of the day tells us of the new ' gyse '
or method : —

"Commons to close and kepe,
Poor folk for bred to cry and wepe,
Towns pulled down to pasture shepe,
This is the new gyse." l

The victims of the new gyse wandered about the
country or settled as squatters in the woods and wastes
of unenclosed manors.

During the latter years of the XVth, the greater
part of the XVIth and the first half of the XVIIth
centuries, the Council of State, which acted
'ariiament as the governing authority, was seriously
farming. concerned to prevent these appropriations,
and, at their instigation, Parliament made
many efforts to deal with them. A statute of 1514*
recounts the evils, referring especially to the throwing
of numbers of farms together, sometimes called
* engrossing,' and orders that houses are to be rebuilt,
land put again under tillage, whilst defaulters were
to forfeit one half of their land to their feudal lord.
Again, a statute, passed in 1534,3 tells how "divers
persons to whom God of his goodness has disposed
great plenty," had been pulling down the towns and
churches and devastating much of the country-side for
the purpose of sheep farming ; accordingly, "a marvellous
number of the people of this realm be not able to
provide for themselves, their wives and children, but
be so discouraged with misery and poverty that they

1 'Town,' derived from the Anglo-Saxon 'tun,' was at that
time the word commonly used to describe what is now called
the village : see Appendix, p. 163.

2 See Appendix, p. 169. 3 ibid. p. 170.

84 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

fall daily to theft and robbery or pitifully die for
hunger and cold." It appears that the flocks of indi-
vidual proprietors sometimes extended to 24,000 sheep.
The laws * passed at various times during this period
directed the rebuilding of farm-houses, the return of the
land to tillage, and especially ordered that no one
person was to hold more than 2,000 sheep ; whilst the
position of the landless men was dealt with by a statute2
of Queen Elizabeth's reign which ordered that no
cottage was to be built unless provided with at least
four acres of land. These laws were constantly evaded :
indeed, for generations there was no one to enforce
them except the justices of the peace, themselves
perhaps offenders. Flocks were divided by the holders
amongst their families and servants, apportioning 2,000
to each, a single room in a ruined farm-house was
repaired, a single furrow run across the sheep-walks.
By such means the law was easily evaded. But the
government did not accept these evasions without a
struggle : the law courts, inspired by the Council of
State, undertook to protect the tenants, wherever
possible, by giving the force of law to the customs
of a manor, while the government on various occasions
appointed commissioners 3 both to make inquiries and
to see that the law was enforced.

In some cases the peasants succumbed to the
arbitrary encroachments on their rights, and wandered
off to other manors ; in other cases, they
Dargamed for terms and got some compen-
sation when appropriations took place ; but
many independent men who were not inclined to give
way decided not to trouble law courts or government,
1 See Appendix, pp. 169, 170. * Ibid. p. 174. 3 Ibid. p. 170.

THE XVTH AND XVlTH CENTURIES 85

but to fight the question out in their own way. Some
assembled in bands, armed themselves and drove off
the enclosers, whilst others took part in the local
risings that occurred from time to time between 1530
and 1560. Of these, the most remarkable was that
which took place in Norfolk in 1549, when Robert
Ket, lord of the manor of Wymondham, and his
brother William gathered 16,000 men into a camp out-
side Norwich. He captured, and for a little while
dominated the city, whilst his men caught and hanged
on the ' Reformers' Tree ' near Wymondham landlords
whom they deemed guilty of unjust enclosure. Apart
from this extremely arbitrary action, the rising seems
to have been orderly and directed towards obtaining
definite reforms, not dissimilar from those demanded by
Tyler in the XlVth century. Ket asked first for fixed
rents, and a small fine only on transfer of land : these
two reforms together would have given fixity of tenure
to the peasant families — the dream of the tenants
of England in all generations. Further, the peasants'
common rights were not to be prejudiced by the lord
stocking the commons with his beasts and sheep ;
whilst rabbits, at that time considered a nuisance,
were to be preserved only on land properly fenced in.
Further than this Ket like Tyler protested against the
holding of land by the Church and, also like Tyler,
claimed freedom for all men. Moreover, the peasants
asked that commissioners should be appointed to ad-
minister the law on enclosures — a course, as has been
seen, subsequently adopted. The government, after some
hesitation and negotiation with Ket, decided to crush
the movement, and sent the Earl of Warwick to Norwich
with a force which was strengthened by 1,400 German
mercenaries. The peasants were easily beaten by the

86 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

trained men and scattered to their homes. The Council
of State seems to have sympathized to some extent
with the peasants, for the ringleaders, other than Ket,
were pardoned, and Ket himself was only executed on
his proudly refusing the reprieve offered him, alleging
that 'just men need no pardon/ This was the last time
that the English peasantry rose in sufficient force to
make an effective demonstration against the forces of
the king : (but local protests against enclosures con-
tinued, the most noticeable being the action of the
Diggers and the \Levellers during the first half of the
XVIIth century.)

Contemporary authorities tell a great deal of the
appropriations for sheep farming and the other troubles
and difficulties which continued well into the XVIIth
century, but the worst evils must, in the main, have
been confined to those districts where enclosures on a
large scale and sheep farming marched hand in hand.
Enclosures and the changes that accompanied them
were certainly not universal, since, at the beginning
of the XVIIIth century, it is generally supposed that
more than half of the cultivated area of England was
still farmed on the old system of open arable fields and
commons.

Rural life was greatly affected by the suppression

of the monasteries and appropriation of their manors

and other land by Henry VIII ;* he, whilst

Suppression announcing his intention of disposing of

asteries. these estates "to the honour of God and

the wealth of the nation," proceeded to sell

or to distribute them amongst his courtiers and others,

who in their turn in many cases again sold the pro-

1 See Appendix, p. 176.

THE XVTH AND XVlTH CENTURIES 87

parties. One-fifteenth part of England, some authori-
ties conjecture, so changed hands in the course of a
few years ; other writers think that far more land
was dealt with. Probably as many as eight thousand
monks, nuns and friars were at the same time im-
poverished. Their dependents involved in this cata-
strophe may have numbered ten times as many.
Eighty to ninety thousand individuals thrown, even
temporarily, out of employ in the course of a few years
must have caused much misery, suffering and poverty.
Moreover, the disappearance of the monasteries was a
blow to agriculture, for some, at least, of the monks
were good farmers, collecting information both at home
and abroad, and constantly making experiments with
seeds introduced from other countries ; whilst their
successors were, to quote Sir Thomas More, " covetous
and insatiable cormorants," who knew little about
agriculture. These new men looked to their land to
provide them with an income : they wanted to secure
money either from sheep farms or from rents. As a
result, on the old monastic land, even in those places
where there were no appropriations, the copyholders
and other customary tenants who held at fixed and
moderate rents, were often deprived of their land, and
leaseholders, at higher rents, took their places.

The increase of trade and the good profits made
by those farmers who could obtain land on reason-
Therais" a^e terms resulted, notwithstanding all the
of the troubles of the times, in the growth of

wealth. The change was marked by the
building of many fine churches and
manor houses, replacing the older simpler buildings
of a simpler time. The re-introduction of bricks

88 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

and wider use of glass gave impulse to this move-
ment. Into many of these new homes came the land-
lords from the towns, bringing with them new ideas of
luxury and comfort ; and round their houses beautiful
gardens were laid out, in which not only fruit and
vegetables, including potatoes and turnips, but many
flowers were grown. Doubtless many of the old lords
adopted these new ways. Improved farm-houses also
became common throughout England, brick and stone
replacing wood and wattle. Here lived the new lease-
holders, the small freeholders, and the more wealthy of
the copyholding peasants. These men formed the class
of yeomen, a title given at that time to the more sub-
stantial landholders below the rank .of gentlemen. In
some districts even the smaller farm-houses and cottages
appear to have improved, and both farmers and cot-
tagers, if they had the good fortune to be outside
the area of the great enclosures, attained a higher
standard of comfort. The men's food was certainly
better. We are told by Tusser, the well-known rhym-
ing writer of that time, that —

"Good ploughmen look weekly of custom and right
For roast beef on Sundays and Thursdays at night."

There were indeed from the XVth century onward a
number of farmers and labourers and village artisans
living busy, active, successful lives in comparative com-
fort. There can be no doubt of this ; indeed, the wide-
spread amusements and general gaiety that prevailed
during all this period, and especially in Elizabethan
times, show clearly that many of the villagers had
time and money to spare, and were in no sense domin-
ated by the pressure of poverty. And yet the mass
of poverty-stricken people increased, whilst the drift

THE XVTH AND XVlTH CENTURIES 89

of the country people to the towns, which had begun
in the XlVth century, continued.

As the general character of the country life slowly
changed, approaching more and more to the type that

we hear described by old villagers of to-day
Government, as existing in old-fashioned places up to the

middle of the last century, the part taken
by the people not only in central government, but
in local affairs, diminished. Until the year 1430 all
freeholders, however small their holding, could vote for
members of Parliament, and it is possible that other
persons connected with the land, even though only
leaseholders or copyholders, also took part in the
elections; but in I43O1 a law was carried through
Parliament directed against voters ' whereof every
of them pretend a voice equivalent with the most
worthy knights and esquires dwelling within the
same counties.' This act definitely limited the fran-
chise to freeholders owning land worth 403. a year.
When it is realized that forty shillings represented
about twenty-five pounds in modern money values, it
will be understood that a large section of the country
people were deprived of the vote. A corresponding
change took place in local affairs. The decay of
the common system of farming was followed by the
disappearance of many of the field juries and other
committees of management : at the same time, the
manorial courts were losing their power, and the
effective control of what manorial business remained
gradually passed into the hands either of the free-
holders or of the lord of the manor and his steward.
Further than this, the great part of the criminal and
1 See Appendix, p. 167.

90 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

other legal business transacted by the hundred and
shire courts had, by the end of this period, passed into
the hands of the justices of the peace in petty or
quarter sessions, who, established towards the beginning
of the XlVth century,1 became more and more im-
portant as time went on. A further share of judicial
business went to the high courts, which in this period
obtained an increased importance.

The justices of the peace in quarter sessions began
also to obtain definite administrative duties. In 1530-
the care of the bridges on main roads was placed in
their hands, and from that time onwards they gradu-
ally secured more and more the control of county
government. On the other hand, the parish as a civil,
rather than as a purely religious organization, the
successor of the vill,3 was emerging at that time from
under the shadow of the decaying manor. This autho-
rity, which acted through its public assembly or vestry,
as it came to be called, is found in the XVth century
enjoying considerable power in the administration of
parish affairs, including in some cases the management
of property for the village community. Later there
fell upon it the duty of repairing the roads and the
responsibility of the poor, two important matters referred
to below.

There seems to have been a tendency in mediaeval
times to include the repair of roads in the trinoda

necessitas and throw responsibility for it
Roads. on the landholders ; but this responsibility

was ill-defined and, in the XVth century,
when the growth of trade was followed by a demand
for better roads, there arose constantly a difficulty

1 See Appendix, p. 176. 2 Ibid. p. 173. 3 Ibid. p. 163.

THE XVTH AND XVlTH CENTURIES 91

in fixing the duty of road repairs on any particular
persons. Sometimes the sheriffs seem to have taken
responsibility, sometimes lords of the manor, some-
times the monasteries, sometimes private individuals.
These haphazard methods did not lead to effective
administration, and the old roads fell into further decay.
The government at last decided to lay down some
general rule. In the year I5551 a statute was passed
which definitely fixed the responsibility upon the
parishes, subject to the supervision of the justices ; and
it was further decided that the parishioners them-
selves were to do the necessary repairs. The leading
farmers were to provide carts and horses or oxen, and
the smaller holders and labourers were to give their
services. The work was to be carried out under the
direction of the highway overseer, an unpaid official.
This system never worked well, and the condition of
the roads of England remained a scandal for many
generations.

From the XVth century onwards the influence of

the Church on village life waned. This was due to a

variety of causes. The commercial spirit

toeegji<SsCl1' seems to have been accompanied by the
and poverty, decadence of religion of the old type, whilst
under its influence some parsons went
into business or concerned themselves more with the
collection of their dues than the care of their parishioners,
while others held many parishes and gave attention to
none. Monasteries, before their dissolution, were often
centres of every sort of irregularity, and personal in-
dulgence and extravagant habits took the place of
relief of the poor and the entertaining of travellers.
1 See Appendix, p. 173.

92 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

Moreover, in the Elizabethan age and the first half of
the following century the energy of the Church was,
owing to the quarrels between Presbyterians, Roman
Catholics and Anglicans, diverted from good works to
controversy.

In the XVth century much of the work of relieving
poverty that the Church had previously undertaken
had already devolved on village societies or gilds.
At that time all the men of the various trades in a
country district combined as a matter of course into
societies or gilds of their own ; there were also many
social and religious gilds, consisting not only of men,
but of ' wives ' or of * maidens.' These associations
were spread throughout the country, and were in-
fluential and important in the XVth and in the first
half of the XVIth centuries. They acted, it appears,
as savings banks, possibly lent money to members, and
by undertaking the work of sick and benefit societies
gave help to the poor. The gilds also appear to have
organized and paid the expenses of pageants and
plays, and probably arranged the games and amuse-
ments that were characteristic of the age and gave to
England its title of ' Merry England.' They kept
people together and the village alive. Unfortunately,
Edward VI passed a statute J which resulted in the
appropriation of such part of the property of gilds
as was employed in religious purposes, and some,
though not all, of these societies must have been
destroyed. It seems as if at this time the passion
for appropriation of Church property spread through-
out the country, and much of the miscellaneous
property of the parish churches passed into lay
hands. The destruction of the wealth of the Church

1 See Appendix, p. 176.

THE XVTH AND XVlTH CENTURIES 93

and the decay of the gilds left the poor in a pitiable
condition.

There was, of course, always a large number of
poor people, and in the XVth century the pauper class
probably increased when the growth of competition,
which brought some men to the front, crushed others
down. There were many broken men tramping the
country-side after the retinues of the great nobles and
ecclesiastics were disbanded in the early years of the
Tudor period, and the enclosures and appropriations
threw many men upon the roads. It is therefore not
surprising to find that in the XVIth century the country
was full of paupers and sturdy beggars. Thereupon
the government took action, and legislation was con-
stantly introduced to punish the sturdy and help the
impotent. This legislation,1 too complicated to analyse
in detail, culminated in an important statute passed in
1 60 1, the 'old poor law' of Elizabeth's reign, which
laid down rules for dealing with the poor which lasted,
with modifications, until the reconstruction that took
place in 1834. Under the provisions of this legislation,
each parish became responsible for its poor. Parish
overseers were appointed by the justices annually to
deal with the problem of poverty, and were empowered
to levy a poor rate. Pauper children were to be
apprenticed to trades, whilst able-bodied paupers were
to be set to work upon the stocks of wool, hemp, etc.,
purchased for the purpose. Upon parents and children
was thrown a responsibility to contribute towards the
expenses of their poverty-stricken relations. Houses
of correction were to be set up for those who refused to
work, and tramps were to be whipped and sent back
to their parish or their last place of ' settlement.' And
1 See Appendix, p. 170.

94 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

so it came about that the poor villager, who in the past
had relied on the casual yet kindly charity of the
Church, or of individuals or gilds, was thenceforth to be
treated, in common with tramps and sturdy beggars,
under a severe system. From that time onward the
poor, a definite and large class of rural society, were
made the victims of innumerable experiments, legisla-
tive and administrative.

CHAPTER VII
COUNTRY LIFE IN THE TIME OF THE STUARTS

^DURING the XVI Ith century the life of the country
continued in its gradual change from the old style to the
new. On the land, the open fields culti-
Continuation vatecj ty the peasant farmers of the old
change. school still predominated, whilst the en-

closed fields were, as a rule, in the hands
of more enterprising men, who employed capital and
farmed the land on a larger scale. But the essential
mediaeval features of the life had died out. Serfdom
had gone : the people were free. The lord of the manor,
in so far as he was a governor of his estate, also dis-
appeared as the feudal and military conditions died out
or were put an end to by legislation. He was replaced
by the squire, who ruled his village, so far as he did
rule it, by force of his position as justice of the peace.
Moreover, the character of the landholding population
was changing. A good deal of the land had, it should
be observed, been bought up by farmers, and as a
result it appears that in this century the peasant
proprietors and other occupying owners were more
numerous than they had been before or have been
since. These men flourished and formed the backbone
of the important 'yeoman' class. Moreover, large
buyers belonging to a different class continued to come

95

96 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

from the towns. ] One writer complains that land was
bought up by cooks, vintners, innkeepers, dancing
masters "and such trifling fellows," whilst Fynes
Morison, who wrote on this subject early in the XVIIth
century, speaks of the intrusion into the country of
" lawyers, citizens, and vulgar men." These new men
might have been ( vulgar,' but they could not fail, from
their training, to be men of business ability and when
they brought their capacity to bear on country problems,
important new developments are seen to be beginning.
In the first place the new men succeeded in reintro-
ducing a method of keeping estates in the same family
from generation to generation. The system employed
was similar in effect to that existing in mediaeval times,
but the method was new : great estates were not
subjected to the old law of entail, but were * settled,' as
it was called. Such settlements defined how the estates
were to be handed down from generation to generation
amongst the descendants of the original maker of the
settlement, and trustees were appointed to see that
these arrangements were carried out. Settlements
effectively preserved the ownership of the estates in
the large landholding families, and helped both to keep
the gentry at the top of the social ladder and to pre-
vent other classes of country people from rising. They
went far to preserve for the English country-side the
semi-feudal character that has continued up to quite
recent times. The second result of the intrusion of
the new men was also of great importance. Agri-
cultural progress began. There is not at first much
to record, but experiments began to be made ; these
experiments and information on and suggestions for
the conduct of agriculture began to be recorded
by writers of the time, of whom the most famous

LIFE IN THE TIME OF THE STUARTS 97

was Gervoise Markham. Some of these books were
widely read, but (the farmers were slow to move.
Still there was some improvement. Dry land was
irrigated, and the drainage of wet land was sometimes
undertaken. The drainage of the Fens, then a great
area of over 1,000 square miles of marsh and lake,
with islands like Ely standing out, was seriously
attempted. The work had the support of the Duke of
Bedford, who with thirteen friends initiated in 1630
a scheme for the drainage of Cambridgeshire : he
employed a Dutchman, Vermuyden, to direct the
work. Other schemes were started for the adjoining
counties. Huge canals, or 'drains' as they are called
still remaining, were cut across the county. The
schemes were only partially successful and, at the time
of the Civil War, the fen men cut the banks of the drains
and flooded much of the county. A century and a half
later the work was recommenced and carried to a
successful conclusion. In other directions there was
substantial progress. The area under apples, pears,
plums, cherries and other fruit was extended and more
hops were grown. One writer describes a poultry farm
in which a primitive form of incubator was used.
Manuring was developed and, as a result of this and
better cultivation, the yield of corn crops greatly
increased. Turnips and clover were sown here and
there on enclosed fields. Their use made it possible to
keep land under cultivation year after year, instead
of leaving it fallow every second or third year, and
from this followed in a few generations a revolution in
agricultural methods. Dairy farming was extending.
Stock was also improving in quality. Progress would
doubtless have been general had it not been for
the feeling of insecurity that came over England with

8

98 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

the acute political differences of the time. But not-
withstanding this, agriculture definitely improved, and
if the progress was not startling, it can at least be
said that the way was being cleared for the beginning
of the new agriculture which was developed in the
two centuries that followed. The labourers, how-
ever, of whom there seemed to be an increasing
number in these times, lost ground, for whilst prices
as a rule went up, wages remained at about the old
figures. J

Before dealing in further detail with the events
that belonged to the general stream of change, it
will be well to refer to two special and peculiar
events of the century, the Civil War and the Puritan
movement.

Of these the first, the Civil War, the great political
event of the century, seems, apart from the sense of
insecurity it engendered, to have had corn-

War paratively little effect on rural life. It does

not appear that the armies of either side
devastated the country to any great extent. Of course,
many men went from the villages to fight for Loyalists
or for the Parliamentarians, according to their view of the
great controversy. On the whole the squires, especially
those of the old families, were on Charles's side, and
in the early days of the struggle many of the peasants
followed the squires. On the other hand, there were
many Puritan yeomen and farmers, austere men, im-
pressed with the new religious ideas, who followed
Cromwell. But the main body of the country people
remained at home, where, driven by need and interest,
they ploughed, sowed and harvested their crops and
pursued their ordinary occupations.

LIFE IN THE TIME OF THE STUARTS 99

The spread of an aggressive form of Puritanism
which took place during this century destroyed the
boisterous good-nature of Elizabethan
Puritanism times, and broke up once for all much of
J£edBO the social life of the villages. Bull and

bear baiting and other cruel sports were
very properly stopped ; but the Puritans went further :
maypoles were pulled down and old-fashioned village
revels were suppressed, for dancing and acting were
sin. Singing was supposed to be limited to psalm-
singing, and the celebration of Christmas and other
festivals was treated as superstition. Up to this time,
Sunday, church once attended, had been a day devoted
to every sort of amusement. But government inter-
vened, a statute, in 1623, J forbade Sunday amusements,
and later all persons were expressly forbidden under
penalties to be present on * the Lord's Day ' at
any wrestling, shooting, bowling, ringing of bells
for pleasure, masques, wakes, church ales, dancing
and other pastimes. The character of Sunday com-
pletely altered. Saints' days also ceased to be holidays,
and to quote Markham, it was considered lawful 'to
be well occupied on holy days.' The ideas which
impelled this decay of social life, the encroachment
on holidays and the introduction of Sabbatarianism,
the greatest change perhaps in the country life of those
times, can be well understood by a study of Bunyan's
1 Pilgrim's Progress.' Bunyan was a man of the people
and he understood the people. The gist of his teaching
is clear enough. Put aside the things of the flesh,
and consider only things of the spirit. But who is
to be 'the Interpreter,' who shall say whether music,
song and dancing, that give joy to life, are or are
1 See Appendix, p. 176.

TOO ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

not of the spirit? The Puritan of the middle period of
the century did not hesitate. Such things were banned,
and although country people continued in many places
their amusements on weekdays, and a social revival
arose after the Restoration, the spirit of Merry England
has never been fully restored to the villages.

Apart from these two special events, the century
stands for a continual change in the general direction
of the reconstruction already outlined.

( Enclosures continued. Sometimes the small farmers
gained by this process, sometimes they lost and were
reduced to poverty, their fate varying
Enclosures. according to whether the enclosures took
the form of a fair division of land, creating
many small holdings, or an appropriation of land by the
lords of the manors and big farmers, and division into
large farms. When they lost some wandered off, as had
their predecessors in the XVIth century, to parishes
where there were still large commons and, settling down,
built cottages on the waste land and increased the
class of squatters ; others took matters into their own
hands, and joining their fellows in a band of ' Levellers '
or * Diggers,' destroyed the new hedges and filled
up the ditches, hoping thereby to bring back the land
to common use. Legislation and government inquiry
on this subject went on to the middle of the century,
since the government still viewed enclosures with some
hostility, and fines were imposed on men who had
enclosed. Common rights were, it appears, one of the
questions at issue at the time of the Civil War. Un-
doubtedly, some of the country people who took part
in the revolt against the Stuarts did so in the expectation
that the Parliamentary party would, when in power,

LIFE IN THE TIME OF THE STUARTS 101

defend their rights to their commons. After the king's
defeat, commoners are found laying their case before their
new rulers. "By virtue of this conquest over the king,"
obtained by joint effort, they claim " freedom in the
common lands," otherwise "we are," they say, "in a
worse case than we were in the king's day." It does
not seem that the Parliamentarians paid much attention
to the claims of the commoners. Indeed, in the latter
half of the century such bills as were introduced into
Parliament on the subject favoured enclosures : opinion
was not at that time so far altered as to secure
the passing of these bills, but the view of the men in
power was changing; and, from the middle of the
century onwards, the government of the country, being
largely influenced by commercial ideas and by the
arguments of the large landholders, threw its influence
on the side of the enclosers and appropriators of land.
As a result the peasantry were left for nearly two hundred
years to stand almost alone in their struggle for land
and for the independence that went with it. Accord-
ingly, enclosures went on apace, j A new method was
at that time invented by the lawyers whereby, the
approval of many of the principal people in the manor
having been obtained by persuasion or pressure, a suit
in Chancery was commenced asking for enclosure, and
an order for division of the estate made, without, it
seems probable, consulting the wishes or convenience of
the little people, whose only effective remedy was a
subsequent costly appeal to the courts. In addition, the
lords of the manor continued their enclosure of surplus
waste land. By the time of the Reformation perhaps a
quarter of England had been divided up into fenced
fields.1

1 See Appendix, pp. 164, 165.

102 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

The peasants had, in addition to the disappear-
ance of many commons, one other loss. The English

country people have always been sportsmen,
game and wmlst game killed on the commons, woods

and wastes must have been in mediaeval
times an invaluable addition to the peasant farmers'
larder. In the XlVth century it will be remem-
bered the right to kill game was limited to the 405.
freeholder. It is doubtful whether this statute was
enforced : indeed, before the time of police or game-
keepers it could hardly have been possible to prevent
the peasantry snaring hares, ferreting rabbits or netting
partridges on the great commons or in the woods and
waste land. No one could have objected very seriously to
such practices. But in the XVI Ith century new condi-
tions arose : game began to have a commercial value
since wealthy people were buying considerable quantities
of venison and other game. The class who were, as the
century closed, securing the control of the country-side
must have been fully aware of the change. They decided
to secure for themselves the sporting rights, and Parlia-
ment was persuaded to pass a statute in 1670 * laying
down the rule that no one was to kill game unless he
had a freehold estate worth £100 a. year or leasehold
property worth £150. Thus game became substantially
the property of the greater landholders.

(Enclosures have always gone hand in hand with
poverty, and it is not surprising to find that many
poor were to be found in the villages in
tnis century while vagabonds were wan-
dering all over the country.) These un-
fortunate people continued to be a cause of endless
1 See Appendix, p. 171.

LIFE IN THE TIME OF THE STUARTS 103

trouble to the parish authorities responsible for their
care. ) The law worked badly. The principle that the
parish was to be responsible for its own poor sounds
clear enough ; but the application was not always easy.
A woman might have been born in the West of England
and lived all her life as the wife of a man residing in
a Midland village : was she to go back to her place of
birth before she could obtain relief? The members of
an orphan family of pauper children might have been
born in different villages : were they to be separated ?
This question of parish responsibility has been decided at
different times in different manners. At one time it was
laid down that the responsible parish was the pauper's
place of birth ; then the place in which he had settled for
three years : later, the three years were reduced to one.
As a natural effect of this legislation every parish wished
to keep actual and prospective paupers from spending a
year within its boundary and thus obtaining a ' settle-
ment.' Every effort was made to keep poor people
on the move. As time went on and the poor showed
no signs of diminishing, the parishes felt they had not
sufficient power to keep undesirable people outside their
boundaries. To meet this view, Parliament passed in
1662 the Act of Settlement1 which allowed the re-
moval of any stranger, within forty days of his arrival,
back to ' his own parish/ a phrase which was further
explained to be one in which he had lived forty days.
He was only to be allowed to stay if he could give
security that he would never become chargeable to the
parish. This act, although much modified by other
statutes,2 remained in force for over a century ; it re-
introduced a modified form of bondage, going far indeed
towards reviving the old rule of astriction, under which
1 See Appendix, p. 170. 2 Ibid. pp. 170, 171.

io4 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

in mediaeval times, the man had been bound to his
manor. It also gave rise to a costly custom of carting
the poor from place to place, in order that they might
be dumped down in some parish that could be proved
to be their birthplace, or place of settlement.

The country villages that lay on or near a road of
any importance could not fail to be brought more

into touch with the national life : for the
Travellers growth of the big cities and the develop-
roads. ment of trade between these cities and the

market towns brought more people into the
country. The travellers brought news and new ideas,
whilst occasional newspapers, which the governments
then published, must have reached the principal market
towns.

There was considerable traffic on the roads. When
the farmer had sold his corn, or wool or cloth, and in
these times many men were farming no longer for food
alone but had a definite surplus to sell, it would be
loaded on pack-horses, or else carted away in great
hooded waggons drawn by teams of eight horses.
The villagers tramped, or, if they had a nag to
ride, trotted off weekly to the market town and once
or twice a year to a neighbouring fair. People of
standing, both men and women, travelled on horse-
back, though occasionally a carriage may have been
used ; but such wheeled vehicles were strange sights
outside the great towns. The roadways were un-
suited for any large amount of traffic, being still
mere strips of grass-land worn by the feet of the flocks
and herds that passed along from time to time, and
full of holes and ruts made by the farmers' carts and
waggons. Travelling, too, was dangerous ; armed

LIFE IN THE TIME OF THE STUARTS 105

ruffians haunted the woods and waste lands, and no
one of any importance dared undertake a journey
without an armed escort.

The travellers complained bitterly of the state of the
roads, and pressure was constantly being put on the
parishes through which the principal roads ran to put
them into some sort of repair. Very little was, however,
done, the proper method of making a hard road being
entirely unknown in England, whilst even if the
people of the villages had known how to make one,
it is doubtful if they would have undertaken it The
parish only wanted to get to the nearest market town,
and they naturally evaded the duty of repairing the high
roads for the benefit of the traders and other travellers
from the cities. As a rule, the roads seemed to have
remained in the state of decay in which they had been
for many generations. Probably, however, some of the
great main roads were kept in better repair. Certainly
an attempt was made to get the Great North Road
patched up, and in 1663 * the justices were authorized
to set up toll-bars and make a charge for those who
went along this road, so that the users might con-
tribute to the costs of the repairs. This idea was not
a new one: tolls charged to passengers over bridges,
to be employed in their repair, had been common
enough from the earliest times : but this seems to
have been the first occasion such a scheme was
applied to roads. It was a first step towards the
turnpike system which was adopted throughout
England in the following centuries.

At the beginning of the century the Church, which
had in Tudor times already lost much of its influence and
1 See Appendix, p. 173.

106 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

also much of its hold over the imagination of the

villagers, was suffering from internal difficulties, due

largely to the growth of the Presbyterian

The Church movement. Early in the century writers
and Noncon- , , , r ' , . . • . .

formity. to'd °* a grouP of people standing outside

the church, called the ' Children of Light,'
the name first assumed by the Society which afterwards
took the title of * The Friends/ and was derisively
called 'The Quakers/ Independents and Baptists also
came into prominence as the century progressed.
Finally, members of these and of other religious bodies
became completely detached from the National Church.
This occurred in 1662, when the Act of Uniformity1
laid down that no one could hold a living who was not
prepared to give ' unfeigned assent and consent ' to the
contents of the Anglican Prayer Book. As a result,
some 2,000 ministers of religion, who had at that time
charge of parishes, gave up their positions and withdrew
from the National Church ; from that time onward
the religious life of the country districts has been divided
into two sections, the Anglicans and the Nonconformists.
The Anglican preachers and divines of ability of that
time collected in the towns, whilst the country parsons
seem to have been poor and ill-educated and to have
attached themselves more and more to the ruling
families, the country squires ; as this tendency deve-
loped the Established Church finally ceased to have the
democratic character noticeable in the Middle Ages.
This alliance between squire and parson resulted in the
latter attaining a definite social position in the village :
he belonged to the gentry, and thus became even further
detached from the people as a whole. On the other
hand, some, at least, of the Nonconformist bodies from
* See Appendix, p. 176.

LIFE IN THE TIME OF THE STUARTS 107

the very first took a more democratic line, and gathered
within their organizations a considerable number of the
more intelligent and active of the villagers, from which
class some of their ministers and lay preachers have
been recruited.

The general character of the country life of the

century has now, it is hoped, been made clear. The

country-side was slowly changing : more and

General more land was being enclosed, and more

character of , - c c

the changes. an^ more were the farmers of enterprise

experimenting and succeeding and coming
to the front : but such men rarely rose into the upper
class, for the new landlords had consolidated their
position and were building up the great estates and
' settling ' them on the families which were to control
rural England for many a generation. Meanwhile, the
villagers were losing their gaiety. Some, too, were
losing their land, and were being crushed down into the
great pauper class, which was by that time under the
control of the law. The Church, too, had lost its grip
on village life, and a new element of independent
thought was spreading. A way was being prepared
for the greater changes that were to follow with the
Industrial and Social Revolution of the XVIIIth and
XlXth centuries.

CHAPTER VIII

THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION OF THE XVIIlTH
CENTURY

AFTER the fall of the Stuarts comes a period of
about a century and a half during which England
took the form in which we see it to-day — the indus-
trial England of great towns and great enterprises
and rural England, with, for its main features, privately
owned land, large enclosed farms, capitalist farmers,
a large class of labourers and a highly developed
agricultural system.

This phase of the reconstruction could hardly have

occurred so rapidly as it did, had not the government

of the country, in Parliament, in the

The control of counties, and, to a large extent, in the
powerandthe .,, , r

squirearchy, villages themselves, been, from the Revo-
lution onwards, in the main in the hands of
the * landed gentry ' ; this class retained their control over
central government until the passing of the Reform Bill
in 1832, and over local government for another half-
century. The * landed gentry/ it will be remembered,
were sprung partly from the aristocratic families, partly
from such peasant families as had become enriched, but
largely also from the lawyers, merchants and other
business men who, from Tudor times onwards, had been

108

THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION 109

drifting from the towns to the villages, to secure there
the coveted position of county families.

From the wealthier of the landed gentry came the
members of Parliament, since a statute passed in 1710 l
had decreed that only landowners could sit in Parlia-
ment, whilst the enormous expenses connected with
parliamentary elections and public life made it a career
open only to men who had command of great wealth.
The management of local affairs became vested in the
same hands, almost all the powers that had been in
the hands of the various bodies, in which the people had
a voice, being by the XVIIIth century gathered into
the hands of the justices of the peace. Only the
parish, in its vestry assembled, continued as a demo-
cratic organization, and the transaction of its business
was, in practice, subject to the control of the local land-
holders and justices. Indeed, before the end of the
XVIIIth century the entire administration of county
affairs, save the management of those roads which
were in the hands of turnpike trusts, as well as the
ultimate authority in parish affairs, rested substantially
in the hands of the landed gentry. Moreover, more
and more, all business, whether county government or
administration of justice, was carried on in private, so
that the public lost all control. In addition to the
administration of the law and of public affairs, the
justices also initiated and administered regulations
relating to housing and to wages, matters in some
respects affecting the lives of the people more pro-
foundly than did the laws themselves. The county
families were, in fact, supreme, for they controlled not
only the laws and their administration, but the lives of
the people. They consolidated their po\fer by con-
1 See Appendix, p. 167.

i io ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

tinuing the system of land settlement whereby the great
estates remained in the same families from generation
to generation, by absorbing into their class the wealthy
merchants, lawyers, and other townspeople who might,
under other circumstances, have formed a strong body
of opposition to their control ; and by securing for their
class government the support of the large farmers, of
the clergy, and of the country lawyers, who might, if
their interest had not been concerned, have been severe
critics of their administrative methods.

The gathering of the control of power into the hands
of this small section of the community resulted in one
great evil. So little consideration was given by the
new rulers to the interests of the small peasant farmers
and labourers, that the men of these classes were allowed
to sink down, until by the early years of the XlXth
century they were in a condition of poverty and misery
which, having regard to the wealth of England at that
time, has no precedent in the history of the English
workers on the land. But it does not follow that the
English country squires are to be subjected to an un-
qualified condemnation. The course they took was the
outcome of their character, and this period cannot be
understood unless this character is grasped. Generous
and hospitable, good-natured when their interests were
not concerned, devoted to sport, adventure and pleasure,
fond of controlling the lives and affairs of others, the
English squires of the XVIIIth century carried on the
public work of the country-side with considerable
energy and some ability. But the value of their very
activity was largely destroyed by the defects of their
temperaments. For these men were almost always
narrow, and were usually imbued with a considerable
amount of arrogance and prejudice. They were limited

THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION in

in their work by their ignorance of political science and
also by an extraordinary want of understanding of the
lives and the thoughts, not only of other nations, but of
the men of their own nation who lay outside their own
class. There is a further point to bear in mind. To
them the county nobility and gentry and their tenants,
the leasehold farmers, stood for England, and the
squires held that if these classes were to go, the country
would be lost ; to their minds the interest of other
sections of society was a subsidiary matter. For a
country squire to legislate and to control government
in the interests of his class must have seemed the
most natural thing in the world. By advancing his
own class he was in his view advancing England. It
was this point of view, coupled with their want of
human understanding, that made the squires so arbi-
trary in the exercise of the power vested in them.

The first outcome of the new control was the carrying

of the Corn Bounty Act of I688.1 This act gave a

bounty of 55. a quarter on exported wheat,

Corn laws. so jong as t^e home price did not exceed

485. a quarter, and made similar regulations
for barley, oats, peas, etc. At the same time, import
duties remained high.1 These laws seem to have had
some satisfactory results. The price of corn continued
for the best part of a century at a moderate level, which
afforded a reasonable and steady profit for farmers.
The cultivator was thus encouraged to farm his land
well, to employ improved methods, and to bring more
land into cultivation. The importation of stock from
abroad being completely forbidden, the farmer was
also able to obtain the full benefit of the improved
1 See Appendix, p. 172.

ii2 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

demand for beef, mutton and pork, which grew with
the enlarged town population. As a general result, pro-
duction was encouraged, and for about one hundred
years England was able to supply her own food, and
even in favourable seasons to export some corn. From
the closing years of the XVIIIth century England
ceased to feed herself and became an importing country ;
this change, coupled with the higher import duties on
wheat and the Napoleonic wars, resulted in a rise in the
price of corn. The high prices were accompanied by
great variations from year to year ; wheat, in particular,
oscillated from under 505. a quarter to 1565. The
high prices were a serious misfortune for the manual
workers both in town and country, since they resulted
in a great increase in the cost of food. Amongst the
farmers, the clever men made considerable fortunes ; but
the class as a whole benefited less than might be expected,
since rents went up and rates were extremely high,
whilst the variations in prices introduced a disastrous
element of uncertainty and speculation into farming.

The next important result of the new control was the

development of cultivation — the uprising of the new

agriculture. It was typical of the XVI Ith

Thenewagri- century that much information and advice

culture and .

its leaders. was given to farmers by many ingenious

writers. In the XVIIIth century this
advice began to be taken to heart and agriculture
improved steadily.

The story of this improvement can best be told by
reference to the lives of its most distinguished leaders,
men who made this period famous and unique in
English history. Of these the first was Jethro Tull
(1674-1741). A lawyer by training, he gave up his

THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION 113

profession and settled down, as quite a young man,
on his father's farm at Howberry in Oxfordshire. He
seems at once to have thrown himself into farming, and
some two years later he was inventing and using a
clover drill, planned on the general lines of the im-
plement used at the present day. He developed this
drill, adapting it for corn and turnips, and claimed that
he could make savings on a large scale, not only in
the amount of seed sown, but in labour in sowing and
in cultivation. He advocated the increased use of
turnips and clover, and emphasized the importance of
keeping the land clean and free from weeds, which
could of course be more easily done when the crop was
sown in lines with a drill than when scattered broad-
cast. He published in 1731 a book dealing with many
of these matters under the title of " Horse-hoeing
Husbandry." His proposals were much discussed, but
rarely adopted in his lifetime, and he himself died
ruined.

A more influential and immediately successful leader
was Lord Townshend (1674-1738), a contemporary
of Tull. He started life as a politician and diplomat,
taking a leading and brilliant part in the intricate
political life of the first thirty years of the century ;
but in 1730 he threw up his political career and retired
to his Norfolk estates, to see what he could do to
reclaim the stretches of marsh, waste and woodland of
which a great part of his property consisted. In this
work he was extraordinarily successful. Townshend
treated his sandy wastes with marl to such good
account, that he transformed them into fertile fields and
made a fortune. It became a saying in Norfolk that
" He who marls sand may buy his land." Even more
important than this development of marling was the

9

ii4 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

spread of the cultivation of turnips, clover and other
grasses for which Townshend, nicknamed "Turnip
Townshend," was largely responsible. His land was
thus kept under permanent cultivation, since instead
of fallowing he alternated roots and corn, thus creating
the Norfolk four-course system. Wheat is followed in
this course by turnips or other roots ; then comes
barley or oats, followed by clover or other grasses.
Townshend found that the green crops fed off by
sheep, or stored for winter food for stock, resulted in
improved sheep and stock. At the same time the
ground, being fertilized by the sheep's droppings or by
the farmyard manure, produced better corn crops.
This method of treatment of the land helped in every
way. It meant better crops, better sheep and better
stock. This system could not be carried out on the
old-fashioned open fields, so long as it was the custom
for everyone's cattle to stray over the land after the
crops were off, since, if any one farmer had been so
enterprising as to produce a crop of turnips or clover,
the flocks and herds would all be found browsing on
his land until the crop had been devoured. But on
enclosed farms the system was adopted with great
success, and not only Townshend, a great advocate of
enclosures, but many of the farmers who followed him
made fortunes. Landowners as well as farmers bene-
fited, for rents increased rapidly.

What Townshend did for field cultivation, Bakewell
(1725-94) did for sheep. Bakewell, who belonged to
a later generation than Tull and Townshend, was a
typical John Bull, a big, burly, rosy-faced man, with
breeches, boots, red waistcoat and loose coat. He lived
at Dishley, near Loughborough, in simple style, and the
celebrities and nonentities, from home and abroad who

THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION 115

collected at his farm, were entertained without ceremony
in his kitchen. It was Bakewell who systematized
stock-breeding, though it was only with sheep that
he was permanently successful. He created the new
Leicester breed, and his rams went all over England
to improve the breed of English sheep. It was said
of him that he gave England two pounds of mutton
where it had one pound before. He treated all his
animals with kindness and kept them scrupulously
clean. Although he is most famous as a sheep-breeder,
he also bred cattle and horses and was a great advocate
of irrigation: on his own farm he made a canal ij miles
long for the purpose of flooding his meadows and
producing rich crops of grass.

Many farmers have followed in the steps of Bakewell,
but of the men of that time the most famous was
Charles Colling (1751-1836). Bakewell had taught
Colling the importance of good stock, and Colling
applied Bakewell's ideas to cattle-breeding ; his great
success was made with his shorthorns.

While Bakewell and Colling were typical yeomen,
Coke of Norfolk (1752-1842) represented a different
class. He was a man of property, and when, as
a young man of twenty-four, he succeeded to the
great estate of Holkham in Norfolk, he had ample
wealth at his command ; he was thus able to take
advantage of all the knowledge and experience of the
pioneers. Over the greater part of his estate there
was, when he came into possession, no wheat, nor roots,
clover or grasses : only a few poor sheep straggled over
the rough land. Two years later, in 1778, he com-
menced farming on his own account ; he is said to have
spent half a million pounds in reclaiming his land ; and
so successful was he that, whilst his tenant farmers

ii6 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

flourished, they were yet able to pay greatly increased
rents, so that his rent-roll went up from a few
thousands a year to many thousands. His methods,
then new, now seem obvious. To his land he applied
marl, clay and manures. He drained and irrigated,
and when the land was brought into condition he
sowed seed with drills and kept it clean. He intro-
duced wheat in place of rye, and used to boast that he
had changed West Norfolk from a rye-producing to a
wheat-growing district. He farmed with the improved
rotation of crops — growing turnips, clover and other
roots and grasses. He bred the best class of stock,
particularly South Down sheep and Devon cattle. His
tenants were treated extremely well, provided they
farmed well. A man of great power, energy and
personal attraction, Coke, ' the handsome Englishman,'
was one of the most famous figures of his time. He
entered Parliament in 1776 as member for Norfolk, and
remained in the House of Commons with two intervals
until the Reform Parliament of 1832. In 1837 he was
made Earl of Leicester. Holkham and its master were
for many years one of the sights of England, to be
visited not only by all the great personages of our
country, but also by those from abroad who came to
England in that time. He kept open house on the
occasion of his annual sheep-shearings, and at the last
of these functions, which was held in 1821, it was said
that 7,000 people took part.

There was one other man of the time who had
remarkable influence. Arthur Young (1741-1820), who
ultimately became Secretary of the first Board of
Agriculture (a semi-official body founded in 1795 and
dissolved in 1822), started life as a farmer; he very
quickly failed, probably because of his unlimited en-

THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION 117

thusiasm for experiment. Having failed at farming,
he set to work as an investigator and writer. He
travelled first throughout England and later in France,
and recorded in a number of books, which attained a
great reputation, the results of his inquiries. Young,
who was perhaps the greatest English writer on agri-
culture, spent his life exciting the interest and
enthusiasm of the people of the country in its develop-
ment, and his propagandist work ably supplemented
the more practical work of other leaders. -

The lives of these men tell incidentally (the story of
the new agriculture. The introduction of labour-
saving machines, the spread of clover and turnips, the
development of the four-course system of farming, the
enormous improvement in the quality of stock, com-
bined with the habit of research to revolutionize
agriculture ; at the same time, in order to carry out
the new system, the capitalist took^the place of the
small man working on his own land. )

The mew agriculture meant, of course, a large
increase^ in production : and so farmers of the new
school had a considerable surplus over what
social inter- they needed for their home consumption,
course and There was an increasing amount of corn,
and more stock to send to market or to sell
to dealers buying for the town demand. The farmers,
when they had sold their produce, became in their turn
buyers on an increased scale, for they had money to
spend on such articles as they needed for their im-
proved standard of giving, and for the effective cultiva-
tion of their farms. \

The trade so created attached itself to the country
towns, by this time well established as the centres of

ii8 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

rural life. In the XVIIIth century there were in Eng-
land over 800 market towns, so there would have been
such a town within reach of most villages, with, as a
rule, its modest shops, its weekly market and its annual
fair. The markets seem to have confined themselves in
the main to the trade in corn and other produce of the
farms, with perhaps, in addition, such implements, tools,
and household articles as farmers needed. But market
day was, in the country, something more than a busi-
ness affair : it was and still is a social function, at which
people collect not only to buy and sell but to see their
friends. It was on market day the villagers heard the
news of the world, for it is unlikely that such news-
papers and newsletters as there were in those days
circulated much in the villages ; indeed, outside the
houses of the squire and the parson, there were few
villagers able to read.

The fairs, which in the XVIIIth century were held at
about 1,500 centres, were still very considerable events,
and at the more important, business on a large scale
was done by dealers who collected from all over
England. The chief articles dealt in were cattle,
horses, pigs and other stock, but there were fairs for
materials, such as cloth, yarn, linen, etc. Hiring fairs
continued to be held in some parts of the country,
whilst other fairs were devoted to a special article
such as cheese, cherries, onions, stockings, shoes or
'shepherds' curs.' The whole country-side must have
collected at these fairs for business and pleasure.

It was not only trade that grew. Sport became more
and more a great interest. English landowners had, by
the passing of the law of 1670, secured a practical
monopoly of game ; and they now showed a growing
fondness for the sport of shooting partridges, pheasants,

THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION 119

hares and rabbits ; the practice of game-preserving
followed and grew. The old sport of coursing hares
was also continued, and fox-hunting was taken up, at
first in a simple way, but later as an important sport
directed by wealthy people at an ever-increasing cost.
Trade and sport combined to bring new people to the
country-side, and there was an increased coming and
going which had its effect even on the remote villages.

The wholesale internal distribution of our food and
all the other articles that the nation consumes is, at the
present day, carried on either by the luggage
The roads. trains, running very often at night, or on
canals ; it is all in the background of life.
But early in the XVIIIth century all this distribution
of goods, by that time a business of growing importance,
took place, as it had from the earliest times, either on
the rivers or on the highways. It was this distribution
of goods, carried mainly by pack-horses or in waggons,
and the coming and going of many people, that brought
into further prominence the deplorable condition of the
roads of England. But while the traders and others
who travelled in the first half of the XVIIIth century
complained bitterly, the old conditions remained prac-
tically unchanged. Travellers were obliged to take the
roads as they found them — mere strips of rough grass-
land— and so most people travelled as they had done
for many generations, on horseback with their luggage in
saddle-bags. Stage-coaches did not begin to come into
use until about the middle of the century, and private
carriages on country roads remained a rarity even at
the end of the century. The parishes, legally bound to
repair, adhered to their old policy and did as little as
they could for the roads, still objecting to spend their

120 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

time, energy and money for what was substantially the
public benefit. As a result the old form of way held its
own throughout England, though here and there was
found a new type which arose in- this century — the
causeway-road, consisting of the old belt of rough grass-
land with a stone causeway about a yard and a half
broad. On this causeway travellers rode and pack-
horses tramped, whilst on the grass the waggons ploughed
their way and the stock of all sorts straggled along to
some great town or market. During all this period the
country's internal trade grew steadily. To meet this
increase and the difficulties of transport, canals, then
new to England, were extended throughout the country
until the advent of railways in the XlXth century :
they greatly reduced cost of transit and gave con-
siderable impulse to the trade in agricultural produce
of the districts they served. But the roads remained
the main arteries of distribution : and the increase of
traffic tended to make them worse. Parliament devised
two remedies. The first, a singularly ineffective one,
the regulation by statute J of the size of cartwheels and
the number of horses to be harnessed to each waggon,
was attempted in order to reduce the damage to the
roads done by carts and waggons. The second remedy
was the setting up of bodies to put and keep in order
some particular road or the roads of a district. These
bodies, called Turnpike Trusts, were administered by
trustees appointed by the government.

Turnpike trusts2 were first formed early in the
XVIIIth century, and increased until ultimately the
number of such bodies reached over 1,000, with responsi-
bility for some 23,000 miles of road. They had commonly
the widest powers to make or to close roads and to regu-
1 See Appendix, p. 173. 2 Ibid. pp. 173, 174.

THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION 121

late traffic, and also to make levies for labour and material
on the parishes through which the roads passed. They
had also the right to erect their turnpikes or barriers at
various places across the roads, where tolls were collected
by the pikemen. Notwithstanding the formation of
these trusts the greater number of the roads of England
were little changed, for they remained under parish
control until the XlXth century, and the parishes could
not be persuaded to make new roads or even to carry
out effective repairs. As the turnpike trusts increased,
here and there in England, for the first time since
the withdrawal of the Romans, hard roads were to
be found, on which all could travel without fear of
accident. To these roads definite boundaries were
given, as the process of enclosure continued. At the
same time quarter sessions gave better attention to
the repair of the bridges that carried the principal roads.
Travel became easier, especially when the introduction
of stage coaches followed the creation of new roads. As
an example of this change, it is interesting to know that
in 1739 there was a good hard road from London to
Grantham, and no doubt this road was a little later
extended to Edinburgh, as a stage-coach service was
opened between London and that town in 1754. In
the latter part of the century the better managed trusts
began to appoint skilled surveyors, who built more and
more of these hard roads running down the centres
of the old grassways : whilst finally, in the XlXth
century, the famous roadmakers Macadam and Telford
appeared on the scene.

The turnpike trust system can hardly be considered
a great success : there was often the grossest mis-
management. In many cases the trusts delegated
their duties : in the latter years of the century the

122 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

roads were very often farmed out at so much a year
to contractors, and the right to take the tolls was
sold by auction to speculators. Nevertheless turnpike
trusts were a step ahead of parish management, for it
is extremely unlikely that the parishes would ever have
made the hard roads of England. Without hard roads
there would have been no stage coaches, and far less of
that coming and going of people that did much to draw
the country together and create a feeling of national
unity.

(The effect of the new control and the new agriculture
on the life of the village is far less satisfactory than its

result on the cultivation of the soil. At the
Enclosure. beginning of the XVII Ith century the

enclosures and the open fields were still
found side by side. Perhaps a quarter of England was
already in fenced fields, a third in open arable fields,
meadows, and pasture common, and the balance in wood-
lands, wastes, moor and fens.1 With the two systems
went the different classes of cultivators, the enclosed fields
tending to pass more and more into the hands of the pros-
perous larger leasehold tenants, who depended on hired
labour ; the open fields being in the main farmed by
small farmers, most of whom were, at that time, also
doing well, particularly when they added to their profits
by weaving, spinning and other industries. Below
the farmers was an increasing class of labourers, many
of whom were squatters on the commons, where they
had erected their own cottages ; these men, even if they
depended in the main for their livelihood on wages,
commonly, at that time, had a little land of their own,
or, at least, by custom if not by law, common rights for
1 See Appendix, pp. 164, 165.

THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION 123

their cows, sheep, pigs or fowls. Below them, again,
was a definite pauper class, not so large as it ultimately
became. There was doubtless, in most parishes in
England, some open and some enclosed land, and also
some individuals of all classes, landlords, big leasehold
farmers, peasant farmers, labourers with land or common
rights, and a few poverty-stricken wretches : but the
proportion differed. Nevertheless, in most places, there
must have been at that time, as there had been in the
XVth century, a practical ladder whereby a man could
work his way upwards from the labouring class to the
position of a considerable farmer.

But this condition could not be maintained. There
was a widespread demand for enclosures, especially
from the landlords and larger farmers. This demand,
doubtless, appeared to these classes to be justified by
the nation's experience, since undoubtedly such en-
closures as had already taken place had resulted in
better crops, improved stock, higher rents and increased
tithes. jThe new agriculture certainly seemed to de-
mand enclosure for its growth, and it is not therefore
surprising that enclosure in all its forms continued.}
The sorting out of the scattered strips amongst the
tenants, the fencing in of the land when the strips had
been sorted into blocks, and the enclosing of parts
of the common fields, by some sort of agreement, went
steadily on. Moreover, the larger appropriations by
the lords of the manors and other landholders of
commons and of woodlands, wastes and fenlands must
have continued. Of the land which had remained open
at the beginning of the XVIIIth century, the greater
part, perhaps two-thirds, was dealt with in one or other
of these ways.

But the remainder of the unenclosed land was treated

i24 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

by new methods. Enclosure by Act of Parliament
began, and in the XVIIIth century became a usual
way of procedure. At first these enclosures by Act
of Parliament were a rarity, but later on they
became a common practice. ) In all, before the middle
of the XlXth century there were some four thousand
special Acts of Parliament * (including special awards
under general acts), and these accounted for the divid-
ing up of some six million acres of open arable fields,
meadows, commons, woods and wastes. The method
pursued to obtain these statutory enclosures, and their
results, requires careful consideration. (These enclosures
were secured by bills relating to some particular area,
and were carried through Parliament on, as a rule, the
initiative of a local lord of the manor, or other big
landholder, with whom were sometimes associated the
rector or vicar of the parish, and perhaps some big
farmers and other local persons who were prepared
to support the scheme. The act, when passed, ordered
the redivision and fencing in of such open arable
land and lot meadows, commons, woods or wastes as
were included in the scheme of the act, and appointed
commissioners to carry out this division. In the settle-
ment in Parliament of the provisions of these statutes
the small farmers and the labourers had little or no voice.
As a result, their interests were neglected. It is there-
fore not surprising to learn that the enthusiasm amongst
the new agriculturists for these statutory enclosures
found no response among the smaller men. ) Their atti-
tude is well expressed by a passage from the Annual
Register for 1797, which referred in the following
words to one of those occasions on which the peasantry
had succeeded in making their voices heard : " On
1 See Appendix, p. 169.

THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION 125

Tuesday evening a great number of farmers were
observed going along Pall Mall with cockades in their
hats. On inquiring the reason, it appeared that they
all lived in or near the parish of Stanwell in the county
of Middlesex, and they were returning to their wives
and families to carry them the agreeable news of a
bill being rejected for enclosing the said common,
which, if carried into execution, might have been the
ruin of a great number of families." The belief of these
Middlesex farmers that enclosures brought ruin to a
great number of families appears to have been founded
on a somewhat bitter experience, for undoubtedly
these statutory enclosures, whilst ultimately improving
the conditions under which agriculture was carried
on, too often reduced the small peasant farmers to
the position of labourers without land or common
rights. If the procedure employed in the passing of
the acts gave no opportunity to the peasantry to
express their views on a matter on which their whole
lives depended, the procedure on the actual division
of the land by the commissioners was a still greater
grievance. The small holders of land and common
rights, farmers or labourers, had, in the first instance,
to put their claims into a legal form. The law had
long since (in Gateward's case in 1603), decided that
common rights did not belong to persons merely
because they inhabited a village, or manor, but that the
rights went with special plots of land. These rights
had to be proved strictly, and this was, to many,
an impossible task. But even if the peasants proved
their rights and secured a piece of land in compensation
for their losses, the plot was, in general, subjected to
the payment of a share of the expenses of the Act
of Parliament and of the commissioners and surveyors :

126 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

moreover, the grant of land was, in many cases, made
conditional on the new owner fencing it in — a consider-
able expense. Unable to deal with these claims,
the little man had too often to sell his land for
what he could get, and either leave for the colonies
or the towns or sink into the class of labourers
without land and without common rights. Arthur
Young, writing in 1801, sums up the whole matter
from this point of view very fairly : " By nine-
teen out of twenty Inclosure Bills the poor are
injured, and some grossly injured. . . . Mr. Forster
of Norwich (a commissioner) lamented that he had
been accessory to the injuring of 2,000 poor people at
the rate of twenty families per parish. . . . The poor of
these parishes may say, and with truth : * Parliament
may be tender of property : all I know is that I
had a cow and an Act of Parliament has taken it
from me.'"

jThe general result on village life of these numerous
enclosures may thus be surrjmed up. The labourers,
men who in the past had generally had some small
holdings to keep them occupied when work was scarce,
or at least common rights, [were impoverished ; at the
same time the destruction of the class of small peasant
farmers who in earlier days had formed the back-
bone of England was completed. By these means a
large class of labourers depending entirely on their
daily work for their livelihood was created. On the
other hand, the class of tenant farmers, the men who
have shown themselves more suited to carry on agri-
culture on the lines that have from that time prevailed,
was consolidated and strengthened. Ffnally, it must be
observed that when the work of enclosure had been
completed, there was no longer a ladder up which

THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION 127

any might climb ; for the intermediate rungs between
labourer and farmer were broken. )

In the latter part of the XVIIIth and first part of
the XlXth century the villages contained, therefore, a
mass of poverty-stricken labourers, who had
been depressed, in part through the dying
out of village industries, but in the main by
the loss of their land or common rights. The life of
this class had, even before that time, lost the character-
istics that had given interest to the days of their
ancestors. There was little of the merrymaking that
had belonged to the earlier periods. Sundays were no
longer cheerful holidays, and saints' days were not
observed. In many districts the labourer had no holidays
save Christmas Day, fair day and 'club day,' when
the village sick and benefit club, a widespread institu-
tion, a relic of the great co-operative life, met, feasted,
and spent at the village inn a considerable share of
its corporate savings. There was, moreover, none of
the democratic local government to occupy the energies
of the people ; whilst the Church was no longer the
leader of their life, for it had attached itself, as a rule, to
the squirearchy. On the other hand, the Nonconformist
bodies grew in strength and numbers, and drew into
their organization many of the more independent
thinkers amongst both men and women. But, on the
whole the Nonconformists followed the Puritan tradi-
tion, and whilst they did much for religious life they
did little for social.

The labourers were poor, many miserably so, and a
large section were constantly sinking into the position
of paupers. For these poor people the parish of their
birth or of their ' settlement ' continued to be respon-

128 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

sible, and the ratepayers of every parish lived in fear of
the pauper who might secure a 'settlement,' and so
did their utmost to prevent poor people settling down
within their boundaries. Landlords pulled down cottages
and prevented new ones being built. Parishes spent
fortunes in lawsuits amongst themselves on the question
of liability to support individual paupers, and although
the provisions of the Act of Settlement were modified
by the act passed in 1795,* which forbade the removal
of any individual from one parish to another unless he
was in actual want, much money was spent in carting
poor people back to their own parishes. In 1815 the
parishes of England spent over a quarter of a million
pounds on such litigation and removals.

Indeed, during the latter part of the XVIIIth
century the condition of the poor became more and
more miserable, especially as the rural iron trade,
the cloth trade and other village industries, decayed
with the uprising of the factory towns. The people
suffered greatly as the price of wheat, and therefore of
food, went up. In 1795 there were widespread food
riots, in many cases directed by women. At some
places crowds of women seized the corn and other
produce and proceeded to sell it at what they con-
sidered fair prices, paying the amount received — the
fair price — to the owners. Social reformers in Parlia-
ment introduced proposals for securing a legal minimum
wage for working people, but the laissez-faire theories
of Adam Smith had such a hold on men's minds at that
time that any proposal of this character had no chance
of success. Action was taken, however, without special
legislation, in 1795, the outcome of a meeting of magis-
trates and clergy held at Speenhamland in Buckingham-
1 See Appendix, p. 171.

THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION 129

shire, to give special consideration to the relief of the
poor. Recommendations were then made for securing
a definite wage for working people, and these recom-
mendations were not only adopted in that county, but
in the course of the next forty years spread, with
modifications, right through the counties of England,
excepting only Northumberland and Durham. The
scheme adopted at Speenhamland was as follows : —
A scale of wages was drawn up, varying according to
the price of bread. For example, when the gallon loaf
of seconds flour weighing 8 pounds u ounces cost is.,
a man was held to be entitled to receive 35. a week
for himself, is. 6d. a week for his wife, and the same
for each child. Such a man would, therefore, when
the gallon loaf cost is., be entitled, if he had a wife
and four children, to IDS. 6d. a week and, if the price
of bread was higher, the wages went up in proportion.
Who, then, was to see that the man received his due
wage? The responsibility was placed on the parish,
and the labourer who was out of work had to apply
to the overseer, whose duty it was to secure him
employment. Sometimes the men collected on Satur-
days and were put up for auction amongst the
employers, going to the highest bidder. Sometimes
they were sent from house to house, ' on the rounds,' as
it was called, asking for work. The farmers who secured
the men paid them a low wage, perhaps 6d. to is. a
day : the balance fell on the parish rates, out of which
the wages were supplemented to make the total amount
up to the scale figure. The introduction of such drastic
new regulations without the need of special legislation
is an astonishing instance of the power of the justices
of the peace.

This system was naturally accompanied by a con-

10

130 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

siderable rise in rates, which are said to have doubled
in the first fifteen years of the XlXth century, but
the gain to the farmers in reduced wages must have
counterbalanced their increased rates, or the system
could hardly have continued, as it did, for about forty
years. But if farmers benefited, labourers lost ; we see,
indeed, the rapid degradation of almost the whole of
the latter class. To illustrate the effect of this system.
It was almost hopeless for a man who was not willing to
become a pauper, to obtain work, for to live he must
receive full wage from the farmer ; this the latter would
not be prepared to give, as he could hire a pauper for
much less. Everyone, therefore, tended to drift into the
pauper class. Again, under the regulations, the larger
the family the more a man earned. As a result there
was no inducement to restraint or thrift and the pauper
population increased rapidly. The position of an
unmarried man or of a young married man with a
wife and, for example, one child, would be the worst,
as the wages might be only 35. or 6s. a week
respectively.

The outcome of this system was seen not only in the
increase in the number of paupers, but also in the rapid
growth of poaching and stealing. Poaching, both for
food and for trade, was a recognized country custom
before the days of the Speenhamland system of parish
doles in aid of wages. Parliament was concerned about
it in I77O,1 when new punishments were laid down for
poachers, the justices being authorized to give twelve
months' imprisonment and a public whipping for a
second offence. But men whose wages were only a few
shillings a week and who had perhaps a wife and
child to support were not deterred by these penalties.
1 See Appendix, p. 171.

THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION 131

The practice grew, and the justices' time was constantly
occupied with these cases. In the year iSoo1 Parlia-
ment increased the penalties, and the justices were
authorized to send all poachers over twelve years of
age into the army or navy.

Bread was at that time dearer, and the custom of
game-preserving had greatly increased the number
of pheasants. Thus the temptation to poach was
greater than ever : this temptation the half-starved
labourers were unable to resist, and poaching continued
on a large scale, the birds being collected by the stage
coaches and carriers' carts for the markets of London
and other great towns. A large and well recognized
trade in poached game sprang up. Indeed, in the early
days of the XlXth century, it could have been no easy
thing to find an able-bodied labourer who was not a
poacher.

There was, at that time, no body of police able to
deal with these infringements of the game laws, and
their enforcement was left to the squires and their
keepers. As a result, there was in many districts open
war between the poachers and the keepers. The
poachers formed gangs, and when these gangs came
into contact with the keepers there would be a scuffle,
and it was not rare for men on either side to be killed.
Legislation was especially directed against these gangs,1
and any poachers who showed fight against keepers
were liable to be hanged.2 Nevertheless, the spur
of hunger was strong. Poaching continued, and for
the first thirty years of the XlXth century the
game laws were the cause, in a large part of England,
of a most bitter feeling between the squire and the
village.

1 See Appendix, p. 171. a Ibid. p. 172.

132 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

This, then, was the outcome of the rise and control
of the squirearchy. The completion of the redistribu-
tion of the land into enclosed fields, the
conclusions creation of a new and improved system of
farming, the abolition of the peasant farmer
and the rearrangement of the agricultural classes, with
an impoverished and discontented labouring class at
the base. Then there gradually emerged the typical
XlXth century village community, with its business
basis and its three main clear-cut classes — the landlords,
the tenant farmers and the labourers.

PART III

RECONSTRUCTED RURAL ENGLAND
(ABOUT 1800-1914)

CHAPTER IX

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

(Before the Agricultural Catastrophe]

IT is important to realize clearly that already, at the
beginning of the century, England had ceased to be
a predominantly agricultural country. At

that time' indeed» only about a third of
our population was engaged in the cultiva-
tion of the land, and England's main interest was
directed to manufacture and trade : moreover, during
the whole of the century the proportion of the country
people to townspeople steadily diminished. We are,
therefore, now considering the history of a comparatively
small and diminishing section of the English people.

Although estates of the old manorial form were still

common in many counties at the beginning of the

XlXth century, and have continued in some

The establish- places up to the present time, enclosure

meat of the

new system, went on so rapidly in the earlier years,

that by 1820 rural England had become
in the main a country of enclosed fields, owned by
landlords and cultivated by tenant farmers. Of these

134 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

farmers about half must have been what are now called
small holders, men who tilled the land with the help
of their wives and families, while the other farmers
were large holders, employing hired labourers.

The development of this characteristic XlXth cen-
tury system of landlord, leasehold tenant and hired
labourer, working on enclosed farms, brought with it
further great improvements in farm buildings and in
agricultural machinery and implements, changes for the
better in character of stock, heavier crops and con-
tinuous cropping, and, indeed, progress in agriculture
in every direction. This progress was largely due to
the considerable amount of capital spent on the land
by landlords and tenant farmers.

The new system was of necessity accompanied by
the general adoption of the lease or agreement, designed
to fix the rent to be paid by the tenant,

Classreia- ancj to jay ^own the conditions for the
tionsnips.

cultivation of the land. These rents and

conditions have, of course, varied throughout England
from time to time as prices and other conditions have
changed.1

One might expect to find difficulties arising out of
the conflict of interests between landlords and tenants,
created by the leasehold system so regulated, but as
a matter of fact there has been little serious friction.
This was due, in the first instance, to certain special
conditions prevailing in England. The landlords and
farmers, it should be observed, had a common interest
in keeping up the price of corn and stock. These
prices the landed gentry, during the period that they
controlled Parliament, were able to regulate by adjust-
1 See Appendix, p. 166.

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 135

ing import duties. From the time, towards the close
of the XVIIIth century, when England ceased to
produce sufficient corn for her own consumption, this
regulation of prices became a potent force in rural life.
Numerous Acts of Parliament, the Corn Laws l as they
were called, were passed in the first half of the
century to limit importation of corn and keep up
prices — and there were also similar duties on stock.
Now it is obvious that this regulation of prices by
legislation, carried with it the power to make or
mar the career of every farmer in the country, and
so served to attach the farmers to their landlords by
a strong bond of interest. The policy of import duties
was attacked by the town politicians, and a strong
movement, the Anti-Corn-Law League, founded in
Manchester in 1838, carried on a well organized and
effective agitation until the introduction of Free Trade
in corn in 1846.2 Against this movement landlords
and farmers stood, as a rule, shoulder to shoulder.
This alliance, strengthened as it often was by personal
friendship and other social considerations, and cemented
by the assistance generously given by landlords to their
tenants on many occasions in times of difficulty, outlived
the abolition of the corn laws and became a tradition
in the English country-side. Farmers and landlords,
the modern representatives of the two classes that
were almost at war in the XlVth century, generally
stood together in the XlXth. As a result England has
been free from the struggles between these two classes
that served to embitter Irish rural life. But this alli-
ance had another effect, for it often meant that these
two classes combined to oppose the interests of the
labourers. A clear understanding of these points throws
1 See Appendix, pp. 172, 173. • Ibid. p. 173.

136 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

light on many incidents in the last century, the
true meaning of which would otherwise be difficult to
grasp.

Between the employers and labourers, however, the
system has never worked smoothly, since it created at
the base of the social structure a mass of impoverished
and discontented men, the ' labouring poor ' as they
were called, who seem from the very beginning to have
bitterly resented their subservient position. This dis-
content made itself conspicuous in the riots and risings
that occurred in the year 1830, and later on in the
great Agricultural Labourers' Trade Union movement,
which, founded in 1872, was carried on for some years
under the direction of Joseph Arch.

The conditions of agriculture varied greatly from

time to time during the century. In the first

fifteen years, owing to the Napoleonic

Agricultural Wars and the stringent character of the
conditions /• , 1

in outline. corn ^aws °f tne time> wheat averaged
about 855. a quarter and sometimes almost
doubled that price ; at the same time there was a
high price for stock. As a result farmers flourished
and landlords secured high rents, whilst labourers
eked out their miserable wages by allowances under
the Speenhamland regulations, which they supplemented
by poaching and stealing. Enclosures by statute and
by appropriation continued rapidly. There was a rush
to buy land. Speculation was widespread. Many of
the remaining peasant proprietors sold out, whilst
others borrowed on mortgage and bought more land
and sometimes lost all. The prosperous times came
to an end in 1816, the 'black year,' which gave one of
the worst harvests ever known. Subsequently, owing in

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 137

part to bad weather, in part to the over-speculation,
and in part to the high rents that had been fixed in the
good times, there was a period of great depression, and
landlords, farmers and labourers suffered together. As
a result rents dropped. Then again the tide turned,
and during the first forty years of the Victorian era
there was a time of general prosperity for both farmers
and landlords. Wheat during this time averaged about
535. a quarter ; this was lower than it had been, but
the improvements of every description that came into
widespread use during these years, marked as they
were by many good seasons, resulted in the saving
of labour and increase of production, and so in good
profits for farmers. Rents again went up, reaching
their highest figures about 1879, three or four years
after the tide had turned against the farmers. Whilst
farmers and landlords flourished, labourers continued
to live in great poverty, although they managed
to slightly improve their position. In 1875 a series
of bad seasons commenced and the period of agricultural
prosperity drew to a close.

It is easy to get a good idea of the condition of
agriculture and of the farmer's life in the enclosed
districts, early in the century, by a study
at the of Arthur Young's * County Surveys.' His

beginning report on Hertfordshire, for example, which
century. ne visited in 1801, provides us with much
information. Almost all Hertfordshire was
by that time enclosed, and let out to tenant farmers in
farms of, as a rule, from 1 50 to 400 acres, though there
were some larger and many less. Rents and tithes,
which latter, though then commuted in this county, were
still paid by the farmer, averaged together, Young

138 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

thought, about i8s. 6d. an acre. Poor rates, then
going up rapidly, were perhaps 55. an acre. The
farmers on an average were then paying under these
heads about 233. 6d. an acre, which would not differ
greatly from the amount they paid at the end of the
century. Rents were, however, inclined to go up.
Most of the land in Hertfordshire was in those days
under the plough. Much wheat was grown, and the
crop varied from 20 bushels to 40 bushels an acre,
not very much less than the yield of modern times;
the English average at the close of the century being
about 32 bushels an acre. The price, however, was
much higher then than later; in 1801 it averaged about
I2os. a quarter, as against 26s. Qd. in 1901. Besides
wheat, Young found oats, barley, peas and beans in
general cultivation, whilst turnips and clover (currently
reported to have been introduced into the county by
Oliver Cromwell) and tares were in widespread use.
Some farmers were also growing sainfoin and swedes,
whilst cabbage, potatoes, trefoil, lucerne and carrots
were novelties as field crops, only to be found on a
few farms.

The Norfolk four-course system was common at
that time — wheat, and then turnips, followed by barley
and clover — and the old system of fallowing the land
between corn crops was being given up wherever
possible.

A great deal of attention was given to manuring
land, and bush draining, paring and burning, and
irrigation are referred to as being used with success
in some places.

The principal breeds of sheep were Southdown,
Wiltshire, Cotswold and Leicester, and amongst cattle
were mentioned Suffolk, Welsh, Devon and Hereford,

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 139

Oxen were still in some places used for ploughing.
Pigs were of the Berkshire, Suffolk and Gloucester
breeds.

The progress in the crops and stock had not been
equalled by that in the employment of agricultural
implements. Farmers still used " the great Hertford-
shire wheel plough," an implement, according to
Young, of "miserable construction." It required, as
a rule, four horses or oxen harnessed abreast ; and a
driver besides the ploughman was, of course, neces-
sary. Young urged the farmers to use something
more up to date. He found a few farmers in the
possession of threshing-machines worked by horses ;
they did not, however, seem to be very successful. A
Bygrave farmer had a remarkable machine that cost
him £400 ; it was worked by six horses, and threshed
25 to 30 loads of corn a day, ground wheat, cut chaff
and dressed corn. Some farmers had a chaff-cutter,
a turnip-slicer, an oil-cake mill, but they were rarities.
Drills, though invented, as we have seen, a century
before, were hardly at that time to be found in Hert-
fordshire, and Arthur Young clearly did not believe
in them. He preferred "the common method of sow-
ing broadcast." Of the few men whom he found
employing drills, some horse-hoed their crops and
claimed that they used less seed and kept their land
cleaner than their neighbours.

There were six great turnpike roads running through
this little county and also many good cross-roads.
This made it easier for farmers to send their great
four-horse waggons to London, taking straw, hay and
wheat, and bringing back manure from the town.
Other farmers would send to the great markets at
Hertford and St. Albans, and there were doubtless

140 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

also then as now good markets at Hitchin, Royston,
Bishop's Stortford, Tring and Watford.

Here we see modern agriculture in its beginnings.
Young remarked also on one feature which is pecu-
liarly modern— an experiment in intensive culture, then
being carried out by the Marchioness of Salisbury.

Although Young included in his book some infor-
mation on the condition of labour, his description gave
rural life as it appeared to the landlords and farmers.

The position of the other classes has also to be
considered.

The larger villages must have contained then as now
a considerable class intermediate between farmers and
labourers. There were the village artisans,
The artisans, blacksmith, wheelwright, saddler and car-
holders, etc. penter, the shoemaker and the tailor.
These men, not having to face the sharp
competition that subsequently sprang up, doubtless
prospered more than did their successors in the latter
years of the century. In the same rank of life were
a few small shopkeepers and dealers. In addition
there remained, in most places, some small holders, a
remnant of the older life; these small men had lost or
were losing the spinning, weaving and other industries
which had supplemented their purely agricultural work,
but where commons remained, they would usually have
had rights of grazing for their stock, and many of the
artisans would have the same advantages. All these
people must have formed an independent class even
in those days. Many of them were Nonconform-
ists, Methodists perhaps, and often gave sympathy and
support to the labourers, who formed the bulk of the
population.

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 141

The position of the labouring class was, in the early
years of the century, deplorable. Save in special

districts, where old industries such as
labourers weaving and spinning had survived, or
and William new industries such as straw-plaiting or
Cobbett. i-ii i i_ i

lace- making had sprung up, the men had

to depend entirely on their low wages, supplemented,
if they chose to become paupers, by allowances from
the rates. Wages, though they varied then as now
throughout the country, and were to some extent
regulated by the Speenhamland regulations, seem to
have averaged from 95. to los. a week. Food was
excessively dear. The whole labouring class must
have lived on the verge of starvation. The more enter-
prising men poached and stole ; they also joined with
their fellows in rick-burnings, in the breaking-up of
machinery, in the raiding of corn-stores, and in the
other disorders that, taking place from time to time
during the early years of the century, culminated
in the risings of 1830. These disorders, though they
may have paved the way both to political reforms
and to the modification of the extraordinarily severe
penal code, brought no immediate benefits to the
people. The leaders, undoubtedly often the best of
the men, were soon caught in the meshes of the law,
to be transported or imprisoned until their spirit was
broken. The less enterprising members of this class
accepted their life of misery and learnt to depend on
the allowances of the poor law and the doles they
received from clergy and gentry. Amongst these
poor people the population increased rapidly, all con-
siderations of thrift being at an end, since the larger
the families the more the labourers could secure from
the rates. But even then some failed to secure enough

142 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

to keep body and soul together and there were many
deaths from starvation. Of those who became paupers,
some, especially the children, drifted into the parish
poorhouse, where, to quote a description given by Mr.
George Villiers, quoted by Arthur Young, were col-
lected " the aged and infirm ; the dying and even the
dead ; the young and able, the abandoned and the
well-disposed ; modest want and indigent profligacy,
all confounded in one wretched mass." Children
gathered from the poorhouses were formed into gangs
to be employed as * apprentices ' in the factory towns
or to work under gangers in the fields.

It is interesting to compare the struggle which
continued for a generation at the beginning of the
XlXth century with the thirty years' struggle of the
XlVth century. In the earlier period the fight was
carried on by a sturdy landholding peasantry, in-
dependent in mind and energetic in character, with
the tradition and habit of combined action and the
support of many well-wishers. The peasants appear
to have been well organized, confident and capable.
But at the beginning of the XlXth century the main
part of the peasant class had sunk into a slough of
despond, and had no longer the sturdiness and
independence that had characterized their ancestors.
They had lost the habit of co-operating, whilst any
definite form of combination * was, until 1824, barred
by Act of Parliament. Moreover, the labourers had
to face strong opposition : for the farmers had the
landed gentry and to some extent the clergy behind
them, and Parliament stood behind the landed gentry.
On the other hand, the labourers, unlike the peasants
of the XlVth century, had few sympathizers. There

1 See Appendix, p. 168.

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 143

is indeed only one man of marked distinction who
supported the labourers with intelligence and under-
standing. This was William Cobbett. Cobbett,
soldier, farmer and journalist, was born in 1762. His
father was a Surrey farmer, his grandfather a labourer,
and he began life on the land, like most country
children of his time, employed in bird-scaring. After
a few years of agricultural work, he left the country
whilst still a lad to lead a life of adventure. Early
in the XlXth century, when about forty years old,
he returned from America, where he had been living
for some years, and started a newspaper, which he
ultimately carried on under the name of the Political
Register. He soon became, thanks to his extra-
ordinary energy and capacity as a speaker and writer,
a great force in English political life. From 1821
onwards he made many expeditions throughout
England on horseback, and the account of these
wanderings, picturesquely told in his " Rural Rides,"
gives a picture of the human side of the rural life
of the time, and does much to supplement Arthur
Young's descriptions. After the passing of the Reform
Act Cobbett was returned to Parliament, but at that
time his health was failing, and he died in 1835.
During the early years of the century, Cobbett's
voice was constantly being raised to explain to the
public the nature of the labourers' troubles, and to
support them in their pitiable struggle : but even with
his help, the forces against them were too strong,
and the men seem to have actually lost ground,
especially after 1812, when the scale of allowance
from the rates began to be reduced and the pressure
of poverty became more intense. But the spirit of
the people was not entirely broken. In 1830 the

144 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

labourers, to quote The Times, "exasperated into
madness by insufficient food and clothing, by utter
want of necessaries for themselves and their un-
fortunate families," were in open revolt. This revolt,
which took the form of the gathering of the people into
mobs, varying from a few hundred to a thousand or
more, commenced towards the end of August of
that year at Hardres in Kent, where some four
hundred labourers collected together and destroyed
some threshing-machines. The spread of threshing-
machines had been a severe blow to the men. Winter
threshing in the barns was comparatively well-paid
work, and kept men occupied from late autumn to
early spring ; the introduction of machines made it
possible for the farmers to dispense with this work
and to dismiss their labourers after harvest, leaving
them, perhaps, penniless to face the winter. The
labourers' action had, it will be seen, some reason
behind it. During the autumn the movement spread
from east to west, and there were widespread disorders
in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Berkshire, Hampshire, Wilt-
shire and Gloucestershire, and to a less extent in
almost all the other counties of England. The mobs
demanded as a rule 2s. 6d. a day and regular em-
ployment. They destroyed many threshing-machines,
and there was much rick-burning. Attacks were
constantly made on overseers who had made them-
selves unpopular by their manner of administering the
poor law, and in a few cases on other individuals, but
as a rule the methods employed were orderly. The
Times special correspondent says the " conduct of the
peasantry has been admirable " : he describes how,
when " a parish has risen," the men gave notice to
the farmers, and appointed representatives, "some-

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 145

times a Methodist teacher," to treat with them. The
farmers were generally frightened into agreeing to
the demands, which were considered reasonable by
independent persons. The magistrates at first some-
times acted as mediators.

There seemed every prospect that the movement
might have ended in a definite improvement in the
wages, and the conditions of life of the labouring
population. But towards the end of November the
government became frightened, and the lord-lieu-
tenants and the magistracy were urged to proceed
with greater vigour in quelling disturbances. The
government's fright created a panic amongst the
magistracy. Everywhere they took action : arbitrary
arrests became common, and the gaols were soon
crowded. The trials that followed were too often a
mockery of justice. At Winchester some three
hundred prisoners were tried in batches, and the
evidence given was in many cases of a most shadowy
kind ; in some instances it depended solely on the
statements of informers, to whom large sums of money
were given. Of the three hundred, over two hundred
were found guilty of various offences ; of these about
half were convicted of noting and rick-burning and
other similar crimes, for which in those days the
penalty was death. Two of these men were hanged in
the presence of the whole of the condemned men, and
the remainder were transported or sentenced to hard
labour. Similar repressive measures went on through-
out the country. The movement among the labourers
was crushed, and they were forced back into a silent
poverty.

Two years later, at the time when the laws against
combinations had been repealed, and there was a spread

II

146 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

of trade unions throughout the towns, Hampshire
men, following the example of their fellow-workers in
the cities, formed a Labourers' Society and secured
an advance in wages. Later, in 1834, some Dorset
men of the village of Tolpuddle, where wages were
75. a week, formed what they called a Friendly Society
of Agricultural Labourers. The leaders were promptly
clapped into prison and transported to Botany Bay, on
the plea that they had administered unlawful oaths.
As a protest against this action, a national agitation on
a large scale, fostered and aided by the famous social
reformer Robert Owen, was carried on for two years ;
the men were then pardoned and, ultimately, brought
back to England. The very agitation and the publi-
cation of the facts showed to the governing class that
arbitrary action would be from that time onward
subject to national criticism, and this, perhaps, served
as a wholesome check. On the other hand, this same
agitation must have showed to the labouring population
of rural England how powerless they were ; it is not,
therefore, surprising to find that the trade union move-
ment obtained no hold on the villages for a period of
about forty years.

At the beginning of the reign of Queen Victoria,
conditions for farmers were improving. Rents had by
then fallen considerably from the higher
figures of the early years of the century,
Victorian ancj so farmers definitely benefited by the
prices that then prevailed. In 1836 the
Tithe Commutation Act1 had removed a farmers'
grievance, and replaced the collections of the tenth on
all ' growing and moving ' things by a cash payment.
* See Appendix, p. 176.

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 147

In 1838 the Royal Agricultural Society was founded,
and its shows, continued ever since, have brought before
landlords and farmers all the current improvements
in both stock and machinery. A few years later
systematic experiments in agriculture were started
by Mr., afterwards Sir, John Lawes at his farm at
Rothamsted, and scientific agriculture made a begin-
ning. From Rothamsted, farmers have from that
time been able to learn much of the exact value of
manures, the best rotation of crops, and the principles
which underlie the improvement of stock. Improve-
ments in these matters and in other directions went
slowly and steadily on year by year. Lighter ploughs
were introduced, and there was a wider use of the
threshing-machine and of the drill. Scientific methods
of draining were introduced by Smith of Deanston,
and cylindrical pipes made cheaply by machinery re-
sulted in the spread of both deep and surface drainage.
This had a great effect in bringing wet land under
cultivation. Manuring was carried on upon more scien-
tific lines, and nitrate of soda and guano began to be
used for this purpose. Stock steadily improved, and
crops increased in amount and were of better quality.
In addition to other roots, mangel-wurzels and kohl-
rabi spread, and there was a more scientific growth
and selection of seed of all sorts.

At first the improvements were only taken up by the
larger farmers, but after the introduction of Free Trade
in 1849 they spread more rapidly. The drop in prices
which then occurred created a panic, and though the
fall was only temporary in character, it seems to have
caused agriculturists to bestir themselves to greater
efforts. Good farming of the modern type then spread
widely throughout England. The actual novelties

148 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

introduced in the years that followed were few but
important. The mowing and reaping machines enor-
mously reduced harvest work. The elevators also
saved labour. Moreover, the railways brought coal to
the country to be used by steam-engines to drive
threshing-machines ; this resulted in a further saving.
As the years passed hedges were cut down and the
fields grew larger, whilst the same tendency affected
the farms themselves, which were constantly being
thrown together. Estates were also being enlarged,
and in 1873 4>OOO individuals owned more than half
the land of England and Wales.

In 1834 the Poor Law Amendment Act1 extended
to the whole of England an arrangement already

adopted in some districts, whereby parishes
The poor. were grouped into * Unions.' Each Union

was to have its own workhouse, and was
to be controlled by * Guardians of the Poor * elected
from the parishes. The old system of allowances was
abolished by the same Act ; all able-bodied paupers
who required relief had to come into the Union work-
house to be there set to work, whilst outdoor relief
was provided for widows and the aged and others
who could not be considered as able-bodied. Into the
workhouses came not only a selection of the able-
bodied but, as permanent inmates, a miscellaneous
collection of unfortunate people, including pauper
imbeciles and many pauper children.

The system of responsibility of the parish for the
paupers who had * settled ' within its boundaries con-
tinued after the act of 1834, and as a result there was
still a tendency to get rid of cottages and take other
1 See Appendix, p. 171.

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 149

steps to keep possible paupers outside the parish
boundaries. However, by legislation x and government
regulations the evils arising from the law of settlement
were ultimately brought to an end, and from 1865 the
Union, as a whole, and not the parish has been respon-
sible for the poor, whilst a year's residence has been
substituted for all other methods of obtaining a
settlement.

The abolition in 1834 of the old system of allowances

on which the labourer had learnt to depend, whilst it was

intended to give him a new independence,

at first depressed him into greater poverty,

labourers. . /J

since his wages rarely rose in proportion

to his losses. The labourer's remedy was to increase
his income by keeping his wife and children at work
in the fields. Women were generally employed in the
dairy and in such work as weeding and hoeing ; in some
places they acted as carters, in others they even pre-
pared and loaded manure. The use of women's labour
became almost universal. Many of the women, includ-
ing quite young girls, also worked in the large mixed
gangs which were common at this period ; the evils
connected with these gangs were so great that they
were regulated by legislation,2 and ultimately were given
up in most parts of England.

As the decades passed there was a slight increase
in labourers' wages, but it was not sufficient to tempt
men of enterprise to stay in the villages. As a result,
during all this period of forty years a great migration
from the country went on, and men of energy and
ability, instead of staying in rural England to struggle
against overwhelming difficulties, drifted away to the
1 See Appendix, p. 171. 2 Ibid. p. 168.

ISO ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

towns and colonies ; the women followed. Probably
this exodus of the best people — the natural leaders —
was the cause of the final disappearance of the old
co-operative and social life. All that had survived
of the festivals and merrymakings so characteristic
of English rural life in the past was disappearing
during these years, whilst the great fairs also decayed.
Indeed, by the end of the period little social life
remained save the harvest home, the club day of the
village sick and benefit society, and such meetings of
friends as occurred at the country towns on market
days.

In the North of England the conditions were some-
what different. There was a considerable improvement
in wages, which, in 1870, in some counties, were over
1 6s. a week. It was this increase that encouraged the
labourers in their final struggle. This struggle, of
which the immediate cause was their desperate condition
during the exceptionally hard winter of 1871-2, was
led by Joseph Arch. Arch, born in 1828, was the son
of a labourer ; he had himself started life on the land
at nine years old, employed in bird-scaring, standing}
as he describes himself, " in a new-sown field shivering
for twelve hours a day on an empty stomach, whilst
the cold wind blew and chill rain poured down in
torrents." At ten he was a ploughboy, at sixteen a
mower at is. 6d. a day, working from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m.
As he grew up he soon showed himself a man of
considerable ability, won a gold medal for hedging
and ditching, and became a contractor on a small scale
for agricultural work. He travelled much in this
capacity. He was also a Nonconformist preacher, and
later on showed himself to be a convincing speaker.
He was a man of what in these days would be called

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 151

moderate views, and he secured considerable support
from men of all classes.

The movement with which Arch's name is associated
started on the 7th of February, 1872, at a meeting at
Wellesbourne in Warwickshire. The word ' had been
passed round,' says Arch, and some two thousand men
had collected round an old chestnut-tree. Arch, standing
on an old ' pig stool,' addressed the men. The outcome
of this meeting was the spread of Trade Unionism
throughout rural England and the formation of a
Federation — the National Agricultural Labourers' Union
— which at one time represented at least 80 thousand
men. The Union demanded a wage of i6s. a week
for labourers, is. a week more than had been asked
for and very generally promised in 1830. A wide-
spread agitation was conducted throughout England.
Month after month and year after year Arch and his
associates held their meetings throughout the counties,
encouraging the men of the scattered villages to
stand together for their common cause. They en-
countered bitter hostility amongst a large section of
the landed gentry, the clergy and the farmers, the last
of whom formed counter-organizations to resist the
labourers' demands. But still they went steadily on.
Strikes and lock-outs were common features of the
movement, and the Union also emigrated many thou-
sands of labourers to the colonies, and transferred
others from one part of the country to another.
Although the Labourers' Union secured no dramatic
successes, there was, as the result of its work, a
general rise in wages amounting to is. to 43. a
week. The movement lost much of its strength
after the agricultural catastrophe that occurred about
1879.

152 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

There were three other features of the time affecting
labourers' lives that require consideration. Poaching,
which had been to a previous generation not only a
source of food but also a source of wealth, decreased
as risks increased. This increase of risk arose from
the systematic employment of gamekeepers and the
improved organization of the police, to whom new and
increased powers were given.1 Further, the enclosure
of a large part of the remaining commons then took
place, depriving many labourers of the remnants of
their grazing rights, while this class suffered greatly
from the bad state of the cottages, and also from a
want of allotments, though in some places, in response
to widespread agitation, small plots of land were
provided for labourers.

The power of the country gentry in Parliament was
greatly weakened by the Reform Act of 1832,2 which

brought into the House of Commons a
Central and large body of men of the commercial
ment.^ classes. But the local control of the

country-side remained for long in the
hands of the squirearchy, who from quarter and
petty sessions continued to administer rural England.
The main change in the form of local government was
the decay of the rural parish as a controlling power,
on the administration of the poor laws and, in some
districts of the roads, passing into the hands of the
Guardians of the Poor and Highway Boards4 respectively.

The Anglican Church had by the beginning of the
XlXth century grown out of touch with the views and

1 See Appendix, p. 172. - Ibid. p. 167.

3 Ibid. p. 171. 4 Ibid. p. 174.

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 153

ideas of such of the peasantry as remained, and of the
labourers who represented the old peasant class. The
country parson had none of the char-
and ms^ent. acteristics of the village priest of the
Middle Ages. He was, indeed, in his social
status above even the leaseholding farmers, and, as
a rule, squires and parsons ranked together, meeting
on terms of social equality. The poorer parsons, and
there were many very poor benefices, were tied to their
homes, and here they devoted their spare time to some
attractive hobby such as archaeology or natural history.
But the men with private property or richer benefices
took an active part in country life. They attended the
social functions of the gentry, often shot and sometimes
hunted with them, and took part in other forms of
sport. Some sat on the Boards of Guardians, many
were magistrates. Such men belonged to the govern-
ing class, and many indeed held what was called the
' family living.' Sometimes the parson was himself the
squire, and so earned the nickname of ' squarson.' The
typical country parson of the XlXth century was above
all things a ' gentleman.' In religious matters he kept
clear of the controversies of the time, avoiding fervour
and adopting the moderate view, whilst in political life
he supported, as a rule, the squire's party. Thus inspired,
he took a friendly interest in the farmers, their wives
and families, and in a kindly if somewhat patronizing
spirit did something by the administration of doles to
alleviate the miserable condition of the impoverished
labourers. But when the labourers showed indepen-
dence and made a struggle for better conditions, the
parsons rarely actively supported them.

The influence of the Nonconformists was of a dis-
tinctly different character. The chapels of the more

154 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

important sects, the Congregationalists, the Baptists
and Methodists, were as a rule in the country towns
or the big villages, and had the support of a section
of the shopkeepers, a few of the more broad-minded
farmers, and some of the village artisans and more intel-
ligent labourers. Amongst these people the minister
moved, definitely cut off by his religious views from the
houses of the gentry, the clergy and the orthodox farmers.
Such of the labourers as took an independent line in
religion tended, if the opportunity offered, to attach
themselves to the Primitive Methodists — the Ranters as
they were often called. This offshoot of Methodism,
founded early in the XlXth century, was, from its
beginning, a movement led by rough, uneducated men,
who made their appeal to the poor. Its preachers, like
the mediaeval friars, were to be found tramping through
the country districts preaching, in the face of much per-
secution, a gospel of simple Christianity. Many labourers
became * Primitives/ and their little chapels, built in the
last century, are still common in some counties, especially
in the East of England, where they had a strong fol-
lowing. The ' Primitives ' have always shown sympathy
with the labouring population. In 1830 they took an
active part in the risings of that time, and in common
with other Nonconformists did much to help the Trade
Union movement in the 'seventies. Many of the leaders
of the latter movement had, indeed, obtained their power
of speaking through the practice they had obtained as
local preachers.

All through the century the growth of business and
trade and of social intercourse amongst the people
continued. This growth served, in the early years of
the century, to crowd the roads with waggons and with

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 155

pack-horses, with cattle and stock of every description,
with coaches and post-chaises, and individual travellers
and parties on horseback or on foot. It
is not, therefore, surprising that the demand
for better roads persisted. The govern-
ment, anxious to get something done, put pressure on
the turnpike trusts, and, under the direction of Telford
and Macadam and their followers, good hard main roads
continued to be constructed throughout England. On
these roads, in the first half of the century, ran the swift
mail-coaches that took passengers and the news of the
world to the country towns of England. Such towns
as were coaching centres flourished. Their inns became
famous, their markets gained an additional importance,
and the towns themselves became the centres of social life.
Meanwhile the greater number of the by-roads, which
lay outside the operations of the trusts, remained very
much in their old conditions ; Parliament endeavoured
to relieve the parishes of their responsibility, and to
replace them by Highway Districts,1 with Boards of
management for such roads as lay outside the turnpike
trusts. Later on turnpike trusts were gradually dis-
solved,2 the Highway Boards or parishes taking over
the duties : thus the system was by degrees abolished,
the last turnpike being removed in the year 1895.

The importance of the roads for transit of goods and
travellers was, of course, lessened with the growth of
the railway system in the second half of the century ;
and the country lost much of the social life that centred
round the great highways and the coaching inns. But
the railways had their effect in the increase of trade
and ease of travel ; they helped to create a social life
of a new character, and ultimately did much to destroy
1 See Appendix, p. 174. - Ibid. pp. 173, 174.

156 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

the old element of isolation which had been the charac-
teristic of the English village from remote times.

Notwithstanding railways and new commercial ideas,
sport maintained its position in rural life. Fox-hunting

became more and more a great affair carried
Sport. on at considerable cost. The coursing of

hares continued. Shooting on a large scale
spread throughout England, and every landholder of any
importance had his gamekeeper. Enormous numbers
of partridges and pheasants were preserved. Although
an Act of Parliament, passed in i83i,x did away with
the monopoly of killing game previously enjoyed by
the large landholders, still shooting, like hunting and
coursing, remained in the hands of the landholding and
farming classes and such of the wealthy people of the
towns as took a special interest in country life.

A sanguine student of rural life in the early 'seventies
might have felt a real pride in describing rural England

of the day. He could comment on the
Conclusion. marvellous progress in cultivation and the

reward obtained by the farmers for their
capacity and energy. He could call attention to the
real improvement in the condition of the labouring class
since the early years of the century, when pauperism j
was almost universal amongst this class. He would
have no doubts as to the success of the policy of
* enclosure/ of large farms, and of agriculture under
Free Trade, and would feel himself justified in pre-
dicting a long period of prosperity on the lines laid
down in the preceding half-century. Nothing would j
have suggested to him the possibility of the disaster
that as a fact occurred.

1 See Appendix, p. 172.

CHAPTER X
THE FINAL PHASE

AFTER 1875, the period of prosperity drew rapidly to

a close. For several years the crops suffered from long

spells of bad weather. Then in 1879 came

The agri- an epidemic of sheep-rot, which resulted
cultural . \. .... r i

disaster. m the destruction of millions of sheep.

Foot and mouth disease was also prevalent,
especially in 1883, when it attacked cattle and sheep
and pigs on a large scale. There was also a drop in
the price of corn, of butter and cheese, and, after 1885, of
cattle and sheep. The fall in the price of corn continued
owing to the large surplus crops in the United States,
coupled with the improved transit arrangements which
made the importation cheap and easy. During the
twenty years 1880 to 1900 wheat averaged about 335.
a quarter ; in 1894 the average of the recorded market
prices actually dropped to 22s. lod. a quarter, whilst
in some places it was, on occasions, below £i a quarter.
The farmers also suffered from the difficulty of obtain-
ing child labour, since the Education Act of 1876*
kept the boys and girls at school. Women were also
difficult to obtain, since the country girl, rather than
work in the fields, went into service or into employ-
ment in the shops of the towns. Losses were enormous.

* See Appendix, p. 168.
157

158 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

In the years between 1876 and 1886 the annual
income of the three classes interested in agriculture
was estimated by Sir James Caird to have diminished
by £42,300,000. But the hard times were not then
over : from 1891 to 1894 repeated spells of bad weather
went far to destroy the crops. Many farmers were
ruined, and others, seeing no prospects before them,
gave up their farms in order to migrate to the towns
or to the colonies. Some land went out of cultivation,
and of that which remained much was diverted from
corn land to pasture. This conversion has continued
until the beginning of the war, about one-fifth of the
thirteen million acres devoted to corn in 1880 being
then in pasture. Enterprising farmers here and there
found remedies for their difficulties : some turned their
attention, with success, to the production of fruit and
vegetables, whilst others, by the use of self-binders
and other improved machines, saved labour, and so
expense. The position of their class was rendered
somewhat easier by the fall of rents, and when the
rise of prices came in the early years of the XXth
century farmers began to do better.

This agricultural catastrophe produced a widespread
discontent, and many remedies were suggested. On

the one hand there was a demand for the
Remedies reintroduction of the Corn Laws, whilst
and adopted, another class of thinkers asked, like the

peasants of the XlVth and XVth centuries,
for fixity of tenure, or at least full compensation for
improvements effected by tenants. Some reformers
urged that a partial remedy for the farmers' troubles
would be found in co-operation, whilst the labourers and
those who represented their views urged the State to

THE FINAL PHASE 159

interfere to increase the number of allotments and small
holdings, and thus reconstruct the old system under
which every countryman who needed it should have a
plot of land. This turmoil of talk had some effect.
Parliament had already in 1875 legislated on the
question of compensation for improvements, and more
effective statutes were subsequently passed.1 The ques-
tion of increasing the number of small holdings was
also brought before Parliament in 1885, to be shelved
for over twenty years, during which time the landlords
and farmers continued, as they had done in the past,
to incorporate small plots into the larger farms.

The position of settled estates was also considered,
and legislation was carried which made it comparatively
easy for such property to be sold.2 Parliament also
gave to agricultural tenants the right to kill the ground
game,3 relieved them of one half the rates on their
land,4 and placed the responsibility for the payment
of tithe on their landlords.4

The labourers' organizations had been greatly weakened

by the agricultural catastrophe. Thereupon the leaders,

seeing no chance of increase of wages,

The labourers put thejr j^t energy into a demand for
trade unions, allotments and also joined in an agitation
for the extension of the Parliamentary
suffrage to labourers. It was in part the result of this
agitation that the franchise was extended in 18845 to
householders in the counties. In the following year
Arch was returned to Parliament for a division of
Norfolk. The Union, though much weakened, continued
for many years; its successor, founded in 1906, exists

1 See Appendix, p. 175. 2 Ibid. p. 176.

3 Ibid. p. 172. 4 Ibid. p. 176. 5 Ibid. p. 167.

160 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

at the present day, and appears to be rapidly spreading
through England.

The control that the country gentry had exercised

over Parliament, at which a blow had been struck

by the Reform Act of 1832, was further

Central and weakened at the election of 1885, when in
local govern- •.•'-! i r * - i

ment. many counties the newly enfranchised

labourers refused to vote for the landed
proprietors of the old school or their representatives ;
they returned to Parliament men of a different type
belonging to the Liberal and Radical groups, whom they
deemed to be more sympathetic to the views of their
class. Though there has been some reaction to this
revolt, the political influence of the country gentry has
been permanently weakened. A similar change took
place in local government when Parliament intervened
to transfer the management of country affairs from the
justices of the peace to elected county councils, district
councils, parish councils and parish meetings.1

The employment of these bodies by Parliament in the
reconstruction of conditions of life in rural England has
created what is perhaps the most interesting feature of
their work. The management of the main roads,2 the
organization of education,3 and the creation of small
holdingss has been entrusted to the county councils; the
care of the secondary roads2 and the supervision and
even building of labourers' cottages, a great need in
many parts of England, to the district councils ; 4 and
the provision of allotments to the parish councils and
meetings.3 Under this control an admirable system of
roads has at last been created throughout England, and

1 See Appendix, p. 167, - Ibid. p. 174.

3 Ibid. p. 175. 4 Ibid. p. 174,

THE FINAL PHASE 161

an important educational system has been built up ;
but the policy of providing'small holdings and labourers'
cottages has not, as a rule, been sufficiently actively
pressed to make our country-side attractive to the more
energetic young men and women of the labouring class,
and the migration to the towns and colonies has continued.

Rural life was very different at the time of the begin-
ning of the war from what it had been forty years before.
In the agricultural catastrophe it was the
old-fashioned squires and farmers who dis-
appeared, and the men who took their place,
many of whom came from the towns to buy land from
the half-ruined landlords, have rarely been imbued with
the autocratic spirit of their predecessors. Education,
in all its aspects, had spread ; as a result there was
more tolerance. The same spirit animated the religious
world, although the Anglican parson was still inclined
to stand by the gentry, and continued to take social
precedence of the Nonconformist minister. Even the
farmers, though more inclined than squire and parson
to cling to the old point of view, were influenced by
the new spirit, whilst the new market-gardeners to
be found in almost all parts of England were eager
for new ideas and new methods. Moreover, many
manufactories were erected along the railway lines, and
men of all classes had come out from towns to settle
down in the country and influence its life. Amongst
the labourers there was still much poverty ; the houses
were often miserable, while in many districts small plots
of land were difficult to obtain. But although the men
were still, in old-fashioned neighbourhoods, often subject
to a personal control which they found extremely irksome
and often bitterly resented, there was little of the degra-

12

162 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE

dation that marked the life of the X I Xth century. More-
over, the labourer was protected under the provisions of
recent legislation in case of accidents I and of sickness.2

There were many new and hopeful elements in rural
life. The co-operative movement in agriculture, fostered
by the Agricultural Organization Society, was spreading
throughout England and drawing all classes together.
Farmers were showing increasing energy and ability.
The new small holders, living on the great estates of
the county councils, were successfully building up under
favourable conditions a type of life new to England.
At the same time elementary education, compulsory
and also free to all,3 supplemented by opportunities for
secondary education^ in both agricultural and intellec-
tual subjects, had created a widespread intelligence and
a new social life was arising. Village club-rooms, with
newspapers and libraries, were common throughout
England. Dancing, music and acting were being re-
introduced, and were taken up by all classes working
together. In villages imbued with the modern spirit the
labourer was no longer a drudge, with no views outside
his work. He studied his weekly paper and took an
interest in national politics. Even if he had not himself,
at some period of his life, been away from his home to
work in towns or colonies, he would have friends all
over the world from whom he heard from time to time.
Thus he obtained a broader outlook on life. His wife
and children were not behind him in intelligence.

Even before the outbreak of the great war, the
remnants of the bastard feudalism that, arising in the
XVIIIth century, had done so much harm to our village
life was rapidly dissolving. There was a widespread
feeling that we were at the beginning of a new era.

1 See Appendix, p. 168. 2 Ibid. p. 176. 3 ibid p. 175.

APPENDIX

PART I

A. The Tun, the Vill and the Parish

ENGLISH country people have, from very early times, been
grouped into small communities, living in definite areas. Before
the Norman Conquest the area was called the ' tun ' ; this word
means a wall or boundary and was in the first instance applied
to the fenced-in settlements. After the Conquest the word ' tim,'
modified into ' town,' continued for centuries to be applied to
the village and the area of land that went with it, and the word
is employed in the old sense in New England to-day. At the
same time a new title, the ' vill/ came into use.

Later, in the XVIth century, and perhaps before that time,
the civil parish is the unit. The ' vill ' may be described as
the direct descendant of the ' tun/ but the parish is, of course, a
very old division, created by the Church, into which the vill
seems to have merged, giving the parish a double character,
civil and ecclesiastical.

The words 'tun' and 'vill/ like 'parish/ are also often applied
to the community itself.

The powers and duties of the communities varied from time
to time, but the characteristic features were these : —

1. The democratic transaction of business in open meeting,
the tun-moot of Saxon times, the town's meeting of a later
period, then the vestry, and finally the parish meeting of to-day.

2. The election of special officers for the management of such
affairs as the community had to deal with.

3. A right to levy rates and taxes either for local expenses, or
to provide an amount levied on the community by a superior
authority.

B. Socage Tenants

From the Xlllth century onwards free tenants, other than
those who held by military tenure, were known as ' socage
tenants' or 'tenants in socage/ On estates that were or had

163

164 APPENDIX

formerly been the king's property, ' royal demesne ' or ' ancient
demesne' as it was sometimes called, there were also to be
found bondsmen holding by a special tenure called 'villein
socage.' Such tenants were in a securer position than ordinary
bondsmen, and certainly could not be disturbed so long as
they performed their customary services.

C. Mantes of the various Features of Common, Arable and
Meadow Land

Whilst the system of common fields formerly prevailed
throughout England, the names of the features varied greatly.

The arable strips sometimes called 'acres' were also (as
mentioned in the text) called 'lands/ and in other places the
names given were 'shots,' 'sellions,' 'lawns,' 'loons,' 'dales/
'raps/ 'pauls/ and perhaps 'ridges/ 'rigs' and 'doles/

A strip taking the form of a terrace on a hill-side was called
a 'linch.'

Three-cornered pieces of arable were called ' gores/ ' pikes/
' pightels ' or ' f others.'

The dividing belts in the arable fields were generally called
4 baulks/ but also sometimes ' meres/ 'reans/ ' walls' and 'edges.'

The groups of strips which were surrounded by broad grass
belts so as to form fields were called not only 'furlongs' but
'shots/ a name that had a different meaning in different dis-
tricts. The grass belts themselves were, like the narrower belts,
called ' baulks ' ; of these baulks, those running parallel to the
furrows were called ' side-baulks ' or ' way-baulks/ those running
across the end of the furrows, on which the ploughs would turn,
being called ' headland baulks ' or ' headlands.'

The common meadowland was sometimes known as the ' lot
meadows' 'carrs/ 'leazes/ or 'the ings' or 'the doles.' The
word 'doles/ indicating the 'dealt-out land/ being probably
confined in its use to grass land ; when found employed in
modern times in relation to arable, it was possibly inherited in
its use from a time when the land was meadow.

D. Some Statistics relating to Enclosures

The extent of the land enclosed from time to time cannot be
ascertained with accuracy, but we have some information from
which we can make shrewd guesses.

APPENDIX 165

Davenant and King, who prepared agricultural and other
statistics in the closing years of the XVIIth century, thought
that 55 per cent, of England and Wales was under cultivation.
The amount of land cultivated in Wales must have been very
small. We may therefore guess that out of the 32^ million
acres in England, some 19 million was either arable or meadow
or pasture, whether common or enclosed. Of the area under
cultivation authorities seem agreed in thinking that some two-
fifths would be enclosed — perhaps 8 million acres.

Judging from Professor Caird's estimate made in the middle
of the XlXth century, the largest area of land brought under
cultivation in England was about 27 million acres. The amount
is now, of course, much less. If we accept these figures, it will
follow that about 19 million acres, 30 thousand square miles, has
been definitely enclosed and fenced in since the later years of
the XVIIth century. Of these 19 million acres, about a third
(6 million more or less), was enclosed by Act of Parliament. The
remaining two-thirds have been enclosed by other means, i.e.
by agreement, by appropriation, by the action of lords of manors
who bought up all the tenants, or in some cases after reclamation
of ownerless fen, moor and other waste land.

The greater part of the work of enclosure went on before the
middle of the XlXth century. But ever since then there has
undoubtedly been a considerable amount of appropriation of
land by lords of the manors and others, and also a few statutory
enclosures.

There is still in England, a survival of the old condition, a
large area, perhaps 7 or 8 million acres, which retains its old
character of waste, woodland, moor or fen. There are also a
considerable number of old commons and some manorial
woods, subject to pasturage and woodcutting and other similar
rights. A few areas of arable land that have never been en-
closed are still to be found : the principal examples are in the
parishes of Clothall, Bygrave and Wallington in Hertfordshire,
at Soham in Cambridgeshire, and at Laxton in Nottinghamshire.
There are also lot meadows at Yarnton in Oxfordshire and
doubtless elsewhere. It may be interesting to the student to
learn that a few new commons have been created under the
provisions of the Small Holdings Acts.

166 APPENDIX

E. Agricultural Rents in Modern Times

The variation of agricultural rents in England in modern times
is a matter on which contemporary writers have from time to
time made comments and estimates, from which it is possible
to draw some general conclusions. In 1790, los. to 125. an acre
appears to have been an ordinary rent ; then a rise began which
continued until 1812, when the average may have been as high
as 505. an acre. The rise was followed by an almost equally
rapid drop, until in 1830 the average was probably as low as 2os.
The tide then turned again, and rents went up steadily until
1879, when the average was about 355. Then followed a drop of
about 30 per cent., and by the close of the century the 35$. an
acre had fallen to 255. Since then there has been very little
change, though there was a definite tendency for rents to rise
during the years that immediately preceded the war.

Students must use these figures with discretion, for they have
to be considered in relation, not only to the character of the
buildings and the capital sunk by landlord or tenant in the land,
but also with reference to the liability for rates, taxes and tithe.
It must be remembered, for example, that whilst a century ago
the tenant provided tithe and paid heavy rates and taxes, at the
present time the landlord pays the tithe, the rates are reduced
under the provisions of the Agricultural Rates Act (see below,
p. 176), whilst the tenant is usually free from any liability for
income tax.

PART II

ACTS OF PAKLIAMENT AND A ROYAL ORDINANCE REFERRED TO IN
THE TEXT, AND SOME OTHER SELECTED STATUTES, WITH
SOME NOTES THEREON.

THE STATUTES AT LARGE, from Magna Carta onwards,
edited by Danby Pickering, were published in book form in 1762;
supplementary volumes continued the collection of statutes until
1807. Subsequently the statutes have been published officially.

In a few cases, where authorities attribute different years of the
calendar to a statute, both dates are given.

The quotations from statutes given in the text are sometimes
abbreviated*

APPENDIX 167

I. STATUTES RELATING TO GOVERNMENT AND

RIGHT OF VOTING AT PARLIAMENTARY

ELECTIONS

PAGE

1429 8 Henry V, c. 7.— Disqualified persons 'of small
or estate' from voting for Knights of the Shire and

1430 limited the county electorate to freeholders holding
estates of and above the annual value of 40 shillings ... 89

1710 9 Anne, c. 5.— Enacted that no person should be
returned to Parliament as a Knight of the Shire who
had not a landed estate worth ^600 a year 109

1832 2 & 3 William IV, c. 45.— The first Reform Act ... 152

1858 21 & 22 Victoria c. 26.— Abolished the property
qualification for members of Parliament

1884 48 & 49 Victoria, c. 3. — Extended the right of
voting in Parliamentary elections to householders in
the counties 159

1888 51 & 52 Victoria, c. 41. — Local Government Act.
Vested County administrative business in Elected
County Councils ; the management of the police re-
mained in the hand of the justices 160

1894 56 & 57 Victoria, c. 73. — Local Government Act.
Vested local administrative business in Rural District
Councils, Parish Councils and Parish Meetings ; re-
formed methods of election of Guardians 160

II. STATUTES. ETC., RELATING TO WAGES
AND OTHER LABOUR QUESTIONS

1349 23 Edward III. — The Royal Ordinance quoted in

the text 56

135° 25 Edward III, s. i.— The first of the series of
or Statutes of Labourers : stated to be made necessary

1351 as the ordinance had been ignored 56

1388 12 Richard II, c. 4.— Laid down a scale of wages

for labourers 72

1388 i2 Richard II, c. 5. — Forbade those who had served
in agriculture up to 12 years of age to be apprenticed
in the towns 73

1 68 APPENDIX

PAGE

1389 13 Richard II, St. I c. 8.— Directed justices to fix

wages twice a year 72

This statute was followed by others relating to the fixing
of wages and even hours of labour.

1563 5 Elizabeth, c. 4. — An Act consolidating and ex-
panding the statutes referred to above. Directed
wages to be fixed at quarter sessions, and ordered
persons of the labouring class, between the ages of
12 and 60 and not otherwise occupied, to work at
husbandry ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 72

1747 20 George II, c. 19.— Directed that disputes be-
tween masters and men should be referred to the
justices

J799 39 George III, c. 81.— Prohibited combinations of

workmen 142

1813 53 George III, c. 40. — Repealed statutes relating to
the fixing of wages by justices

1824 5 George IV, c. 95. — Repealed statutes prohibiting

combinations of workmen 142

1867 30 & 31 Victoria, c. 130. — Brought agricultural gangs

under control 149

1876 39 & 40 Victoria, c. 79. — The Education Act referred
to below, p. 175, prevented employment of children
under 12 or under 14 unless provided with a special
certificate 157

1900 63 & 64 Victoria, c. 22.— Extended to agricultural

labourers the right to compensation for accidents ... 161

III. STATUTES RELATING TO ENCLOSURES

(Also see below, p. 169.)

1235 20 Henry III, c. 4. — Statute of Merton : authorized
lords of manors to enclose waste provided they left
sufficient pasture for tenants of their manor ... 42, 77

1285 *3 Edward I, s. i. c. 46. — Statute of Westminster :
gave similar authority in cases where the rights of
pasture belonged to tenants of other manors ... 42, 77

1607 4 James I, c. n — The first known local Enclosure
Act, dealing with certain parishes in Herefordshire.

APPENDIX

169

PAGE

From about \ The series of private Acts of Parliament re-
1700 to t ferred to in the text for the enclosure of
1845 / particular areas ............... 124

1801 41 George III, c. 109. — A general Enclosure Act :
directed to simplifying the provisions of private
enclosure acts and facilitating procedure ...... 124

1836 6 & 7 William IV, c. 115.— Authorized enclosure
without special private legislation, if two-thirds of
persons interested agreed ............ 124

1845 8 & 9 Victoria, c. 118. — Authorized enclosures by
award of commissioners, under the supervision of an
authority entitled the Inclosure Commissioners, whose
duties have been since transferred to the Board of
Agriculture .................. 124

l&*fi 39 & 4° Victoria, c. 56. — Directed Inclosure Com-
missioners not to proceed with enclosure in any
case unless they deemed it to be of benefit to the
neighbourhood.

1893 56 & 57 Victoria, c. 57.— Put a stop to enclosures
under Statutes of Merton and Westminster save with
consent of Board of Agriculture.

1899 62 & 63 Victoria, c. 30. — Made further provisions for
the regulation and preservation of commons.

IV. STATUTES RELATING TO DEPOPULA-
TION, TILLAGE, AND ENCLOSURE
PASSED IN THE XVxn AND XVlTH
CENTURIES

All the statutes given below follow the same general
lines (see p. 84). They are of special interest from the
descriptions of rural conditions set out in the recitals of
the acts.

1487 4 Henry VII, c. 19.— The first of the series of acts

or passed to check the evils arising from the decay of

1489 tillage and the destruction of villages. It describes

conditions, and orders that remedial measures should

be taken.
1514 6 Henry VIII, c. 5. — A temporary act

i;o APPENDIX

PAGE

1515 7 Henry VIII, c. i.

r533 25 Henry VIII, c. 13. — The act quoted in the

or '4 text 83, 84

1536 27 Henry VIII, c. 22.
27 Henry VIII, c. 28.
1552 5 & 6 Edward VI, c. 5., ) — Under the provi-

1555 2 & 3 Philip and Mary, c. 2. 3 sions of these statutes
or commissioners were appointed to inquire into the

1556 conversion of arable into pasture 84

1563 5 Elizabeth, c. 2.

J597 39 Elizabeth, c. i.

1597 39 Elizabeth, c. 2 84

This I believe to be the last operative act relating to
tillage and depopulation : it applied to 23 specified
counties in England ; it remained unrepealed until 1863.

1623 21 James I, c. 28.— Repealed all the acts relating
to this subject except the one last specified.

V. POOR LAW STATUTES

1388 12 Richard II, c. 7. — Enacted that impotent beggars
were not to wander, but remain where they were :
if the people of the district would not maintain them,
they were to withdraw to the hundreds or the towns
where they had been born.

1494 ii Henry VII, c. 2. — Directed that sturdy vagabonds
be put into the stocks : beggars were to resort to the
hundreds where they had last dwelt or had been
born.

1597 39 Elizabeth, c. 3. ) — Brought together the provi-

1601 43 Elizabeth, c. 4. } sions scattered through a number
of previous acts, and laid down the definite policy
explained in the text 93

1662 14 Carolus II, c. 12. — The act of parochial settle-
ment referred to in the text : a temporary act 103

1714 12 Anne, stat. i, c. 18. — Made the last-mentioned act
perpetual.

1691 3 William & Mary, c. ii.— Permitted what were

called derivative settlements 103

APPENDIX 171

PAGE

1696 8 & 9 William III, c. 30.— Made provision for the
granting of certificates of acknowledgment of settle-
ment, provided with which a labourer could roam the
country in search of work 103

1722 9 George I, c. 7.— Authorized parishes to combine to
build workhouses.

1782 22 George III, c. 83 (Gilbert's Act).— Made further
provision for voluntary combination of parishes into
unions : also contained provisions which made possible
the system of grants in aid of wages established at
Speenhamland in 1795.

J795 36 George III, c. 23.— Limited the removal of persons

from one parish to another to those in actual want ... 128

1834 4 & 5 William IV, c. 76.— The Poor Law Amend-
ment Act referred to in the text. It should be observed
that the statute provides that certain of its provisions
should be gradually adopted 148

1846 A series of statutes passed in these years transferred
to the chargeability for the poor from the parishes to the

1865 unions, and provided that a residence of one year
should be the one and only way of obtaining a
settlement 149, 152

VI. THE GAME LAWS

1389 13 Richard II, c. 13. — The act quoted in the text:

the first game law 72

1670 22 & 23 Carol us II, c. 25. — Enacted that no one
might kill game unless he had a freehold estate worth
;£ioo a year, or a leasehold of 99 years or over worth
^150 a year : authorized lords of manors to appoint
gamekeepers, to whom were given wide powers to
seize guns, dogs, etc., and even to search houses of
suspected poachers 102

1769 10 George III, c. 19. — Provided new punishments
or for poachers, and forbade any one under heavy penalties

1770 to kill game at night or on Sundays 130

1800 39 & 40 George III, c. 50.— Directed that persons

found on land with guns, nets, or other appliances
might be seized by keepers, and, on conviction,

172 APPENDIX

PAGE

punished with hard labour and whipping, or be sent

to serve in the army or navy 131

1803 43 George III, c. 58.— Introduced the death penalty

for poachers using force ... ... ... ... ... 131

1816 56 George III, c. I3<M — Punished night-poaching with

1817 57 George III, c.go. f heavy penalties, including trans-

1828 9 George IV, c. 6gJ portation 131

1831 i & 2 William V, c. 32. — Gave the right to kill game

to owners of soil with liberty to grant the right to
others : legalized sale of game 156

1860 23 & 24 Victoria, c. 90. — Supplemented Act last
quoted and provided for licences to be taken out by
those who wished to sell or kill game

1862 25 & 26 Victoria, c. 114. — The Poaching Prevention
Act : gave police power to stop suspected poachers on
the highways and in other public places, and to search
them 152

1880 43 & 44 Victoria, c. 47. — Empowered tenants of land

to kill ground game 159

1906 6 Edward VII, c. 21. ) — Extended rights of tenants

1908 8 Edward VII, c. 28. ) to kill game, and to obtain

compensation for damage 159

VII. STATUTES RELATING TO IMPORTATION
AND EXPORTATION OF CORN

1436 51 Henry VI, c. 2.— Permitted export of wheat, when
price did not exceed 6s. 8d. per quarter : made similar
provisions for other corn. A temporary act renewed

five years later 79

1463 3 Edward IV, c. 2. — Prohibited import of wheat
when price did not exceed 6s. 8d. per quarter : con-
tained similar provisions for other corn 79

1670 22 Carolus II, c. 13. — Imposed high import duties on

wheat and other corn, save when prices were very high HI
1688 i William & Mary, c. 12. — The Corn Bounty

or '89 Act quoted in the text ... HI

1791 31 George III, c. 30. ) — Laid down varying import
1804 44 George III, c. 109. (duties on corn 135

APPENDIX 173

PAGE

55 George III, c. 26.— Directed that wheat could not
be imported from North American colonies at under
675. per quarter, nor from elsewhere at under 8os. per
quarter, and made similar rules for other corn 135

1828 9 George IV, c. 60. \— Created sliding scales of

1842 5 & 6 Victoria, c. 14. I import duties varying with

prices, instead of a fixed rate 135

1846 9 & 10 Victoria c. 22. — Reduced import duties on

corn, as from ist February, 1849, to is. per quarter ... 135

1869 32 & 33 Victoria c. 14.— Cancelled the is. per quarter
duty.

VIII. STATUTES RELATING TO ROADS
AND BRIDGES

1530 22 Henry VIII, c. 5. — Enacted that where liability
for repairing bridges could not be attached to any
existing authority or person, the maintenance of
bridges, if outside the towns, should be undertaken
by the counties : quarter sessions were empowered to
administer the law and make a county rate for the
purpose 90

!555 2 & 3 Philip & Mary, c. 8.— Provided that the
parishes should be responsible for the maintenance of
the highways 91

1663 15 Carolus II, c. i. — Authorized the setting up of

toll bars at certain points on the Great North Road ... 105

About From the middle of the XVIIth century and all

1650 through the XVIIIth, statutes were being passed
to through Parliament regulating the size of cartwheels,

1800 the number of horses to be harnessed to waggons, etc. 120

1706 From 1706 onwards, thousands of Acts of Parliament
to were passed creating Turnpike Trusts. Under these

1895 acts a certain number of persons were appointed to
make and maintain a specific piece of road and were
given powers to levy tolls for this purpose. These powers
were limited to a definite period, and when the period
expired Parliament was applied to for a renewal. In
the XVIIIth century and the first half of the XlXth

174 APPENDIX

PAGE

century these renewals were usually granted. I have
been unable to ascertain when new trusts cease to be
created ; but, it appears, that from 1864 onwards, the
system was somewhat discredited : renewals became
rare. As a result the trusts gradually expired, whilst
some were specifically abolished. The last trusts

expired in 1895 120, 125

1835 5 & 6 William IV, c. 50.^ — These and some other
1858 21 & 22 Victoria, c. 98. statutes were passed in the

1862 25 & 26 Victoria, c. 61. VXIXth century, directed

1863 26 & 27 Victoria, c. 17. towards depriving the
1878 41 & 42 Victoria, c. 77. J parishes of the responsi-
bility for the repair of the roads, and vesting it in
Highway Boards. The statutes only came into effec-
tive operation in certain parts of England, possibly

in one half 152, 155

1888 51 & 52 Victoria, c. 41.— Local Government Act :
placed the management of the main roads in the hands

of the County Councils 160

1894 56 & 57 Victoria, c. 73. — Local Government Act :
placed the management of roads other than main roads

in the hands of the District Councils 160

The complicated legislation relating to roads and bridges
can be best studied from "The Story of the King's
Highway," by Sidney and Beatrice Webb (Longmans).

IX. STATUTES RELATING TO HOUSING,
SMALL HOLDINGS, ETC.

1589 31 Elizabeth, c. 7. — Enacted (i) that no one was to
build a cottage or convert a building into a cottage
for workers on the land without allotting to it 4 acres
of land, and (2) that two families were not to occupy

one cottage. This act was repealed in 1775 84

J^Q0 53 & 54 Victoria, c. 70. i — Under the provisions of
1909 9 Edward VII, c. 44. \ these acts, cottages in rural
districts, as well as in towns, are subject to inspection.
The Rural District Council concerned has power to
order the landlord to put unhealthy cottages into
sanitary condition and to build new cottages 160

APPENDIX 175

PAGE

1907 7 Edward VII, c. 54. ) —Under these acts (the

1908 8 Edward VII, c. 36. } second being a consoli-
datory act), the County Councils are directed to provide
small holdings, and the Parish Councils allotments for
suitable applicants 160

There was some previous legislation in the XlXth
century on the question of allotments.

X. STATUTES RELATING TO EDUCATION

1870 33 & 34 Victoria, c. 75. — Directed that England was
to be portioned out into school districts, and schools
for elementary education provided at public expense
under school boards wherever needed.

1876 39 & 40 Victoria, c. 79.— Laid down the principle
that every parent had to see that his child received an
elementary education : and limited employment of
children (see above, p. 168) 157

1891 54 & 55 Victoria, c. 56. — Abolished school fees for

Elementary Education 161

1902 2 Edward VII, c. 42. — Transferred administration of
elementary education to County Councils, and gave
Councils power to provide facilities for secondary
education 160, 161

1906 6 Edward VII, c. 57. — Authorized the provision of
free meals for poor children.

XI. STATUTES RELATING TO IMPROVE-
MENTS EFFECTED BY AGRICULTURAL
TENANTS

38 & 39 Victoria, c. 92. — A non-compulsory act ... 159
1883 46 & 47 Victoria, c. 6z. — Gave tenant farmers com-
pensation for certain improvements 159

1908 8 Edward VII, c. 28.— Consolidated the law and
somewhat extended the rights of farmers and
market gardeners in relation to compensation for
improvements, etc.

i;6 APPENDIX

XII. SUNDRY STATUTES

PAGE

1290 18 Edward I, s. I., c. I & 2.— Provided a freeman

might transfer his land, but forbade subinfeudation ... 33

1327 i Edward III, p. ii, sec. 16.— Created the office of

Justice of the Peace 90

Somewhat similar officials had been appointed since the
later years of the Xllih century.

1536 27 Henry VIII c. *.)_ disso.

1539 3i Henry VIII, c. 13- hution of Monasteries gg

or '40 9

1547 i Edward VI, c. 14.— Provided (sec. 9) that the king
should, ' from Easter next,' enjoy the profits of all
fraternities, brotherhoods, and gilds (other than craft
gilds), and their manors and lands 92

1623 i Carolus I, c. i. — Forbad any sports or pastimes

on the Lord's Day 99

1662 13 & 14 Carolus II, c. 4. — The Act of Uniformity ... 106

1836 6 & 7 William IV, c. 71.— The Tithe Commutation

Act ... * 146

1882 45 & 46 Victoria, c. 38. — Gave large powers to
tenants for life and trustees of settlements, to sell and
otherwise deal with settled land 159

1889 52 & 53 Victoria, c. 30. — Founded the Board of
Agriculture.

1891 54 Victoria, c. 8. — Placed the responsibility for the

payment of tithes upon the landowner 166

1896 59 & 60 Victoria, c. 16. ) — Relieved an agricultural

1901 i Edward VII, c. 13. f tenant of one-half the rates

on his land 159, 166

1911 i & 2 George V, c. 55. — The National Insurance Act :
provided medical attendance and a weekly allowance
to sick manual and other workers 161

INDEX

The Appendix is not indexed in detail ; all Acts of Parliament referred
to in the text appear in the Appendix ', Part //, and are accordingly omitted
from this index. The letters f. andff. indicate the page or pages following
the preceding number.

' ACRES, '4, 32

Acts of Parliament, see Appendix,

pp. 1 66 ff.
Admissions, 45
Agricultural Organization Society,

162
Agriculture,' 'The New, 68, 98,

112 ff., 122 f., 132

Allotments, modern demand for,

152, 159 f.
Amusements and holidays, 39, 45,

63, 88, 92, 99 f., 127, 150, 162
Anglicans and the Anglican Church,

69, 92, 106, 152, 161
Anglo-Saxons, chap, i, chap, ii,

3L39f.

Annual Register, The, 124
Anti-corn-law League, 135
Apprentices, 73, 142
Arable-fields, see Common fields
Arch, Joseph, 58, 136, 150 f., 159
Arrington, 20
Artisans, village, 22, 35, 43, 45, 58,

70, 81, 88, 140
Astriction, 25, 40, 46, 56, 64, 103

BAILIFFS, 15, 33 f., 37 ff., 44, 47,

50, 55, 59, 64, 73
Bakewell, Ii4f.
Ball, John, 50 ff., 58, 60
Baptists, 106, 154
Baulks, 32
Beadles, 34
Bedford, Duke of, 97
Bedfordshire, 53
Berkshire, 144
Billericay, 61
Bishop's Stortford, 140
Black Death, the, 50 f., 54 ff.
Blackheath, 75

Board of Agriculture, The, 116
Bok-land, 10
Bondsmen, 33 ff., 34 n., 39 ff., 52 f.,

62, 66 f.

Boon-work, 43 ff., 50
Bridges, 8, 20, 64, 90, 105, 121
Buckinghamshire, 53, 128
Bunyan, John, 99
Bygrave, 139

CADE, Jack, 74 f.

177

INDEX

Caird, Sir James, 158
Cambridgeshire, 20, 24, 45, 60, 79,

97

Canals, 120
Canterbury, 60
Celts, i ff., i if.
Ceorls, II
Chevage, 46, 50
Child labour, 29, 59, 73, 142, 149,

157

Christianity, 2, 9, 12, 154
Church, the, as property holder, 9,
14, 17, 26,28, 32 f., 47, 5of-»
62f.,68f., 85
Anglican, j^ Anglicans
house, the, 39

Clubs, village, 127, 150, 162
Cobbett, William, 143
Coke of Norfolk, 115 f.
Colling, Charles, 115
Combination, regulation of, 142,

H5

Commendation, 19 f., 74

Common fields, arable and meadows,

3fT., ii ff., 15, 17 f, 21 f., 27,

29, 32, 38, 41 f, 45, 54, 75 ff.,

82, 86, 95, 114, 122 ff.

names of features of, Appendix,

164
plough, 4, 15

Commons, pasture, 6, n, 21, 27^
29, 32, 38,41 f., 45, 71, 75fT.)
82 f., 85 f., 100 ff., 122 ff., 140,

152

Compensation for improvements,

158 f.

Congregationalists, 154
Constable, 36, 59, 64
Convertible farming, 78
Co-operation, 2, 57, 65, 127, 142,

150, 158, 162

Copyholders, 46, 67, 80, 87 ff.
Corn, exportation and importation

of, and duties thereon, i, 79 f.,

inf., 134 ff., 157
Cornwall, 77, 79
Cotters, 22, 24 f., 27 f., 31, 34, 34 n.,

42 ff.

Councils : county, 160, 162 ; dis-
trict, 160; parish, 160
County families and their control of

power, 69, 102, 108 ff., 134,

152, 160
Courts, local and feudal, 8, 14, 18,

36 f., 64, 89 f., also see Moots
national, 25 f., 40, 42, 67, 75,

84, 90

Craftsmen, see Artisans
Cromwell, Oliver, 98, 138
Cultivation, extent of land under,

2, 29, 122, 158
Cumberland, 28

DANEGELD, 21

Danes, 15, 19, 21 f., 31

Demesne, 38, see also Home farm

Devonshire, 77, 79

Diggers, the, 86, 100

Dishley, 114

Disorders, minor, 57, 72, 74, 85 f.,

100, 128, 141

Domesday Book, 21 f., 24 ff. , 34 n.
Dorset, 79, 146
Drengs, 21
Durham, 129

EDINBURGH, 121

Education, 157, i6off.

Ely, 97

Enclosure statistics, 86, 101, 122 f.,

Appendix, 164 f
Enclosures, 62, 67 f. , 71, 75 ff. , 83 ff.,

88, 93, 100 ff., 107, 114, 121 ff.,

133, I36f., 152, 156
statutory, 124 ff., 136, 152
England, parts of: East, 14, 22, 58,

INDEX

179

61, 154 ; Midland Counties, 79;

North, 28, Si, 150; South, 58
Engrossing, 83
Entails, 70, 82, 96
Essex, 60 f., 77, 79
Estate holders, Anglo-Saxon and

Danish, 10 ff., 14 f. 17 ff., 27,

38
Estates, new creations by Normans,

23 ff., 29, 30

FAIRS, 8, 65, 104, 118, 127, 150
Fens, the, 97
Field juries, 13, 37, 89
Fisheries, 8, 27
Fixity of tenure, 62, 85, 158
Forced labour, 19, 22, 24, 44 ff.,
55 ff., 72

on the roads, 91
Foreman of the fields, 37, 64
Forests, 30

Forster, Mr., of Norwich, 126
Franchise, 89, 159
Free Trade, 135, 147, 156

men, 15, 22, 24 ff., 33, 34 n.,
35, 39 ff., 61

villages, II
1 Furlongs,' 4, 32

GAFOL, 43 f.

Game, 41, 72 f., 85, 102, nSf., 131,

156, 159

Gamekeepers, 102, 131, 152, 156
Gangs, agricultural, 142, 149
Gate ward's case, 125
Geld, 8
Geneats, 21

German mercenaries, 85
Gilds, 55, 58, 63 f., 69, 92 f.
Gloucestershire, 144
Gomme, 15 n.
Government, local, 12 ft., 35 ff.,63,

69,89, io8f., 127, 152, i6of.

Grantham, 121

Great North Road, the, 105

Grindecobbe, W., 60

Guardians of the Poor, 148, 152 f.

HALES, John, 60

Halimoot, 36 f.

Hampshire, 3, 30, 79, 8l, 144, 146

Hardres, 144

Hay wards, 13, 34, 37

Herdsmen, village, 13, 34 f., 41, 43,

45

Hereford, 29

Heriot, 47

Hertford, 139

Hertfordshire, 60, 137 ff.

Hides, 26 f.

Highbury, 60

Highway Boards, 152, 155

Hitchin, 140

Holidays and holydays, see Amuse-
ments

Holkham, H5f.

Home farm, 10 f., 21 f., 24 f., 27 f.,

3i> 38, 54, 73
Hop growing, 80, 97
Howberry, 113
Housing, laws, &c., relating to, 84,

109, i6of.
Hundreds, origin of, 14

IMPROVEMENTS, compensation for

tenants', 158
Independents, 106
Industries, village, 35, 79, 81, 122,

127 f., 140 f.
' Inland,' 10
Isle of Axholme, 81
of Wight, 27

JUSTICE, administration of, 8 ff.,
13 f., i8f.,25, 29, 36 f., 42, 69,
89 f., 109

1 8o

INDEX

Justices of the Peace, creation of,

90
spread of powers of, 69, 72, 90,

91, 93, 109, I29ff.
decay of power of, 160
Jutes, 2 ff.

KENT and Kentish, 60, 74, 77, 79,

144

Ket, Robert, 85 f.
William, 85

LABOURERS with little or no land,
increase of, 35, 52, 56, 70, 80,
122, 125 f., 132, 134, 140

Lammas land, 6

Lancashire, 28, 79

Land titles, 10, 14, 20, 23, 42

« Lands,' 4, 32

1 Landed gentry,' see County
families

Langland, William, 52 f.

Lawes, Sir John, 147

Lax ton, 5, 40, 76

Leaseholders, spread of, 54, 67, 73,
81, 87, 122 f., and see Tenant
farmers

Leicester, Earl of, 116

Levellers, the, 86, 100

Limpsfield, 27
Livery and maintenance ' men,

74

Lollards, 51, 74
London, 60 f., 75, 121, 139
Lot meadows, see Common fields
Loughbo rough, 114
Lovecombe, 27

MACHINERY, agricultural, 68, 113,
Ii6f.,i34, 139, 141, 144, 147 f.,
158

Macadam, 121, 155

Mailing, 60

Manchester, 135

Manors, 3, 14, 16, 17, 24 ff., chap.iii,
49 f-, 53f-»56f-,64f.,7o, 72 f.,
76 ff., 846"., 101, 104, 125, 133
creation, by subinfeudation, 33
Markets, 8 ff., 18, 27, 29, 39, 65,
104, 117 f., 120,131, 139, 155
Markham, Gervoise, 97, 99
Meadsmen, 13, 34
Meldreth, 24 f.
Meon Valley, 3
Meons, the, 6, 30
Merchet, 46 f., 50
Methodists, 140, 145, 154

Primitive, 154
Middlesex, 125
Migration from the country, 89,

149 ff., 161 f.
to the country, 82, 95 f., io8f.,

161

Mile End, 60
Military duties of peasantry, 8, 10,

12, 19 ff., 24, 26, 33,64, 66
Mills, 3, 27, 31, 39
Monasteries, dissolution of, 70, 86 f.,

91

Monmouth, 28
Moots, 12 ff., 1 8, 36 f., also see

Courts

More, Sir Thomas, 82, 87
Morison, Fynes, 96

NOBLES, Anglo-Saxon, titles of, 7
Nonconformists, 69, 106, 127, 140,

150, 153 f-» *6i

Norfolk, 60, 79, 81, 85, 11311"., 159
Normans, chap, ii, 30, 34
Northumberland, 28, 34, 129
Norwich, 85
Nottinghamshire, 5

ORGANIZATIONS of farmers, 151
Owen, Robert, 146

INDEX

181

Ownership, early forms of, 7 ff., 15,

32, 42
Oxford, 50

Oxfordshire, 5, 43, 113
Officials, manorial, 34, 37

village, 13, 34
Overseers, highway, 91

of the poor, 93, 129,144

PARISH, civil, rise of, 70, 90, Ap-
pendix, 163
meetings, statutory, 160

Peasant Revolt of 1381, 49, 51 f.,
59 ff., 72

Petersfield, 3

Piers the Ploughman, 52 f.

Pilgrim's Progress, 99

Poaching, 130 f., 136, 141, 152

Police, 102, 131, 152

Political Register ; The, 143

Poor Law, see Poverty

Population, 28 f., 54, 133, 141

Poverty and the Poor Law, 62 ff.,
69 f., 83 f., 87 f., 90 ff., 93 f.,

102 ff., 107, 1 10, 123, 127 ff.,

136 f., 141 ff., 148 f., 152 f., 161
Praepositus, 34
Presbyterians, 92, 106
Priests, village, 12 f., 26, 31, 36 f.,

39, 63ff., 73, 153
Provosts, 34
Puritans, 69, 98 ff.

QUAKERS, 106

RADMEN, 21

Railways, 120, 148, 155 f., 161

Rates, 69,112, 129 f., 138, I4i,i43»

159

Reeves, 13, 26, 34, 36, 64
Rents and their variations since

1790, 134, 136 ff., 146, 158 ;

Appendix, 166

Rents, provender, see Tribute in

food
Retainers in XVth century, 74, 81

93

Riots, see Disorders
Risings of 1830, 136, 141, 143 ft'.
Roads, 2, 30 f., 65, 70 f., 90 f.,

104 f., 109, iigff., 152, 154 f.,

1 60

Roman Catholics, 92
Romans, I, 2,9, 12, 121
Rotation of crops, 5, u, I5f., 78,

97, 114, ii6f., 138
Rothamsted, 147
Royal Agricultural Society, 147

Ordinance, 56 ; Appendix, 167
Royston, 140
Rulers' rights over land, &c., 7 ff.,

17, 20

SABBATARIANISM, 99
St. Albans, 60, 139
Salisbury', Marchioness of, 140
Seebohm, F., 23 n.
Seneschal, 33, 38

Serfdom, before the Norman Con-
quest, 17, 22

end of, 62, 66, 95

and see Bondsmen
Settlements, land, 70, 96, 107, no,

159

parish, 93, 103 f., 127 f., 148 f.
Sevenoaks, 75
Sheep-farming in XIVth-XYIth

centuries, 54 f. , 73, 78 ff.
* Shots,' 4f., 32
Shropshire, 52

Slaves, 15,22, 25, 27ff., 34n., 35, 38
Small holdings, modern demand

for, 159 ff.
Smith, Adam, 128
of Deanston, 147
Smithfield, 6 1

182

INDEX

Soc, or soke, 19

Socage tenants, Appendix, 163

Socialism, Christian, 51

Socmen, 19, 21, 24 f., 28, 33

South wark, 75

Speenhamland system, 128 ff., 136,

141
Sport, 39, 72, 102, no, ii8f., 153,

156, and see Game
' Squarson,' 153
Stage coaches, -119, 121 f., 131,

155

Stanwell, 125

Stewards, manorial, 33, 36, 60, 89
Stock, importation of and duties

thereon, in, 135
on lease, 18, 22, 54 f.
Straw, Jack, 74
Strikes, 57, 72, 151
Strip farming, 24 f.
Suffolk, 60, 77, 79
Surrey, 27, 81, 143 f.
Sussex, 79, 81, 144

TALTARUM'S case, 82, 82 n.

Taxation, 8, 10, 13 f., 17, 2ofi.,
26 ff., 36, 43 f., 49, 58 f., 69

Telford, 121, 155

Tenant farmers, establishment of,
in XVIIIth and XlXth cen-
turies, 122, 126, 132, 133 f.,
137 ff.

Three-field system, 15 f., 41

Threefold duty, see Trinoda neces-
sitas

Times ^ The, 144

Tithes, 12, 39, 63, 123, 137 f., 146,

159

Tithings, 30
Tofts, II, 40
Tolpuddle, 146
'Towns,' 83, 83 n.
Townshend, Lord, ii.-jf,

Trade Unions, Agricultural, 136,

146, 151, 154, 159 f.
Tribute in food, &c., yff., 13, 21 f,

24, 43 ff., 65
Tring, 140

Trinoda necessitas, 7!"., 20, 90
Tull, Jethro, Ii2ff.
Tuns and Tunsmen, 6, 9, n ff.,

26, 83 n., Appendix, 163
Turnpike system, 71, 105, 109,

I2off., 139, 155
Tyler, Wat, 60 f., 85

UNIONS, Poor Law, 148 f.
Universities, 73
i

VERMUYDEN, 97

Vestry, 90, 109

Village communities, chap, i, 21, 30,

35f., 50,68, 70,80,90
leases to, 73

Villeins, 27 f., 34, 34 n., 40 ff.
Villiers, George; 142
Vills, 30, 35 f., 59, 90, Appendix,

163

Virgate, 28, 28 n.

WAGES, regulation of, 56, 72, 109,
128 ff.

Wapentakes, 14

War, the Civil, 97 f., 100; the
European, 158, 161 f.

Wardship, 25, 47

Wars, of the Roses, 74; of the
XlVth century, 49 f. ; Napo-
leonic, 112, 136

Warwick, Earl of, 85

Warwickshire, 151

Wastes, including common woods
and wastes, n, 29, 30, 32,
38 ff., 41 f., 45. 54, 75 ff., 83,

100. 102, 105, 113, 122 ff.

INDEX

183

Watford, 140

Weaving industry, 35, 79, 81, 122,

128, I4of.

Week-work, 43 ff. , 50
Wellesbournc, 151
Westmoreland, 28, 79
Wiltshire, 144
Winchester, 145

Women's lalx>ur, 29, 59, 149, 157
Woodreeve, 13, 34

Woods, see Wastes
Wool trade, 79 ff.
Wycliffe, 50 f.
Wymondham, 85

YARDLAND, 22, 28 n., 53

Yarnton, 5 f.

Yeomen, 88, 95, 98, 115

Yorkshire, 79

Young, Arthur, ii6f., 137 ff., 142 f.

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