Transcriber's note:
Minor spelling inconsistencies, mainly hyphenated words, have been
harmonized. Italic text has been marked with _underscores_.
Obvious typos have been corrected. A "List of Illustrations and
Diagrams" has been added so as to include the illustrations and
diagrams not in the "List of Plates." Please see the end of this
book for further notes.
[Illustration: HEALTH AND BEAUTY IN MODERN TOWN PLANNING
A street in the Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, N.W.]
SOCIAL LIFE
IN ENGLAND
THROUGH THE CENTURIES
BY
H. R. WILTON HALL
Library Curator, Hertfordshire County Museum;
Sub-Librarian, St. Alban's Cathedral; Author of
"Hertfordshire: a Reading-book of the County"
&c.
BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED
50 OLD BAILEY LONDON
GLASGOW AND BOMBAY
1920
PREFACE
In the course of the last ten or twelve years there has been a
very marked development of interest in local history, and with it
a desire not merely to "know more about the past" but a desire to
appreciate intelligently the real value of those things, still to
be seen, which speak of the gradual building up of the social life
of the Nation, which rightly handled will play an important part in
the work of reconstruction pressing upon us now, with its enormous
difficulties and anxieties.
Much has been done in schools of all grades to utilize the
material at hand--the things which can be seen in the locality--as
an educational medium, opening out great possibilities for the
development of curiosity, interest, personality, and power of
initiative on the part of the children which, though it may not
seem to yield any immediate results which can be appraised by
examination methods on the lines of any "Syllabus", are "neither
barren nor unfruitful".
Just now there are a number of schemes in the air for the
institution of "Regional Survey" in schools, and a tendency amongst
enthusiasts to get it put into school time-tables as a Syllabus
Subject. However admirable the intention may be, and is, it is not
as a Subject, but rather as a method in education, that its real
value lies. "Regional Study" embraces so many subjects and they
cannot be enterprised all at once, either by children or by anybody
else.
This little book is intended to be suggestive, to stimulate
interest and an intelligent curiosity, but it may serve as
a foundation for conversational or more formal lessons and
investigations under the teacher's direction, as his personal
predilection, opportunities, taste, and judgment shall determine.
In the work of "Regional Study", where carried on with
discrimination and with a commonsense apprehension of "relative
values" it may be truly said:--
"Nothing useless is, or low;
Each thing in its place is best;
And what seems but idle show,
Strengthens and supports the rest".
H. R. W. H.
HERTFORDSHIRE COUNTY MUSEUM,
ST. ALBAN'S, _September, 1919_.
CONTENTS
CHAP. Page
I. INTRODUCTION 1
II. MEN WHO LIVED IN CAVES AND PITS 3
III. THE PIT-DWELLERS 6
IV. EARTHWORKS, MOUNDS, BARROWS, &C. 11
V. IN ROMAN TIMES 15
VI. EARLY SAXON TIMES 19
VII. EARLY SAXON VILLAGES 22
VIII. ANGLO-SAXON TUNS AND VILLS 26
IX. TYTHINGS AND HUNDREDS--SHIRES 29
X. THE EARLY ENGLISH TOWN 33
XI. IN EARLY CHRISTIAN TIMES 35
XII. MONASTERIES 37
XIII. TOWNS AND VILLAGES IN THE TIME OF CNUT
THE DANE 41
XIV. CHURCHES AND MONASTERIES IN DANISH AND
LATER SAXON TIMES 46
XV. LATER SAXON TIMES 50
XVI. IN NORMAN TIMES 52
XVII. IN NORMAN TIMES (_continued_) 54
XVIII. IN NORMAN TIMES: THE CHURCHES 56
XIX. CASTLES 58
XX. CASTLES AND TOWNS 61
XXI. IN NORMAN TIMES: THE MONASTERIES 64
XXII. EARLY HOUSES 69
XXIII. EARLY HOUSES (_continued_) 72
XXIV. EARLY TOWN HOUSES 75
XXV. LIFE IN THE TOWNS OF THE MIDDLE AGES 79
XXVI. THE GROWING POWER OF THE TOWNS 85
XXVII. THE VILLAGES, MANORS, PARISHES, AND PARKS 89
XXVIII. TRACES OF EARLY TIMES IN THE CHURCHES 93
XXIX. TRACES OF EARLY TIMES IN THE
CHURCHES (_continued_) 97
XXX. CLERKS 100
XXXI. FAIRS 104
XXXII. MARKETS 108
XXXIII. SCHOOLS 113
XXXIV. UNIVERSITIES 118
XXXV. CHANGES BROUGHT ABOUT BY THE
BLACK DEATH 122
XXXVI. WOOL 125
XXXVII. THE POOR 127
XXXVIII. CHANGES IN HOUSES AND HOUSE-BUILDING 131
XXXIX. THE RUINS OF THE MONASTERIES AND
THE NEW BUILDINGS 135
XL. THE NEW HOUSE OF THE TIME OF QUEEN
ELIZABETH 139
XLI. LARGER ELIZABETHAN AND JACOBEAN HOUSES 142
XLII. CHURCHES AFTER THE REFORMATION 147
XLIII. BUILDING AFTER THE RESTORATION: HOUSES 149
XLIV. BUILDING AFTER THE RESTORATION: CHURCHES 154
XLV. SCHOOLS AFTER THE REFORMATION 159
XLVI. APPRENTICES 168
XLVII. PLAY 171
XLVIII. ROADS 175
XLIX. ROADS--RAILWAYS 182
L. GOVERNMENT 190
LI. SOME CHANGES 195
LIST OF PLATES
Page
HEALTH AND BEAUTY IN MODERN TOWN PLANNING
_Frontispiece_
IMPLEMENTS AND ORNAMENTS OF STONE, BRONZE, AND IRON
AGES 8
STONEHENGE 13
REMAINS OF A ROMAN HOUSE, EXCAVATED AT SILCHESTER 20
THE VILLAGE GREEN, EXTON, RUTLAND 28
CROSS AND CHURCH, GEDDINGTON, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 37
CHOIR OF CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL 57
THE OLD PALACE, HATFIELD 72
FACSIMILE OF A PORTION OF A NORMAN DOCUMENT 88
CASTLE AND BUTTER MARKET, DUNSTER, SOMERSETSHIRE 105
CLOISTER QUADRANGLE, MAGDALEN COLLEGE, OXFORD 120
WOLLATON HALL, NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 137
INTERIOR OF ST. MARY-LE-BOW, LONDON 157
A SCHOOL PLAYGROUND SCENE 164
CRICKET, 18TH CENTURY 172
THE NEW INN, GLOUCESTER 181
ILLUSTRATIONS AND DIAGRAMS
_Chipped Flint Weapons_ 5
_Lake-dwelling_ 10
_Round Barrow_ 12
_Long Barrow_ 12
_Dolmen at Plas Newydd, Anglesea. The scene of
Druidical religious rites_ 14
_Roman Pottery Kiln found at Castor, Hunts_ 18
_Saxon Brooch found at Abingdon, made of gold
encrusted with coloured glass_ 23
_Diagram of a Saxon Village Settlement_ 23
_Ploughing. From an old Saxon Calendar in the
British Museum_ 31
_Saxon Church at Bradford-on-Avon_ 40
_Agriculture. From an eleventh-century manuscript
in the British Museum_ 43
_Ploughing. From an eleventh-century manuscript in
the British Museum_ 45
_Wooden Church at Greenstead, Essex_ 47
_Consecration of a Saxon Church_ 49
_Saxon Doorway, Earl's Barton, Northampton_ 51
_Domesday Book_ 55
_Norman Capital, Buckland Church, Berks_ 56
_Norman Capital, Hanney Church, Berks_ 57
_Norman Capital, St. Bartholomew's Priory Church,
London_ 57
_Rochester Castle: The Keep_ 59
_The White Tower, Tower of London_ 60
_Norman Castle_ 63
_Ruins of Furness Abbey_ 65
_Foundation of a Minster_ 67
_Bath Abbey_ 68
_The Jew's House, Lincoln_ 71
_Diagram of the Shape of a House of a Villein_ 72
_Old House, Cleveland, Yorkshire_ 74
_Shop of the Middle Ages now standing in Foregate
Street, Chester_ 77
_A Cradle of the Fourteenth Century now in a
London Museum_ 78
_The Shambles, York; a street that preserves its
narrow, mediæval character_ 81
_Hospital of St. Cross, Winchester_ 84
_Seal of Guild Merchant, Gloucester, 1200_ 85
_Court-house of Godmanchester, Hunts_ 88
_Manor House, Thirteenth Century_ 91
_Saxon, Norman, and Later Architectural Features_ 93
_Effigy with Crossed Legs in the Temple Church,
London_ 96
_Spire of Norwich Cathedral Fourteenth Century_ 98
_A Scriptorium, from a miniature painted in an old
manuscript_ 101
_Writing before the Norman Conquest_ 103
_Morris Dancers, Fourteenth Century_ 107
_Market Cross and Portion of Shelter, Winchester_ 109
_Market Scene in the Middle Ages_ 111
_A School, Fourteenth Century_ 115
_Part of Winchester College, built in 1692_ 117
_Gloucester Hall, now Worcester College, Oxford,
founded 1283_ 119
_Gownsman of Fifteenth Century. From an old print
of Chaucer's Clerk of Oxenford_ 121
_Labourers felling a Tree, Fourteenth Century_ 124
_Spinning Wheel, Fourteenth Century_ 126
_Wayfarers, Early Fourteenth Century_ 130
_The Moat House, Ightham, Kent_ 131
_Part of the House called Plas Mawr, Conway,
Wales_ 134
_Old Timbered House, at Presleigh, Radnorshire,
dated 1616_ 138
_Moreton Old Hall, Cheshire, built 1550-59_ 140
_Diagram of a Large House_ 142
_Hall and Staircase, Knole House, Kent, 1570_ 143
_A Room in an Elizabethan House_ 144
_Blickling Hall, Norfolk, built 1619_ 145
_Monument in Chelsea Church, London; date about
1630_ 148
_House at Rainham, Essex, built during the reign
of Queen Anne_ 150
_Doorway from a House in Gt. Ormond Street,
London_ 152
_Pews in a Church at Stokesay, Shropshire, rebuilt
1654_ 155
_King Edward VI's School and Alms Houses,
Stratford-on-Avon_ 159
_Charity School, Gravel Lane, London_ 162
_Bluecoat Boy_ 164
_Schoolmaster and Pupils, early Seventeenth
Century_ 166
_Richmond County School. A modern council school_ 167
_Apprentice, Sixteenth Century_ 169
_Apprentices, Eighteenth Century_ 170
_The Game of Bob-apple, Fourteenth Century_ 171
_Boys' Sports_ 173
_Diagrams of Layouts for a Boy's Game_ 174
_Cart, Fourteenth Century_ 176
_A Toll-gate, early Nineteenth Century_ 179
_Coach, early Nineteenth Century_ 180
_George Stephenson's Locomotive "The Rocket"_ 183
_Building a Railway in the early Nineteenth
Century_ 186
_Sankey Valley Viaduct_ 188
_The Town Hall, Carlisle, built in time of
Elizabeth_ 190
_Police Officer and Jailer, early Nineteenth
Century_ 192
_Hayes Barton Farm, Devonshire_ 197
_Modern Industry_ 200
SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND
CHAPTER I
Introduction
A little boy, who had been born in a log-cabin in the backwoods
of Canada, was taken by his father, when he was about eight years
old, to the nearest settlement, for the first time in his life. The
little fellow had never till then seen any other house than that
in which he had been born, for the settlement was many miles away.
"Father," he said, "what makes all the houses come together?"
Now that sounds a very strange and foolish question to ask; but it
is by no means as foolish a question as it seems. Here, in England,
there are towns and villages dotted about all over the country.
Some of them are near the sea, on some big bay or inlet; others
stand a little farther inland, on the banks of tidal rivers; others
are far away from the sea, in sheltered valleys or on the sunny
slopes of hills; some stand in the midst of broad fertile plains,
while others are on the verge of bleak lonely moorlands. What has
made all the houses in these towns and villages come together in
these particular spots? There must be a reason in every case why a
particular spot should have been chosen in the first instance.
In trying to find an answer to this question with reference to any
town or village in our country we have to go back, far back, into
the past. We may have to go back to ages long before there was any
written history. As we go back step by step into the past we learn
much of the people who have lived before us--of their ways and
their doings, and of the part they played in the life and work of
the country.
The little Canadian boy's question can be asked about every town
and village in the land. There are no two places exactly alike;
each one has its own history, which, however simple it may be, is
quite worth knowing. The busy manufacturing town, with its tens and
hundreds of thousands of people, where all is movement and bustle,
has its history; and the lonely country village, where everybody
knows everybody else, has often a history even more interesting
than that of the big town--if we only knew what to look for, and
where to look for it.
One summer day, years ago, a party of tourists was climbing
Helvellyn. One of the party was an elderly gentleman, who was
particularly active, and anxious to get to the top. After several
hours' stiff climbing the party reached the summit; and there,
spread out before them, was a lovely view of hills and dales,
of mountains and lakes. Most of the party gazed upon this fair
scene in quiet enjoyment; but our old gentleman, as soon as
he had recovered his breath, and mopped his red face with his
pocket-handkerchief, gave one look round, and then said in a
grieved tone: "Is that all? Nothing to see! Wish I hadn't come."
He saw nothing interesting, because he did not know what to look
for, and he might just as well have stopped at the bottom. He came
to see nothing, _and he saw it_.