Transcriber's Notes
Text appearing in illustrations has been replicated along with the
illustration caption.
Italics are surrounded with _ _ and bold text with = =.
Some presumed printer's errors have been corrected. These are listed
below with the original text (top) and the replacement text (bottom):
p. 57 Westminster Abbey, As more
Westminster Abbey. As more
p. 101 magis-strates [end-of-line hyphen]
magistrates
p. 141 plainly At the end
plainly. At the end
OUR ENGLISH
TOWNS AND VILLAGES
OUR ENGLISH
TOWNS AND VILLAGES
BY
H. R. WILTON HALL
Library Curator, Hertfordshire County Museum; Sub-Librarian
St. Alban's Cathedral, &c. Author of "Hertfordshire: a Reading-Book
of the County", &c.
I do love these ancient ruins,--
We never tread upon them but we set
Our foot upon some reverend history.
LONDON
BLACKIE & SON, LIMITED, 50 OLD BAILEY, E.C.
GLASGOW AND DUBLIN
1906
PREFACE
Many things connected with the history of our towns and villages
have to be passed over in an ordinary school history reader. In
the following pages an attempt is made to call attention in simple
language, very broadly and generally, to connecting-links with the
past in our towns and villages. There are many relics and customs yet
remaining in many places, which, with a little care and attention to
local circumstances, may be made helpful in teaching history, so that
it shall be something more than a collection of names, dates, battles,
and lists of eminent persons.
The book is intended as a reader, not as a text-book to be worked up
for examination purposes. Its aim is rather to arouse interest in the
"why and the wherefore" of things which can be seen by an intelligent
and observant boy or girl in the place in which he or she lives: to do
for history, and the subjects connected with it, what "nature-lessons"
are intended to do in their "sphere of influence". Attention is being
directed to localities, their special history, physical, political,
industrial, and commercial, as it has never been before in our
Educational history; and all that a special locality can contribute
in the way of illustration and exemplification is worth knowing,
understanding, and utilising.
It is hoped that this book may be of some service in quickening
intelligence in looking out for "things to see". The observation
which is directed to noting the numbers on the motor cars, the names
of locomotives, and the collection of postage-stamps and picture
post-cards, can also be usefully turned, say, to noting the styles of
architecture which really mark broadly great periods of our national
life and development; and may help us, perhaps more than anything else,
to arrange our ideas of the days of old in a proper order and sequence.
An old building may be an excellent date-book.
The chapters are intended to be suggestive, not exhaustive, and may be
expanded by the teacher in conversational or more formal lessons as his
own predilection, taste, and judgment shall direct.
Local and County Histories, Guide-books and Hand-books will be found
of great service to the teacher in dealing with special districts.
The general subject embraces a very wide range of literature, but
amongst books readily accessible may be mentioned _English Towns_, by
E. H. Freeman; _English Towns_ and _English Villages_, by Rev. P. H.
Ditchfield; and the Rev. Dr. Jessopp's Essays in _The Coming of the
Friars_ and _Studies of a Recluse_.
In conclusion, the book is designed for older scholars who already know
something of the dry bones of the history of England, and it is hoped
that it may do something towards covering those dry bones with flesh,
instinct with life and vigour.
H. R. W. H.
St. Alban's, _December, 1905_.
CONTENTS
Chapter Page
I. Introduction 9
II. Men who lived in Caves and Pits 11
III. The Pit-Dwellers 14
IV. Earthworks, Mounds, Barrows, etc. 19
V. In Roman Times 22
VI. Early Saxon Times 26
VII. Early Saxon Villages 28
VIII. Anglo-Saxon Tuns and Vills 32
IX. Tythings and Hundreds--Shires 36
X. The Early English Town 41
XI. In Early Christian Times 44
XII. Monasteries 46
XIII. Towns and Villages in the Time of Cnut
the Dane 51
XIV. Churches and Monasteries in Danish and
Later Saxon Times 56
XV. Later Saxon Times 59
XVI. In Norman Times 62
XVII. In Norman Times (_continued_) 66
XVIII. In Norman Times: The Churches 68
XIX. Castles 71
XX. Castles and Towns 74
XXI. In Norman Times: The Monasteries 78
XXII. Early Houses 81
XXIII. Early Houses (_continued_) 85
XXIV. Early Town Houses 88
XXV. Life in the Towns of the Middle Ages 92
XXVI. The Growing Power of the Towns 98
XXVII. The Villages, Manors, Parishes, and Parks 102
XXVIII. Traces of Early Times in the Churches 106
XXIX. Traces of Early Times in the Churches
(_continued_) 110
XXX. Clerks 114
XXXI. Fairs 118
XXXII. Markets 123
XXXIII. Schools 128
XXXIV. Universities 133
XXXV. Changes brought about by the Black Death 137
XXXVI. Wool 140
XXXVII. The Poor 143
XXXVIII. Changes in Houses and House-building 149
XXXIX. The Ruins of the Monasteries and the New
Buildings 153
XL. The New Houses of the Time of Queen
Elizabeth 158
XLI. Larger Elizabethan and Jacobean Houses 162
XLII. Churches after the Reformation 166
XLIII. Building after the Restoration: Houses 169
XLIV. Building after the Restoration: Churches 174
XLV. Schools after the Reformation 179
XLVI. Apprentices 183
XLVII. Play 185
XLVIII. Government 189
XLIX. Some Changes 193
OUR ENGLISH TOWNS AND VILLAGES
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1. 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?"
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. One summer day, a few 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."
6. 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_.
=Summary.=--All towns and villages in England have a history. In
every case there is a special reason why that town or village grew
up in that particular place. In trying to find out how this came
about we learn a great deal of the history of the past, shown in
old names, old buildings, old manners and customs.