THE EARLY ENGLISH TOWN
1. At first, as we have seen, the Saxons were an agricultural people,
and each village or tun produced all that it needed for its own
support. But in peaceful times a tun might produce more than it needed;
and, by and by, something like trade and exchange between one place and
another would begin. There were many places, as for example London,
which in Roman times had been great places for commerce, to which
ships had come bringing various kinds of goods. In time, as the Saxons
settled down, they began to have new wants, and some of them began to
be attracted towards places where there were more people than in their
native tuns. Some men found that they could make certain articles of
common use better than their neighbours could. Thus certain trades
took their rise. Those who worked at them would gradually give up the
agricultural labour in which everybody else in the tun was employed. We
do not know the causes which led certain of these agricultural tuns to
become trading-places; but it is quite certain that they did gradually
grow to be what we now call =towns=.
2. We find Saxon towns springing up near the places where some of the
Roman towns had been; in some cases on the actual site of the Roman
city. In Gloucester and Lincoln, for instance, some of the streets
to-day follow the actual lines of the Roman streets. These towns are,
however, really Saxon towns, not old Roman towns turned into Saxon
towns. The men of these Saxon towns had lands on the outskirts of the
towns, just as the village men had. Even to-day you will notice that
there are many towns which possess lands called by such names as the
Townlands, Townfield, or Lammas Land.
3. The men in these towns were, from the very first, more inclined to
hold out against an overlord than the men in the villages were. In
the first place, their numbers were greater; and then they had more
varieties of occupation than the villagers, or, as we may say, had
wider interests. In the trading towns, like London and Southampton,
they came in contact with traders from other lands, and trade brought
them more wealth. They, too, had their =folk-moots=, and they had more
business to transact in them than the country villagers had. They were
very particular to keep a tight hold on their rights, and were always
on the look-out to gain fresh privileges if they possibly could.
4. The fence or wall, which surrounded the town, was made much stronger
than that round the village; and men saw the use now of the thick walls
of the old Roman cities which their ancestors had despised, for they
had wealth and goods which needed protection.
5. We have seen that the power of the king gradually increased; and, as
it did so, the king and the town became more necessary to each other.
The town was wealthy; but it could not stand by itself against all the
rest of the country. The king had the power of the country at his back,
and could protect it if he would. The town had to give something to the
king in return for this protection. But we shall presently see more of
the relations between king and town.
[Illustration: The Water Tower and Wall, Chester]
=Summary.=--Trading towns, like London, gradually arose: the
Saxons took to trades and trading; and towns sprang up over the
land. The townsmen were jealous of any overlord, and better able
to make a stand against him than the men in the _vills_. Their
folk-moots were important, and the men held very tightly to any
privileges which the town had, and were always on the look-out to
secure fresh rights. Gradually they became rich, and needed the
king's protection, and both the king and the town had to depend a
great deal upon each other.