Chapter I: 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