CHAPTER XIXCASTLES

Cushion Capital; Capital—Chapel in Tower of London; Transition Norman Capital, hall of Oakham Castle; Transition Norman Capital, Canterbury CathedralCushion Capital; Capital— Chapel in Tower of London; Transition Norman Capital, hall of Oakham Castle; Transition Norman Capital, Canterbury Cathedral

Cushion Capital; Capital— Chapel in Tower of London; Transition Norman Capital, hall of Oakham Castle; Transition Norman Capital, Canterbury Cathedral

GALILEE CHAPEL, DURHAM CATHEDRALPhoto. S. B. Bolas & Co.GALILEE CHAPEL, DURHAM CATHEDRAL (page 70)

Photo. S. B. Bolas & Co.GALILEE CHAPEL, DURHAM CATHEDRAL (page 70)

4. We see, towards the end of the period, from the way in which the Norman arches were used to intersect each other, and form two pointed arches within a round-headed arch, that a change in style was showing itself. Towards the end of Norman times, in the reigns of Richard I and John, we reach what architects call theTransition Period, when the Norman style was gradually changing into theEarly English, or Pointed Style. The choir of Canterbury Cathedral is one of the best-known specimens of this Transition Period. Just as changes took place in the style of the buildings, so, too, the life of the nation changed. All the changes were not improvements; some, indeed, were changes for the worse.

CHOIR OF CANTERBURY CATHEDRALPhoto. ValentineCHOIR OF CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL (page 70)

Photo. ValentineCHOIR OF CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL (page 70)

Summary.—The Norman period lasted for 130 years, from 1066 to about the year 1200. The round-headed style of building, called Norman, lasted through this period. It became more ornamented as the years went on. In the latter part of the time the style began to change. St. Alban's Cathedral and Durham Cathedral have examples of plain and highly ornamental Norman work. The choir of Canterbury Cathedral gives an example of Transition work at the end of Norman days.

1. The passion for building castles in England had begun before the Norman Conquest; but during the Norman period a great many castles (about 1100, it is said) were built in various parts of the country. They were not all of the same size, strength, or importance. Some were royal castles, belonging to the king, who placed each one in charge of a constable or warden. These were necessary for the defence of the country. We should expect to find important castles, for instance, at such places as Carlisle, Ludlow, Gloucester, Dover, and London. We can, too, trace lines of castles along the Scottish and Welsh borders; and there were no fewer than twenty-five in the county of Monmouth alone.

2. Many castles were placed on the site of Saxon strongholds, and of strongholds dating from still earlier times. Others were built where the overlord thought they would be of service to him in protecting his interests and keeping his tenants in order. So it often came to pass that the castles were built close to, or in the very heart of, a town or city. Frequently the castle was at once the protection and the terror of the neighbourhood.

Norman Castle.Norman Castle.—From a drawing in Grose's Military Antiquities.—1, The Donjon-keep. 2, Chapel. 3, Stables. 4, Inner Ballium. 5, Outer Ballium. 6, Barbican. 7, Mount, supposed to be the court-hill, or tribunal, and also the place where justice was executed. 8, Soldiers' Lodgings.

Norman Castle.—From a drawing in Grose's Military Antiquities.—1, The Donjon-keep. 2, Chapel. 3, Stables. 4, Inner Ballium. 5, Outer Ballium. 6, Barbican. 7, Mount, supposed to be the court-hill, or tribunal, and also the place where justice was executed. 8, Soldiers' Lodgings.

3. It is curious to note that some of the greatest castles-builders of the time were bishops. There was Bishop Gundulph of Rochester, who built the Keep of Rochester Castle and the White Tower inthe Tower of London. There was Bishop Henry de Blois of Winchester, who built a number of castles on lands belonging to his bishopric. Strange as it may seem to us that bishops should be great rulers and leaders of armies, it did not strike the people of those days as at all extraordinary orimproper. A bishop was as much a ruler as the king, and had territories to look after and keep in order. In those days he was quite as able to carry out these duties as the boldest baron of them all, and could give and take hard knocks with the best of them.

4. The great castle-builders had no love for the traders in towns and cities; indeed they looked down on that class. But they found them very useful. Towns attracted traders by land and by water; and every town, every bridge, and every ferry belonged to some lord or other. No goods could be brought into or taken from a town, or carried across bridge or ferry, without paying toll and custom to the overlord. But he had certain duties to perform in return, in protecting the town and its trade; and the better the protection the more traders came to pay toll, and the better it was for everybody concerned.

5. So we find, near many of our ancient towns and cities, a castle, or its ruins—or perhaps only the site is left—where the lord of the town kept a number of men to protect the town and district, even when he was not there himself.

6. If there was no love lost between the lord of the castle and the townsmen, there was still less between the latter and the soldiers. The soldiers were inclined to take liberties, and to be insolent and oppressive. As they had it in their power to "make trouble", if not kept in good-humour, the townsmen put up with much for the sake of peace and quietness.

Summary.—The Norman period was a great castle-building age: 1100 strongholds were then built in England. Castles were not all of the same size or importance. There were royal castles, especially on the border-lands, as at Carlisle, Ludlow, Gloucester, and Dover. Every noble regarded a castle as a necessity. Castles were built near towns, partly to protect them, partly to keep them in order. Castles and towns were necessary for the protection and encouragement of trade. Townsmen and the men-at-arms in the castles were very jealous of each other. Some of the bishops were great castle-builders, because they were great landholders, not because they were bishops.

1. However useful a castle might be in protecting the overlord's tenants and property, the sense of security was always a great temptation to quarrel with other lords. With strong kings, like William I and Henry I, the danger of disorder was not so great, as they knew how to keep their great barons in check. But in the time of King Stephen, during the long years of civil war, the barons were divided into two parties, and each castle became a centre of strife.

2. The baron in his castle had his men to keep. These he did not pay in regular wages. He fed, clothed, and armed them after a fashion; and, to give them something to do, would rake up some old grievance with a neighbouring baron, make an attack upon his property, and let his men plunder,burn, and kill to their hearts' content. Then the other baron would retaliate.

3. It is easy to see that the conditions of life in England were most unsettled in the reign of King Stephen. There was no safety in town or village, and the dwellers on the manors must have suffered most severely. Their own lord would send and gather in all their store to victual his castle from time to time: his enemy would sendhismen to seize what they could. It made very little real difference to the villeins which side won;theysuffered, as they were heavily oppressed by both parties. Their own lord expected his dues just the same, war or no war, famine or no famine, whether he or his enemy had carried off the best part of the corn and cattle or not; and he would take his pick of the men on his manors to fill the places of his men-at-arms who had been put out of action.

4. Many of the barons became little better than monsters of cruelty, and their castles "nests of devils and dens of thieves". One of the very worst of these was Geoffrey de Mandeville, who had large estates in Essex and Hertfordshire. His castle of Anstey, in Hertfordshire, was a den of fearful wickedness. He and his men neither feared God nor regarded man; nothing was sacred to them—they spared neither church nor monastery, town nor village.

5. Dreadful tales are still told of the cruel deeds done in the deep dungeons of nearly all these old castles by the "bold bad barons" of the time of King Stephen.

6. When Henry II became king he put a stop to these disorders, and large numbers of the castles were pulled down; but the evils they had caused lived long after, and were the source of much trouble.

7. It is said that "Everything comes to those who know how to wait", and the townsmen, under the rule of a great lord, knew how to wait. Great as the lord of the town was, whether he was baron, bishop, or the king himself, he could not do without the town—and the town knew it. People were sometimes short of ready money in those days, just at the very time when they needed it most urgently.

8. You will remember that theCrusadesbegan in the reign of King William I. Now and again the crusading "fever" took hold of some of these Norman barons, and many wanted to go to fight the Turk—especially when there was not much fighting going on at home. But crusading was a costly business, and of course there was a good deal of rivalry between these crusading knights as to who could raise the best-furnished troop of men. The baron would be glad to get together as much money as he could. So the chance came to many a town to advance money to their lord. He, in return, would grant to the town the right to collect the tolls and customs payable to him for a term of years; or perhaps on condition that they allowed him so much every year out of the tolls collected.

9. Bishops, too, were often in urgent need of money, for there were many calls upon them.The monasteries were, at this period, beginning to do so much expensive building, that often they, too, were glad to get money by granting to the townsmen privileges for which they were willing to pay.

10. Then there were other towns, not depending so closely on a baron or bishop or monastery, which wanted to gain similar privileges of levying toll and custom. These would petition the king for the right to be given to them too, to levy dues, in return for a large sum of money paid down, or for a yearly payment to the king.

11. The towns were becoming strong, and they gained considerable rights during this Norman period. As far back as the time of King Cnut we find, in some districts, towns banding themselves together to protect their trade and interests. This was the case with Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Stamford, and Lincoln.

Summary.—In the time of King Stephen castles became dens of robbers, and their owners were nearly always at war with each other. The Crusades attracted many fighting barons when there was no war at home. They needed money to fit out troops to go abroad, and in many cases the towns found the money on condition that they got certain rights to levy tolls and customs. Bishops and monasteries in want of ready-money often let out or parted with their rights to towns in a similar manner.Towns began to be very powerful, and sometimes joined together to protect their interests. This was the case with the towns of Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Stamford, and Lincoln.

Towns began to be very powerful, and sometimes joined together to protect their interests. This was the case with the towns of Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Stamford, and Lincoln.

1. The hundred years after the Norman Conquest was a great period of building. It was a time for establishing orfoundingnewreligious houses. Something like 389 such houses were opened during this period, so that they played a very important part in the history of the times. The Normans were not very much interested in the English religious houses which they found already established here. In fact, a good many of them, since the times of the Danish invasion, 200 years before, had got into very bad order, and were in need of reform. Little by little, as Norman bishops and abbots were appointed over these Saxon religious houses, reforms did take place, but not always very easily or quietly.

2. At the time of the Conquest the religious houses in Normandy were in a far better state than those in England. Their members lived better lives, did better work, and set a much better example of godly living and working. There were severalnew ordersor societies of monks, which had their head-quarters on the continent of Europe. These interested King William's companions more than the old English monasteries, because they and their fathers had helped to establish them.

3. So we find, as the Normans received lands here in England, and founded religious houses, most of them were connected with the monasteriesacross the sea, and were ruled by abbots who lived across the sea. Such branch houses were generally calledpriories, and the kings and barons who founded them gave them manors and parts of manors, sometimes taking them from the older Saxon monasteries and cathedrals.[6]

4. Then, too, there were the old Saxon houses, like St. Alban's Abbey, Westminster Abbey, and Glastonbury Abbey: they were reformed and improved, and to them, too, lands were given in various parts of the country, often far away from the mother house. Thus St. Alban's Monastery had important lands in the neighbourhood of the River Tyne, and a daughter house was opened there calledTynemouth Priory. So, you see, there were two kinds of priories in England: one class attached to English religious houses, and the other to Norman or foreign religious houses. In time the foreign priories received the name ofalien priories.

5. All these religious houses had some interest in the land, and all of them, to a greater or less degree, were landlords. In some cases the lands given to them were manors which had been managed and tilled in the same way for hundreds of years. The only change was that the lord of the manor might be a society or religious house instead of a baron. Each of the manors had its steward, its villeins, and so forth, like any other in the land. But a good deal of the land given to these new religious houses had never been occupied before.

6. Though some of the monasteries, like St. Alban's and St. Edmund's Bury, were in towns, there were others, especially those founded in these Norman times, far away from towns, in pathless woods or deep dales, like Rievaulx, in Yorkshire. Others, like Ramsey and Thorney, were in lonely fens and marshes. Here the monks themselves set to work, as in the earlier days, and tilled the ground, keeping up their regular services in their little church most carefully—praying and working. Gradually their lands improved; other lands came to them; more labour was needed; and so, little by little, tenants took holdings on their lands, and farmed them for the "house", on much the same conditions as in the older manors.

7. We find that in many of the monasteries attention was given to other occupations besides agriculture. Some, especially those in towns, like St. Alban's, became in this period great seats of learning. All of them wrote the books they used, and some of them were particularly famed for their writing and illuminating. In fact, they were thebook-producersof the age, and very little of the work of learned ancient scholars could have come down to us had it not been for the careful, painstaking work of simple monks quite unknown to history.

8. Some of the abbeys in the west of England, like Bath Abbey, had a good deal to do with opening up thewool trade, which in the Middle Ages became the staple trade of the south and west of England. Flaxley Abbey, in Gloucestershire, developediron-smelting.

9. In the monasteries men could quietly think and work, and use the talents they had, without being called away to fight or do the unskilled work of the world. In these early times there were no other places where men could lead quiet, thoughtful lives, and "think things out", and then put them into practice. The men in the monasteries were not all equally good or religious or clever, but the work done in and through these old institutions was most important and most valuable to the country.

Summary.—Many new religious houses were founded[7]in Norman times. The Norman barons were more interested in establishing branch houses of Norman monasteries than in those they found[8]in England. Branch houses of the various monasteries were calledpriories, and those which belonged to foreign monasteries were calledalien priories.All the monasteries were landholders. Some of them took over old manors, others had uncultivated land given to them which in time became manors.Some monasteries, like St. Alban's, Westminster, and Glastonbury, became great centres of learning. Others, in out-of-the-way places, encouraged various trades—Bath did much for the wool trade of the west of England; Flaxley developed iron-smelting.

All the monasteries were landholders. Some of them took over old manors, others had uncultivated land given to them which in time became manors.

Some monasteries, like St. Alban's, Westminster, and Glastonbury, became great centres of learning. Others, in out-of-the-way places, encouraged various trades—Bath did much for the wool trade of the west of England; Flaxley developed iron-smelting.

1. When we go from a big modern manufacturing town into an old town or village, we cannothelp noticing the old buildings, the ancient churches, the old town-hall, the alms-houses, and the old houses with their plastered fronts, tiled roofs, and huge chimney-stacks.

2. As years go by, the number of these old houses gets less and less. In the course of time many of the smaller ones especially, which have been neglected and allowed to fall into bad repair, become dangerous to live in. The sanitary inspector and the medical officer of health condemn them as unfit for human habitation, and the houses are shut up. Then, perhaps, they stand empty for some years; mischievous boys throw stones and break the glass left in the queer little windows; bill-posters paste notices of all kinds on the doors, walls, and window-shutters; holes are knocked in the plaster, bits of the woodwork are torn away, chalk-marks are scrawled on the walls, and the buildings very shortly look disgracefully untidy. Then some day the "house-breaker" appears on the scene, and the houses, which have stood for centuries, are cleared away, and modern buildings take their places.

3. Thoughtful people, who know something of the history of the town or village, are always sorry to see old buildings disappear; because there is much to be learned from them, and they help us to recall many things of great value and importance which we very easily lose sight of.

4. But, old as the houses in our streets and villages are, there are very few of them which date back more than three hundred or three hundredand fifty years. Most of them only date back to the time of Queen Elizabeth—the latter part of the sixteenth century.

5. There are, however, a number of fine old houses which have work in them of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and some people can point out to you traces of work in some old houses of an earlier date than that. There is at Lincoln, for instance, a fine old stone house called "the Jew's House", which was built late in the twelfth century. But stone houses for ordinary people, both in towns and villages, were very rare then—wood was the common material. Of course in parts of the country where stone was plentiful and wood scarce, stone would be very largely used.For instance, amongst the Cotswolds stone has always been the handiest material for building walls, and for covering roofs.

Norman Dwelling.—The Jew's House, LincolnNorman Dwelling.—The Jew's House, Lincoln

Norman Dwelling.—The Jew's House, Lincoln

6. Nowadays, both in town and country, houses are commonly "bunches of bricks". The Romans knew how to make bricks or tiles, and in places near old Roman cities Roman tile is still to be seen, which has been used up over and over again in the walls of old buildings. The big tower of St. Alban's Cathedral is built of Roman tiles which had been used centuries before in the walls of Roman houses in Verulamium. That tower has been standing as it is now for over 800 years.

7. But in Saxon times theartof brick-making was lost, and Saxons and Normans, it appears, were quite ignorant of it. There is an old brick house—Little Wenham Hall, in Suffolk—which is believed to have been built in the latter part of the thirteenth century. That is the oldest brick house in England. In the fifteenth century the art of brick-making had been rediscovered, and it seems to have been imported from Flanders. The old palace at Hatfield is one of the brick buildings of this period; but brick did not come much into use until quite a century later. In the county of Middlesex, where there is found clay which is very suitable for brick-making, the art was not used to any great extent till the time of King James I. After the Great Fire of London, in the year 1666, there was a great demand for bricks, and the use of that material has quite changed the character of the houses in our towns and villages.

THE OLD PALACE, HATFIELDTHE OLD PALACE, HATFIELD (page 84)

THE OLD PALACE, HATFIELD (page 84)

Summary.—The oldest buildings in a town are usually the church, the town-hall, and alms-houses. Most of the houses with gabled roofs and plastered fronts do not go back farther than the time of Queen Elizabeth. There are a very few houses older than this: one at Lincoln, called the Jew's House, dates back to the twelfth century. Wood was the common material for house-building; but instone districts, like the Cotswolds, stone took the place of wood. Brick is now theordinarymaterial for house-building. The Romans made and used tiles, but the art was lost. The earliestbrickhouses, like Little Wenham Hall in Suffolk, were built of material brought from Holland. The art of brick-making began to revive in this country in the fifteenth century, but was not very extensively practised till after the Great Fire of London, in 1666, in the neighbourhood of the metropolis.

1. For many centuries the houses of the villeins and cottiers did not alter very much in their general plan. You will remember that in those old pit-dwellings the hearth and its fire was the centre of the home. The room, or space round the fire, gradually became larger, especially in the houses of the thanes and eorls, till we get the hall, with the hearth in the middle, and the hole in the roof to let out the smoke.

2. All through the later Saxon and Danish times, and in the Norman period, the hall was the most important part of the house. As the years went on, and the style of building altered, the walls, thewindows, and the roof became more beautiful and ornamental, becoming most magnificent in the fourteenth century, or Decorated Period. Gradually other buildings were added to the hall for comfort and convenience.

3. So far as we know, the house or hut of the villein was a very simple affair before the time of the Norman Conquest. Two pairs of poles were set up, sloped and joined at the top, and connected by a ridge pole something after this fashion—

The space between was then filled in by other poles and wattle-work. This was plastered with clay, and covered with turf or rough thatch. There seems to have been a pretty regular length for this building, which was long enough to take four stalls for oxen. That required about 16 feet, and was called a "bay". The villein and his oxen were all housed under one roof at first. When another bay was added, the size of the house was doubled, and so on. In the course of time the houses were improved; side walls were raised of wood framing, andthe sides were filled in with wattles and covered with clay.

4. In the course of years these houses or huts grew out of date, and were replaced by others in much the same style, but gradually improving in comfort and workmanship. In the villages there was not much alteration down to the fourteenth century. When a house in a manor or village was pulled down, and was to be rebuilt, the manor court kept a sharp eye upon the building operations to see that the new walls did not encroach upon the highway, or upon the lord's land. No addition could be made to the house without the consent of the overlord. Customs in the villages changed very, very slowly, and so it is that, though the houses in out-of-the-way villages have been rebuilt over and over again, there are many lath-and-plaster houses standing now round village greens, built between two and three hundred years ago, on old foundations which date back to Saxon times.

5. So for many hundreds of years an ordinary village house was, to our way of thinking, a very wretched, comfortless place. Even as late as the time of Queen Elizabeth a countryman's house is thus described:—

"Of one bay's breadth, God wot, a silly cote,Whose thatchèd spars are furred with sluttish sooteA whole inch thick, shining like blackmoor's browsThrough smoke that down the headlesse barrel blows.At his bed's feete feaden[9]his stallèd teame,His swine beneath, his pullen[10]o'er the beam."

Summary.—Thehearthwas the central feature in the early pit-dwellings. The space round it gradually became larger and grew into the hall in Saxon days, and the hall, or house-place, remained the chief part of the house for centuries. As architecture improved, so did the appearance of the halls in important houses. Gradually other rooms were added.The hut of the villein was very simple. At first only like a rough roof, with sloping sides, in time this roof was raised on side walls. They usually were about 16 feet in length, and such a length was called a bay. Though built and rebuilt time after time, the style did not vary much for centuries for such houses as these.

The hut of the villein was very simple. At first only like a rough roof, with sloping sides, in time this roof was raised on side walls. They usually were about 16 feet in length, and such a length was called a bay. Though built and rebuilt time after time, the style did not vary much for centuries for such houses as these.

1. Houses in towns have been more frequently rebuilt and altered in various ways than those in the villages. The chief material used in building was wood, as it was in the villages, and one of the great dangers in the Middle Ages was that of fire. In the towns this danger was greater than in the villages, and fires happened more frequently.

2. The leading men in a town had more money to spend, and the increase of business, or a desire for change, led them to improve their houses. It was easier for a wealthy townsman to get leave from the "corporation" or guild to rebuild his house than it was for the villein in the village to get the leave of the manor court.

3. The thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuriesall saw a great growth in architecture; they were the Early English, the Decorated, and the Perpendicular Periods of architecture. In most of the old churches, and in many of the old mansions, we have specimens of all these periods; but not very many of the town houses founded in the Middle Ages, and still standing, are much earlier than the fifteenth century. In that age there was a great development of wood-work, and there is hardly one old town which has not some wood-work of that time in some of its old houses.

4. The rich and prosperous townsman rebuilt his house according to the fashion of his time; but through all the three centuries the general arrangements of the dwelling-house did not alter very much.

5. In some parts of London, and in many country towns, you can see that some of the shops in the main street are reached from the pavement by a little flight of steps. Below the shop there is a big light cellar, and the small boy or girl who wants to look in at the shop window has to "tiptoe" very much in order to do so. Now, that arrangement is just a little relic of the old town house of the Middle Ages.

6. The house was usually quite narrow, and had a gable facing the street. It was built over a cellar of stone, often arched and vaulted very much like a church. There were steps from the street down to the cellar, and these steps had to be protected, or accidents were certain to happen to careless foot-passengers. Then, too, there weresteps up to the room over the cellar, which formed the shop and workroom in one. The front of the shop would be open, like a stall, and there would probably be a passage through to the back of the house.

7. Above the shop would be another room or rooms, over which, in the open space under the roof, was the great attic running through the house. This attic was often kept as a store-room, and goods were hoisted from the street by a crane; but, in later times, it would be formed most likely into little sleeping-rooms, very small, very dark, and very unhealthy.

8. Most of the work would be done in the shop, where the master, his workmen, and apprentices all did their share. The apprentices would sleep in the shop at night, and very probably the workmen as well. It was quite a usual thing for all the establishment to work and live and sleep on the premises. The rooms occupied by the master and his family at first were few in number; separate bedrooms only came into use very gradually indeed.

9. The walls of the house above the cellar were usually of wood, and the front towards the street was often skilfully and beautifully carved. In some English counties still there are very fine specimens of these old town houses; those at Chester, Shrewsbury, and Ludlow, for instance, are famed all over the world.

IRELAND'S HOUSE, SHREWSBURYPhoto. Catherine WardIRELAND'S HOUSE, SHREWSBURY (page 90)

Photo. Catherine WardIRELAND'S HOUSE, SHREWSBURY (page 90)

10. We must not suppose that all the houses were equally splendid, or equally well built; there was then, no doubt, bad building as well as good. Infact there must have been some very careless building in early days, and especially so in Norman times. It is a curious fact that almost every big Norman church tower tumbled down because it was badly built, even though Norman work looked very massive and substantial.

11. Merchants and wealthy tradesmen took great pride in their houses, and the wood-work and furniture in them were splendid. Kings and nobles were no better housed than these wealthy townsmen, nor did they have more of the comforts of life.

12. But the poor! There were always the poor and the outcast in every town; but they did not exist in the enormous numbers of later years, or of the present day. Their wretched little hovels were huddled together in close alleys, and life in them must have been very cheerless. It was, however, somebody's business to look after them. The religious houses, the churches, the colleges, all did their part in distributing food at their gates daily. Many wealthy people, both nobles and citizens, did likewise; and to givealms to the poorwas a work of charity which no self-respecting citizen thought of shirking. Then, too, the guild or corporation kept a sharp look-out upon the poor; strangers were turned out of the town, and the people punished who had taken them into their houses.

Summary.—Town houses were often rebuilt, owing to the fact that fires were common, and townsmen had more money to spend on building. They consisted of a cellar of stone, a shop, a room or rooms above, and a big attic. Allthe work was done in the shop, and there the men and apprentices slept at night. The wooden fronts of these houses were often very handsome, and specimens of those built in the fifteenth century may be seen at Chester, Shrewsbury, and Ludlow.All the building of those days was not equally good, but some of the best has lasted. Wealthy townsmen were as well housed as kings and nobles. The poor were not crowded in the towns. It was a work of mercy to look after the poor, and the poor were kept very largely by the places to which they belonged. Strangers were not admitted into the towns, and so many wanderers were kept away.

All the building of those days was not equally good, but some of the best has lasted. Wealthy townsmen were as well housed as kings and nobles. The poor were not crowded in the towns. It was a work of mercy to look after the poor, and the poor were kept very largely by the places to which they belonged. Strangers were not admitted into the towns, and so many wanderers were kept away.

1. Disease was one of the great dangers always lurking in a town. Plague of some kind or other was never very far away, and it frequently made its presence felt. People had not realized the sinfulness of dirt.

2. The best-drained buildings were the monasteries and colleges. Near the ruins of every big monastery, from time to time, underground passages have been discovered, many of them big enough for a man to walk along upright, and leading nobody knows where. When these were found, people shook their heads and said: "Ah, those old monks; you don't know what they were up to. They made these secret passages, going for miles and miles underground, so that they might get inand out of the monastery, and be up to all sorts of mischief, without anyone being the wiser."

3. Many wonderful tales have been told about these underground passages; but, as a matter of fact, most, if not all of them, have turned out to besewers, which the monks made from their monasteries to some water-course, so that the sewage might be safely carried away. The monks were usually in advance of the townsmen of those days in sanitary matters. No doubt a sanitary engineer of the present day would be able to point out how much better the drainage-works could have been carried out; but the monks set an example in this matter which, bit by bit, the rest of the nation began to follow.

4. The chief streets of the town and the market-place were paved with huge lumps of stone, sloping towards the middle of the street from the houses on each side of the way, a gutter or "denter" running down the middle. When a heavy shower of rain fell, the water flushed the gutter more or less. If the street happened to be pretty level, the gutter, or denter, was just an open sewer all the year round; and it did its deadly work in poisoning the worthy citizens, high and low, rich and poor, though they did not realize it. Those towns were the best drained which were perched on a steep slope, so that the contents of the gutter found their way speedily to the nearest water-course.

5. There were no great manufacturing towns in those days. Most of the ordinary articles used by the townsfolk were manufactured in the town itself,and much of the work went on in the open air. The butcher killed his animals in the street, before his shop, and that added to the horrors of the gutter. But then all the butchers in a town were located in one part of it. Even now most old towns have got a Shambles, or Butchers' Row, or Butchery Street, or place of similar name, near the market-place. Other trades had their own parts of the town, where they made and sold their goods. Cordwinder Street or Shoemakers' Row are still common street names. The smith and the armourer did much of their work out in the open street; the joiner put together there any big piece of wood-work which he had in hand; the wheel-wright "shut" his tyres; the chandler melted fat and made candles. The streets of the town must have been very noisy and very "smelly".

6. There were no footways for passengers. Wagons, drays, and wheel-barrows there were, but carriages had hardly been invented, and coaches and light-wheeled vehicles had not been dreamt of.

7. No doubt the tradesmen were expected to clear up the mess they made in front of their houses, and the apprentices had to sweep up. But that usually meant only drawing the rubbish together to the great refuse-heap close to the house, which the fowls and the pigs, to say nothing of the children, speedily managed to scatter. Now and then these heaps would be carted away to a spot outside the town; but usually the street was looked upon as the handiest place into which to fling any refuse from the houses. However clean the citizens'houses might be inside, and however richly ornamented the wood-work, plague and pestilence was always very near.

8. Still, though many persons died, and were buried close by in the little churchyard, where for hundreds of years the dead had been buried, people lived, and throve, and did good work. For one thing, they lived a great deal in the open air, and they were not so much afraid of draughts in their houses as we are.

9. Thewater-supplyof a town was a very important matter. Here, again, the monasteries and colleges frequently led the way, and showed how water might be brought by pipes from a distant spring. It was not an uncommon thing for water to be brought in this way to a "conduit" in the market-place, whence the people fetched it as they needed. Many a good wealthy citizen has performed the pious work of providing his town with a supply of water. Parts of old water-pipes, some of wood and some of lead, laid for such a purpose, have often been discovered in recent years.

10. Usually, however, a town had to depend upon wells for its water-supply; and with open gutters running through the town it is very easy to see that many of these wells supplied water which, at times, could not have been pure, however bright and clear it may have looked.

11. In the villages the dangers arising from want of proper drainage and from impure water were not quite so great as in the towns. Yet even now, in this twentieth century, how to drain our villagesproperly, and provide them with a good water-supply, are questions needing attention in many places. We have seen that the houses in the villages were usually close together, and men had not realized that dirt is one of the greatest enemies of mankind. There are a good many people, even in our time, who see no great harm in having pigsties, refuse-heaps, and manure-heaps close to their houses.

12. One of the most loathsome of the diseases common in the Norman times and later wasleprosy. The leperswerekept out of the towns, but at first very little was done for them. The refuse of the markets, and the food that was so bad that it had to be carted outside the town, was thought to be good enough for them. Gradually, however, we findhospitals for lepersestablished. They were not what we understand by hospitals, places where sick folk could be doctored and nursed and cured; they were religious houses which poor lepers might enter, and in which they might have safe shelter, care, and attention for the rest of their sad lives. They were always built outside the walls of the towns.

13.Other hospitalsfor poor and suffering people were also established. They were not large buildings, with wards holding scores of people. They were little religious houses, each with its chapel and priests to carry on its services, providing homes for small numbers—perhaps half a dozen or a dozen.

14. Kings, bishops, earls, and citizens all tookpart in this good work. Every founder expected that every day "for ever" he and his family should be prayed for by the inmates. Some hospitals were "founded" or established as thank-offerings for escape from some great danger; some to "make up" for some wrong that had been done and could never be put right, and to show that the founder was "really sorry"; some were built for good reasons, others for selfish reasons. Nowadays we arrange fêtes and demonstrations for our hospital funds, and we are asked to buy tickets, because "it's a good cause". We get some enjoyment for ourselves and help the hospital; thus, as it were, doing good and receiving good at the same time.

Summary.—The monasteries in the Middle Ages were the best-drained buildings. "Underground passages" often met with near old monastery ruins were, for the most part,sewers. The gutter which ran down the middle of the town streets formed a kind of sewer. Towns on the slope of a hill were the best drained. In the Middle Ages there were no big manufacturing towns. Each town supplied most of its own wants. Different trades had their own quarters in the town, which is shown in some old street-names. Refuse was left lying about the streets, and the dead were buried in churchyards in the town. In some cases water was brought from a distance in wooden or leaden pipes to "conduits" in the town. Most towns depended on wells, which were often tainted with sewage matter.Leper hospitalswere founded and placed outside the walls of nearly all the towns. Other hospitals sprang up in the towns. None of them were large, or at all like our hospitals. They were alms-houses and homes, not places where folk went to be healed.

1. Back in early Saxon times we find that the inhabitants of a town were banded together to keep the peace, thus forming a society pledged to each other—the Peace or Frith Guild. It lost nearly all itsrealpower in later Saxon and Norman times. But it did not actually die out, and it appears that from this Frith Guild what we now understand by acorporationtook its rise. The guild was a great power in some of the Saxon towns; only those belonging to it could trade in the town, and its members were very slow to admit outsiders to share in their privileges.

2. We have seen that the free, or nearly free,tunsgradually came under the power of an overlord—the king, a bishop, a baron, or a monastery, as the case might be, and very little real power was left to the guild. The overlord appointed areeveto look after his interests, and the government of the place was in his hands. Yet the old Frith Guild seems to have regulated matters connected with thecustomsof the town, which did not interfere with the lord's rights.

3. When we reach Norman times we have come to a period during which the towns improved their position. The Norman Conquest led to increased trade with the Continent. The great building operations here attracted skilled workmen and craftsmen to this country. These men naturallyfound their way to the towns rather than to the villages. They were protected and encouraged by the Norman nobles, who preferredtheirwork to that of the Saxons. Although they might be foreigners, these strangers had ideas of freedom and liberty which fitted in very well with the town's ideas of self-government. Then, too, these craftsmen were bound together in trade societies or guilds, and that made them strong and worthy of consideration in the places where they settled.

4. Acharterto a town granted and secured to it certain privileges, and a town with a charter became aborough town. The king granted a good many charters to towns during the Norman Period. A town which wished a charter had to pay heavily for it. But it was quite worth while for the town to secure the right which a charter gave it—the right to manage its own affairs. What a town most desired was to be free from the authority of the king's officer, to choose its own port-reeve, who could preside over the court of the town, so that the town might not have to appear before the hundred court. By paying an annual rent to the king, however heavy the amount might be, the town hoped to escape from the many extra fees and taxes which the king's officers put upon it. It could then settle its own disputes, raise its own taxes as it needed them, and punish its own evil-doers.

5. In many cases bishops, barons, or religious houses were the overlords of districts containing important towns, and those towns managed to getcharters from their overlord as other towns had from the king. By so doing they could get out of the power of the sheriff or shire-reeve. Charter or borough towns have most of them been very particular to preserve their rights and privileges.

6. If you live in a small country borough town, or city, you will notice that two different benches ofmagistratessit in the town-hall to hear police cases; and there are two differentcourts of justice, though held often in the same room. There are first of all theBorough Sessions, at which themayorof the borough presides, and which deal with cases arising in the borough, whether trifling or serious. Then, on another fixed day in the week, in the very same building, another body or bench of magistrates sits. These gentlemen usually come in from country places outside the town, and the cases brought before them have to do with the mischief done in the villages and country parishes. These magistrates have nothing at all to do with offences committed within the borough. These are thecounty magistrates, and their court is called the Petty Sessions, or theCounty Sessions.

7. Some offences are too grave for the borough or county magistrates to settle, and they have to be tried by a higher court of justice, which has greater powers than the Court of Petty Sessions, the Court ofQuarter Sessions. The bench of this court is made up of magistrates drawn from all parts of the county, and a jury of twelve men, householders, from different parts of the county, has to be sworn to hear the evidence in the casesto be tried. The jury decides whether the man is proved to be guilty or not, when they have heard all that can be urged for and against him, and the magistrates decide what his punishment is to be, according to law.

8. There are some cases too grave or too complicated for the Court of Quarter Sessions to decide, and these have to stand over to theAssizes. These Assizes are held three times a year in the county town of each county, and every prisoner in the county jail must be accounted for. The court is presided over by one or more of theking's judges. These are trained lawyers, and they attend in the king's place, and are treated with much pomp and ceremony.

Summary.—The Frith or Peace Guild in Norman times had lost most of its power in the towns, but it did not die out. Ourcorporationshave sprung from these. Towns were always trying to get out of the power of the overlords' reeve or the shire-reeve, and gradually many of them got the right of appointing their own reeve. That right was granted bycharter, usually from the king. That is the beginning of our presentborough towns. The mayor in them is the chief magistrate. In many country towns two different courts are often held in the same building: theBorough Sessions, at which the mayor presides, deal with offences done in the town; andCounty Sessions, at which magistrates from the country district round deal with offences outside the borough.Quarter Sessionsdeal with graver matters four times in the year, and about three times a year one or more of the king's judges comes to the county town, andAssizesare held for graver matters still.

1. We have seen that in Norman times the whole country was, so to speak, the king's. There were the great lords who held "fiefs" or possessions directly from the king, which consisted of manors in various parts of the country—sometimes a number of manors pretty close together,—often with big stretches of unoccupied land between them, over which the king had full control. Out of these unused districts the king could, and did, often make new grants of land.

2. As years rolled on, themanorsbecame more valuable, and new manors were formed. In the earlier days the manor and theparishmeant much the same thing; but in course of time, though the boundaries of the parish did not alter much, the number of manors increased in some parishes from one to two or three, or even more.

3. In many cases the mode of life on these manors went on unchanged for centuries, the tenants of these different manors going to the originalparish church, and the parish priest ministering to the people in all the manors in his parish. In other cases daughter churches, orchapels of ease, were built in the newer manors, and provision was made for the support of a priest to minister to them. These have in some instances been erected in the course of time into separate parishes; but many remained as parts of the mother parish, thoughthey might be several miles away from the parish church.

4. All through the Norman times there was a tendency to make new manors, and this gave rise to so many difficulties that the practice was stopped in the time of King Edward I.

5. In all parts of England to-day we haveparks, belonging to big mansions; and our big towns and cities have theirparkstoo, which are usually recreation-grounds for the people. A park in Norman and in Early English times was very different in appearance from our parks, whether in town or country. Just as the king had his great forests for hunting wild beasts, so in the later Norman times the great lords were anxious to enclose pieces of waste and forest land for the same purpose.

6. As we have seen, there were in early times vast tracts of wild, uncultivated, unenclosed land, partly wooded and partly heath lands, between the manors, which belonged to the king. The king alone could give leave to make a park. In the reign of King Henry III especially we find many such parks were "empaled". Of course the nobles had to give something to the king for this privilege.

7. Many of the old parks in England, now celebrated for their fine timber and beautiful scenery, date back to this period; but they were at first much wilder, and the trees then were neither so many nor so fine as they are now. The deer in them to-day just serve to remind us of the "wild beasts" with which they were stocked.

8. The laws for preserving the wild beasts and the game in these parks and forests and chases were very strict, harsh, and severe. Many of these new parks took away from the villeins, who lived in the neighbourhood, certain rights and privileges which their forefathers had had "time out of mind".

9. Though the land could not be bought and sold outright, manors became divided and subdivided, let and underlet, for various terms of years, and in many curious ways, so that in time the profits, or the income, of a manor, instead of going straight to the lord of the manor, might be going to half a dozen different persons and places. For instance, the half of a manor might be divided amongst several people for, say, twenty years, or for the lives of three or four people; but at the end of the twenty years, or on the death of the last of those persons, it must go back to the lord of the manor, who could keep it in his hands, or let it out in other ways to quite a different set of people.

10. It is not very difficult to understand that the management of an estate of many manors, broken up into many small portions, became very complicated.Recordsof all these various transactions had to be made in writing and carefully kept, and copied and re-copied time after time. People who understood all the "ins and outs" of the laws relating to the possession of land became very important and very busy.

11. There are immense numbers of documents, some of them dating back to Norman and even earlier times, still in existence. TheRecord Office,in London, has many thousands of documents connected with the king's business; the monasteries each had their own records, but most of them disappeared in the sixteenth century; every old estate has such documents; and many of the old manors have still records going back many centuries. Of course thousands more of these old documents have been lost, some destroyed purposely, and others through carelessness and ignorance. Some have been burnt in times of danger, when their owner, knowing that there were documents amongst them which might get him into trouble, and cost him his head, set fire to bundles of papers and parchments. Others have been stored away in dark, damp cellars, and forgotten for years and years; and rats and mice have nibbled them away, or mildew and damp have caused them to rot.

12. Those that we have left can still be read, and it is surprising to find in many cases how well they have been preserved all through the centuries. The letters are very often beautifully formed, and the whole still clear and distinct. They were written in Norman French and Latin, the latter being the language in which law business was carried on for many centuries.

Summary.—New grants of land were constantly being made by the king out of his own land. Manors were divided and new manors made down to the time of King Edward I. Then a single manor would often be let out in different portions to various tenants for a term of years, but they always came back to the lord of the manor. He could not sell his land outright.Parksfor hunting were portions of "forest" taken in byleave of the king. They began to be common in the time of King Henry III. The trees were not as fine as they are now. Only the deer in them remain to remind us of the "wild beasts".The manors being let out in so many portions, there was much writing to be done relating to them. Many of these documents are still in existence, and can be read. The Record Office in London is the place where most of the old records belonging to the king are kept. All towns have their records, and a large number of manors have them also. The documents of that period were always written in Latin or Norman French.

Parksfor hunting were portions of "forest" taken in byleave of the king. They began to be common in the time of King Henry III. The trees were not as fine as they are now. Only the deer in them remain to remind us of the "wild beasts".

The manors being let out in so many portions, there was much writing to be done relating to them. Many of these documents are still in existence, and can be read. The Record Office in London is the place where most of the old records belonging to the king are kept. All towns have their records, and a large number of manors have them also. The documents of that period were always written in Latin or Norman French.

1. In most villages thechurchis the chief old building in the place, and it is a good thing to be able to tell the time to which its different parts belong. It will help us to fix in our minds the different periods, or steps, in the history of our country. Never be ashamed to ask questions about an old building. It will be a very strange thing, indeed, if you cannot find, in every town and village,somebodywho has a keen interest in old buildings, and who will delight in pointing them out to you. Nearly every local newspaper in the country, from time to time, prints odds and ends connected with the history of the neighbourhood. If there is anything about an old building that you want explained, you can easily write a short letter to the editor of the paper, and there is sure to be someonewho will take the trouble to answer your question, and help you to understand.

Back to Index Next