1. From many of these old-fashioned schools boys and girls were apprenticed. Connected with old parishes there are still funds for so placing out boys and girls.
2. All through the Middle Ages the only way by which a man could become a craftsman was by being first of all anapprentice, and the rules by which a lad was bound to a master were very strict.Things did not alter much in this respect in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. An apprentice was always bound for seven years in the presence of magistrates. The master had to find his apprentice in food, clothing, lodging, and to instruct him in his art, or "mystery" as it was called. The apprentice lived in his master's house, and was bound to serve him.
3. His master could chastise him if he was idle or "saucy", and even have him sent to the house of correction for further punishment. Both masters and apprentices could complain of each other to the magistrates at the Quarter Sessions, and the hearing of the complaints often took up a lot of time. According to many of the complaints, of which records still exist, some of the apprentices must have had rather a hard time—"seven years, hard". Some complained of having to eat mouldy cheese and rotten meat; others, of their ragged clothes; others, that their masters beat them with pokers, hammers, pint-pots, to say nothing of whips and sticks; prevented them from going to church; and others, that their masters turned them out-of-doors, or ran away and left them. The masters, on their side, often complain that their apprentices are idle, that they rob them, that they stop out at night and keep company with bad characters, and so on. So it seems they did not always get on well together.
4. But then there were the others—those who made the best of it. Where the master did his duty, and the apprentice took pains to learn, they got on pretty well together. It was not an easylife for the apprentice, but it made him a craftsman.
5. In some parts of the country, in manufacturing districts, there were little schools where children were taughtstraw-plaitandlace-making. Then, especially in villages, the parish clerk, or some old lady, kept asmall school, in which a few boys and girls picked up a little reading, writing, and arithmetic.
6.Elementary schools, out of which our present schools have grown, began about a century ago. Many and great changes have taken place since then, and knowledge is within the reach of every boy or girl to-day.
Summary.—Many boys and girls were put out asapprenticesfrom old charity schools, and many parishes have still funds for apprenticing boys and girls to trades. For centuries a man could only become a craftsman who had been an apprentice. The apprentice had to serve for seven years, and the life was often very hard and trying, but it made good craftsmen in many cases. There wereplait schoolsandlace-makingschools in some parts of the country, and almost every village had itslittle schooltaught by the parish clerk or an old lady. Our presentelementary schoolsbegan less than a century ago, and they have passed through many changes already.
Summary.—Many boys and girls were put out asapprenticesfrom old charity schools, and many parishes have still funds for apprenticing boys and girls to trades. For centuries a man could only become a craftsman who had been an apprentice. The apprentice had to serve for seven years, and the life was often very hard and trying, but it made good craftsmen in many cases. There wereplait schoolsandlace-makingschools in some parts of the country, and almost every village had itslittle schooltaught by the parish clerk or an old lady. Our presentelementary schoolsbegan less than a century ago, and they have passed through many changes already.
1. In all the many centuries of our history there have been boys and girls; and, whatever has been going on in the world around them, they havefound time to play. Many of their games go back so far in the history of man that their origin is forgotten. Yet there are games which children play now just as they did in the days of Queen Elizabeth; and those queer rhymes, which you know so well, and understand nothing about, have been repeated, some of them, since England began to be England.
2. There is plenty to say about games, but not enough space to say it all here. There are some games which come and go as regularly as the seasons. The queer part of it all is: Who starts the game? As sure as the early spring evenings arrive you will find boys playing at marbles. Town or country, it does not matter, all at once "marbles arein". Nobody says it is "marble season"; nobody ever yet found the boy who brings out the first marble of the season. Somehow asomethinginside a boy tells him it is "marble" time, and the marbles appear in his pocket.
3. It is just the same with "tops"; they come and they go with absolute regularity. They come as if by magic, and by magic they disappear. When the errand-boy, who has left school a month or two, stops, basket on arm, to watch the game, you may be sure that it is the height of the season. When the ground is occupied by the little chaps who have just come up from the infant school, and the errand-boy passes whistling by on the other side, it is quite certain that the season is over and gone.
4. These are games that want no clubs, associations, nor subscriptions. Yet they are governed bytime-honoured rules, which have never been written down, but must be strictly observed, or there is much talking and wrangling over the game.
5.Sportshave an important place in the life of towns and villages nowadays; but, though cricket and football are old games really, they have not always been as popular as they are now.Cricket, in some form or other, was played in the thirteenth century; indeed all games where a ball is used are more or less ancient. It seems to have been played at Guildford as early as 1598, but modern cricket only dates from the middle of the eighteenth century. Kent seems to have led the way, and Hampshire was the home of the game in 1774.
6.Footballhas almost driven every other game out of our towns, but it is only within the last thirty years that it has become so popular. Football of some kind has been played for many centuries, especially in the streets of towns. Kingston, Chester, and Dorking, amongst other places, have a custom of playing football on Shrove Tuesday. The story as to how the custom arose is the same in most of these places.
7. Far back in the ninth century a party of Danes ravaged the district and attacked the town. The townsmen made a brave stand against them till help came. Then the Danes were defeated, their leader slain, his head struck off, and kicked about the streets in triumph. That is said to have given rise to the custom; but it was a very hideous football.
8. Football was not always regarded with favour.Folk often wanted to play football when their lords and masters wanted them to practise with their bows and arrows. So the young men and apprentices were frequently told what a dangerous game it was, and over and over again it was forbidden. Football was always apparently a game over which the players fell out, much as they do now. Nearly four hundred years ago a worthy gentleman wrote of the game:—
"It is nothyng but beastely fury and extreme violence, whereby procedeth hurte, and consequently rancour and malice do remayne with thym that be wounded".
9. There are some places where the school-boys of long, long ago have left their marks. In the cloisters at Westminster Abbey and Gloucester Cathedral, for instance, are some roughly cut marks in the old stone benches, forming the "tables" or "boards" on which they played some almost forgotten games with stones.
Summary.—Children's gamesare very ancient, and the rhymes have been handed down from very early times, so that we do not know now what they mean. Marbles, tops, and hop-scotch are games which come and go regularly, and are governed by unwritten rules.Footballandcricketare old games. Both games have altered very much. The marks of some old games, which were played with stones, are still to be seen in the cloisters at Westminster and Gloucester. (See cut on previous page.)
Summary.—Children's gamesare very ancient, and the rhymes have been handed down from very early times, so that we do not know now what they mean. Marbles, tops, and hop-scotch are games which come and go regularly, and are governed by unwritten rules.Footballandcricketare old games. Both games have altered very much. The marks of some old games, which were played with stones, are still to be seen in the cloisters at Westminster and Gloucester. (See cut on previous page.)
1. There was not much change for many centuries in the way in which towns and villages were governed.
2. The borough towns, which gained their charters back in the days of King John, or King Henry III, had them confirmed by various kings in later times; but the powers of the towns were not much altered. Thecorporationof a borough was usually made up of men chosen by the freemen; but if the freemen did not admit many persons to the freedom of the borough, the power of electing, in the course of years, fell into the hands of a very few people.
3. This was what actually happened in a very large number of cases, and at the end of the eighteenth century there were many old boroughs which were governed by "close corporations"—the bulk of the people living in the borough having no voice in the management of the affairs of the town. All that was altered in the early part of the nineteenth century. Many of the old boroughs lost their privileges, as they had become such small unimportant places. All other boroughs now have regular elections of town councillors by the rate-payerseach first of November. The councils elect the mayor on each 9th of November.
4. Themayor, and some of the inhabitants of the borough, are also magistrates and attend to police cases; while thetown councillooks after matters connected with sewers, lighting, paving, and cleansing the streets of the town. It has now also charge of educational affairs.
5. In London and large towns, where there is muchpolice-court business, there are special magistrates who attend to nothing else.
6. In country places, for centuries, themanor courtgoverned the manor; but gradually, and by Tudor times, most of the power of the manor court, or court leet as it was sometimes called, had passed into the hands of theVestry. This consisted of the parish officers and rate-payers in the whole parish. It was called the Vestry, because its meeting-place was the vestry of the parish church, or even the church itself.
7. The relief of the poor and the care of the highways provided the vestry with most of its business. Thechurchwardenshad special care of the property of the Church, but in Tudor times they were also charged with the relief of the poor. To help them in this work twooverseers, at least, in each parish, were chosen every year. All the rate-payers were liable to serve in turn if elected, unless they could show a good reason for not serving. The elections took place about Lady Day. The vestry fixed what rates were to be made, and the overseers collected them. But the overseershad to be admitted to their office, and all rates allowed, by two justices of the peace, before they were legal.
8. It became necessary, as the poor-law business increased, to have constables to help the overseers in keeping an eye on strangers, vagrants and beggars who came into the parish. These, too, had to serve for one year. In big parishes they were assisted by abeadle, and had, with the help of all the inhabitants in turn, to keepwatch and wardat night. Very unpleasant work they had to do in towns and places just outside towns. This duty of watching and warding had to be carried out until towards the middle of the nineteenth century, when our present system ofpolicewas established. Beadles and constables had to see to the whippings, which were so common, and to setting people in the stocks and the cage; to moving sick and diseased wretches on to the next parish, and other unpleasant duties.
9. Thesurveyors of the highwayshad to see that each person who was liable did his share of the work of the highways, or paid for having it done. But by far the most important business was that of the churchwardens and overseers. They had to settle in what houses the poor folk were to live, who were to look after them, what allowance was to be made for them. The poor usually had their money paid to them at church, monthly. Then the overseers had to see that every able-bodied man was at work, often having to provide the work, to place out apprentices, and tosupply flax or wool for the women and children to spin. Sometimes the poor were boarded out; some of them lived in cottages, or in the poors' house which the parish built. Then, too, these officers had to relieve beggars, and persons passing through the parish.
10. This work of providing for the poor was very difficult and very anxious, especially at the end of the eighteenth and in the early part of the nineteenth century.
11. Thenpoor-law unionswere formed, andunion workhousesbuilt, in which the helpless poor might be better cared for, and vagrants and wanderers find a night's lodging. We have not a perfect plan yet, by any means. The difficulties of how to deal with the poor who, through no fault of their own, cannot help themselves, and how to deal with those who are lazy and will not work, are very great.
12. The work of the old vestries has now passed to theParish Councils,theDistrict Councils,and theCounty Councils. The work is important, and has much to do with the welfare of our towns and villages. We must not expect that these bodies can do everything at once, or that they will make no mistakes. If we know something of the past history of our towns and villages it will help us to form a right judgment concerning difficulties which have to be met in the present, and so to act that those who come after us may be able to go on building upon our work, that there may be nothing to undo, nothing to blame, but that future years may say of our times:
"They knew how to work, and they worked on right principles".
Summary.—In the course of centuries the government of most boroughs got into the hands of few people. This was altered early in the nineteenth century. Borough towns now choose a certain number of members, and the councils elect a mayor. The mayor is a magistrate; in the large towns of England trained lawyers are appointed magistrates to act in the police courts.In country places much of the power of the manor court got into the hands of the vestry. The vestry made the rates required, and chose churchwardens, overseers, surveyors of highways, every year. In towns the inhabitants had to keep "watch and ward" in turn, till the police force was organized in the nineteenth century. Each parish looked after and provided for its own poor till early in the nineteenth century.The work of the vestries is now done by Parish Councils, District Councils, and the County Councils.
Summary.—In the course of centuries the government of most boroughs got into the hands of few people. This was altered early in the nineteenth century. Borough towns now choose a certain number of members, and the councils elect a mayor. The mayor is a magistrate; in the large towns of England trained lawyers are appointed magistrates to act in the police courts.
In country places much of the power of the manor court got into the hands of the vestry. The vestry made the rates required, and chose churchwardens, overseers, surveyors of highways, every year. In towns the inhabitants had to keep "watch and ward" in turn, till the police force was organized in the nineteenth century. Each parish looked after and provided for its own poor till early in the nineteenth century.
The work of the vestries is now done by Parish Councils, District Councils, and the County Councils.
1. There was not much alteration in the outward appearance of the villages and the "look" of the country round them for many centuries. Indeed even now many of the villages themselves are not greatly altered in their general arrangement. Down to the times of the Tudor kings the old land and manor customs had gone on since Saxon days, changing but very slowly. Many of the class which had been villeins in the Middle Ages had becomeyeomen; some had got lands of their own, and some land on the old manors, which they rented. But they did not alter very much the old way of treating the land, and it was only gradually thatfarmhousessprang up away from the villages.
2. In some parts of the country these lonely farmhouses are more common than in others. There are, for instance, a good many in the Weald of Sussex which sprang up first as huts in forest clearings, and afterwards became houses with farm-buildings attached to them.
3. On the borders of great lonely heaths and commons we can often see very old and very small cottages, with walls of clay, or wood, or stone, according to the district in which they happen to be. Long ago somesquatterbuilt his little hut here, and out of pity, perhaps, or carelessness, the lord of the manor took no notice. There he remained, year after year, until custom allowed him to look upon it as his own; and in time it actually became his private property. Such squatters in lonely places were often looked upon more or less with fear by the timid folk living in the distant village. They did not care to do or say anything to upset the stranger, fearing for the safety of their sheep, cattle, and poultry. Many little holdings and small farms began in this way.
4. Many of thefarms, though they were separate holdings, still had strips in the big fields of the parish. The crops were sown and gathered according to the ancient customs, and the cattle turned into them and out on the waste lands at certainseasons, just as they had been in the Middle Ages.
5. But about the beginning of the eighteenth century there was a pretty general movement towards breaking up these big fields into separate parts, and letting each farmer have his portion to himself, so that he might know exactly what land was his and what belonged to his neighbour. So it came to pass thatEnclosure Actswere passed for parish after parish. The old common arable fields were divided amongst those who had rights in them. Then many of the old wastes, heaths, commons, and marshes were treated in the same way.
6. That caused a great change in the appearance of the parish. Instead of the fields in long, straight strips, with unploughed balks between them, the strips belonging to each farmer were thrown into one, andhedgerowsplanted. In time they became smooth fields, separated from each other by hedges, in which grew here and there timber trees. The old cart-tracks, winding across and round the common fields, in time becamelanesbounded by high hedges. The trackways across many of the old wastes and commons in a similar way were turned into lanes, and the waste broken up into fields. Still a good deal of the waste land was left, and has never yet been enclosed. So far as we can see now, this is not likely to happen, because we feel more and more every year that, for the sake of the health and recreation of the people, it is absolutely necessary to preserve them as open spaces.
7. The fields, the hedgerows, and the lanes which delight us so much in the country are, most of them, some two hundred years old.
8. When the farm had its own separate fields allotted to it, it became convenient for the farmer to live in the midst of his land. So we find the farmhouse and its buildings, with a few labourers' cottages, a long way out of the village, and away from the church. If you take notice you will find that from this outlying farmhouse there is usually a pretty straight field-path to the parish church.
9. Then, too, in parishes through which a big main road ran, as the traffic on the road increased, houses of entertainment for man and beast became necessary;ale-housesandinnssprang up, with little farmsteads round them.Coacheswere put on many roads in the time of King Charles II, and had regular stopping-places, and these little inns often became important centres of business. Gradually hamlets sprang up round many of them.
10. The roads were so bad that horses frequently cast their shoes, tires came off wheels, and wheels came off carts and coaches; so under many "a spreading chestnut-tree" a little smithy and wheel-wright's shop arose. A smithy is always a centre of life and news, as everybody knows. You can see to-day, along many of our roads, sheds and shops being opened, where broken-down cycles and motor cars can be repaired and supplied with odds and ends which they may happen to need.
11. Thushamletshave grown up away from the old village green, its church, and its manor-house.In scores of places the hamlet has become of more importance than the old village, and has grown into a little town, where new churches and chapels and public buildings have sprung up.
12. Then there are thedistrictswhere new industries and manufactures have been planted. That is too large a subject to deal with here, but think of the great changes these have wrought on the face of the country in the coal and mineral districts of England in the last two hundred years.
13. Again, there are therailways. Notice how little townships have grown up round the railway-stations, especially on the main lines in districts near a big town. Houses spring up for the hosts of people who, like streams of human ants, hurry to the station to catch the early morning trains, and, as the afternoon wears into evening, come again from the station to snatch a few hours' rest at home.
14. We have said nothing of
"The beauty and mystery of the ships,And the magic of the sea",
"The beauty and mystery of the ships,And the magic of the sea",
and the part they have had in the making of our towns and villages. This subject would require a book all to itself, and then we shall only just have begun to think about it, and to find out how little we know and understand of the things which go to make up our daily lives.
15. Yes, the life of our towns and villages is a very interesting subject. Nature and Man each works for and with the other; both are full ofmystery, life, and beauty, if we could only use our eyes to see, our intelligence to understand, our hearts to sympathize, and our hands to work.
Summary.—The earliestfarmhousesbegan as settlers' huts in such forest regions as the Weald.Squattersgradually got little holdings near lonely heaths and commons.Separate farms, with farm-buildings and labourers' cottages attached to them, date from about the middle of the eighteenth century, when theold common fieldsbegan to be enclosed.Fields and hedgerows and country lanes, as we see them now, mostly began then.New hamletssprang up by main roads as coaches came into use: an ale-house and a forge were usually the first buildings.New townshave sprung up in manufacturing districts and round railway-stations.
Summary.—The earliestfarmhousesbegan as settlers' huts in such forest regions as the Weald.Squattersgradually got little holdings near lonely heaths and commons.Separate farms, with farm-buildings and labourers' cottages attached to them, date from about the middle of the eighteenth century, when theold common fieldsbegan to be enclosed.Fields and hedgerows and country lanes, as we see them now, mostly began then.New hamletssprang up by main roads as coaches came into use: an ale-house and a forge were usually the first buildings.
New townshave sprung up in manufacturing districts and round railway-stations.
[1]Also between Hitchin and Cambridge, at Clothall, in Herts, in the Chiltern Hills, on the steep side of the Sussex Downs, in Clun Forest, in Carmarthenshire, and in Wilts.
[1]Also between Hitchin and Cambridge, at Clothall, in Herts, in the Chiltern Hills, on the steep side of the Sussex Downs, in Clun Forest, in Carmarthenshire, and in Wilts.
[2]Spinneys are plantations of trees growing closely together.
[2]Spinneys are plantations of trees growing closely together.
[3]A diocese is the district over which a bishop rules.
[3]A diocese is the district over which a bishop rules.
[4]In the Fens.
[4]In the Fens.
[5]When we speak of Saxon work in buildings we mean work done between the time of King Cnut and the Norman Conquest—the first half of the eleventh century.
[5]When we speak of Saxon work in buildings we mean work done between the time of King Cnut and the Norman Conquest—the first half of the eleventh century.
[6]The Cistercian houses here in England, however, were always known asabbeys, though Citeaux, their head-quarters, was in France.
[6]The Cistercian houses here in England, however, were always known asabbeys, though Citeaux, their head-quarters, was in France.
[7]founded, that is, established.
[7]founded, that is, established.
[8]found, that is, discovered.
[8]found, that is, discovered.
[9]feaden, that is, feed.
[9]feaden, that is, feed.
[10]pullen, that is, poultry.
[10]pullen, that is, poultry.
[11]The Jews were expelled from EnglandA.D.1290.
[11]The Jews were expelled from EnglandA.D.1290.
[12]That is, whipped at a cart's tail.
[12]That is, whipped at a cart's tail.
[13]Terra-cottais a compound of pure clay, fine sand, or powdered flint.
[13]Terra-cottais a compound of pure clay, fine sand, or powdered flint.
[14]See the picture on p. 162.
[14]See the picture on p. 162.
[15]Jacobeanmeans of the time of James I and on to James II.
[15]Jacobeanmeans of the time of James I and on to James II.
Transcriber's Notes:Text appearing in illustrations has been replicated along with the illustration caption.Some presumed printer's errors have been corrected. These are listed below with the original text (top) and the replacement text (bottom).Westminster Abbey, As more p.57Westminster Abbey. As moremagis-strates [end-of-line hyphen] p.101magistratesplainly At the end p.141plainly. At the end
Transcriber's Notes:
Text appearing in illustrations has been replicated along with the illustration caption.
Some presumed printer's errors have been corrected. These are listed below with the original text (top) and the replacement text (bottom).
Westminster Abbey, As more p.57Westminster Abbey. As more
magis-strates [end-of-line hyphen] p.101magistrates
plainly At the end p.141plainly. At the end