Decay of the Manor 39 



in 1523, partly describes one of these. 'The share', he says, 

 ' is a piece of yren, sharpe before and brode behynde, a fote 

 longe, made with a socket to be set on the further ende of the 

 share-beame. The culture (coulter) is a bende piece of yren set 

 in a mortice in the midst of the plough-beame, fastened with 

 wedges on every side, and the back thereof is half an inch thick 

 and more, and three inches brode, and made keen before to cutte 

 the erthe clean, and it must be well steeled.' The instructions 

 Fitzherbert gives about the smearing of sheep with grease to 

 prevent the attacks of parasites and skin diseases were those given 

 by flockmasters to their shepherds as late as the middle of last 

 century. He has a quaint remark about the effect of proper 



COUUIR 



BRIDLE. 



HANDLES 



STILTS ^^ ^^ 



SHARE 

 Parts of a Modern Plough. 



feeding in keeping sheep healthy : ' That is the beste grease that 

 is to a shepe, to grease him in the mouth with good meat.' 



The greatest progress had been made, however, not on this 

 side, but in the new status gained by different classes and their 

 changed relations to each other. Every order in England had 

 fought hard for what it regarded as its rights. On the whole 

 the higher orders had lost to the lower. The Crown had been 

 compelled to concede things to the nobility and to the burgesses 

 of the towns. The cultivators of the soil were no longer villains 

 or bordars : they were now freemen. Partly owing to their 

 direct efforts, and partly from the decay in the minds of their 

 lords of the belief that the state of bondage was useful for any 

 purpose, personal bondage had disappeared. Circumstances had 

 assisted the labourers to get higher wages, although the ruling 

 classes had legislated from 1349 to 1541 to keep them down. But 



