THE GROWTH OF FREEDOM 55 



time private savings and property vested in the parish 

 or any village gilds that there might be, would, when 

 shared amongst a reduced population, tend to bring 

 to the individuals who had survived the plague an 

 increase of wealth. The villagers who were left alive 

 were doubtless in a better position after the Black 

 Death than they had been before. The lord of the 

 manor on the other hand was in a very difficult posi- 

 tion. He depended on the labour of the peasants, 

 whether forced or paid for, and on their rents or 

 services. Many of the peasants were dead, and the 

 land of the dead, and such of the stock as had been 

 leased with it, were, unless there were heirs to take it 

 over, upon the lord's hands. Many of the free labourers 

 upon whom he might have relied to cultivate his land 

 were also dead. The lords of the manors had therefore 

 much land on their hands and few to cultivate it, whilst 

 their flocks and herds were in some cases wandering 

 untended over the estate. 



Bailiffs were puzzled to find either labourers to work 

 or tenants to take land. It was not easy to find a 

 solution. The lords let some of the arable land to the 

 more enterprising peasants, who must have been glad 

 to increase their holdings, especially when they could 

 get land on good terms : later on, when affairs settled 

 down and times improved, these men must have 

 obtained the reward of their enterprise and become 

 comparatively wealthy : there were many such wealthy 

 peasant families in the next century. In other cases 

 the lords of the manors took up sheep farming, and 

 so avoided to a large extent the labour difficulty. But 

 these remedies, not being generally applied, only solved 

 the problem in a few places, while the want of labour 

 was widespread. Consequently, wages went up rapidly. 



