PART II 



(ABOUT 1381-1820) 

 THE RECONSTRUCTION OF RURAL LIFE 



CHAPTER V 

 CIVILIZATION AND ITS EFFECT ON RURAL LIFE 



IN the Middle Ages statesmen looked to the land for 

 the provision of food for the nation and for the breed- 

 ing of a race of men able to fight for their 



lords and for the kin - But from the XVth 



century the breeding of men became, by 

 degrees, a secondary matter, for there was less and less 

 fighting for the peasantry to do. And at the same 

 time money and the accumulation of wealth began 

 more and more to influence men's minds. As a result, 

 a large part of the life of the country-side, like the 

 life of the rest of England, has been gradually recon- 

 structed on a commercial basis. Modern civilization 

 has come to us through the channels of commerce. 



Broadly speaking, the changes in rural life that have 

 so come are these. In the first place, the restrictions 

 affecting the lives and the work of the 

 peasantry continued to disappear ; and by 

 degrees the bondsmen attained complete 

 personal freedom. 



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