Life and Work on the Barony. 209 



mornings in early spring has emptied the village and filled 

 tlie common field. Besides tlie proper tillers of the soil 

 there are bakers, brewers, butchers, woolwebsters, weavers 

 of linen, tailors, tinkers, tollers, masons, dikers and delvers. 

 In a word all the community which by their various industries 

 made each mediseval village so independent of outside help, 

 have come out to further the spring cultivation. 



It is a " faire felde ful of folk," some " settyng and sowyng 

 swonken ful harde," others " putten hem to the plow," and all 

 " worchyng and wandrying." There is not one there who is not 

 directly or indirectly interested in those haridsful of grain 

 which are being flung so rhythmically into the furrow. "What- 

 ever prevents their fructification decreases the means of the 

 community's livelihood during the ensuing season, and no one 

 helping there to-day can view such a possibility with indiffer- 

 ence, just at the very time of year when he is experiencing 

 what exactly being on short commons means. 



This, however, is a day of hard bodily toil ; and bearing in 

 mind that it is not right to muzzle the labouring ox, no one, 

 who has the means, can resist the shouts of " Hote pies ! hote 

 pies!" raised by the cooks, or the tempting liquids displayed 

 by the tavern keepers, whose respective stock in trade has 

 been brought down to the very scene of action. Everybody is 

 busily engaged, save the priest yonder, who has come to look 

 on, with thoughts divided between the cultivation of the crop, 

 of which one-tenth would be his harvest tithe dues, and the 

 possibility of detecting a plump hare amidst the fern and 

 rough grass of the " fourlonges." His perceptive powers, dull 

 over the perusal of " seyntes lyues," are keen enough when a 

 chance of sport is forward. Educated in such a good school of 

 agriculture as the monastery we should have expected that his 

 supervision and advice would have been invaluable on such a 

 day as this ; but, according to the anticlerical Lollard who 

 writes this account, the whole of the workers turn with dis- 

 gust from such a false teacher to beg the truth from Piers, and 

 we must now take leave of him in the role of adopted leader, 

 exhibiting his professional skill to the agricultural community, 

 who have made him the hero of the day. 



p 



