Book 1. 



AGRICULTURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 



£9 



Normans. 



before Candlemas ; and that such farmers as had not so many as four oxen, though they 

 could not labour their lands by tilling, should delve as much widi hand and foot as would 

 produce a sufficient quantity of corn to support themselves and their families. (Regiam 

 Majeslalem, p. 307.) But this law was probably designed for die highlands, and most 

 uncultivated parts of the kingdom ; for in the same parliament a very severe law was 

 made against those farmers who did not extirpate a pernicious weed called guilde (Chrysan- 

 themum st'getum L.) out of their lands, which seems to indicate a more advanced state 

 of cultivation. (Ibid., p. 335.) Their agricul- 

 tural "operations, as far as can be gathered 

 from old tapestries and illuminated missals, 

 were similar to those of England. Thresh- 

 ing appears to have been performed by women 

 (Jig. 28.), and reaping by the men (Jig. 29.), 

 which is the reverse of the modern practice 



in that and in most countries. Such is the account of Henry. 

 (History of Britain, vol. vi. p. 173.) 



209. The field culture of the vine, which had been commenced by 

 the monks for their own use, was more extensively spread by the 

 William of Malmsbury, who flourished in the early part of the twelfth 

 century, says there were a greater number of vineyards in the vale of Gloucester than 

 any where else, and that from the grapes was produced a wine very little inferior to that 

 of France. Orchards and cider were also abundant, and the apple trees, it is said, lined 

 die roads in some parts of the country, as they still do in Normandy, whence in all pro- 

 bability the plants or at least the grafts were imported. 



Subsect. 3. History of Agriculture in Britain, from the Thirteenth Century to the Time 



cf Henry VIII. 



210. Agriculture in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, it appears, was still earned 

 on with vigour. Sir John Fortescue, in a work in praise of the English laws, mentions 

 the progress that had been made in planting hedges and hedge-row trees before the end 

 of the fourteenth century. Judge Fortescue wrote Ins Legum Anglioe in the fifteenth 

 century, but it was not published till the reign of Henry VIII, In the law book called 

 Fleta (supposed to have been written by some lawyers, prisoners in the Fleet, in 1340), 

 very particular directions are given as to the most proper times and best manner of 

 ploughing and dressing fallows. (Fleta, lib. ii. chap. 73. p. 163.) The fanner is there 

 directed to plough no deeper in summer, than is necessary for destroying the weeds ; nor 

 to lay on his manure till a little before the last ploughing, which is to be with a deep and 

 narrow furrow. Rules are also given for the changing and choosing of seed ; for pro- 

 portioning the quantity of different kinds of seed to be sown on an acre, according to the 

 nature of the soil, and the degree of richness ; for collecting and compounding ma- 

 nures, and accommodating them to the grounds on which they are to be laid ; for the 

 best seasons for sowing seeds of different kinds on all the variety of soils ; and, in a 

 word, for performing every operation in husbandly, at the best time, and in the best 

 manner. (Fleta, lib. ii. chap. 72, 73. 76.) In the same work, the duties and business 

 of the steward, bailiff, and overseer, of a manor and of all the other persons concerned in 

 the cultivation of it, are explained at full length, and with so much good sense, that if 

 they were well performed the manor could not be ill cultivated. (Ibid., chap. 72. 88. ; 

 Henry, viii. 267.) This work, as well as others of the kind, is written in Latin, and even 

 the farming accounts were in those days kept in that language, as they still are in the 

 greater part of Hungary. 



211. During the greater ]>art of the fifteenth century England was engaged in civil wars, 

 and agriculture, as well as other arts, declined. The labourers, called from the plough by 

 royal proclamation or the mandates of their lords, perished in battle, or by accident and 

 fatigue, in immense numbers. Labour rose in price notwithstanding various laws for its 

 limitation, and this at last produced a memorable revolution in the state of agriculture, 

 which made a mighty noise for many years. The prelates, barons, and other great 

 proprietors of land, kept extensive tracts around their castles, which were called their 

 demesne lands, in their own immediate possession, and cultivated them by their villains, 

 and by hired servants, under the direction of their bailiffs. But these great landholders 

 having often led their followers into the fields of war, their numbers were gradually 

 diminished, and hired servants could not be procured on reasonable terms. This obliged 

 the prelates, lords, and gentlemen to enclose the lands around their castles, and to con- 

 vert them into pasture grounds. This practice of enclosing became very general in 

 England about the middle of this period, and occasioned prodigious clamours from those 

 who mistook the effect of depopulation for its cause. 



212. The habit of enclosing lands and converting them to pasture continued after the 

 cause had ceased, and an act was passed to stop its progress in the beginning of the reign 



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