14 PROBLEMS OF VILLAGE LIFE 



that the story of the English land is revealed 

 as little more than a register of obvious forces 

 which have been directed from the Norman 

 Conquest onwards to one definite end. The 

 leading features of village life to-day, the 

 hopelessness, the landlessness, are the direct 

 outcome of the Feudal System, the Enclosure 

 Acts, and the many Acts of regulation and 

 repression which a small fraction of the nation 

 have succeeded in placing upon the Statute 

 Book of the realm. 



The manorial system of the Norman period 

 was based on the service of freemen and 

 villeins rendered to the lord in person or to 

 his bailiff. The land outside the lord's own 

 demesne was farmed by these tenants, who, 

 whether free or bondsmen, were liable for 

 forty days of military service whenever 

 summoned, and a variety of other dues in 

 the shape of tallage, fines, or manual labour. 

 The villein by blood, however, was " bound to 

 the soil," unable to leave the land without 

 his lord's permission, and exposed to a variety 

 of harassing and humiliating exactions if he 

 was unfortunate enough to serve a harsh 

 master. In the Colloquy of Aelfric, the plough- 

 man serf says : " I work hard, I go out at day- 

 break, driving the oxen to the field, and I 

 yoke them to the plough. Be it never so 



