M. E. M. J. _February, 1922_ CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. SAXON VILLAGE AND MANORIAL SYSTEMS 1 II. GILDS 15 III. MEDIÆVAL LIFE AND EXPLORATIONS 28 IV. THIRTEENTH CENTURY LONDON 48 V. FIFTEENTH CENTURY LIFE 82 VI. EXPLORATION 106 VII. ILLUSTRATIONS OF LIFE IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES 120 VIII. EIGHTEENTH CENTURY EXTRACTS 152 A SOURCE-BOOK OF ENGLISH SOCIAL HISTORY CHAPTER I SAXON VILLAGE AND MANORIAL SYSTEMS INTRODUCTORY NOTES Laws of Ethelbert These laws are dated A.D. 600, only three years after the coming of St. Augustine. Throughout them and the later dooms the educative effect of Christianity in its Roman form is to be traced. Hitherto law had been oral, traditional, unrecorded; these customary laws are now first reduced to written form and made permanent for the local kingdom. (5) Compensation, already reckoned in money though not always paid in coin (cf. 59), is the customary quittance for every offence. (9) Crime, hitherto an offence only against the victim and his kin, is here further treated as an offence against the community represented by the King. (74, 77) Status of woman high; marriage a business contract. Laws of Ine (20, 43) Most of England is still under woodland. (25) Trade already considerable (cf. Athelstane, 10, 13). (42) Farming done in common; use of quickset as well as temporary hurdle fences. (44, 49) Important place of swine in Saxon economy. Laws of Alfred Influence of Church supreme in the form and matter of the laws, the Mosaic infused among Saxon customary rules. (30, 32) Survival of Paganism, possibly reinforced by Danish influence. (39) Woodland not yet cleared of wild beasts. Laws of Athelstane Note here the practice of local minting, now confined to officers of the Church or King; also the use of horses as well as oxen in farm labour. Legislation is now by the King in council and the whole series of excerpts show the re-establishment of order and royal authority based on the fundamental principle of loyalty to the oath. The sworn bond between man and lord was already in Alfred’s reign the most sacred, its breach constituting treason for which no money penalty might atone. Growth of Trade This is apparent in Alfred’s laws (34), in Edward’s (12), and Athelstane’s; it is regulated by royal and not by local authority; and disputes between Dane and Saxon lead to the general imposition of the rule of “Commendation” of landless men to lords, which gave rise to the Saxon system later called manorial. Boundary Dispute, 896 A.D.