XXIX. Traces of Early Times in the Churches (_continued_) 110 XXX. Clerks 114 XXXI. Fairs 118 XXXII. Markets 123 XXXIII. Schools 128 XXXIV. Universities 133 XXXV. Changes brought about by the Black Death 137 XXXVI. Wool 140 XXXVII. The Poor 143 XXXVIII. Changes in Houses and House-building 149 XXXIX. The Ruins of the Monasteries and the New Buildings 153 XL. The New Houses of the Time of Queen Elizabeth 158 XLI. Larger Elizabethan and Jacobean Houses 162 XLII. Churches after the Reformation 166 XLIII. Building after the Restoration: Houses 169 XLIV. Building after the Restoration: Churches 174 XLV. Schools after the Reformation 179 XLVI. Apprentices 183 XLVII. Play 185 XLVIII. Government 189 XLIX. Some Changes 193 OUR ENGLISH TOWNS AND VILLAGES CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1. A little boy, who had been born in a log cabin in the backwoods of Canada, was taken by his father, when he was about eight years old, to the nearest settlement, for the first time in his life. The little fellow had never till then seen any other house than that in which he had been born, for the settlement was many miles away. "Father," he said, "what makes all the houses come together?" 2. Now that sounds a very strange and foolish question to ask; but it is by no means as foolish a question as it seems. Here, in England, there are towns and villages dotted about all over the country. Some of them are near the sea, on some big bay or inlet; others stand a little farther inland on the banks of tidal rivers; others are far away from the sea, in sheltered valleys or on the sunny slopes of hills; some stand in the midst of broad fertile plains, while others are on the verge of bleak lonely moorlands. What has made all the houses in these towns and villages come together in these particular spots? There must be a reason in every case why a particular spot should have been chosen in the first instance.