Oxenshoes and horseshoes
prevented lameness due to cracked hooves. Horse collars especially
fitted for horses, replaced oxen yoke that had been used on
horses.
A free holder's house was wood, perhaps with a stone foundation,
and roofed with thatch or tiles. There was a main room or hall,
with bed chambers around it. Beyond was the kitchen, perhaps
outside under a lean-to. These buildings were surrounded by a bank
or stiff hedge.
Simple people lived in huts made from wood and mud, with one door
and no windows. They slept around a wood-burning fire in the
middle of the earthen floor. They wore shapeless clothes of goat
hair and unprocessed wool from their sheep. They ate rough brown
bread, vegetable and grain broth, ale from barley, bacon, beans,
milk, cabbage, onion, apples, plums, cherries, and honey for
sweetening or mead. Vegetables grown in the country included
onions, leeks, celery, lettuce, radish, carrots, garlic, shallots,
parsnip, dill, chevil, marigold, coriander, and poppy. In the
summer, they ate boiled or raw veal and wild fowl such as ducks,
geese, or pigeons, and game snared in the forest. Poultry was a
luxury food, but recognized as therapeutic for invalids,
especially in broth form [chicken soup]. Venison was highly
prized. There were still some wild boar, which were hunted with
long spears, a greyhound dog, and hunting horns. They sometimes
mated with the domestic pigs which roamed the woodlands.
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