Many people still believed in charms, curses,
divination, omens, fate, and advice from astrologers. The ghosts
of the earth walked the earth, usually because of some foul play
to be disclosed, wrong to be set right, to warn those dear to them
of peril, or to watch over hidden treasure. Fairies blessed homes,
rewarded minor virtues, and punished mild wrongdoing. When fairies
were unhappy, the weather was bad. There were parties for
children.
The merry guild-feast was no longer a feature of village life.
There were fewer holydays and festivals. The most prosperous
period of the laborer was closing. An agricultural laborer's
yearly wage was about 154s., but his cost of living, which now
included house rent, was about 160s. a year. In 1533, daily wages
in the summer for an agricultural laborer were about 4d. and for
an artisan 6d. In 1563 in the county of Rutland, daily wages for
laborers were 7d. in summer and 6d. in winter; and for artisans
were 9d. in summer and 8d. in winter. Unemployment was widespread.
There were endowed hospitals in London for the sick and infirm.
There were others for orphans, for derelict children, and for the
destitute. They worked at jobs in the hospital according to their
abilities. There was also a house of correction for discipline of
the idle and vicious by productive work. Elizabeth continued the
practice of touching people to cure scrofula, although she could
not bring herself to fully believe in the reality of such cures,
contrary to her chaplain and her physician.
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