Waste
land was used to breed game and "fowling" contributed to farmers'
and laborers' livelihoods. Killing game was not the exclusive
right of landowners, but was a common privilege. The agricultural
laborer, who worked for wages and composed most of the wage-
earning population, found it hard to make ends meet.
In 1610, weekly wages for a mason were 8s. or 5s., for a laborer
were 6s. or 4s., for a carpenter 8s. or 6s. An unskilled laborer
received 1s. a day.
There were conventions of paternalism and deference between
neighbors of unequal social status. A social superior often
protected his lessers from impoverishment For instance, the
landlord lessened rents in times of harvest failure. A social
superior would help find employment for a lesser person or his
children, stand surety for a recognizance, intervene in a court
case, or have his wife tend a sick member of his lesser's family.
A social obligation was felt by most of the rich, the landlords,
the yeomen farmers, and the clergy. This system of paternalism and
social deference was expressed and reinforced at commonly attended
village sports and games, dances, wakes and "ales" (the proceeds
of which went to the relief of a certain person in distress),
"rush-bearings", parish feasts, weddings, christenings,
"churchings" to give thanks for births, and funerals. Even the
poor were buried in coffins. Also there was social interaction at
the local alehouse, where neighbors drank, talked, sung, and
played at bowls or "shove goat" together.
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