The rural working class
lived in two room cottages, with low ceilings, small windows, and
an earth floor. Patience was required for those willing to wait
for an existing cottage in a village to be vacated. Most laborers
did not marry unless and until they found a cottage. Ancient
custom that a person could build a home for himself on waste land
if he did it in one night was ceasing to be respected. Farmers
usually preferred employing day-laborers than keeping servants.
There were many migrant workers, mainly from Ireland, for the busy
summer haymaking and harvesting.
The children of laborers and of small farmers had little schooling
because they were needed for work. They scared the birds, weeded
the fields, picked the stones, tended the poultry, set beans,
combed the wool, and collected the rushes and dipped them in the
tallow [sheep fat].
Farm people relied on well water or rain water collected in lead
cisterns. A farmhouse fireplace had pots hung from iron rods.
Saucepans sat on iron stands, which were stored above the mantel
when not in use. Spits were rotated by pulleys powered by the
upward current of hot air or by a mechanical device. Bacon was
smoked in the chimney accessible by a staircase or upper floor.
There still existed customary freeholders, who owned their land
subject to certain customary obligations to the lord of a manor.
The people displaced by enclosure became laborers dependent on
wages or paupers.
Pages:
924
925
926
927
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
935
936
937
938
939
940
941
942
943
944
945
946
947
948