the market was was nowhere to

in the castles, rht their corn, eir employers, year; and as re quantities, of it, so that, and its price

Eo this in his
Immediately
Particular in
e only too
age named

Ivice as to
his dinner
not will I
en both."

y to buy

wo green atcake); hich he

oth he, collops (leeks),

with

and

other fruits and vegetables till harvest-time.
Then " new
corn came to cheaping" (became cheap): folk were glad, and
fed hunger with the best. They gave him good ale, which
made him sleepy. Even beggars, then, would not eat bread
that had beans in it: it must either be of pure wheat, or
such delicate kinds as "coket and clermatyne," which were
used for breakfast. As for halfpenny ale, a beggar would in
no wise drink that: he would have none but the best and
brownest that was sold in booth or borough. Labourers
would have no old worts or cabbages for dinner and supper,
as they had at other times; they would have no penny ale
or bacon; but they insisted upon fresh meat, and fish either
fried or baked, and hot and just cooked too." Robert
Langland elsewhere inveighs with great vehemence against
these excessive demands of the peasantry, their great indo-
lence after the harvest was gathered in, and the heedless
profusion with which they consumed their provisions while
they were plentiful. But to a people just emerged from a
state of dependence and degradation, as the Feudal system
was for the villeins, we can hardly attribute blame for the
lack of those virtues, prudence, foresight, thrift, which only
a state of freedom and independence of action can develop.
Agriculture, moreover, was then in a very imperfect condi-
tion; the judicious rotation of crops, and the use of hay and
artificial grasses for winter provender, were unknown; so
that there were no means of keeping cattle through the
winter, except such as the natural pastures afforded. When
Martinmas came, therefore, great numbers of beeves, sheep,
swine, and even deer were killed and salted for the winter on
every manor, which, together with salted and cured fish,
milk, cheese, and bread, were given out to each tenant by the
lord, in proportions varying according to the value of his
tenement. Implements of agriculture were few and inex-
pensive, the user generally making them himself. An iron

ploughshare, an axe, and a spade were the on peasant purchased, and ploughing was such a that not more than half an acre could be turned with six oxen at the front.pod nove

The dwellings of the peasantry were as wret racter as their agriculture. They were slightly few posts and many radels or hurdles, cast a thick clay to keep out the wind.owThe stable a were under the same roof as the family sitting room. There was little or no furniture; the s was the bed by night, and the pot and the tri only cooking utensils. There was no chimney according to Harrison,* an Elizabethan writer, wa advantage, because the smoke not only hardened but kept out the cold, and was reputed a capital keep the good man and his family from the agu catarrhs, and colds in the head. The bed consiste which was seldom renewed, and was therefore, a says, an ancient accumulation of filth and refus or fathers," again remarks Harrison, "yea and we also, have lien full oft upon straw pallets, on ro covered over with a sheet, under coverlets made of or hopharlots (patchwork), and a good round log u heads instead of a bolster or a pillow. If it was Opour fathers, or the goodman of the house, had with of years after his marriage purchased a mattress or 1

and thereto a sack of chaff to rest his head upon, he himself to be as well lodged as the lord, that pera lay seldom on a bed of down or whole feathers." servants (and labourers), if they had any sheet above was well: for seldom had they any under their bo keep them from the pricking straws that ran oft thro canvas of the pallet, and rased (scratched) their h How A

* Description of England, prefixed to Hollinshed, or

he only articles the

ch a slow process
med up in air

wretched in cha

hides." For it must be understood that, bare as they were of bedclothes, our forefathers of every class slept quite naked. Chaucer, Gower, Lydgate, aud all our ancient writers allude to this custom.

In the "

ly set up, with st all over with

instance

-le and all offer ing and sleeping he settle by day trivet were the ney; and this was a positive ed the timbers

al medicine to gue, rheums,

sted of straw,
as Erasmus

"Our

use. ve ourselves

rough mats of dagswain under their as so that

hin seven flock-bed, thought dventure

"As for

them it

dies, to gh the

rdened

Squire of Low Degree" there is a curious

"She rose, that lady dear,

To take her leave of that squyére,

All so naked as she was born

She stood her chamber door before."

The misery and poverty which the feudal peasantry thus endured were, however, the natural accompaniments of their transition from bondage to freedom. So long as the villein was the property of his feudal lord, it was the interest of the latter to take care that his property was not injured or incapacitated for work. The power which the lord wielded, in fact, was that of a mild despotism; no one upon his estate, who was in health, wanted employment or sustenance, nor was any one overworked; none who were ill failed to receive attention and medicine, and generous and suitable food from the lady-the breadgiver of the manor. The villein's condition, therefore, though slavish and degrading in the estimation of a free country like ours, was, so far as physical comforts went, far superior to that which was his lot when he became a free labourer. And even as a free labourer he had many advantages which the modern peasant does not enjoy. In the first place, his wages went farther, notwithstanding the constant debasements of the coin. Butcher's meat was less than a halfpenny a pound in the time of King Henry VI.; other necessaries were equally as cheap; so that we find when the labourer's wages were paid in money and board, the latter was reckoned as not worth more than half his gross pay, while the artisan's was set down at one-third. The labourer, again, was in little danger

of being thrown out of employment, because by contract for not less than a year, and dismissed before the expiration of his ter serious misconduct was proved against h magistrates. He had, besides, a weekly holi of some saint's day or other festival; and ranges of common and unenclosed forest land fuel gratis, and fed his pigs, cattle, and poultry

Whether, however, they possessed materi their feudal servitude, or were pinched w famines in the early times of their independ English peasantry were a bold and fearless deserving the poet's epithet, "their country's village green was the frequent arena of athletic which lasted for weeks together were held near towns; and here, besides traders, there assembl and jesters, with their tricks and dances; minstrels, with their morality plays; and al members of that motley tribe whose jokes and a especial delight of a rustic population. In castle the street and on the common, pleasures and ent were then free to all; and the lightheartedness fun, which both Scott and Bulwer describe as m conduct of the people at every pageant and fea could not have sprung from hearts which were b with oppression, or cankered with bitter struggl penury and want. But we have higher authority t for this pleasing character of society in the Feu none less than that of Chaucer himself. Among th nine pilgrims whom he assembles for one comm at the Tabard Inn in Southwark, we find the freedom of social intercourse. The knight feels no tion in telling a tale in turn with the miller, nor the with the ploughman; the sergeant-at-law, who sat

cause he was eng
and he could a
This term, unless
inst him before

yholiday, on a
; and the extensi
lands furnished
poultry.
material comfortsit
ed with occasion
pendence, the
rless race, just
ry's pride." T
letic sports; f

at the assize, is the wayside companion of the cook, the carpenter, and the weaver, and eats at the same board; and the merchant does not fear to compromise his position by familiarity with the rough shipman. The poor pilgrims show no slavish submission to those among them of high blood or great wealth; nor do the latter assert their dignity by any assumption of haughtiness or reserve. And yet their distinctions of class are clearly marked. This free intercourse could only result from mutual respect—a feeling which the principles of our feudal constitution fostered, which has been inherited from our Saxon forefathers, and which, so long as it continues amongst us, will make England great.

ear all the chi

mbled mummers
; jugglers and
all the other
antics are the
tle and hall, in
entertainments
ss and love of
marking the
eat of arms,
bowed down
les against

than these

dal age

he twentyon object

greatest humilis

franklin

s judge

SIXTH ORDINARY MEETING.

ROYAL INSTITUTION, January 9th, 1865.

J. A. PICTON, ESQ., PRESIDENT, in the Chair.

Ladies had been invited by the Council to this meeting. The SECRETARY drew attention to the death of Dr. D. P. Thomson, for several years Secretary to the Society, which took place at Wakenaam, Essequibo, early in December last. He read from the Courier a short obituary notice of the deceased.

Dr. IMLACH referred also to the same object, and moved that a vote of condolence be sent from the Society to the deceased gentleman's widow, which was carried unanimously.

The following gentlemen were balloted for, and duly elected ordinary members:-Mr. William Walthew, Mr. Astrup Cariss, Mr. Robert E. Stewart, L.D.S., and Rev. E. S. Howse, B.A.

The following Paper was then read :—