frequent thing for a mill-wheel to be carried away by a river in spate, and hence the manor lord protected himself by making the use of the mill an obligation on all the tenants. He could not charge a high rent if the miller were uncertain of good regular custom. But tenants also needed protection, and so we find that the jury of the court leet kept watch over the miller, and rated him soundly when he used a false measure or took an excessive toll.

As time went on, and manor discipline became weaker, villagers objected to the compulsory use of the mill. At times they rebelled against it, and started a rival mill, as you will find, for instance, in the history of Leicestershire.

Last of all, let us take a glance at Chaucer's miller :

The Mellere was a stout carl for the nones,
Ful big he was of braun, and eek of boones;

That prevede wel, for over-al [everywhere] ther he cam,

At wrastlynge he wolde bere awey the ram.

He was schort schuldred, broode, a thikke knarre [knotted fellow],

Ther was no dore that he nold heve of harre [hinge],

Or breke it at a rennyng with his heed.

His berd as ony sowe or fox was reed,

And therto brood, as though it were a spade.
Upon the cop right of his nose he hade
A werte, and theron stood a tuft of heres,
Reede as the berstles of a souwes eeres.
His nose-thurles blake were and wyde.
A swerd and a bocler baar he by his side;
His mouth as wyde was as a gret forneys ;
He was a jangler, and a golyardeys [riotous fellow],
And that was most of synne and harlotries.

THE MILLER

Wel could he stele corn, and tollen thries;
And yet he had a thombe of gold pardé.
A whight cote and a blewe hood wered he.
A baggepipe wel could he blow and sowne,
And therwithal he brought us out of towne.

It is clear that such a miller as this one needed a court leet to keep him in order. That was a door which he could not break by running against it with his head!

CHAPTER X

THE REIGN OF THE SHEEPFOLDS AND

F

SHEPHERDS

OR many generations-namely, from the thirteenth century to at least the middle of the seventeenth-the most momentous time in England every year was the shearing season, because wool was the nation's wealth; without it the State would have been feeble indeed, always on the edge of bankruptcy.

Shepherds were Lords of the Exchequer, and sheep the public to be fleeced; on their backs the credit of England grew strong. The wool was firm in fibre, pliant and elastic, and therefore easy to be weaved. All the world wished to buy it. English wool, like English archery, was not to be beaten anywhere in Europe. Sheep-farming had yet to be developed in Saxony; it had but little success in the plains of Flanders; Spaniards did their best, but wool from their sheep was brittle, and none could weave it without a good admixture of English material. So the European trade in wool became a vast monopoly for England; and because there was no fear that England's success would be weakened by competition, by foreign rivalry,

TAXES ON WOOL

Parliament was able to ask from foreign clients a huge export duty on wool, which in the fifteenth century was often as much as 100 shillings on each sack of 364 lb. By these duties all the wars of the Edwards and Henrys were mainly financed; and it was in wool that money poured from England into the revenues of the Papal Court. Our forefathers used to say that London Bridge was built on woolpacks; and on the same foundation the country at large rested for its security. The Golden Fleece would have been the best of all insignias for the mediæval kings of England.

Sheep-farming had a great influence on everything with which this book is concerned. It helped not only to enrich the Church, but to repair roads, to make bridges, and to support towns and manors. Whenever the shepherd ruled with success, as in the Cotswold districts, and in Lincolnshire, there you will find beautiful rustic homes, handsome architecture of all kinds, and a warm hospitality, a certain generous habit of accepting life as a charity

to man.

It has been said that the English people in their homes have ever been rather careless with money, inclined to live up to their incomes; and if this be a national vice, blame the sheepfolds and shepherds, for it was they that handed down through the centuries a tradition of good cakes and ale. There was not poverty enough in the Middle Ages to breed in our English race a passion for thrift, a longing to be frugal; and when we recall to mind the cold avarice and cunning to be found among

French peasants, a great deal may be said in favour of the easier economy that Englishmen have practised. Even to-day, now that English farming is depressed, many an old village has a serene look. There is nothing mean, nothing makeshift and stingy, in its cottages and homesteads. Under Free Trade, so called, peasants have been sacrificed to the street-bred classes; yet a thousand villages smile to this day with an old-fashioned gladness.

It is true that their pleasantness varies much in different parts of the country, and is just a little severe in those districts where the type of house belongs to the Cotswold manner, which is sterner than the Kentish and Surrey styles. For all that, the Cotswolds have a smile of their own, and their sheep-farming outlived the best times of the English wool trade. When that industry declined many villages received their death-blow, as in Leicestershire, where Nichols and other historians saw hamlets not only deserted, but without trace of a dwelling. All had gone. Yet this decline of prosperity was not bad in the long run for Leicestershire farmers; it roused them up, made them experimental and eager to get on; and we shall see that a Leicestershire yeoman in the eighteenth century did great things for the improvement of sheep and cattle. For this reason the illustrations to this chapter are mainly scenes in the county of Leicester. One, a delicious picture fresh as the May wind, is "A Sunny Day in the Meadows," near Mount Sorrel, with water in the foreground, and two barges sheltered by tall lush grasses. Then there