I doubt whether they had any more amusement than the swine or the
cows had. Looking after the fowls or the geese, hunting for the hen's
nest in the furze brake, and digging out a fox or a badger, gave them
an hour's excitement or interest now and again. Now and then a
wandering minstrel came by, playing upon his rude instrument, and now
and then somebody would come out from Lynn, or Yarmouth, or Norwich,
with some new batch of songs for the most part scurrilous and coarse,
and listened to much less for the sake of the music than for the
words. Nor were books so rare as has been asserted. There were even
story-books in some houses, as where John Senekworth, bailiff for
Merton College, at Gamlingay in Cambridgeshire, possessed, when he
died in 1314, three books of romance; but then he was a thriving
yeoman with carpets in his house, or hangings for the walls.
[Footnote: Rogers' "Hist, of Prices" vol. i. p. 124.]
There was a great deal more coming and going in the country villages
than there is now, a great deal more to talk about, a great deal more
doing. The courts of the manor were held periodically, and the free
tenants were bound to attend and carry on a large amount of petty
business. Then there were the periodical visitations by the
Archdeacon and the Rural Dean, and now and then more august
personages might be seen with a host of mounted followers riding
along the roads.
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