English Villages

Belief in witches--Survival of water ordeal--Witches turned into hares-- Cruelties practised on witches--Bishop Jewel on the "evil eye"-- Fairies--Berkshire popular superstition...

Beautiful surroundings--Benefits conferred by monasteries--Charity-- Learning--Libraries--Monks not unhappy--Netley--Cluny--Alcuin-- Monastic friendships--St. Bernard--Anselm--M...

Castle-building--Description of Norman castle--A Norman household-- Edwardian castles--Border castles--Chepstow--Grosmont--Raglan--Central feature of feudalism--Fourteenth-centu...

Local government--Changes in the condition of villeins and labourers-- Famine and pestilence--Effects of the Great Plague--Spirit of independence--Picture of village life--Churc...

"The world's a scene of change," sings Poet Cowley; but in spite of all the changes that have transformed our England, the coming and going of conquerors and invaders, the lapse...

The scene changes. The Roman legions have left our shores, and are trying to prop the tottering state of the falling empire. The groans of the Britons have fallen on listless or...

The early Saxon clergy lived in monasteries, where they had a church and a school for the education of the sons of thanes. Monastic houses, centres of piety and evangelistic zea...

It was customary some years ago to begin the history of any country with the statement, "Of the early inhabitants nothing is known with any certainty," and to commence the histo...

In the centre of our village stands the church, always the most important and interesting building in the place. We will suppose that it has not suffered overmuch at the hands o...

Destruction of old windows--Wilfrid's glass-window makers--Glass, stained and painted--Changes in style--Work of foreign artists--Inlaid tiles--Ironwork on doors and screens--No...

Peculiarities of Saxon barrows--Their contents--Weapons--Articles of personal adornment--Cremation--Saxon Cemeteries--Jutes--Saxons-- Angles--Religion of Saxons--British Church...

Among the antiquities which some of our English villages possess, none are more curious and remarkable than the grand megalithic monuments of the ancient races which peopled our...

Pit dwelling earliest form of house-building--Discoveries at Bright-hampton, Worlebury--British oppida--Hurstbourne--Contents of pit dwelling--Pot-boilers--Condition of civilisa...

The two principal houses in an English village are the manor-house and the rectory, wherein according to the theories of the modern political Socialist and agitator "the two arc...

It is the custom of some writers to represent the lot of an English villager in past ages as having been particularly hard and disagreeable; to enlarge upon the scanty wages whi...

Contents of the parish chest--Parish registers--Effect of Civil War-- Burials in woollen--"Not worth L600"--Care bestowed upon registers-- Curious entries--Astrology--Gipsies--J...

The pious care which we all love to bestow on the mortal remains of our nearest and dearest, and the respect and honour with which all men regard the bodies of departed heroes,...

In almost every village in England there is an inn. Before the Reformation there were very few of these hostelries, as travellers were always accommodated at the monasteries, ea...

To write a complete history of any village is one of the hardest literary labours which anyone can undertake. The soil is hard, and the crop after the expenditure of much toil i...

Barrows near churchyards--Their universality--Contents--Food in barrows--Curious burial customs--Belief in future life--Long and round barrows--Interior of barrow--Position of b...

There was a great stir in our English villages when the news was brought to them that William of Normandy had landed in England, and intended to fight for the English Crown. New...

We have already mourned over the wanton destruction of much that was of intense interest and value in our churches; but the most systematic robbery and spoliation of our church...

Bell customs and village life--Antiquity of bells--Christening of bells--"Ancients"--Inscriptions--Dedications--Inscriptions of praise--Leonine verses--Curious inscriptions--His...