e
sports, harvest suppers, fairs, and "ales," the villagers had plenty of
amusement, and their lives certainly could not be described as dull.
Sometimes the village would be enlivened by the presence of a company
of pilgrims on their way to the shrine of St. Thomas at Canterbury, or
to Holywell, blessed by St. Winifred, in order to be cured of some
disease. Although these pilgrims were deemed to be engaged on a
religious duty, they certainly were not generally very serious or sad.
Chaucer describes a very joyous pilgrimage in his _Canterbury Tales_,
how the company met at the Tabard Inn, in Southwark, including the
knight and the abbot, the prioress and the shipman, the squire and the
merchant, the ploughman and sompnour (or summoner, "of whose visage
children were sore afeard"), and rode forth gaily in the spring
sunshine--

"The holy blissful martyr for to seek,
That them hath holpen when that they were sick."

Pilgrim crosses are numerous all over England, where the pilgrims
halted for their devotions by the way, and sometimes we find churches
planted on the roadside far from human habitations, with no
parishioners near them; and some people wonder why they were so built.
These were pilgrim churches, built for the convenience of the
travellers as they wended their way to Canterbury. The villages through
which they passed must have been much enlivened by the presence of
these not very austere companies.

The ordinary lives of the farmers were diversified by the visits
to the weekly markets held in the neighbouring town, where they took
their fat capons, eggs, butter, and cheese. Here is a curious relic
of olden times, an ancient market proclamation, which breathes the
spirit of former days, and which was read a few years ago at
Broughton-in-Furness, by the steward of the lord of the manor, from
the steps of the old market cross. These are the words:--

"O yes, O yes, O yes![10] The lord of the manor of Broughton and of
this fair and market strictly chargeth and commandeth on Her Majesty's
behalf, that all manners of persons repairing to this fair and market
do keep Her Majesty's peace, upon pain of five pounds to be forfeited
to Her Majesty, and their bodies to be imprisoned during the lord's
pleasure. Also that no manner of person within this fair and market do
bear any bill, battle-axe, or other prohibited weapons, but such as be
appointed by the lord's officers to keep this fair or market, upon pain
of fo