ed animals were constantly
eaten, vegetables were few, and in the winter there was no fresh meat
for any one, except game and rabbits and, for the well-to-do, fish,
but we may doubt if the peasant got any but salt fish. The consequence
was that leprosy and kindred ailments were common; and we do not
wonder that plagues were frequent and slew the people like flies. The
peasants' food consisted largely of corn. In the bailiff's accounts of
the Manor of Woodstock in 1242, six servants at Handborough received
41-1/2 bushels of corn each, 2 ox herds at Combe received the same, and
4 servants at Bladon had 36 bushels each. In 1274 at Bosham, and in
1288 at Stoughton in Sussex, the allowance was the same.[142] The
writer of the anonymous _Treatise on Husbandry_ says that in his time,
the thirteenth century, the average annual allowance of corn to a
labourer was 36 bushels.[143] Fish, too, seem to have formed a large
portion of his diet; all classes ate enormous quantities of fish,
before the Reformation, in Lent and on fast days, and the labourer was
constantly given salt herrings as part of his pay. In 1359, at
Hawsted, the villeins when working were allowed 2 herrings a day, some
milk, a loaf, and some drink.[144] Eden[145] says his food consisted
of a few fish, principally herrings, a loaf of bread, and some beer;
but we must certainly add pork, which was his stand-by then as
now.[146] In the fourteenth century, at all events, there were three
kinds of bread in use--white bread, ration bread, and black bread; and
it was no doubt the latter that the peasant ate.[147] Clothing was
dear and cloth coarse, the most valuable personal property consisting
of clothing and metal vessels. Shirts were the subject of charitable
gifts.[148] By 37 Edw. III, c. 14, labourers were not to wear any
manner of cloth but 'blanket and russet wool of 12d.' and girdles of
linen. If they wore anything more extravagant it was forfeited to the
king.

To the labourer of modern times the life of his forefathers would have
seemed unutterably dull. No books, no newspapers, no change of scene
by cheap excursions, no village school, no politics. The very
cultivation of the soil by the old three-course system was monotonous.
But there were bright spots in his existence: the village church not
only afforded him the consolations of religion but also entertainments
and society. Religion in the Middle Ages was a part of the people's
daily life, and its influenc