This book has become far longer than I had intended; we have travelled north and south and east and west, up-hill and down-dale, in pursuit of a trail that is perhaps clearer to myself than it can be to my readers. My aim has been to emphasize those features of medieval village life which have disappeared, or to a great extent disappeared, from modern society. More than once, however, it has been necessary to recall the essential unity underlying all human life, and the danger of separating these men's experiences too sharply from our own. But there remain certain elements that are really characteristic of medieval society; elements which, in varying degrees and combinations, are common to all civilized Europe during all the centuries with which this book deals. If, in tracing these elements, I pass from age to age and from land to land in apparent caprice, this is not because I am not following certain fairly definite clues in my own mind. But it would be wearisome to pause and justify these transitions at every turn; and the reader will probably prefer to do a good deal of the thinking for himself. For, while making no secret of my own personal conclusions, I do attempt to give such clear indications of time, place and character, in the case of all my principal witnesses, as may enable others to check my results.