Seebohm, Frederic: The English Village Community. Although written for another purpose,—to suggest a certain view of the origin of the medieval manor,—the first five chapters of this book furnish the clearest existing descriptive account of the fundamental facts of rural life in the thirteenth century. Its publication marked an era in the recognition of the main features of manorial organization. Green, for instance, the historian of the English people, seems to have had no clear conception of many of those characteristics of ordinary rural life which Mr. Seebohm has made familiar.
Vinogradoff, Paul: Villainage in England.
Pollock, Sir Frederick, and Maitland, F. W.: History of English Law, Vol. 1.
These two works are of especial value for the organization of the manor courts and the legal condition of the population.
Sources
Much that can be explained only with great difficulty becomes clear to the student immediately when he reads the original documents. Concrete illustrations of general statements moreover make the work more interesting and real. It has therefore been found desirable by many teachers to bring their students into contact with at least a few typical illustrative documents. The sources for the subject generally are given in the works named above. An admirable bibliography has been recently published by
Gross, Charles: The Sources and Literature of English History from the Earliest Times to about 1485. References to abundant material for the illustration or further investigation of the subject of this chapter will be found in the following pamphlet:—
Davenport, Frances G.: A Classified List of Printed Original Materials for English Manorial and Agrarian History.
Sources for the mediæval period are almost all in Latin or French. Some of them, however, have been more accessible by being translated into English and reprinted in convenient form. A few of these are given in C. W. Colby: Selections from the Sources of English History, and G. C. Lee: Source Book of English History.
In the Series of Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of European History, published by the Department of History of the University of Pennsylvania, several numbers include documents in this field. Vol. III, No. 5, is devoted entirely to manorial documents.