Puir Labourers and Busy Husbandmen: The Countryside of Lowland Scotland in the Middle Ages

The medieval countryside at the beginning of the 12th century was on the threshold of revolution. Feudalism, a new urban life and the spread of Benedictine monasticism were all to transform the way of life of those who lived there. In the process Scotland joined the European mainstream. Great hunting reserves were created, money began to circulate and new styles of village appeared. Dislocated by plague in the 14th century, it was a new life that was to continue to grow and develop to the end of the 16th century. This is the story of that way of life from the-day-to-day activities of farming and husbandry, peat extraction and woodland management, to simple economic activities such as milling, malting and corn-drying, baking and brewing, salt making and lead mining, among many others. It is also the story of great monasteries and hunting drives, of pageantry and color.