Lost Country Life: How English country folk lived, worked, threshed, thatched, rolled fleece, milled corn, brewed mead... [Hardcover]

Dorothy Hartley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1979

This beautiful and heartfelt encyclopedia of rural life in the middle ages gets its special charm because the author, as a little girl, knew shepherds and laborers who lived in a way hardly changed through the centuries. She shares that land, now lost forever, where man was the measure of all things.

Using as a framework a 16th-century calendar of advice for farmers, she takes us month by month through the country-dweller's year, and opens up the customs and traditions of a vanished rural life.

"An entrancing world where the farmer's mind and arms and the land beneath his feet gave him all he needed to fashion a full and happy life." (B-O-T Editorial Review Board)

--This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

8 1.5-hour cassettes --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 374 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon Books; 1st edition (1979)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394510364
• ISBN-13: 978-0394510361
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,104,934 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Discovering 'Lost Country Life", April 18, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Lost Country Life (Paperback)

For anyone interested in history, expecially as it pertains to the common man, for anyone who loves anything about England, for anyone who truly loves the land and enjoys discovering new ways to live along with, Dorothy Hartley's _Lost Country Life_ is a found treasure. It serves up the history of English country folk in a pleasant and educational way, laced together with verses by Thomas Tusser, Geoffrey Chaucer, William Morris, and other ancient writers. In particular, Tusser's verses open each chapter with a consideration of each month's duties in the agricultural year. Ms Hartley has chosen to take us through month by month to give us a genuine feel for the concerns of those living a rural life. she supplies wonderful details how things were accomplished back before there were gas engines and hardware stores.

If you enjoyed the American Fox Fire series, if you have ever been tempted to try an antiquated way of doing something just to see what it was like, if you've ever wondered how people went about dyeing their clothing, or how to get from flax to linen, or how they made those dumpy-looking little straw bee hives, this book is for you.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Fascination of Daily Life Before Technology, April 23, 2002

By 

Vicky Gordon (Missoula, MT United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lost Country Life (Paperback)

This wonderfully detailed book of the common man as he lived before the electric light, before factories and before mechanized travel provides fascinating reading for anyone who wants to fully appreciate the past. The author delves deeply into the atmophere and know-how of our ancestors and their existence. To read this book is to travel to a quieter time in which the seasons and the heavens were the parameters of living and in which every commodity was either home- or handmade. Dorothy Hartley unlocks the secrets of building a home, tending the land and soil, raising livestock, making candles, weaving, sewing and tending hearth and home. Absolutely mesmerizing in its scope and detail and evocative of the past we all share and almost remember!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent reference!, September 7, 2004

By 

Deborah MacGillivray "Author," (US & UK) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lost Country Life (Paperback)

This book is absolutely amazing. The other day, I was asking questions about sheep shearing in the Middle Ages, and I was recommended this book. This is simply one of the best references books on how folk lived, worked, did the threshing, thatching, show the sheer were sheared, the wool handled, turned into fabric, dues and used. It's lively written with an eye to the details historical writers and desperately chasing down. It was highly recommended to me, and I pass on that recommendation. You cannot find a better work on life as it used to be. Worth any price!