Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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!

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!

I love this book-one of my very favorites. Beautifully written-nicely illustrated. There are a lot of very wordy books written about this time period, but none of them can come close to really capturing the life of the common man like this book does-outlining how they did what they had to do...work. In any age, it all comes down to 'chopping wood and carrying water'...this book is a lovely addition to any library!

I used this book for a medieval history course at the university of Minnesota and recently rediscovered it in my attic. This book reads a bit like the Old Farmer's Almanac with tips on planting and seasonal work that needed to be performed. Though its scope is medieval, people like my mother and her parents who lived on farms in the early to mid 20th century will still see similarities on how and when work was performed. I'm not saying this is a manual for would-be farmers, but there is a lot of valuable information on running a farmstead that can be found here.