Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/178

34 fourteen she spoke and wrote Greek with "incredible skill," at fifteen she was beginning Hebrew. But in the humbler classes of life there was little time for women to cultivate themselves in the newly found classics. Even in this rushing age, we read breathlessly of the list of duties which were required of the "well conducted housewife" of these days. She had to spin, from the wool and flax produced on the farm, sufficient cloth and linen for the use of the family; it was her duty to measure out the corn to be ground and send it to the miller; the poultry, pigs, and cows were under her charge, and it fell to her lot to superintend the brewing and baking. The garden was under her, and on it she had to depend for herbs, long since given up, for medicinal use; she had to look after the fruit trees and to see that plenty of wild strawberry roots were transplanted from the woods to be brought under cultivation. For, be it noted, Englishmen had just discovered the excellence of strawberries and cream. Further than this, an old writer tells us it was the wife's duty to make hay, drive the plough, and take to market the produce of dairy and poultry yard, rendering