Page:The child's pictorial history of England; (IA childspictorialh00corn).pdf/107

 who had nothing else for their own wearing, as there were no cottons or stuffs made in England then, nor any of the nice comfortable things that the poor people can get so cheap now.

33. The country towns were at this period inhabited chiefly by free artisans, such as black-*smiths, carpenters, and others, of different trades; but there were still a great many villeins and serfs, on all the cultivated lands, for slavery was never abolished in England by any act of parliament, but gradually died away with the feudal laws.

34. The armies were not raised then as they were at an earlier period, by feudal service, but soldiers were hired and paid by the day; but there was no standing army, as there is at present; for, as soon as the wars were over, the men were all discharged, which was a bad thing, as it often happened they had no homes or employment to return to, and so formed themselves into bands of robbers.

35. However, fighting men had plenty of occupation during the reign of Edward the First, of whose wars in Scotland I am now about to speak.

36. The King of Scotland died about this time, and as he left no son, and his granddaughter and heiress, Margaret, died soon after,