ife. The farmhouses were not
isolated or separated from one another by surrounding fields, as they
are so generally in modern times, but were gathered into villages.
Each village was surrounded by arable lands, meadows, pastures, and
woods which spread away till they reached the confines of the similar
fields of the next adjacent village. Such an agricultural village with
its population and its surrounding lands is usually spoken of as a
"vill." The word "manor" is also applied to it, though this word is
also used in other senses, and has differed in meaning at different
periods. The word "hamlet" means a smaller group of houses separated
from but forming in some respects a part of a vill or manor.

The village consisted of a group of houses ranging in number from ten
or twelve to as many as fifty or perhaps even more, grouped around
what in later times would be called a "village green," or along two or
three intersecting lanes. The houses were small, thatch-roofed, and
one-roomed, and doubtless very miserable. Such buildings as existed
for the protection of cattle or the preservation of crops were closely
connected with the dwelling portions of the houses. In many cases they
were under the same roof. Each vill possessed its church, which was
generally, though by no means always, close to the houses of the
village. There was usually a manor house, which varied in size from
an actual castle to a building of a character scarcely distinguishable
from the primitive houses of the villagers. This might be occupied
regularly or occasionally by the lord of the manor, but might
otherwise be inhabited by the steward or by a tenant, or perhaps only
serve as the gathering place of the manor courts.

Connected with the manor house was an enclosure or courtyard commonly
surrounded by buildings for general farm purposes and for cooking or
brewing. A garden orchard was often attached.

[Illustration: Thirteenth Century Manor House, Millichope, Shropshire.
(Wright, _History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments_.)]

The location of the vill was almost invariably such that a stream with
its border meadows passed through or along its confines, the mill
being often the only building that lay detached from the village
group. A greater or less extent of woodland is also constantly
mentioned.

The vill was thus made up of the group of houses of the villagers
including the parish church and the manor house, all surrounded by a
wide tract of