ENGLISHWAYFARING LIFE in the MIDDLE AGES(XIVth Century)
by J. J. JUSSERAND
WAYFARING LIFE
IN THE MIDDLE AGES
(XIVth CENTURY)
J. J. JUSSERAND
LUCY TOULMIN SMITH
We know Egypt, thanks to her tombs, andwe know Rome, thanks to Pompeii, in these modern days, better thanwe know the Middle Ages of Europe and the life of an ordinary manduring that period. We cannot hope to find in any corner of France orEngland a Pompeii, catacombs, or pyramids. In our countries the humantorrent has never ceased flowing; rapid and tumultuous in its course,it has at no time ensured the preservation of the past by deposits ofquiet ooze.
Yet, this common life of our ancestors, is it indiscernible,impossible to reconstruct? is that of kings and princes aloneaccessible to our view through the remoteness of ages, like thosehuge monuments which men see from afar when they cannotdistinguish the houses in a distant city? Surely not. But toreach the heart of the nation, to get into touch with the greaternumber, a patient and extended inquiry is necessary. To makethis usefully, one must break more or less completely with theold habit of taking the ideas of every-day life in the MiddleAges only from the description