This book is subtitled "English Country Customs Through The Ages", which makes it sound rather twee. It isn't. Hartley has written the story of life in England from the Middle Ages on, through the tasks, skills, tribulations and experiences of ordinary rural people. Peas and beans, sheep dogs, beehives, markets and fairs, superstitions and field names are the important things here, not wars and the rumours of wars. After a historical introduction, the main text is arranged around the rural calendar and finishes with a section on "The Commercial World" - Trade, travel, markets and fairs and commodities.