Note 358 — Chapter III · OUTLAWS, WANDERING WORKMEN, AND PEASANTS OUT OF BOND

This was a last resort, more and more frequently adopted however, especially after the plague. As Mr. Oman has justly observed, by natural disposition the villeins “were reluctant to abscond and throw up their share of the manorial acres, for only in extremity will the peasant, who has once got a grip on the soil, consent to let it go.” “The Great Revolt of 1381,” Oxford 1906, p. 9.