This volume of essays in honour of Professor R. H. Hilton is presented by some of his numerous friends and pupils. It attempts to reflect his wide-ranging interests while highlighting certain themes and preserving some distinct degree of unity. The essays illustrate his abiding concern with the social structure, the rural economy and the mentalite of the Middle Ages. They also indicate that his interests have have always been pursued with the use of the widest possible range of sources so that archaeological and literary evidence are employed, as in his own work, alongside the sources more usually familiar to social historians. This book will be of permanent interest to all historians and particularly those specialising in social and economic history.