What the Black Death left behind

"After the pestilence," writes another chronicler, "many buildings both great and small in all cities, towns, and boroughs fell into ruins for want of inhabitants, and in the same way many villages and hamlets were depopulated, and there were no houses left in them, all who had lived therein being dead; and it seemed likely that many such hamlets would never again be inhabited. In the following winter there was such a dearth of servants for all sorts of labor as it was believed had never been before. For the sheep and cattle strayed in all directions without herdsmen, and all things were left with none to care for them."

(from A History of England and the British Empire)