"In the following autumn a reaper was not to be had for a lower wage than eight pence, with his meals, and if a lord wanted to retain him he needed to pay twelve pence or more... Sheep and cattle went wandering over fields and through crops, and there was none to drive them off or collect them, but they perished in out-of-the-way ditches and hedges in great numbers throughout all districts for lack of herders."

Henry Knighton, Chronicle, written c.1390. Knighton was an Augustinian canon at Leicester Abbey writing several decades after the events he describes. He drew on earlier sources as well as living memory.