The Grass Doctor

How did people mow their lawns before lawnmowers were invented?

Just something that popped into my head. I'm sure that their were lawns and gardens back as far as medieval times. So throughout history, how did people mow their lawns?

Public Comments

1. I bet they just cut them like the same way we cut hedges and stuff like that. It was a lot harder though!!
2. The whole concept of a "lawn" being an expanse of land whose only purpose was to look pretty, is actually fairly new in general. While lawns certainly existed in the middle ages, usually they were pastures, and were "mowed" by the expedient of having sheep or goats grazing on them. Sufficiently wealthy people probably simply hired or ordered their labourors to go to it with scythes and shears.
3. put the horses on the lawn, not many lawns back then anyway. Goats, cows graze it down.
4. You had a scythe(sithe). It had a long handle like an axe,but the bottom part was a curved blade. Look at a picture of Death and you'll see He's holding one.
5. Yes, lawns were only for the rich in vast manors. Basically, cows and sheep and maybe goats grazed on the grasses. You can see this in pictures painted during the 1700-1800s especially.