Said of country life, past not present (4)
I believe the answer is:
oral
'said' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
I don't understand how the remainder of the clue works.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for oral that I've seen before include "language exam" , "By word of mouth, like some exams" , "Kind of examination" , "Type of exam" , "Relating to speech" .)