Parliament. They used to be present at all the feasts. They had property of their own, and could sell it or make wills to dispose of it as they liked; and many laws were made to protect them in all ways. Thus we see the "spindle-half" were well cared for. 23. We will next inquire a little about the way our fathers lived, about their food and drink, their dress, how they amused themselves, and what sort of houses they inhabited. Food and drink. It was The rich people fared very well, and ate many of the same sort of things that we do. They had wheaten bread, but the poor only got barley bread, because it was cheaper. They had plenty of meat and game; beef, mutton, fowls, venison, and hares; but they had also what we do not eat now, goats, and at one time horses. for a curious reason that the eating of horses was given up. It seems that the Church forbade it because in heathen times it used to be done in honour of Woden. The clergy were not above looking after the food and manners of the people. They made them do penance if they ate anything only half-cooked, or anything dirty. More pork or bacon, however, was eaten than anything else. The country was still in great part covered with woods and forests, and it was therefore very cheap and easy to fatten pigs as they like acorns and beech-nuts. The word "bacon" is perhaps derived from "beechen." They ate fish, especially eels; also salmon, herrings, lobsters, oysters, &c., and porpoises, which we should not wish for now. They had plenty of vegetables and fruit; but some things which we have in very common use they had either very little of or not at all. They had cabbages, but no potatoes, nor rice, and very little sugar. Instead of sugar they used a great deal of honey, for they kept many more bee-hives than we do. They thought a good deal of spices, but of course in those days things which had to be brought from abroad, as sugar and spice, were very rare. There were but few ships, and those very small compared with what we have now. It was considered quite a handsome present to send some pepper and cinnamon to a lady. 24. The English still liked that "kind of drink made from barley" which Tacitus mentions. They had their strong ale and their mild ale, and this seems to have been the principal drink of those who could afford it. If the poor people could not get ale they had to drink water, or perhaps buttermilk. Wine, like sugar and spice, was a sort of luxury. Though they did grow grapes and make wine in England at this time, we may take it for granted that the grapes would not ripen very well, and they probably got very little and very sour wine from them, while the wine they imported from foreign parts would be expensive. Some of our favourite and most common drinks,-tea, coffee, and cocoa, they had never even heard of. They drank, however, some things which we but seldom see now, mead and other beverages, made from honey. 25. Unhappily, they were still, like the old Germans of Tacitus, too fond of drinking; and though the clergy made a great many laws against drunkenness, they were Banquets. not much attended to. If a king or a great man made a feast, they would dine very early, and continue drinking all day long until the evening. 26. But they had a liking for something better too, for it was a common thing at a festival to have music and singing. In those days, when so few people could read, and there were so few books to be read, it was a great delight to the people to hear stories and histories in verse; and a man who could play on the harp and sing ballads was very welcome, wherever he went. He was called a glee-man. Amusements. They had also some other amusements which we cannot call very intellectual. They had tumblers and dancing bears, and they had jugglers, of whom some amusing old pictures remain there is one of a man throwing three knives and three balls alternately into the air and catching them. Then, as was mentioned before, they liked hunting, hawking, wrestling, and such like "athletic sports." 27. They were fond of handsome clothes. Both gentlemen and ladies wore ornaments, such as necklaces, bracelets, and rings of gold. They liked dresses of different colours, Dress. and with ornamented borders and stripes. Most of this we learn from the pictures with which they ornamented their books, and which are still in existence. When they made a picture of anything, for example, out of the Bible, they never thought of painting it as it really happened, or tried to find out what dresses the Jews wore, as we should do; but they painted them just like the men and women about them. So they painted King David and the other psalmists as a frontispiece to the Book of Psalms; and they made David sitting on his throne and playing on a harp, and the other four around him: one playing a violin, one blowing a horn, another a trumpet, and the last tossing up the knives and balls. This one was Ethan, who is said to have written the grand eighty-ninth Psalm. And when they painted the four evangelists they dressed them in what people were then accustomed to wear. St. Matthew was represented in a purple undergown with long sleeves and a yellow border, and a green upper robe, striped with red. He sits on a stool with a brown cushion, but no back. Trades. 28. To make all these things they must have had people who could weave, spin, dye, and embroider. The ladies, even the princesses, spent the greater part of their time in such employments. There are descriptions of very beautiful embroidered robes, with figures of peacocks and other ornaments. One lady, who must have been a very good wife, had a curtain woven or embroidered with pictures of all the actions of her husband. They had also goldsmiths and jewellers to make the rings, bracelets, and other ornaments of which they were so fond. The clergy of those days used to complain of fine dressing and luxurious ornaments, just as they do now, and as Isaiah did before them. 29. With respect to their buildings, it seems their houses were rather plain and inconvenient, and mostly built of wood; but their churches and monasteries were expensive and handsome. Some few of them remain to the present Buildings. time. They were strong and heavy, with very thick pillars and round arches, for pointed arches had not yet been invented. The churches built in Italy at the same period all had round arches. Many of them are still to be seen, for in that climate buildings stand much longer than they do in England; but though they are of the same style of architecture, we cannot but own that they are far more beautiful and interesting than any of those of the same age in England. Rich Furniture. 30. Though the outside of the houses was not handsome, they took a good deal of pains with making them nice inside. people had beautiful hangings on the walls, made of silk, and sometimes decorated with golden birds, or with pictures in needle-work. It seems, however, that these splendid hangings were only put up on grand occasions, and in a common way they had all those windy draughts through the crevices of the walls which obliged Alfred to invent his lanterns. 31. Their furniture, where people were rich, seems to have been very handsome. They had fine stools and benches, but very seldom any chairs with backs to them. Perhaps their athletic sports made them stronger than we are. Their tables were ornamented with gold and silver, and they had dishes and cups of gold, though the commonest sort of drinking-cups were horns, for glass was still very scarce. They had not yet learnt to use forks. 32. Though we still call our days of the week by the same names our forefathers did, we have left off their names for the months, and taken up with Latin ones instead. The following is a list of the old names said to have been given to the months by the Anglo-Saxons, and if it is a correct one it gives us many picturesque little hints of the state of the country and ways of the people at that time : JANUARY. Wolf-month;," because people are wont always in that month to be in more danger to be devoured of wolves than in any season else of the year; for that through the extremity of cold and snow these ravenous beasts could not find sufficient to feed on." FEBRUARY. Sprout-kail (or cabbage). MARCH. Lent-month. "Lent" or "lenz," an old German word for spring, and which we give to the forty days of fasting, because they fall in the spring. MAY. Tri-milki; because in that month they began to milk their cows three times a day. JUNE. Weid-month or Pasture-month. JULY. Hay-month. AUGUST. Barn-month; because they filled their barns with corn. SEPTEMBER. Barley-month; either barley-harvest or brewing month. OCTOBER. Wine-month; when they still attempted to make wine. NOVEMBER. Windy-month. DECEMBER. Winter-month, or Holy-month, in honour of Christ mas. LECTURE XI.-DUNSTAN. The kings after Ethelstane. Edgar the Peaceable. The wolf-tribute. The vassal-kings. St. Dunstan. The religion of the period. Superstitions-witches-the ordeal. 940. Edmund. 1. AFTER the death of Ethelstane, his two younger brothers, Edmund the Magnificent (or the doer of great deeds) and Edred the Excellent, were kings in turn. Judging by their surnames, there seems some reason for thinking that Alfred's grandsons were worthy of him; but they, and most of the other kings of their line, had very short lives, and all through their reigns we find the principal interest centres in one man, a priest named Dunstan. Unlike the kings, Dunstan had a long life, and we read of him in six reigns in succession. 2. It is very difficult to form a just opinion about Dunstan, because different writers give such very different accounts of him. One writes of him thus: "See how he hath been honoured, whom God thought worthy of honour! See in what manner he hath entered into the joy of his Lord, who was found faithful over the talents committed to his charge." Another (our old friend Fuller), after mentioning that Dunstan caused some one to do penance for seven years, goes on: "All that I will add is this; if Dunstan did septenary penance for every mortal sin he committed, he must have been a Methuselah, extremely aged, before the day of his death." A modern writer calls him "the villain Dunstan," and says he was "an imperious, audacious, ill-conditioned priest." 3. Now what shall we judge about this man? We shall perhaps agree that it is rather like the story of the gold and silver shield that he was neither all good nor all bad; it depends upon what point of view we look at him from. It is very unfair, though it seems a great temptation, and is very common, to judge of a man's character according as he agrees or does not agree with our opinions. If he believes exactly what we believe, we are inclined to think he is a good man; though his actions may not be good at all. But if he believes something different from |