SAXON BONDMAN.

for that purpose. When these ceremonies were finished, the whole company returned in procession to the bridegroom's house, and sat down to the nuptial feast, which was as sumptuous and abundant as the entertainer could afford.

The wedding-dresses of the bride and three of her maidens, and of the bridegroom and three of his attendants, were of a peculiar colour and fashion, and could not be used on any other occasion. These dresses were, anciently, the perquisites of the minstrels or musicians who had attended the wedding, but afterwards, when the minstrels fell into disgrace, they were commonly given to some church or monastery. The feastings and rejoicings continued several days after marriage, and seldom ended till all the provisions were consumed. To indemnify the husband, in some degree, for all these expenses, the relations of both parties made him some present or other at their departure.

Persons of rank and wealth, of both sexes, among the Danes and AngloSaxons, seem to have been very fond of ornaments of gold, especially chains and bracelets. Gold chains were worn by

all officers of distinction, both civil and military, as badges of their offices, and these chains were given them by their sovereigns, who, on this account, were sometimes called the givers of gold chains, in the poems of those times. The Danes, in particular, were so great admirers of these ornaments that they esteemed no oaths so sacred as those that were sworn on bracelets of gold. The English were admired, says a contemporary writer, for the richness and elegance of their dress. "The French and Norman nobility admired the fine persons, the flowing hair, and the beautiful dresses of the English nobles. For the English women excel all others in needlework and embroidering with gold; and their male artists are also excellent."

One of the many changes introduced into England by the Normans was a new method of education; for the Conqueror, having formed the design of extirpating the English language, and making the French the vulgar tongue of all his subjects, commanded that the English children

should be taught at school the first rudiments of grammar in French, and not in English. This mode of education, introduced by the Normans with a design to establish their own language on the ruins of the Anglo-Saxon, continued for more than three centuries after the Conquest. Thus the long struggle between the French and English languages, after it had continued for three hundred years, drew, at length, to a conclusion, and victory began to declare in favour of the English.

The spirit of chivalry, which began to display itself about the beginning of this period, and was introduced into this country by the Normans, gave a new turn to the education of the young nobility and gentry, in order to fit them to obtain the honour of knighthood-which was then an object of ambition to the greatest princes. On their first entrance into this school of chivalry, they acted in the capacity of pages or valets. After they had spent a competent time in the station of pages, they were

advanced to the most honourable rank of esquires; then they were admitted into more familiar intercourse with the knights and ladies of the court; and perfected in dancing, riding, hawking, hunting, tilting, and other accomplishments necessary to fit them for performing the offices and make them worthy of the honours of knighthood, to which they aspired.

It was in these schools of chivalrythe courts of kings, princes, and great barons-that the youth of this period imbibed that spirit of romantic gallantry and devotion towards the ladies which was esteemed the most necessary qualification of a true and gentle knight. These courts were the schools in which the ladies as well as the gentlemen received their education. Both were often the wards of the prince or great baron; and while those of the one sex were educated with his son, under his own eye, those of the other were educated with his daughters, under the inspection of his lady.

The use of family surnames descending from father to son seems to have been introduced into Britain by the Normans, at the beginning of this period; for, among the Anglo-Saxons, persons who bore the same christian name were distinguished from one another by descriptive epithets, such as black, white, long, short, strong, &c.; which titles, of course, could not descend from father to son. Family surnames, at their first introduction, like family arms, were confined to persons of rank and fortune, who most commonly took their surnames from the castles in which they resided or the estates which they possessed. This is the true reason of the surnames of so many of the noble families in England being the same with the names of certain towns, castles, and estates in Normandy, France, and Flanders.

The Anglo-Saxon warriors adorned their shields and banners with the figures of certain animals or other devices; but, in doing this, every particular person followed his own fancy, without any regard to the figures or devices that had been borne by his ancestors. But, about the time of the first Crusade, greater attention began to be paid to these devices, when it was discovered that they might be useful as well as ornamental; and it was, naturally enough, accounted most honourable to carry those arms which had been displayed in the Holy Land. It was only, however, and by slow degrees, during the course of almost two centuries, that this custom became constant and universal, even in noble families.

The Normans, who settled in England after the Conquest, introduced a more magnificent and splendid manner of living than had been known among the Anglo-Saxons. This we learn from a writer who flourished soon after the Conquest, and had the best opportunities of being well-informed; who tells us that the English nobles were universally addicted to excessive drinking, and spent their ample revenues in a sordid manner, in mean and low houses; but that the Norman barons dwelt in stately and magnificent palaces, kept elegant tables, and were very splendid in their dress and equipage.

William Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, had no fewer than 1,000, some contemporary writers say 1,500, horsemen in his retinue; and, to furnish his table, all the different kinds of beasts that roam on the land, of fishes that swim in the waters, and of birds that fly in the air, were collected. The Norman kings and nobles displayed their taste for magnificence in the most remarkable manner, at their coronations, their royal feasts of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide, and at their tournaments, which were all celebrated with incredible expense and pomp. One thing that contributed very much to swell the retinues of the Norman kings, prelates, and nobles, was the necessity they were under of carrying with them, not only their provisions, but even a great part of the furniture of their houses, on their journeys.

With regard to the position of the people, "The changes in the ranks and degrees of men in society, that were introduced into England at the Norman Conquest, seem to have been rather nominal than real. Those who occupied the lowest rank still continued in a state of slavery, and we have a good reason to believe that their numbers were rather increased than diminished by that event. None of the Anglo-Saxon serfs, who were annexed to the lands which they cultivated, and had been usually transferred with them from one proprietor to another, could entertain the least hopes of obtaining freedom, or even a mitigation of their servitude, when these lands were bestowed on the enemies and conquerors of their nation. On the

contrary, many of the English, who had formerly been free, having been taken prisoners at the battle of Hastings, or some of the subsequent revolts, were reduced to slavery, and thought themselves very happy if they preserved their lives, though they lost their freedom. The Norman conquerors, for some time, treated their English slaves with so much severity that a contemporary writer declines giving any description of it, because its inhuman cruelty would appear incredible to posterity.'"

That part of the Conqueror's policy most keenly affecting women, was his decision that the king's female wards could not marry any person, however agreeable to themselves and their relations, without the consent of their royal guardian; that they might not have it in their power to bestow an estate that had been derived from the crown on one who was disagreeable to the sovereign. This was a cruel and ignominious servitude, by which heiresses, of the greatest families and most opulent fortunes, were exposed to sale, or obliged to purchase the liberty of disposing of themselves in marriage by great sums of money-either from the king or from some greedy courtier, to whom he had granted or sold their marriage. No less a sum than 10,000 marks, equal to 100,000l. of our present money, was paid to William for the wardship and marriage of one single heiress; and this cruel servitude was afterwards extended to male heirs.

Trials by ordeal, both by fire and water, had been used in Normandy, as well as Britain, before the Conquest, and were, therefore, continued in England after that event; but the judicial duel, in which an appeal was made to the judgment of God for the discovery of the truth or falsehood of any accusation, was first introduced into this country by the Normans. They also, it is supposed, introduced the trial of criminal and civil causes by a jury of twelve men, which makes so distinguished a figure in English jurisprudence; but this was far from being introduced at once by any positive statute, as it came into use by slow degrees, and was far from being common in the former part of this period. But in the reign of Henry II., after a law was made allowing the defendant in a criminal or civil process to defend his innocence either by battle or by a jury of twelve men-called the grand assize-this last method, as being the most rational, became more and more frequent, till, at length, it obtained a complete victory over the judicial combat and every other combat.

In the midst of all the magnificence in which the Norman kings and nobles lived, there were some things in their domestic economy which to us appear exceedingly mean and wretched. For instance, several estates in England were held by the tenure of finding clean straw for the king's bed, and litter for his chamber, as often as he lodged at a certain place. Fitz-Stephen, in his life of Thomas A'Becket, mentions this as a proof of his elegant manner of living, "That he commanded his servants to cover the floor of his dining-room with clean straw or hay every morning in winter, and with clean bulrushes and green branches of trees every day in summer, that such of the knights who came to dine with him as could not find room on the benches, might sit down and dine comfortably on the floor without spoiling their fine clothes."

The custom of covering up their fires about sunset in summer, and about eight or nine at night in winter, at the ringing of a bell called the couvre-feu, or curfewbell, is supposed by some to have been introduced by William I., and to have been imposed upon the English as a badge of servitude; but some historians have

imagined that it was intended as a precaution against fires, which were then very frequent and very fatal, when so many houses were built of wood. However this may be, Henry I. restored the use of lamps and candles at Court in the night, after the ringing of the couvre-feu bell.

To the disgrace of our countrymen of this period, we are bound to acknowledge that they were addicted to excessive eating and drinking, often spending both day and night, without intermission, in such practices. The Normans were very unlike them in this respect, being delicate in the choice of their meats and drinks, and but seldom exceeding the bounds of temperance. By this means the Normans lived with greater elegance and at less expense than the English. The custom, however, of drinking to pegs, which had been introduced by a law of Edgar the Peaceable, still continued in this period ; for, by a canon of the Council of Westminster, held A.D. 1102, the clergy are prohibited to frequent ale-houses or to drink to pegs. It appears also that, before the conclusion of this period, many

DREAM OF HENRY I.

of the Normans had adopted the manners of the English, and departed from the sobriety of their ancestors. "When you behold," says Peter of Blois, "our barons and knights going upon a military expedition, you see their baggage-horses loaded, not with iron, but wine; not with lances, but cheeses; not with swords, but bottles; not with spears, but spits. You would imagine they were going to prepare a great feast rather than to make war. There are even too many who boast of their excessive drunkenness and gluttony, and labour to acquire fame by swallowing great quantities of meat and drink."

The point of honour was very much respected by the Normans in this period, and they paid much regard to their plighted faith, especially to the ladies. A most remarkable instance of this occurs in the history of Stephen. The Empress Maude (by the bye, it was this Empress who built the first stone bridge in this country), from whom Stephen had usurped the crown of England, was besieged by him in Arundel Castle, the residence of the Queen Dowager, A.D. 1139, and might easily have been taken prisoner. But Stephen was prevailed upon to respect the ties of blood and the honour due to ladies of so high a rank. He did not push the siege, but promised the Empress that he would cause her to be conducted in safety to the Castle of Bristol, the residence of her natural brother and most powerful partizan. Though the Empress knew that Stephen had violated the most solemn oaths, she relied upon his word of honour and put herself under his protection.

The Normans appear to have been a witty, cheerful people, and no qualities were more admired amongst them than those of wit and humour; indeed, John of Salisbury censures with great severity the excessive fondness of his countrymen for professed wits and jesters, and reproaches them for spending too much time and taking too much delight in their company.

There was hardly any vice against which the clergy of this period declaimed with greater vehemence than the long, curled hair of the laity, especially of the