domestic habits and manners that we would bring before the reader, after they had become converts to Christianity.

The simplest, and therefore the clearest mode of exhibiting Anglo-Saxon society, will be by showing the individual as he appeared in the first stage of existence, and following him onwards until he forms one of the aggregate.

According to the religious ceremonial of the early ages, the Anglo-Saxon children were baptized by immersion within thirty days after their birth. The relation of god-father to the infant, which kings often took upon themselves, was one of peculiar sanctity, and held by their laws in such veneration that an especial punishment was inflicted upon him who slew the god-child or god-father of another. With the end of the seventh year terminated the period of infancy, that of childhood beginning with the eighth. Leaping, running, wrestling, and a variety of athletic games, more or less analogous to the sports of boys in our own days, were the amusement, and it may almost be said, the occupation, of this period, for reading and writing were by no means usual accomplishments even among the highest classes.

The time between childhood and manhood was distinguished by the term cnighthood, that is knighthood, a compound word strongly expressive of the subjection in which the Anglo-Saxon youth were kept by their parents, for cnight was also used to designate a servant, and indeed we have examples of the son ministering to his father's guests, and even to their servants. At this age one of their chief amusements would seem to have been horse-racing, not as a matter of gambling, but as a trial of their own skill and the swiftness of their horses.

At the age of thirteen the youths of the better sort would begin to prepare themselves for arms, but manhood could hardly be said to commence until the age of fifteen. Up to that time the father might, and often did, under the pressure of necessity, sell his son to a state of servitude ; subsequent to it, the youth, if he chose it, could become a monk; and at the same age the daughter, who had hitherto been at her father's disposal, could no

Essays

longer be married against her inclination. Such at least are the limits we find prescribed to paternal authority in 668 by Theodore, the second archbishop of Canterbury, although these customs no doubt underwent many variations, of which we are unable to fix precisely either the commencement or the end, the habits of one age mingling too closely with those of another for any exact boundary lines to be established. If the father died before his children had arrived at maturity, the care of them was entrusted to the mother, who for their maintenance was allowed six shillings, besides a cow in summer and an ox in winter. The relations however occupied the seat of honour in the house until the eldest boy became of age, when he assumed his father's station on the frum-stol, or head-seat, as being the natural head of the family.

The rude education thus briefly sketched, and which included not the slightest knowledge of writing or reading, was the general lot even amongst the highest classes. Few of the Anglo-Saxon chiefs at this early period had the slightest wish to learn themselves, or to have their children educated. Those, who had the sense to march in advance of the age in which they lived, and “would not be like the stupid animals who knew nothing but their grass and water,” sent their sons to the monasteries, the clergy being the only part of the community capable of giving instruction; and even amongst them were many that could not read. The youth entrusted to their care naturally led a very different life from those of the same age under the circumstances already noticed. Their most important avocations were study and joining in the performance of the church duties, every thing else being subordinate to these primary considerations. Yet it does not seem likely that even in the cloister all attention to the habits implied in the future destination of the pupil would be neglected. We can hardly imagine that a youth, who from the first was intended to bear a prominent part in the field as well as in the council, should have been brought up by the sagacious monks in total ignorance of those arts which were indispensable to his station. How could we reconcile such a system with what we are told of Wilfred, a bishop who flourished in the eighth century ?–“ Princes and noblemen,” says the biographer, “sent their children to him to be brought up that they might be dedicated to God if they should choose it ; or that, when full grown, he might present them in armour to the king if they preferred it.”

CALI

The studies pursued in the cloister, and at a later period in the schools, could not have been of a very extensive nature. Eloquence was particularly enjoined the high-born youths that they might become a safeguard and defender of those whom they valued. The classics also formed a part of the monastic system of education, and indeed the most valuable, however limited in these matters might be the taste and knowledge of the pious brethren. The pupils rose at the sound of the morning-bell, or, as it is termed by the Saxon writers, the knell. In case they over-slept themselves, the master was at hand to rouse them up with the rod, the discipline of the monks being strict, if not absolutely stern. Upon more than one occasion Alcuin commends the brethren for the free use of the scourge, terming it “ the discipline of paternal castigation,” by which, as he declares, he himself had greatly profited, having been brought by it to the perfect age of manhood.

It is now time to quit the Saxon as a youth, whether brought up at home, in a school, or in a monastery, and to consider the general habits of the people.

In respect to food the Anglo-Saxons at all times more regarded quantity than quality, as being rather gluttons than epicures. The chief article at their tables was pork, which was abundantly supplied, and at little cost or trouble, the immense forests of oak and beechwood, that covered the island, affording food and shelter to their numerous herds of swine. So valuable indeed were these animals considered that to give or bequeath a hundred head of them was esteemed a valuable donation : they had also, in more or less abundance, sheep, goats, cows, deer, hares, and fowls. Towards the end of Autumn they killed and salted large quantities of cattle for winter consumption, and it seems not unlikely that salted meat in a great measure formed their subsistence until the return of spring, so far at least as the individual was rich enough to afford the use of meat at all. At one time they did not disdain to eat horse flesh; but this custom passed away with other barbarities; nor could flesh of any kind have been a very general diet except at an early period when population was scanty, and both game and cattle in proportion abundant. As the people encreased in numbers and agriculture became more extensive, a meat diet must in a great measure have been confined to the richer classes; indeed it seems reasonable to believe that the improved cultivation of the soil, as it supplied augmented means of subsistence, was itself one great cause of the encrease in the population, while at the same time it diminished the quantity of pasture-lands and forests. In the same way we find that a much greater extent of territory is requisite to support the wild Indian, who depends upon the chace for his food, than the cultivator of the land who makes up for other deficiencies by the use of grain and vegetables. Civilization, which never is found where the population is far below the extent of country, must have stopt at an early period but for this vital change in the habits of the Anglo-Saxons.

It would not appear that many kinds of fish were in use as an article of diet until the beginning of the eighth century, when bishop Wilfrid rescued the people of Sussex from famine by teaching them the art of fishery upon a more extended scale than they had hitherto employed. Before that time eels had been the principal sustenance that they derived from the waters, and these long continued, like pork, to be a very general article of consumption. Under the bishop's instruction they now added to their catalogue of eatables, herrings, salmons, porpoises, sturgeons, oysters, crabs, muscles, cockles, winkles, haddocks, plaice, flounders, lobsters, eel-pouts, skate, and lampreys. The superior skill of Wilfred in gastronomy is abundantly accounted for by the fact of his having at one time travelled over the continent to Rome.

Wheat, as being more expensive than barley, was confined in a great measure to the rich, while the latter was the general food of the poorer classes. The corn was threshed with flails, not unlike our own in the present day. For the subsequent grinding of it they at first used handmills of a very simple mechanism, but after a time, as we learn from many extant deeds of conveyance, they employed both water-mills and wind-mills. The bread made of the flour thus prepared was frequently eaten hot, and in that state seems to have been a popular article of food.

Honey and milk were both in high request, more particularly the former. We read too that lac acidum,—which can hardly be interpreted otherwise than as meaning whey,—was served up certain monastery from Hokeday to Michaelmas, and lac dulce from Michaelmas to Martinmas. The use of whey was in all

probability general, though we do not meet with any other records of it, the diet being natural and requiring little art in the preparation. To this part of the Anglo-Saxon fare we may add butter, cheese, and eggs.

Pot-herbs, beans, onions, and lentils, would seem to have been their most important vegetables, the list indeed of which was very limited. To make amends, the orchard was cultivated with much care, and produced figs, nuts, grapes, almonds, pears, and apples.

The cookery of the Saxons comprehended the three processes of boiling, broiling, and baking; yet in other respects it possessed few of those complications and niceties, which characterized the kitchen of the Normans. Roasting does not appear to have been used at an early period,—even a goose was boiled. Indeed there is some reason for suspecting that they still retained a slight hankering after the raw flesh of the uncivilized northmen, for unless this had been the case, it would be difficult to understand why the clergy should deem it necessary to make regulations against the eating of half-dressed food. If any one ate it knowingly, he was condemned to a fast of four days; and if ignorantly,

; to one of three days.

In the cloisters the office of a cook was, as a natural result of the other monastic rules, assigned to men, and from the mention made of it in the laws, was evidently considered of importance. Amongst the laity the cook was for the most part, but not always a female.

If the food of the Anglo-Saxons was coarse, and the preparation of it simple, this certainly did not arise from any cynical contempt for the enjoyments of the table. Four meals a day show that they held the pleasures of eating in at least sufficient regard; and they drank the various liquors, which the knowledge of the day supplied, in equal proportion. Their favourite drinks were ale, and mead, wine being used occasionally as a peculiar luxury by the richer sort. The wine was sometimes taken warm; so too was the ale. The latter was of three kinds ;-Welsh ale; Lithes, or mild ale; and clear ale. Pigment also was much in use with these staunch wassailers. This was a sweet and fragrant composition, made of wine, honey, and various kinds of spices. Morat, another popular drink, was compounded of mulberry-juice