They seem to have had places like taverns, or alehouses, where liquors were sold; for a priest was forbidden by a law to eat or drink at ceapealethelum, literally, places where ale was sold.* Ethelwold allowed his monastery a great bowl, from which the obbæ of the monks were filled twice a day for their dinner and supper. On their festivals he allowed them at dinner a sextarium of mead between six, and the same quantity at supper between twelve of the brothers. On certain of the great high feasts of the year, he gave them a measure of wine.' They boiled, baked, and broiled their victuals. We read of their meat dressed in a boiling vessel," of their fish having been broiled," and of an oven heated for baking loaves. The term abacan is also applied to meat. In the rule of St. Benedict, two sanda, or dishes of sodden syflian, or soup bouilli, are mentioned.P Bede mentions a goose that hung on the wall taken down to be boiled. The word seathan, to boil, deserves notice, because the noun, seath, from which it is derivable, implies a pit. As we read in the South Sea islands of the natives dressing their victuals in little pits lined with stones, the expression may have been originally derived from a similar practice. A cook appears as an appendix to every monastery, and it was a character important enough to be inserted in the laws. In the cloisters it was a male office; elsewhere it was chiefly assumed by the female sex. In the dialogue already cited, the cook says, "If you expel me from your society, you would eat your herbs green, and your flesh He is answered. "We can ourselves seethe what is to be seethed, and broil what things are to be broiled."r raw." They seem to have attended to cookery, not merely as a matter of taste, but of indispensable decorum. It was one of their regulations, that if a person ate any thing half dressed, ignorantly, he should fast three days; if knowingly, four days. Perhaps, as the uncivilized Northmen were, in their pagan state, addicted to eat raw flesh, the clergy of the Anglo-Saxons were anxious to keep their improved countrymen from relapsing into such barbar ous customs.$ In the drawings which accompany some Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, we have some delineation of their customs at table. In * Wilk. Leg. Sax. 180. So Egbert exhorts. Spel. Conc. 260. Dugd. Mon. 104. m Bede, p. 255. • Spelm. Concil. 287. The same principle perhaps led them to add these regulations: "For eating or drinking what a cat or dog has spoiled, he shall sing an hun. dred psalms, or fast a day. For giving another any liquor in which a mouse or a weasel shall be found dead, a layman shall do penance for four days; a monk shall sing three hundred psalms." Spelm. Concil. p. 287. The industrious and useful Strutt has copied these drawings in the first volume of his Horda Angelcynnan. Nothing can more satisfactorily illustrate the manners of our ancestors, than such publications of their ornamental drawings; for, as Strutt one drawing, a party is at table, seated, with the females by the side of the men, in this order: a man, a lady; a man, a lady; two men, and another lady. The two first are looking towards each other, as if talking together; the three in the middle are engaged with each other, and so are the two last; each have a cup or horn in their hand. The table is oblong, and covered with a table-cloth that hangs low down from the table; a knife, a horn, a bowl, a dish, and some loaves appear. The men are uncovered; the women have their usual head-dress." In another drawing, the table is a sharp oval, also covered with an ample cloth; upon it, besides a knife and a spoon, there are a bowl, with a fish, some loaves of bread, and two other dishes. Some part of the costume is more like the manners of Homer's heroes than of modern times. At the angles of the tables two attendants are upon their knees, with a dish in one hand, and each holding up a spit with the other, from which the persons feasting are about to cut something. One of these persons, to whom the servants minister with so much respect, is holding a whole fish with one hand, and a knife in the other." In the drawing which accompanies Lot feasting the angels, the table is oblong, rounded at the ends, and covered with a cloth. Upon it is a bowl, with an animal's head like a pig's; another bowl is full of some round things like apples. These, with loaves or cakes of bread, seem to constitute the repast. There are two horns upon the table, and one of the angels has a knife." As no forks appear in any of the plates, and are not mentioned elsewhere, we may presume that our ancestors used their hands instead. There is one drawing of men killing and dressing meat. One man is holding a sheep by his horns, while a lad strikes at its neck with an axe; behind him is a young man severing an animal's head from its body with an axe. Another has put a long stick, with a hook attached to it, into a caldron, as if to pull up meat. The caldron is upon a trivet of four legs, as high as the servant's knee, within which the fire is made, and blazing up to the caldron. truly observes in his preface, "though these pictures do not bear the least resem blance of the things they were originally intended to represent, yet they nevertheless are the undoubted characteristics of the customs of that period in which each illuminator or designer lived." This is in Strutt's work, plate xvi. fig. 2, and is taken from the Cotton MS. Claud. B. 4. The MS. consists of excerpta from the Pentateuch and the book of Joshua, which are adorned with historical figures, some of which are those above alluded to. See Strutt, plate xvi. fig. 1. Strutt, plate xvi. fig. 3, and Claud. B. 4. Forks are supposed to have been introduced into England, from Italy, by Tom Coriate, in James the First's time; yet, I think, I have seen them mentioned as in use before his time. * Strutt, plate xvii. fig. 2, and from Claud. B. 4. The tapestry of Baycux is as useful in showing the cookery and feasting of the Normans. CHAPTER V. Their Dress. THE Anglo-Saxons had become so much acquainted with the conveniences of civilized life, as to have both variety and vanity of dress. Some change took place in their apparel after their conversion to Christianity, which rendered their former customs disreputable; for, at a council held in 785, it is said, “You put on your garments in the manner of the pagans, whom your fathers expelled from the world; an astonishing thing, that imitate those whose life you always hated!"* you It is difficult, at this distance of time, to apprehend with precision the meaning of the terms of their dress which time has permitted to reach us, and to state them with that order and illustration which will enable the reader to conceive justly of their costume. The imperfections of our attempt must be excused by its difficulty. We will begin with what we have been able to collect of an Anglo-Saxon lady's dress. The wife, described by Aldhelm, has necklaces and bracelets, and also rings with gems on her fingers. Her hair was dressed artificially; he mentions the twisted hairs delicately curled with the iron of those adorning her. In this part of her dress she was a contrast to the religious virgin, whose hair was entirely neglected. Their hair was highly valuable and reputable among the Saxon ladies. Judith is perpetually mentioned with epithets allusive to her hair. Her twisted locks are more than once noticed: The maid of the Creator, With twisted locks, Took then a sharp sword. She with the twisted locks Then struck her hateful enemy, With the ruddy sword. The most illustrious virgin Resplendent with her twisted locks, a Concil. Calchut. Spelm. Conc. p. 300. b Aldhelm de Laud. Virg. p. 307. C Frag. Judith, ed. Thwaite. The laws mention a free woman, loc bore, wearing her locks as a distinguishing circumstance. Judith is also described with her ornaments : The prudent one, adorned with gold, Then commanded he With bracelets laden, Aldhelm also describes the wife as loving to paint her cheeks with the red colour of stibium. The art of painting the face is not the creature of refinement; the most barbarous nations seem to be the most liberal in their use of this fancied ornament. The will of Wynflæd makes us acquainted with several articles of the dress and ornaments of an Anglo-Saxon lady. She gives to Ethelfleda, one of her daughters, her engraved beah, or bracelet, and her covering mantle (mentel). To Eadgyfa, another of her daughters, she leaves her best dun tunic, and her better mantle, and her covering garment. She also mentions her pale tunics, her torn cyrtel, and other linen, web, or garment. She likewise notices her white cyrtel, and the cuffs and riband (cuffian and bindan).5 Among the ornaments mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon documents, we read of a golden fly, beautifully adorned with gems;h of golden vermiculated necklaces; of a bulla that had belonged to the grandmother of the lady spoken of; of golden headbands, and of a neck-cross.1 The ladies had also gowns; for a bishop of Winchester sends, as a present, "a short gown (gunna) sewed in our manner." Thus we find the mantle, the kirtle, and the gown, mentioned by these names among the Saxons, and even the ornament of cuffs. In the drawings on the manuscripts of these times, the women appear with a long loose robe, reaching down to the ground, and large loose sleeves. Upon their head is a hood or veil, which, falling down before, was wrapped round the neck and breast." All the ladies in the drawing have their necks, from the chin, d Wilk. Leg. Sax. p. * Frag. Jud. 6. f Aldhelm. p. 307. 8 Our Saxon scholar, Hickes, has given a transcript of this will, in his preface to his Gram. Anglo-Sax. p. 22. h Dugd. Mon. 240. i Ibid. 263. Thorp. Reg. Roffen. 26, and Mag. Bib. xvi. p. 7. 1 In the Archbishop's Will, Cotton Lib. MS. Tib. A. 3. i Ibid. 268. 16 Mag. Bib. 82. A gown made of otter's skin is mentioned, p. 88. » Strutt's Horda Angelcynn. i. p. 47. closely wrapped in this manner; and in none of them is a fine waist attempted to be displayed, nor have their heads any other covering than their hood." In the dress of the men, the province of female taste was intruded upon by the ornaments they used. They had sometimes gold and precious stones round their neck," and the men of consequence or wealth usually had expensive bracelets on their arms, and rings on their fingers. It is singular, that the bracelets of the male sex were more costly than those allotted to the fair. In an Anglo-Saxon will the testator bequeaths to his lord a beah, or bracelet, of eighty gold mancusa, and to his lady one of thirty. He had two neck-bracelets, one of forty, and another of eighty gold mancusa, and two golden bands. We read of two golden bracelets, and five gold ornaments, called sylas, sent by an Anglo-Saxon to her friend. Their rings are frequently mentioned an archbishop bequeaths one in his will; and a king sent a gold ring, with twelve sagi, as a present to a bishop. The ring appears to have been worn on the finger next to the little finger, and on the right hand, for a Saxon law calls that the gold finger; and we find a right hand was once cut off on account of this ornament. In some of the stately apparel of the male sex, we see that fondness for gorgeous finery which their sturdier character might have been expected to have disdained. We read of silk garments woven with golden eagles: so a king's coronation garment was of silk, woven with gold flowers ;" and his cloak is mentioned, distinguished by its costly workmanship, and its gold and gems. Such was the avidity for these distinctions, that Elfric, in his canons, found it necessary to exhort the clergy not to be ranc, that is, proud, with their rings, and not to have their garments made too ranclike.w They had silk, linen, and woollen garments. A bishop gave, in the eighth century, as a present to one abroad, a woollen tunic, and another of linen, adding, " as it was the custom of the AngloSaxons to wear it.” The use of linen was not uncommon; for 66 Bede, p. 332. Malmsbury mentions the Angles as having heavy gold bracelets on their arms, and with pictured impressions, "picturatis stigmatibus," a kind of tattooing, on their skin, p. 102. P See the will of Byrhtric in Thorpe's Reg. Roffen. p. 25; also in Hickes's Thes. 4 Mag. Bib. Pat. xvi. p. 92. Wynfleda, in her will, leaves a man a wooden cup adorned with gold, that he might augment his beah with the gold. Hickes's Pref. Cott. MS. Claud. C. 125. Mag. Bib. xvi, p. 89. u Ibid. p. 61. t Ingulf, p. 61. 3 Gale Script. 494. Wilk. Leg. Sax. 153. Ranc and ranclike originally meant proud and gorgeous. The words have now become appropriated to express dignity of situation. 16 Mag. Bib. p. 82. |