406

GARDEN-ORCHARD-VINEYARD.

(1290.

up at the open sky, as we hear the twittering of the sparrows amidst the tail ivy-crowned columns. We cannot follow our bishop in his progress, though he moved through the most charming of England's landscapes, now following the course of the Wye, halting at Ross and Monmouth-now reaching the Welsh borders of Irchenfield, and giving a penny each to two harpers, who came to welcome him-now feasting at the abbey of Dore in "the Gilden vale," whose woods and corn-fields, and fruitful meadows, have been eulogised by Camden and now entertaining his border-friends in his own strong fortress of Bishop's Castle. In this spring he was cut on two rounds of visitation-three weeks in March, and seven weeks in April and May-a season too early for pleasant travelling, but made endurable by kindly welcome from high and humble. The good prelate bears these fatigues and hospitalities without injury to his health; though on one occasion he burns a "mortar" or night-light in his chamber, which was only done in the case of illness. Once a physician came to the manor-house, who had a fee of six and eightpence. We find no record of fees to the barber for bleedingthe universal remedy for every ailment at this period. Some valet of the household was probably the blood-letter of bishop and clerks, of grooms and pages.

Bishop Swinfield is again settled in his manor-house of Bosbury. The old course of generous diet is resumed. Green-peas and beans make their appearance at table in June and July. Grass is cut, and brought into the stables for the horses. Geese are bought, and put up to fatten. We have the garden, the meadow, and the poultry-yard on the domain. The number of eggs provided on certain days is quite astounding. At the Easter feast there were fourteen hundred brought in, and paid for at the rate of eight for a farthing. The gardens yield lecks, onions, garlic, and pot-herbs, besides the peas and beans. The salted greens consisted of some variety of the cabbage tribe. We trace no lettuces. Apples are once mentioned. Of pears and cherries, which were certainly then grown in England, we have no notice. The monks of Wardon, in Bedfordshire, were famous for the baking-pear, which gives a name to the Wardon-pie, “so often named in old descriptions of feasts, and which so many of our historical novelists have represented as huge pasties of venison, or other meat, suited to the digestive capacities of gigantic wardens of feudal days.' Gooseberries were not unknown at that

period; but strawberries and raspberries were not then cultivated in gardens. In the bishop's household there was no gardener included. It may be doubted whether there was any special cultivation of flowers; but we can easily imagine that some one of his bailiffs would have the rose and the gillyflower about his cottage, with "the fresh perwinke" of Chaucer (the periwinkle), and the wall-flower. We have no mention of bees; and once only, in his travels, does the bishop taste metheglin, or mead. But he had a vineyard at Ledbury, the produce of which yielded, in the autumn of 1289, seven casks of white wine, and one of verjuice.

The bishop of Hereford went far from home in that year to purchase an estate to Womenswould in Kent. There was a house there which required repairs, and additions had to be made. We have already indicated the very limited accommodation which even the manor-houses afforded; and some

* "Domestic Architecture," p. 138.

1290.]

BUILDING OPERATIONS.

407

readers may unwillingly believe that the clerks and squires of a bishop, or the knights who surrounded a great baron, slept upon rushes on the floor of a great hall; yet the fact is indisputable. There is very little doubt that there was only one principal

private chamber, even in some royal houses; and the indiscriminate use of the hall, as a sleeping apartment, "supplied themes for the ribald songs and tales of the earliest itinerant minstrels and romancers. ." The private chamber, if of large dimensions, was sometimes divided by wooden partitions; but that dormitories were provided for guests and servants is wholly disproved by examination of the remains of houses of this period, and by the documents which detail the apartments of which a house was to consist. The lodge built for Edward I. at Woolmer, in Hampshire, comprised a hall, a large upper chamber, two ward

robes, and a chapel. The kitchen was always separate. Immediately the purchase of Womenswould

was concluded, the trusty steward, Thomas de la Dene, plants an orchard of appletrees, and sets about build. ing and repairing in a manner which may give us some notion of the handicraft operations of those times. Workmen are about the place at Chrsitmas, building, a chapel and a kitchen. There

are

sawyers cutting out timber; masons raising up walls of the "Kentish rag;" carpenters, putting up timber frame-work, nailing floors, and making fences out of old casks; plasterers, filling up the interstices of the walls, and rendering the whole smooth and tight within; thatchers, who use a great deal of straw for the roof; and labourers not a few, carting sand and fetching water. There was probably no well at hand, with its

* "Domestic Architecture," p. 17.

408

FURNITURE.

[1290. windlass and bucket, then constructed as at this day. The editor of the Roll thinks the workmen were "nursing the job," which is not improbable. Be

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that as it may, the artisans were treated with consideration; for they attended the service of the parish church, and took their proper independent position amongst the congregation, by contributing at the offertory certain small sums, with which they were provided by their employer for Christmas day. The payments for materials and labour are not separated in the accounts. Mr. Turner says that the daily pay of carpenters, masons, and tylers, was threepence with keep, and fourpence half-penny without. We rarely find any mention of bricks at this period. Lead was used for gutters, but it was not sold in sheets. Plumbers melted it on the spot where it was employed. In the same way the greater part of the rough furniture of the period was made on the spot by the carpenter-the tables and tressles, and benches of the

Lock and Key of Dover Castle.

hall; the chest and bedstead of the private chamber. There were chairs of state and reading-desks, such as we find represented in old manuscripts; but these were for the highest dignitaries. The smith's work was done also upon the spot. Nails and locks were obtained from the towns; and most probably the ornamental hinges, whose bars went across the panels for strength and ornament. But the rough iron-work, such as window-bars, was fashioned at the ambulatory forge. The iron-candlestick, with a spike to stick the candle on, was to be bought in towns, of which Gloucester was the chief for iron goods. A lump of wood, with a nail at the top, often served the same use. Ornamental candlesticks of silver were to be found in kings' palaces. The age of which we are treating, which has left us some of the noblest examples of ecclesiastical architecture, was very little advanced in the construction of elegant or even comfortable houses. It was a transition period, from the embattled fortress to the hospitable hall; and by the end of another century, when the conveniences of life came to be regarded as much as the security of possession, and property was more diffused amongst the general community, the yeoman was not satisfied that the roof of his cottage should let in the rain; that his settle by day should be his bed by night; and that his brass pot and trivet should be his only cooking

Candlestick.

1290.1

DRESS-WOOLLEN MANUFACTURE.

409

utensils. Then came the time when the thrifty housewife had her linen sheets, and her handsome counterpane; and the bellows, such as we use to this day, woke up her smouldering fire, whilst the infant was hushed in its cradle by the chimney nook.

The Household Roll of Bishop Swinfield affords us some information, though not very abundant, of what relates to the Dress of this period. But what it tells is of more value in its relation to the general condition of the people, than the wardrobe accounts of kings. We have seen Thomas de la Dane buying cloth and furs during his winter visit to London. He bought four pieces of coarse cloth, called Keyneth, at a high price, these costing 197. 6s. 8d. There was no difference in the dresses of the bishop and his clerks, one piece being apportioned to the lord's use. They were made up into long garments by a tailor, who received with the cloth the necessary materials of lining, binding, and thread. The bishop's brother, who was a layman, wore a short cloak. The squires and bailiffs had four pieces and six yards of striped cloth bought for them, which cost 147. 17s. 6d. The serving-men had three pieces and four yards of an inferior striped cloth, costing 77. 118. 10d. The grooms and pages had a still commoner sort, of which four pieces and a half cost 81. 15s. 9d. Here is an expenditure for cloth, amounting to more than fifty pounds, equal, according to the lowest calculation, to seven hundred and fifty pounds of our present money value; and to a thousand pounds, at the rate we have previously adopted. But the furs, which chiefly marked the rank of the wearer, were also expensive. The bishop had a winter surtout of deer-skin, and a furred cap, so that he was well protected in his cold journeys amidst the Herefordshire hills. For official costume, his hoods were of minever, and his mantles were trimmed with the same costly material. The chaplains had also valuable fur-trimmings; and the squires and lay-clerks were distinguished by lambs' skins. The skins of foxes, which were taken in the chase, were dressed for use in this careful household. It was necessary to be provident in all matters of dress, for the expenditure for clothing was very large. There were summer cloths to be bought, which arrived at Whitsuntide. They were of lighter texture, though woollen, and were denominated bluett and russet. bishop and his clerks had still the same quality of stuff; and the servants were again distinguished by their striped dresses. There was a peculiarity in the cloth of that period. The nap was very long; and when the garment was a little shabby, the nap was re-shorn. The same sort of woollen cloth was worn by male and female, as the ordinary dress. The woollen manufacture of England was, at this period, well established. Totness was the great clothing town of the western district, Beverley of the northern, and Lincoln

VOL I.

RE

The

410

FOREIGN TRADE.

[1290.

of the midland. Linen, fine enough for the bishop's rochets, was bought at Aylsham, in Norfolk. But a large portion of the wool of England was exchanged for foreign manufactures; and cloths, woollen and linen, were imported from France, Flanders, and Spain. Southampton was the great port for Bordeaux wine, though Bristol, as we have seen, stocked the cellars of the bishop of Hereford. The silks of Italy, the cottons and spices of India, the refined sugars of Alexandria, found their way to London and Southampton chiefly through the Low Countries. The Italians had become the great mercantile capitalists of England, now that the Jews were driven out, and conducted the banking transactions with foreign countries, by arranging for remittances. They were also money-lenders at home; and we see Jacob de Brabason, of Sienna, coming to Bosbury, with two grooms and a page, to transact a little business with our good bishop.

The picture of domestic life which we have thus attempted to present, might have been extended in some minute particulars; but we are desirous, whilst we consider the manners of a people as an essential part of history, not to intrude too largely upon its higher, though not exclusive, vocation, of tracing the great events, of delineating the prominent characters, and of following the gradual development of law and government, from period to period.