A.D. 800-900.] RURAL INDUSTRY. 89 illuminations to illustrate the Saxon Calendar, which Mr. Strutt first engraved, the sower closely follows at the heels of the ploughman. In another illumination the gardeners are lopping their fruit-trees and pruning their vines. October was the wyn-monat, or wine-month; and ancient drawings give us the wine-press and the vine-picker. Of the cultivation of the vine in England there can be no doubt, however partial was the growth as to more or less favoured localities. Bede says that the island "produces vines in some places." The religious houses undoubtedly had vineyards. Camden imputes the non-cultivation of the grape for wine to the sloth of the people in his more modern times. Commerce, which gives us what other lands can produce better than our own, drove out the native culti vation of what was truly unfitted for our climate, if we regard the essential condition of quality. In other rude drawings we have the labourer in the "Manners, Customs, &c., of the Inhabitants of England," vol. i. The wood-cuts of the text are taken from these authorities with necessary alterations of the rude drawings. VOL. I. H 90 00 RURAL INDUSTRY [A.D. 800-900. hay-harvest, with the scythe and the rake. Others exhibit the various operations of the corn-harvest-the reaping, the sheafing, the carrying. The shepherd, in the old colloquy, describes his duties:-" In the first part of the morning I drive my sheep to their pasture, and stand over them in heat and cold with my dogs, lest the wolves destroy them. I lead them back to their folds, and milk them twice a day; and I move their folds, and make cheese and butter, and am faithful to my lord." The dense woods which surrounded every seat of the cultivators, forming an original boundary of peculiar sanctity, and latterly a safeguard against marauders, were filled with swine. They fed in common, as in the New Forest within our own times, though they were individual property. There, too, ranged the wild boar, sometimes startling the woodmen as they bore home the winter fucl in the loaded wain; and now pursued by the hunter, with his bold dogs and his trusty spear. The festivities of the holy month of December were gladdened by the presence of the boar's head. It told of bold adventures akin to warfare of youths trained up to hardihood and defiance of danger. At that season the noise of the flail was heard in the barn; and the wheat and the barley were stored in the granary. Those A.D. 800-900.] THE POOR. 91 who had abundance feasted in their halls; but the poor were not wholly disregarded. There was a fund for the poor which was a part of the tithe of the church; there were altar oblations. The Saxon law for the poor was stiretly a law of settlement; and as the serf was compelled to remain in one place and one service, his lord was also obliged to provide for him. But there were miserable wanderers who had no legal provision, who must have depended upon private benevolence. In some years, too, a bad season produced general or local distress; and the natural laws which regulated price were inoperative in a country of limited communication. Then the Lord and the Lady distributed alms at the hall-door. Etymologists have disputed whether these titles were derived from the Saxon words which mean loaf-giver. One old illumination, which is copied in the following page, 26 92 THE POOR. [A.D. 800-900. shows us a royal or noble house, with its attendant warriors, its priests, and its chapel, with the poor receiving food from the heads of the household. It is a rude work, but its authenticity is undoubted. Such were some of the influences of a rural life amidst which Alfred was reared. They brought him into connexion with the people; and thus fitted him for the duties of government. Rulers who live apart from the people must, naturally, be self-seekers. He was not one of those who live for themselves alone. Regner Lodbrok-Ethelred and Alfred-Danes invade Mercia-Ravages in the Fen HE Dane who sailed up the Seine in 845, and carried desolation into Paris on that fatal Easter-eve, when the churches were forsaken, and the citizens fled, was named Regner Lodbrok. Of his historical existence there can be but little doubt; but some of the wild stories that are associated with his name appear to belong to the doubtful legends of the north. According to these, after ravaging Scotland and Ireland, he embarked in two vessels of more than ordinary size, and being unequal to their management was wrecked on the coast of Northumbria. Advancing into the country, he was surrounded and overpowered, and was cast into a dungeon amidst venomous snakes. His death-song is one of the most striking pieces of Scandinavian poetry-an ancient relic, full of images of ferocity exulting in some terrible carnage, when "many fell into the jaws of the wolf, and the hawk plucked the flesh from the wild beasts." In this last hour, the sea-king looks gladly to his immortal feasts, "in the seats of Baldor's father," where "we shall drink ale continually from the large |