The floors were made of tesserae, or small cubes of different materials and various colours, which were arranged in beautiful patterns. Some of these pavements were of most elegant and elaborate designs, having figures in them representing the seasons, or some mythological characters.

The walls were painted with decorations of very beautiful designs, representing the cornfields, just as the Roman artists in Italy loved to depict the vine in their mural paintings. The mortar used by the Romans is very hard and tenacious, and their bricks were small and thin, varying from 8 inches square to 18 inches by 12, and were about 2 inches in thickness. Frequently we find the impression of an animal's foot on these bricks and tiles, formed when they were in a soft state before they were baked, and one tile recently found had the impression of a Roman baby's foot. Roman bricks have often been used by subsequent builders, and are found built up in the masonry of much later periods.



It is quite possible to build up in imagination the old Roman city, and to depict before our mind's eye the scenes that once took place where now the rustics toil and till the ground. We enter the forum, the great centre of the city, the common resort and lounging-place of the citizens, who met together to discuss the latest news from Rome, to transact their business, and exchange gossip. On the west side stood the noble basilica, or hall of justice—a splendid building, its entrance being adorned with fine Corinthian columns; and slabs of polished Purbeck marble, and even of green and white marble from the Pyrenees, covered the walls. It was a long rectangular hall, 233 feet in length by 58 feet in width, and at each side was a semicircular apse, which was called the Tribune. Here the magistrate sat to administer justice, or an orator stood to address the citizens. In the centre of the western wall was another apse, where the curia met for the government of the city. Two rows of columns ran down the hall, dividing it into a nave with two aisles, like many of our churches. Indeed the form of the construction of our churches was taken from these Roman basilica. Several chambers stood on the west of the hall, one of which was another fine hall, probably used as a corn exchange. The height of this noble edifice, the roof of which was probably hidden by a coffered ceiling, must have been about fifty-seven feet.

Passing along the main street towards the south gate we come to the foundations of a nearly circular temple. Two square-shaped buildings stood on the east of the city, which were probably temples for some Gaulish form of religion, as similar sacred buildings have been discovered in France. A quadrangle of buildings near the south gate, having various chambers, contained the public baths, whither the Romans daily resorted for gossip and discussion as well as for bathing. There is an ingenious arrangement for using the waste water for the purpose of flushing the drains and sewers. Nor were they ignorant of the invention of a force-pump, as the accompanying illustration on the next page shows.



The amphitheatre stands outside the gate, whither the citizens flocked to see gladiatorial displays or contests between wild beasts. With the exception of one at Dorchester, it is the largest in Britain. It is made of lofty banks of earth, which surround the arena, and must have been an imposing structure in the days of its glory, with its tiers of seats rising above the level arena. It is difficult to imagine this grass-covered slope occupied by a gay crowd of Romans and wondering Britons, all eagerly witnessing some fierce fight of man with man, or beast with beast, and enthusiastically revelling in the sanguinary sport. The modern rustics, who have no knowledge of what was the original purpose of "the Mount," as they name the amphitheatre, still call the arena "the lions' den."

Silchester was a very busy place. There were dye works there, as the excavations show; hence there must have been some weaving, and therefore a large resident population. Throngs of travellers used to pass through it, and carts and baggage animals bore through its streets the merchandise from London, which passed to the cities and villas so plentifully scattered in western Britain.

By far the most important of the discoveries made in Roman Britain is the little church which stood just outside the forum. It is very similar in form to the early churches in Italy and other parts of the Roman Empire, and is of the basilican type. The orientation is different from that used after the reign of Constantine, the altar being at the west end. The churches of S. Peter and S. Paul at Rome had the same arrangement; and the priest evidently stood behind the altar facing the congregation and looking towards the east at the time of the celebration of the Holy Communion. There is an apse at the west end, and the building is divided by two rows of columns into a nave and two aisles. The nave had probably an ambon, or reading-desk, and was mainly used by the clergy, the aisles being for the use of the men and women separately. A vestry stood at the western end of the north aisle. Across the eastern end was the narthex, or porch, where the catechumens stood and watched the service through the three open doors. Outside the narthex was the atrium, an open court, having in the centre the remains of the labrum, or laver, where the people washed their hands and faces before entering the church. We are reminded of a sermon by S. Chrysostom, who upbraided his congregation, asking them what was the use of their washing their hands if they did not at the same time cleanse their hearts by repentance. This interesting memorial of early Christianity was probably erected soon after the Emperor Constantine's Edict of Toleration issued in 313 A.D.

But not only at Silchester and at other places, once the great centres of the Roman population, do we find Roman remains. In addition to the stations, camps, and towns, there were the villas of the rich Roman citizens or Gaulish merchants on the sunny slopes of many a hillside. Although hundreds of the remains of these noble houses have been discovered, there are still many to be explored.

The villa consisted of the house of the proprietor, which occupied the centre of the little colony, together with the smaller houses of the servants and slaves, stables, cowsheds, mills, and granaries, and all the other usual outbuildings connected with a large estate. The main house was built around a central court, like an Oxford college; and resembled in architectural style the buildings which the excavations at Pompeii have disclosed. A corridor ran round the court supported by pillars, from which the rooms opened. In a well-defended town like Silchester the houses were usually built on three sides of the court; but the country villas, which had occasionally to be fortified against the attacks of wandering bands of outlaws and wild Britons, and the inroads of savage beasts, were usually built on all the four sides of the square court. They were usually of one story, although the existence of a force-pump in Silchester shows that water was laid on upstairs in one house at least. As the wells were less than thirty feet deep, a force-pump would not be needed to lift the water to the earth-level. Hence in some houses there must have been some upper chambers, a conclusion that is supported by the thickness of the foundations, which are far more substantial than would be required for houses of one story. The rooms were very numerous, often as many as sixty or seventy, and very bright they must have looked decorated with beautiful marbles and stuccoes of gorgeous hues, and magnificent pavements, statues and shrines, baths and fountains, and the many other objects of Roman luxury and comfort. The floors were made of opus signinum, such as the Italians use at the present day, a material composed of cement in which are embedded fragments of stone or brick, the whole being rubbed down to a smooth surface, or paved with mosaic composed of tesserae. In whatever land the Roman dwelt, there he made his beautiful tesselated pavement, rich with graceful designs and ever-enduring colours, representing the stories of the gods, the poetry of nature, and the legends of the heroes of his beloved native land. Here we see Perseus freeing Andromeda, Medusa's locks, Bacchus and his band of revellers, Orpheus with his lyre, by which he is attracting a monkey, a fox, a peacock, and other animals, Apollo singing to his lyre, Venus being loved by Mars, Neptune with his trident, attended by hosts of seamen. The seasons form an accustomed group, "Winter" being represented, as at Brading, by a female figure, closely wrapped, holding a lifeless bough and a dead bird. Satyrs and fauns, flowers, Graces and wood-nymphs, horns of plenty, gladiators fighting, one with a trident, the other with a net—all these and countless other fanciful representations look at us from these old Roman pavements. The Roman villa at Brading is an excellent type of such a dwelling, with its magnificent suites of rooms, colonnades, halls, and splendid mosaic pavements. As at Silchester, we see there fine examples of hypocausts. The floor of the room, called a suspensura, is supported by fifty-four small pillars made of tiles. Another good example of a similar floor exists at Cirencester, and many more at Silchester.



Here is a description of a Roman gentleman's house, as drawn by the writer of The History of Oxfordshire:—

"His villa lay sheltered from wild winds partly by the rising brow of the hill, and partly by belts of trees; it was turned towards the south, and caught the full sun. In the spring the breath of his violet beds would be as soft and sweet as in Oxfordshire woods to-day; in the summer his quadrangle would be gay with calthae, and his colonnade festooned with roses and helichryse. If we are to believe in the triclinium aestivum of Hakewill, it says much for the warmth of those far-away summers that he was driven to build a summer dining-room with a north aspect, and without heating flues. And when the long nights fell, and winter cold set in, the slaves heaped higher the charcoal fires in the praefurnium; the master sat in rooms far better warmed than Oxford country houses now, or sunned himself at midday in the sheltered quadrangle, taking his exercise in the warm side of the colonnade among his gay stuccoes and fluted columns. Could we for a moment raise the veil, we should probably find that the country life of 400 A.D. in Oxfordshire was not so very dissimilar to that of to-day, ... and that the well-to-do Roman of rustic Middle England was ... a useful, peaceful, and a happy person."



CHAPTER VII

ANGLO-SAXON VILLAGES

Departure of Romans—Coming of Saxons—Bede—Saxon names of places— Saxon village—Common-field system—Eorl and ceorl—Thanes, geburs, and cottiers—Description of village life—Thane's house—Socmen—Ploughman's lament—Village tradesmen—Parish council—Hundreds—Shires.

The scene changes. The Roman legions have left our shores, and are trying to prop the tottering state of the falling empire. The groans of the Britons have fallen on listless or distracted ears, and no one has come to their succour. The rule of the all-swaying Roman power has passed away, and the Saxon hordes have poured over the hills and vales of rural Britain, and made it the Angles' land—our England.

The coming of the Saxons was a very gradual movement. They did not attack our shores in large armies on one or two occasions; they came in clans or families. The head of the clan built a ship, and taking with him his family and relations, founded a settlement in wild Britain, or wherever the winds happened to carry them. They were very fierce and relentless in war, and committed terrible ravages on the helpless Britons, sparing neither men, women, nor children, burning buildings, destroying and conquering wherever they went.

Bede tells the story of doings of the ruthless Saxons:—

"The barbarous conquerors ... plundered all the neighbouring cities and country, spread the conflagration from the eastern to the western sea without any opposition, and covered almost every part of the devoted island. Public as well as private structures were overturned; the priests were everywhere slain before the altars; the prelates and the people, without any respect of persons, were destroyed with fire and sword; nor was there any to bury those who had been thus cruelly slaughtered. Some of the miserable remainder, being taken in the mountains, were butchered in heaps. Others, spent with hunger, came forth and submitted themselves to the enemy for food, being destined to undergo perpetual servitude, if they were not killed even upon the spot. Some, with sorrowful hearts, fled beyond the seas; others, continuing in their own country, led a miserable life among the woods, rocks, and mountains, with scarcely enough food to support life, and expecting every moment to be their last."

Many antiquaries believe that the extirpation of the Britons was not so complete as Bede asserts, and that a large number of them remained in England in a condition of servitude. At any rate, the almost entire extinction of the language, except as regards the names of a few rivers and mountains, and of a few household words, seems to point to a fairly complete expulsion of the Britons rather than to a mingling of them with the conquering race.

What remains have we in our English villages of our Saxon forefathers, the makers of England? In the first place we notice that many of the names of our villages retain the memory of their founders. When the family, or group of families, formed their settlements, they avoided the buildings and walled towns, relics of Roman civilisation, made clearings for themselves in the primeval forests, and established themselves in village communities. In the names of places the suffix ing, meaning sons of, denotes that the village was first occupied by the clan of some chief, whose name is compounded with this syllable ing. Thus the Uffingas, the children of Offa, formed a settlement at Uffinggaston, or Uffington; the Redingas, or sons of Rede, settled at Reading; the Billings at Billinge and Billingham; the Wokings or Hocings, sons of Hoc, at Woking and Wokingham. The Billings and Wokings first settled at Billinge and Woking; and then like bees they swarmed, and started another hive of industry at Billingham and Wokingham.

These family settlements, revealed to us by the patronymic ing, are very numerous. At Ardington, in Berkshire, the Ardings, the royal race of the Vandals, settled; the Frankish Walsings at Wolsingham; the Halsings at Helsington; the Brentings at Brentingley; the Danish Scyldings at Skelding; the Thurings at Thorington; and many other examples might be quoted.

Many Saxon names of places end in field, which denotes a forest clearing, or feld, made by the axes of the settlers in the primeval woods, where the trees were felled. These villages were rudely fortified, or inclosed by a hedge, wall, or palisade, denoted by the suffix ton, derived from the Anglo-Saxon tynan, to hedge; and all names ending with this syllable point to the existence of a Saxon settlement hedged in and protected from all intruders. Thus we have Barton, Preston, Bolton, and many others. The terminations yard, stoke, or stockaded place, as in Basingstoke, worth (Anglo-Saxon weorthig), as in Kenilworth, Tamworth, Walworth, have much the same meaning.

Perhaps the most common of all the terminations of names denoting the presence of Anglo-Saxon settlers is the suffix ham. When the a is pronounced short the syllable denotes an inclosure, like stoke or ton; but when the a is long, it means home, and expresses the reverence with which the Anglo-Saxon regarded his own dwelling. England is the land of homes, and the natural affection with which we Englishmen regard our homes is to a great extent peculiar to our race. The Frenchman, the Spaniard, the Italian, do not have the same respect for home. Our Saxon forefathers were a very home-loving people, and it is from them doubtless that we inherit our love for our homes.

We find, then, the Saxon holding the lands. The clan formed settlements; sections of each clan formed branch settlements; and several members of each section cut their way through the thick forests, felled the trees, built homesteads, where they tilled the land and reared their cattle.

In early Saxon times the settlement consisted of a number of families holding a district, and the land was regularly divided into three portions. There was the village itself, in which the people lived in houses built of wood or rude stonework. Around the village were a few small inclosures, or grass yards, for rearing calves and baiting farm stock; this was the common farmstead. Around this was the arable land, where the villagers grew their corn and other vegetables; and around this lay the common meadows, or pasture land, held by the whole community, so that each family could turn their cattle into it, subject to the regulations of an officer elected by the people, whose duty it was to see that no one trespassed on the rights of his neighbour, or turned too many cattle into the common pasture.



Around the whole colony lay the woods and uncultivated land, which was left in its natural wild state, where the people cut their timber and fuel, and pastured their pigs in the glades of the forest. The cultivated land was divided into three large fields, in which the rotation of crops was strictly enforced, each field lying fallow once in three years. To each freeman was assigned his own family lot, which was cultivated by the members of his household. But he was obliged to sow the same crop as his neighbour, and compelled by law to allow his lot to lie fallow with the rest every third year. The remains of this common-field system are still evident in many parts of the country, the fields being termed "lot meadows," or "Lammas lands." Our commons, too, many of which remain in spite of numerous inclosures, are evidences of the communal life of our village forefathers.

How long the Saxon villages remained free democratic institutions, we do not know. Gradually a change came over them, and we find the manorial system in vogue. Manors existed in England long before the Normans came, although "manor" is a Norman word; and in the time of Canute the system was in full force. The existence of a manor implies a lord of the manor, who exercised authority over all the villagers, owned the home farm, and had certain rights over the rest of the land. How all this came about, we scarcely know. Owing to the Danish invasions, when the rude barbarous warriors carried fire and sword into many a peaceful town and village, the villagers found themselves at the mercy of these savage hordes. Probably they sought the protection of some thane, or eorl, with his band of warriors, who could save their lands from pillage. In return for their services they acknowledged him as the lord of their village, and gave him rent, which was paid either in the produce of these fields or by the work of their hands. Thus the lords of the manor became the masters of the villagers, although they too were governed by law, and were obliged to respect the rights of their tenants and servants.

Saxon society was divided into two main divisions, the eorl and the ceorl, the men of noble birth, and those of ignoble origin. The chief man in the village was the manorial lord, a thane, who had his demesne land, and his gafol land, or geneat land, which was land held in villeinage, and cultivated by geneats, or persons holding by service. These villein tenants were in two classes, the geburs, or villeins proper, who held the yardlands, and the cottiers, who had smaller holdings. Beneath these two classes there were the theows, or slaves, made up partly of the conquered Britons, partly of captives taken in war, and partly of freemen who had been condemned to this penalty for their crimes, or had incurred it by poverty.

There were degrees of rank among Saxon gentlemen, as among those of to-day. The thanes were divided into three classes: (i.) those of royal rank (thani regis), who served the king in Court or in the management of State affairs; (ii.) thani mediocres, who held the title by inheritance, and corresponded to the lords of the manor in the later times; (iii.) thani minores, or inferior thanes, to which rank ceorls or merchants could attain by the acquisition of sufficient landed property.

We can picture to ourselves the ordinary village life which existed in Saxon times. The thane's house stood in the centre of the village, not a very lordly structure, and very unlike the stately Norman castles which were erected in later times. It was commonly built of wood, which the neighbouring forests supplied in plenty, and had stone or mud foundations. The house consisted of an irregular group of low buildings, almost all of one story. In the centre of the group was the hall, with doors opening into the court. On one side stood the kitchen; on the other the chapel when the thane became a Christian and required the services of the Church for himself and his household. Numerous other rooms with lean-to roofs were joined on to the hall, and a tower for purposes of defence in case of an attack. Stables and barns were scattered about outside the house, and with the cattle and horses lived the grooms and herdsmen, while villeins and cottiers dwelt in the humble, low, shedlike buildings, which clustered round the Saxon thane's dwelling-place. An illustration of such a house appears in an ancient illumination preserved in the Harleian MSS., No. 603. The lord and lady of the house are represented as engaged in almsgiving; the lady is thus earning her true title, that of "loaf-giver," from which her name "lady" is derived.



The interior of the hall was the common living-room for both men and women, who slept on the reed-strewn floor, the ladies' sleeping-place being separated from the men's by the arras. The walls were hung with tapestry, woven by the skilled fingers of the ladies of the household. A peat or log fire burned in the centre of the hall, and the smoke hid the ceiling and finally found its way out through a hole in the roof. Arms and armour hung on the walls, and the seats consisted of benches called "mead-settles," arranged along the sides of the hall, where the Saxon chiefs sat drinking their favourite beverage, mead, or sweetened beer, out of the horns presented to them by the waiting damsels. When the hour for dinner approached, rude tables were laid on trestles, and forthwith groaned beneath the weight of joints of meat and fat capons which the Saxon loved dearly. The door of the hall was usually open, and thither came the bards and gleemen, who used to delight the company with their songs and stories of the gallant deeds of their ancestors, the weird legends of their gods Woden and Thor, their Viking lays and Norse sagas, and the acrobats and dancers astonished them with their strange postures.

Next to the thane ranked the geburs, who held land granted to them by the thane for their own use, sometimes as much as one hundred and twenty acres, and were required to work for the lord on the home farm two or three days a week, or pay rent for their holdings. This payment consisted of the produce of the land. They were also obliged to provide one or more oxen for the manorial plough team, which consisted of eight oxen.

There was also a strong independent body of men called socmen, who were none other than our English yeomen. They were free tenants, who have by their independence stamped with peculiar features both our constitution and our national character. Their good name remains; English yeomen have done good service to their country, and let us hope that they will long continue to exist amongst us, in spite of the changed condition of English agriculture and the prolonged depression in farming affairs, which has tried them severely.



Besides the geburs and socmen there were the cottiers, who had small allotments of about five acres, kept no oxen, and were required to work for the thane some days in each week. Below them were the theows, serfs, or slaves, who could be bought and sold in the market, and were compelled to work on the lord's farm.

Listen to the sad lament of one of this class, recorded in a dialogue of AElfric of the tenth century:—

"What sayest thou, ploughman? How dost thou do thy work?"

"Oh, my lord, hard do I work. I go out at daybreak, driving the oxen to field, and I yoke them to the plough. Nor is it ever so hard winter that I dare loiter at home, for fear of my lord, but the oxen yoked, and the ploughshare and the coulter fastened to the plough, every day must I plough a full acre, or more."

"Hast thou any comrade?"

"I have a boy driving the oxen with an iron goad, who also is hoarse with cold and shouting."

"What more dost thou in the day?"

"Verily then I do more. I must fill the bin of the oxen with hay, and water them, and carry out the dung. Ha! Ha! hard work it is, hard work it is! because I am not free."

Evidently the ploughman's want of freedom was his great hardship; his work in ploughing, feeding, and watering his cattle, and in cleansing their stable, was not harder than that of an ordinary carter in the present day; but servitude galled his spirit, and made the work intolerable. Let us hope that his lord was a kind-hearted man, and gave him some cattle for his own, as well as some land to cultivate, and then he would not feel the work so hard, or the winter so cold.

Frequently men were thus released from slavery; sometimes also freemen sold themselves into slavery under the pressure of extreme want. A man so reduced was required to lay aside his sword and lance, the symbols of the free, and to take up the bill and the goad, the implements of slavery, to fall on his knees and place his head, in token of submission, under the hands of his master.



Each trade was represented in the village community. There were the faber, or smith, and the carpenter, who repaired the ironwork and woodwork of the ploughs and other agricultural implements, and in return for their work had small holdings among the tenants free from ordinary services. There was the punder, or pound-man, who looked after the repair of the fences and impounded stray cattle; the cementarius, or stonemason; the custos apium, or bee-keeper, an important person, as much honey was needed to make the sweetened ale, or mead, which the villagers and their chiefs loved to imbibe; and the steward, or prepositus, who acted on behalf of the lord, looked after the interests of the tenants, and took care that they rendered their legal services. The surnames Smith, Baker, Butcher, Carter, and many others, preserve the remembrance of the various trades which were carried on in every village, and of the complete self-dependence of the community.

We have inherited many customs and institutions from our Saxon forefathers, which connect our own age with theirs. In recent years we have established parish councils in our villages. Formerly the pet theory of politicians was centralisation; everything had to be done at one centre, at one central office, and London became the head and centre of all government. But recently politicians thought that they had discovered a new plan for carrying on the internal affairs of the country, and the idea was to leave each district to manage its own affairs. This is only a return to the original Saxon plan. In every village there was a moot-hill, or sacred tree, where the freemen met to make their own laws and arrange their agricultural affairs. Here disputes were settled, plough lands and meadow lands shared in due lot among the villagers, and everything arranged according to the custom of the village.

Our county maps show that the shires are divided into hundreds. This we have inherited from our Saxon forefathers. In order to protect themselves from their neighbours, the Saxon colonists arranged themselves in hundreds of warriors. This little army was composed of picked champions, the representatives of a hundred families; men who were ready in case of war to uphold the honour of their house, and to fight for their hearths and homes. These hundred families recognised a bond of union with each other and a common inheritance, and ranged themselves under one name for general purposes, whether for defence, administration of justice, or other objects.

On a fixed day, three times a year, in some place where they were accustomed to assemble—under a particular tree,[1] or near some river-bank—these hundred champions used to meet their chieftain, and gather around him when he dismounted from his horse. He then placed his spear in the ground, and each warrior touched it with his own spear in token of their compact, and pledged himself to mutual support. At this assembly criminals were tried, disputes settled, bargains of sale concluded; and in later times many of these transactions were inserted in the chartularies of abbeys or the registers of bishops, which thus became a kind of register too sacred to be falsified. A large number of the hundreds bear the name of some chieftain who once used to call together his band of bearded, light-haired warriors and administer rude justice beneath a broad oak's shade.[2] Others are named after some particular spot, some tree, or ford, or stone, or tumulus, where the hundred court met.

Our counties or shires were not formed, as is popularly supposed, by King Alfred or other royal person by the dividing up of the country into portions, but were the areas occupied by the original Saxon tribes or kingdoms. Most of our counties retain to this day the boundaries which were originally formed by the early Saxon settlers. Some of our counties were old Saxon kingdoms—such as Sussex, Essex, Middlesex—the kingdoms of the South, East, and Middle Saxons. Surrey is the Sothe-reye, or south realm; Kent is the land of the Cantii, a Belgic tribe; Devon is the land of the Damnonii, a Celtic tribe; Cornwall, or Corn-wales, is the land of the Welsh of the Horn; Worcestershire is the shire of the Huiccii; Cumberland is the land of the Cymry; Northumberland is the land north of the Humber, and therefore, as its name implies, used to extend over all the North of England. Evidently the southern tribes and kingdoms by conquest reduced the size of this large county and confined it to its present smaller dimensions. In several cases the name of the county is derived from that of its chief town, e.g. Oxfordshire, Warwickshire; these were districts which were conquered by some powerful earl or chieftain, who held his court in the town, and called his newly acquired property after its name.

We have seen the picture of an ordinary English village in early Saxon times, the villeins and slaves working in the fields and driving their oxen, and the thane dressed in his linen tunic and short cloak, his hose bandaged to the knee with strips of cloth, superintending the farming operations. We have seen the freemen and thanes taking an active part in public life, attending the courts of the hundred and shire, as well as the folk moot or parish council of those times, and the slave mourning over his lack of freedom. But many other relics of Saxon times remain, and these will require another chapter for their examination.

[1] Until the eighteenth century there stood a pollard oak in the parish of Shelford, Berks, where the hundred court used to be held.

[2] Other theories with regard to the origin of the hundred have been suggested. Some writers maintain that the hundred was a district whence the hundred warriors were derived, or a group of townships. But the Bishop of Oxford in his Constitutional History states: "It is very probable that the colonists of Britain arranged themselves in hundreds of warriors; it is not probable that the country was carved into equal districts. The only conclusion that seems reasonable is that under the name of geographical hundreds we have the variously sized pagi, or districts, in which the hundred warriors settled, the boundaries of these being determined by other causes."



CHAPTER VIII

SAXON RELICS

Peculiarities of Saxon barrows—Their contents—Weapons—Articles of personal adornment—Cremation—Saxon Cemeteries—Jutes—Saxons— Angles—Religion of Saxons—British Church in Wales—Conversion of Saxons—Saxon crosses—Whalley—St. Wilfrid—Ruthwell cross— Bewcastle cross—Eyam cross—Ilkley cross—Hexham cross—Cross at St. Andrew's, Bishop Auckland—Cheeping crosses—Pilgrim crosses.

The earth has preserved a vast store of relics of the Saxons, and for these we must search in the barrows which contain their dead. There are certain peculiarities which characterise these memorials of the race. The larger tumuli, whether belonging to Celt or Roman, usually stand alone, or in groups of not more than two or three, and were the monuments of distinguished people; whereas the Saxon barrows form a regular cemetery, each group being the common burying-place of the people in the district. Another characteristic is the large number of articles which they contain. Moreover it was the practice of the other races to lay the body on the ground, and build up the chamber and mound above it. The Saxons on the other hand laid the body in a deep grave before they began to construct the barrow.

The body was usually stretched out on its back, but is sometimes found in a sitting position, as in graves recently discovered on Lord Wantage's estate, Berks. Coffins of hollowed trunks of trees were occasionally used, but these were not common. If the dead man was a warrior, his weapons were buried with him, and we find the head and spike of his spear, heads of javelins, a long iron broad-sword, a long knife, occasionally an axe, and over his breast the iron boss of his shield, the wooden part of which has of course decayed away.



The articles of personal adornment are very numerous. Fibulae, or brooches, and buckles, made of bronze, are very beautifully ornamented. Gold fibulae of circular form are found in the Kentish barrows, frequently ornamented with real or fictitious gems. Rings, bracelets, necklaces of beads, pendants for the neck and ears, are very common. The beads are of glass, or amber, or variegated clay. Hairpins with which the Saxon ladies bound up their tresses, chatelaines with tweezers for removing superfluous hairs, toothpicks, scissors, and small knives, are very frequent, and combs made of bone.

When cremation was used the ashes were deposited in an urn made of rude earthenware without the help of a lathe. Drinking-vessels of glass of fine and delicate workmanship, pointed or rounded at the bottom, are common. From the construction of these cups it is evident that the Saxon allowed no "heel-taps." Bronze bowls, dishes, and basins are found in Saxon barrows, and occasionally buckets.

A pair of dice was found in a grave at Kingston Down, which indicates a favourite pastime of the Saxons. The presence of a large number of Roman coins shows that they used Roman money long after the legions had left our shores. Sceattas, or Saxon silver coins, are also frequently discovered.

Many Saxon cemeteries have been discovered in various parts of England, but a vast number have never been examined; and the careful inspection of the contents of barrows must throw much light upon Saxon settlements in England. Bede tells us that there were three different branches of this race. The Jutes settled in Kent and the Isle of Wight. The Saxons settled in Essex, the country of the East Saxons, Sussex, that of the South Saxons, and Wessex, of the West Saxons. The Angles settled in East Anglia. Now an examination of barrows shows that the Angles practised cremation and urn burial, which was not so common amongst the Jutes and Saxons, and the fibulae found in the tombs of these tribes differ considerably in shape and size. The contents of these graves throw much light on the history of the people, their customs and habits. The action of the plough has often obliterated the traces of ancient barrows. It is advisable that the position of all such mounds should be carefully noted and recorded, and where possible excavations made which may help in settling many vexed questions, and enable us to understand more fully the condition of the pagan Saxon, ere the light of Christianity had dawned upon him.

Our names for the days of the week tell us of the gods of our Saxon forefathers, whom they worshipped in their pagan and unregenerate state. Sun-day, Moon-day, Tuisco's-day, Woden's-day, Thor's-day, Frya's-day, Saeter's-day, link us on to the times when these "whelps from the kennels of barbarism," as the Britons loved to call their conquerors, swept away the old British Church, and established their heathen rites and customs. Their religion resembled that of their Scandinavian neighbours. Each village had its sacred spot, some clearing in the forest, a tree, or well, whither the people resorted to pray to their gods, and practise superstitious rites and customs which lingered long after the introduction of Christianity, and even still survive. They had also a few temples whither the freemen came three times a year.

Driven out of England the ancient British Church found a refuge in the wilds of Wales and Cornwall, where it lived on and flourished vigorously, allied to the Churches of Ireland and Scotland, sending out missionaries to the Continent of Europe, having schools and colleges, monasteries, and numerous churches. Llancarvan, in Glamorganshire, was a celebrated seat of learning; and all places named Bangor, such as Bangor-Iscaed, St. Asaph, and many others, possessed schools and colleges. The village names of numerous places in Wales and Cornwall record the labours of many earnest, saintly men, who brought Christianity to the savage folk in these wild regions. There are nearly five hundred names of these holy men in Wales alone, whose memory is retained by this simple record; and Cornwall is dotted over with churches dedicated to men and women whose names are strange, and of whom we know nothing. History tells us of some of these early saints and martyrs, of St. Alban, the first British martyr, who was slain 303 A.D. during the Diocletian persecution in the city which bears his name; of St. David, a Welsh prince, who followed the active life of John the Baptist, and preached like him. The memory of early saints is enshrined in the names, St. Ives, St. Neots, St. Bees, and in St. Edmund's Bury, named after St. Edmund, who was taken prisoner by Ingvar the Viking, and having been bound to a tree, was scourged, and served as a target for the arrows of the Danes, being afterwards beheaded. All these record the bravery and zeal of the holy men of old who loved their God, and for His sake feared not to die.

Nothing need be said of the conversion of the English. That is a story which has been often told. The scene is again changed. The temples of Woden and Thor at Canterbury and Godmundingham and elsewhere, with their heathen altars and shrines and idols, have been changed into Christian churches, and other houses of God have been raised in the various kingdoms; while Paulinus, Berinus, Aidan, Winfrid, and other preachers, travelled through the country, exhorting the people to accept the Christian faith.

Memorials of these early Christian missionaries remain in many a village churchyard. Often there stands near the village church an old stone cross, its steps worn away by the rains and frosts of thirteen centuries; its head has doubtless gone, broken off by the force of the gales, or by the wild rage of human passion and Puritanical iconoclastic zeal; but it preserves the memory of the first conversion of the Saxon villagers to Christianity, and was erected to mark the spot where the people assembled to hear the new preacher, and to consecrate it for this purpose.

In the life of St. Willibald we read that it was the custom of the Saxon nation, on the estates of some of their nobles or great men, to erect, not a church, but the sign of the Holy Cross, dedicated to God, beautifully and honourably adorned, and exalted on high for the common use of daily prayer. It is recorded also that St. Kentigern used to erect a cross in any place where he had converted the people, and where he had been staying for some time. Very probably the Saxon preacher would make use of the old open-air meeting-place, where the pagan villagers used to worship Woden; and thus the spots still used for public worship are in many cases the same which used to echo with the songs of Thor and the prayers of pagan Saxons.

These crosses were the rallying-points for Christian congregations before churches arose, and the bells in their turrets summoned the people to the service of God. In Somersetshire alone there are two hundred relics of the piety of our forefathers; and the North of England and Scotland are especially rich in crosses. No two are ever quite similar. Some are of simple design or character; but many have such beautiful carving and scrollwork that we are astonished at the skill of the workmen who, with very simple and rude tools, could produce such wonderful specimens of art.

The pagan Saxons worshipped stone pillars; so in order to wean them from their ignorant superstition, the Christian missionaries, such as St. Wilfrid, erected these stone crosses, and carved upon them the figures of the Saviour and His Apostles, displaying before the eyes of their hearers the story of the cross written in stone.

The North of England has very many examples of the zeal of these early preachers of the faith, and probably most of them were fashioned by the monks and followers of St. Wilfrid, who was Archbishop of York at the beginning of the eighth century.

When he travelled about his diocese a large body of monks and workmen attended him; and amongst these were the cutters in stone who made the crosses and erected them on the spots which Wilfrid consecrated to the worship of God.

The Whalley cross is earlier than the time of Wilfrid. It is one of the crosses of Paulinus, who was one of the priests sent by Pope Gregory to help Augustine in the work of converting the Saxons, and who became Archbishop of York. Under the shadow of this very cross Paulinus, who came to England in 601 A.D., preached nearly thirteen hundred years ago. Indeed an old monkish writer wished to represent that Augustine himself came to Whalley and erected the cross, which he calls "St. Augustine's Cross"; but there is little doubt that Paulinus was the founder. In Puritan times this and other relics of early faith suffered badly, and was removed with two others from the churchyard, and used as a gatepost; but the spoiler repented, and restored it once more to its old resting-place.

But how did the founders learn to make such beautiful patterns and designs? St. Wilfrid had travelled much; he had been to Rome and seen the wonderful examples of Roman skill in the great city. The Romans had left behind them in England their beautiful pavements, rich in designs, with splendid borders of fine workmanship. These, doubtless, the monks copied on parchment in the writing-rooms of their monasteries, and gave their drawings to the monks in the stone-shed, who reproduced them in stone. The only tool they had to produce all this fine and delicate work was the pick, and this increases our wonder at the marvels they were able to accomplish.

There is a famous cross at Ruthwell, in Dumfriesshire, which for a short time formed part of the kingdom of Northumbria. Scenes from early Christian history are portrayed, and these are surrounded by bands with sentences in Latin describing them. The lowest panel is too defaced for us to determine the subjects; on the second we see the flight into Egypt; on the third figures of Paul, the first hermit, and Anthony, the first monk, are carved; on the fourth is a representation of our Lord treading under foot the heads of swine; and on the highest there is the figure of John the Baptist with the Lamb. On the opposite side are the Annunciation, the Salutation, and other scenes of gospel history. On the side of the cross is some beautiful scrollwork, which shows a wonderful development of skill and art.

In addition to the Latin sentences there are five stanzas of an Anglo-Saxon poem of singular beauty. It is the story of the crucifixion told in touching words by the cross itself, which narrates its own sad tale from the time when it was a growing tree by the woodside, until at length, after the body of the Lord had been taken down—

"The warriors left me there, Standing defiled with blood."

On the head of the cross are inscribed the words, "Caedmon made me." This Caedmon was the holy monk, on whom the gift of writing verses was bestowed by Heaven, who in the year 680 A.D. began to pour forth his songs in praise of Almighty God, and told in Anglo-Saxon poetry the story of the creation and the life of our Lord. The Bewcastle cross is somewhat similar to that at Ruthwell. We see again the figure of our Lord standing on the heads of swine, but the lower figure is represented with a hawk, the sign of nobility, and is probably that of a person to whom the cross is a memorial. The ornamentation on this cross is very perfect and beautifully executed. The very beautiful cross at Eyam, in Derbyshire, differs both in style and workmanship from almost any other. The shaft has evidently been broken. In the panels of the head of the cross are figures of angels.

Sometimes we find some very strange beasts carved on the old crosses. On the cross at Ilkley we observe some of these curious animals with their long tails interlacing. Sometimes the tail is wound round the creature's body, and the idea of the artist was to represent the animal reduced to a state of powerlessness. One forepaw is held up in sign of submission. Above is a figure of our Lord triumphing over the powers of evil, and these animals represent probably man's lower nature owning the supremacy of the King of Heaven. On the other side of the cross are figures of the four evangelists. The upper half of the figures alone appears dressed in flowing garments; each is carrying a book; circles of glory surround their heads, which are the symbols of the evangelists. St. Matthew has a man's head; St. Mark a leopard's; St. Luke's a calf's; and St. John an eagle's head.

The crosses at Hexham, where Archbishop Wilfrid founded a monastery, are very ancient. We are able to tell the date of these stones, for they were placed at the head and feet of the grave of Bishop Acca, who was a follower of St. Wilfrid, and accompanied him on his missionary journeys. Acca succeeded Wilfrid as Bishop of Hexham, and according to the old chronicler Bede, "being a most active man and great in the sight of God and man, he much adorned and added to his church." Acca died in 738 A.D., and as the monastery of Hexham was soon destroyed, these crosses must have been erected eleven hundred and sixty-three years ago.

The cross at St. Andrew's, Bishop Auckland, is of much later date, and the workmanship is not nearly so fine and delicate as in the earlier crosses. The Saxons had deteriorated as a race just before the Normans came, and although the cross still appears on the flat stone, the design on the shaft of the cross merely represents a hunting scene; and a Saxon bowman is shown shooting at some animals. The religious conceptions of an earlier and purer time have disappeared. The moustache of the sportsman also shows that the stone belonged to a period very near the Norman Conquest, when that fashion of wearing the hair was in vogue.

England is remarkable for these specimens of ancient art. On the Continent there are very few of these elaborately carved crosses; but it is noteworthy that wherever the English or Irish missionaries went, they erected these memorials of their faith. In Switzerland, where they founded some monasteries, there are some very similar to those in England.

There are several other kinds of crosses besides those in churchyards. There are market crosses, called "cheeping" crosses after the Anglo-Saxon cheap, to buy, from which Cheapside, in London, Chippenham and Chipping Norton derive their names. Some crosses are "pilgrim" crosses, and were erected along the roads leading to shrines where pilgrimages were wont to be made, such as the shrine of St. Thomas a Becket at Canterbury, Glastonbury, Our Lady of Walsingham. Sometimes they were erected at the places where the corpse rested on its way to burial, as the Eleanor crosses at Waltham and Charing, in order that people might pray for the soul of the deceased. Monks also erected crosses to mark the boundaries of the property of their monastery.



Time has dealt hardly with the old crosses of England. Many of them were destroyed by the Puritans, who by the Parliamentary decree of 1643, ordered that all altars and tables of stones, all crucifixes, images and pictures of God and the saints, with all superstitious inscriptions, should be obliterated and destroyed. In London, St. Paul's Cross, Charing Cross, and that in Cheapside, were levelled with the ground, and throughout the country many a beautiful work of art which had existed hundreds of years shared the same fate. Place-names sometimes preserve their memory, such as Gerard's Cross, in Buckinghamshire, Crosby, Crossens, Cross Inn, Croston; these and many others record the existence in ancient times of a cross, and probably beneath its shade the first preachers of the gospel stood, when they turned the hearts of our heathen ancestors, and taught them the holy lessons of the Cross.



CHAPTER IX

ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE

Saxon monasteries—Parish churches—Benedict Biscop—Aldhelm—St. Andrew's, Hexham—Brixworth Church—Saxon architecture—Norman architecture—Characteristics of the style—Transition Norman— Early English style—Decorated style—Perpendicular style.

The early Saxon clergy lived in monasteries, where they had a church and a school for the education of the sons of thanes. Monastic houses, centres of piety and evangelistic zeal, sprang up, the abodes of religion, civilisation, peace, and learning. They were the schools of culture, sacred and profane, of industry and agriculture; the monks were the architects, the painters, the sculptors, the goldsmiths of their time. They formed the first libraries; they taught the young; they educated women in convents, and by degrees dispersed the shades of ignorance, idolatry, and barbarism, and reformed England.

To record the number of these monastic houses which were erected in the seventh and eighth centuries would require much space; and as our chief concern is with the vestiges that remain in our English villages, and as most of these Saxon monasteries were plundered and destroyed by the Danes, or rebuilt on a grander scale by the Normans, we will not now enumerate them.

After the country had been evangelised by the itinerant monks and preachers, the next process was to establish a church in every village, and to provide a pastor to minister therein. Archbishop Theodore encouraged the thanes to build and endow churches on their estates, and introduced to this country the parochial system, by means of which all villages could have the services of a resident pastor.

Then the thane's house was not considered complete without its chapel; and in the scattered hamlets and village communities churches arose, rudely built of wood and roofed with thatch, wherein the Saxon ceorls and cottiers loved to worship.

The great Churchmen of the day were not content with such humble structures. They had travelled to Rome, and seen there some of the fine buildings dedicated for divine service; so they determined to have the like in their own country. One of these noble builders was Benedict Biscop, founder of the twin monasteries of Wearmouth and Jarrow. When he built the former, he imported foreign artists from Gaul, who constructed the monastery after the Roman style, and amongst other things introduced glazed windows, which had never been seen in England before. Nor was his new house bare and unadorned. He brought from Rome vast stores of church furniture, many books, and the "arch-chanter" John, to teach his monks the music and ritual of Rome.

Aldhelm, Abbot of Malmesbury, and first Bishop of Sherborne, was one of the foremost church-builders of the time, and the beautiful churches at Malmesbury, Sherborne, Bradford-on-Avon, Frome, and Wareham, owe their erection to his instrumentality. Wilfrid also was one of the saintly architects of the period. Here is a description of the church of St. Andrew, at Hexham, taken from the writings of Richard, prior of the monastery there:—

"The foundations of this church St. Wilfrid laid deep in the earth for the crypts and oratories, and the passages leading to them, which were then with great exactness contrived and built under ground. The walls, which were of great length, and raised to an immense height, and divided into three several stones or tiers, he supported by square and other kinds of well-polished columns. Also, the walls, the capitals of the columns which supported them, and the arch of the sanctuary, he decorated with historical representations, imagery, and various figures of relief, carved in stone, and painted with a most agreeable variety of colour. The body of the church he compassed about with pentices and porticoes, which, both above and below, he divided with great and inexpressible art, by partition walls and winding stairs. Within the staircases, and above them, he caused flights of steps and galleries of stone, and several passages leading from them both ascending and descending, to be so artfully disposed, that multitudes of people might be there, and go quite round the church, without being seen by anyone below in the nave. Moreover in the several divisions of the porticoes or aisles, he erected many most beautiful and private oratories of exquisite workmanship; and in them he caused to be placed altars in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Michael, St. John the Baptist, and the holy Apostles, martyrs, confessors, and virgins, with all decent and proper furniture to each of them, some of which, remaining at this day, appear like so many turrets and fortified places."



The Danish wars had a disastrous effect on such noble structures raised by these monastic architects, as well as on many a rustic village church, which fell a prey to the ruthless invading bands of pagan warriors. But frequently, as we study the history written in the stonework of our churches, we find amid the massive Norman walls traces of the work of Saxon builders, an arch here, a column there, which link our own times with the distant past when England was divided into eight kingdoms, or when Danegeld was levied to buy off the marauding strangers.

Roman buildings served as a model for our Saxon architects, and Roman bricks were much used by them. Brixworth Church is perhaps the finest specimen of our early Saxon churches. It has semicircular arches, made of Roman bricks, springing from square massive piers with single abaci.



We will try to point out the distinguishing features of Saxon work, in order that you may be able to detect the evidence of its existence in your own village and neighbourhood. The walls are chiefly formed of rubble or rag stone, having "long and short work," i.e. long block of cut stone laid alternately horizontally and vertically, at the corners of the building and in the jambs of the doors. Often narrow ribs of masonry run vertically up the walls, and a string-course runs horizontally. The churches of Barnack and Wittering in Northamptonshire, St. Michael's, Oxford, and the towers of Earl's Barton are good examples of this.



Saxon doorways have semicircular arches, and sometimes the head is shaped in the form of a triangle. The jambs are square-edged, the stone of the arch is plain, and a hood or arch of ribwork projecting from the surface of the wall surrounds the doorway. Belfry windows have two semicircular-headed lights divided by a baluster shaft, i.e. a column resembling a turned-wood pillar. This feature is quite peculiar to Saxon architecture.

Anglo-Saxon single-light windows have two splays, increasing in width from the centre of the wall in which the window is placed. Norman windows have only one splay on the internal side of the building. Saxon arches separating the nave from the aisles and chancel are plain. There is no sub-arch as in Norman buildings. They are often very small, sometimes only five or six feet wide, and stand on square piers.



Some Saxon churches have crypts, but few of them remain. The crypt made by St. Wilfrid at Hexham, mentioned above, still exists, and also one at Ripon Cathedral, in which there is a small window called "Wilfrid's needle." There is a legend about this which states that if a maid goes through the "needle," she will be married within the year. Repton Church has a very perfect specimen of Saxon crypt.

The ground plan of Saxon churches differed. Many were cruciform, and consisted of nave, transepts, and chancel. The east wall of the chancel was often semicircular or polygonal, sometimes rectangular. The church of St. Lawrence, at Bradford-on-Avon, mentioned by William of Malmesbury, is a fine specimen of a Saxon church, and also the little church at Escombe, Durham, and that of Deerhurst, Gloucestershire, recently rescued from being used as a farmstead.

After the close of the thousandth year after the birth of Christ a new impulse was given to church-building. People imagined that with that year the millennium would arrive and the Second Advent take place. It would be vain to build beautiful churches, if they were so soon to perish in the general destruction of the world, as vain as to heap up treasure by means of trade. Hence people's minds were unsettled, and the churches left in ruins. But when the millenary had safely passed away, they began to restore the fallen shrines, and build new churches, and the late Saxon or early Norman style came into vogue. Canute was a great church-builder, and Edward the Confessor rebuilt Westminster Abbey after the new fashion. Then came William the Conqueror with his Norman builders, and soon nearly every village had its church, which was constructed, according to William of Malmesbury, novo aedificandi genere.

We will now notice the characteristics of early Norman work, traces of which you may be able to recognise in your own church. The doorways are very remarkable, profusely adorned with richly carved ornamental mouldings and sculpture. The archways are round, and are composed of a succession of receding arches, all elaborately carved. The doorway of Malmesbury Church has eight arches, recessed one within the other. These arches are supported by one or more shafts, which are sometimes carved. Above the door and below the arch is the tympanum, covered with sculpture, representing scriptural subjects, such as the figure of the Saviour in allusion to His saying, "I am the door," or the Agnus Dei, or Adam and Eve, or such legendary or symbolical subjects as St. George and the Dragon, or the Tree of Life.



Porches are not very common in early Norman structures, but several still exist, notably at Malmesbury, Balderton, and Brixworth. The windows are usually small and narrow, the jambs being splayed only on the inside of the church. Three such windows placed together usually give light over the altar. The walls of Norman buildings are thick and massive, and are often faced with cut stone. String-courses or mouldings projecting from the walls, run horizontally along them, and are often adorned with the zigzag or other Norman patterns of ornament. The tower often stands between the nave and the chancel, and is usually low and massive. In the eastern counties are found many round towers made of flint masonry. Flat buttresses are a sure sign of Norman work, as they were not used in any of the subsequent styles of architecture.



The arches of the Norman builders are easily recognised. The piers in country churches are nearly always cylindrical; but there are several examples of massive square or octagonal piers, and also a number of round columns attached, so as to form one pier. The cushion capital is the most common form used in the Norman style. It is easily recognisable, but difficult to be described; and perhaps the accompanying sketch will enable the reader to discover a cushion capital when he sees it. The early Norman builders loved to bestow much labour on their capitals; and while preserving the usual cushion form, enriched them with much elaboration. The scallop frequently occurs, and also the volute, which was copied from the work of Roman builders, who themselves imitated the Greek sculptures. Sometimes the capitals are elaborately carved with figures of men, or animals, or foliage.



Norman arches resemble the doorways in having sub-arches recessed within an outer arch, the intrados often being decorated with mouldings such as the zigzag or the lozenge. The chancel arch is usually very elaborately ornamented with various mouldings, which are very numerous and peculiar. Those illustrated on the previous page are the most common.



The Normans were also much skilled in vaulting with stone, as the crypts in our churches testify. Over the vaulted roof of the aisles was the triforium, a kind of gallery between this roof and the external roof of the church. Very few of the wooden roofs of Norman churches remain. The fonts are large, square or cylindrical in shape, and are decorated with mouldings or sculpture, often very elaborate but rudely executed. At Winchester Cathedral the font is carved with a representation of the baptism of King Cynigils at Dorchester. Other favourite subjects were the creation of man, the formation of Eve, the expulsion from Paradise, Christ upon the cross, the Four Evangelists, the baptism of our Lord, and legendary or symbolical representations.



This style of architecture prevailed until about the middle of the twelfth century, when the Transition Norman became in vogue. It is characterised by the introduction of the pointed arch. Many conjectures as regards its origin have been made. Some suppose that the idea of making the arch pointed was suggested by the intersection of semicircular arches in ornamental arcades. Others say that the Crusaders introduced it on their return from the East, or that it was suggested by the Norman vaulting, or from the form of the vesica piscis, the most ancient of Christian symbols. The Cistercian monks were the first to introduce it to this country, and the Cistercian abbeys of Fountains, Kirkstall, Furness, and Tintern are noble specimens of Transition Norman work. Religious zeal and enthusiasm are often reflected in the improved condition of our churches, and the grand buildings of this period are outward and visible signs of a great religious revival. Semicircular arches, however, continued to be used for windows and for the triforium; the capitals of the piers were decorated with foliage somewhat similar to that used in a subsequent period.



Then arose the Early English style of architecture which flourished from about the year 1175 to 1275, and is characterised by a gradual abandonment of the heavy and massive features of the Norman style, and the adoption of lighter and more elegant forms of construction and decoration. Salisbury Cathedral, erected 1220-1260 A.D., is the most perfect example of this period. The arches are pointed, and the piers supporting them are often composed of an insulated cylindrical column surrounded by slender detached shafts, all uniting together under one capital, and divided into parts by horizontal bands. In small churches plain octagonal or circular piers are frequently used, as in the succeeding style, from which they can only be distinguished by the mouldings. Mouldings are often the surest guides in helping us to ascertain the date of a building. We have already studied the Norman mouldings. In this style they are composed of bold rounds and deep hollows, usually plain, or ornamented with the dog-tooth.



The lancet window is now introduced, at first of only one light, very narrow and long, and differing from the Norman window in having a pointed arch. At the east end of the chancel there are often three lancet windows, the centre one higher than the rest, with one dripstone over them. The first idea of window-tracery was the introduction of a plain lozenge-shaped opening over a double lancet window, the whole being covered by a single dripstone. From this simple arrangement it was not difficult to develop the beautiful bar-tracery which came into vogue in the subsequent period of English architecture. The capitals of the Early English style are bell-shaped, at first quite plain, but subsequently these are often covered with beautifully sculptured foliage of a very graceful character. Circular windows at this period came into vogue in the gables of churches. They were either plain or quatre-foiled. Norman towers were sometimes capped with spires in the thirteenth century. The walls are not so thick or massive as in the Norman period, and the buttresses are stouter and more numerous, and project further from the wall. Flying buttresses were also introduced at this period. We can generally distinguish Early English work from that of the Norman style by its lightness and elegance, as compared with the roughness and massiveness of the latter; and its plainness and simplicity sufficiently distinguish it from that of the Decorated period.



The Decorated style (1275-1375) which prevailed during the reigns of the three Edwards was ushered in by a period of Transition, during which there was gradually developed the most perfect style which English architectural skill has ever attained. In the thirteenth century our builders were striving to attain the highest forms of graceful design and artistic workmanship. In the fourteenth their work reached perfection, while in the fifteenth there was a marked decline in their art, which in spite of its elaborate details lacked the beauty of the Decorated style.



The arches of this period are usually wider, and are distinguished from those of the Early English by the character of the mouldings. The ball-flower, consisting of a ball inclosed by three or four leaves, somewhat resembling a rosebud, is the favourite ornament, and a four-leaved flower is often used. Roll mouldings, quarter, half, or three-quarters round, frequently occur, and produce a very pleasing effect. The form of the arch is in many instances changed, and the graceful ogee arch is introduced. The piers are round or octagonal in village churches, and in large churches are formed by a cluster of cylindrical shafts, not detached as in the preceding period, but closely united. The capitals are bell-shaped, and in large churches richly sculptured. Few of the wooden roofs remain, as they have been superseded in later times; but the marks of the old roofs may often be seen on the eastern wall of the tower. The windows are larger than those of the earlier style, and are filled with geometrical and flowing tracery of great variety and beauty. Small windows have heads shaped in the ogee or trefoil forms. Square-headed windows are not uncommon, especially in the clerestory, and in monastic churches circular windows are frequently met with. It is characteristic of this style that the carving is not so deep as in the previous work. We find groups of shallow mouldings separated by one cut deeper than the others.



At length the glories of the Decorated period pass away and are merged and lost in the Perpendicular which held sway from 1375 to 1540. The work is now more elaborate and richer, but lacks the majestic beauty of the Decorated style. It is easy to distinguish Perpendicular windows. They are larger than any which we have seen before; the mullions are carried straight up through the head of the window; smaller mullions spring from the heads of the principal lights, and thus the windows are broken up into panel-like compartments, very different from the beautiful curves of the Decorated style. Simple pointed arches are still in use, but gradually they become flattened; and the arch, commonly known as the Tudor arch, is a peculiar feature of this style. In village churches the mouldings of the arch are often continued down the piers without any capital or shaft.



Piers are commonly formed from a square or parallelogram with the angles fluted, having on the flat face of each side a semicyclindrical shaft. The base mouldings are polygonal. The most common doorway is the Tudor arch having a square head over it. The doors are often richly ornamented. There are a large number of square-headed windows, and so proud were these builders of their new style of window that they frequently inserted Perpendicular windows in walls of a much earlier date. Hence it is not always safe to determine the age of a church by an examination of the windows alone. Panel-work tracery on the upper part of the interior walls is a distinctive feature of this style.



The slope of the roof is much lower than before, and often the former high-pitched roofs were at this period replaced by the almost flat roofs prevalent in the fifteenth century. The parapets are often embattled.

The rose, the badge of the houses of York and Lancaster, is often used as an ornamental detail, and also rows of the Tudor flower, composed of four petals, frequently occur. One of the most distinctive mouldings is the cavetto, a wide shallow hollow in the centre of a group of mouldings. Also we find a peculiar wave, and a kind of double ogee moulding which are characteristic of the style.



Spires of this period are not very common, and usually spring from within the parapet. The interiors of our churches were enriched at this time with much elaborate decoration. Richly carved woodwork in screens, rood-lofts, pulpits, and pews, sculptured sedilia and a noble reredos, and much exuberance of decorative imagery and panel-work, adorned our churches at this time, much of which was obliterated or destroyed by spoliators of the Reformation period, the iconoclastic Puritans of the seventeenth century, or the "restorers" of the nineteenth. However, we may be thankful that so much remains to the present day of the work of our great English church-builders, while we endeavour to trace the history of each church written in stone, and to appreciate these relics of antiquity which most of our villages possess.



CHAPTER X

NORMAN VILLAGES AND THE DOMESDAY BOOK

The coming of the Normans—Domesday Book—Its objects—Its contents— Barkham in Domesday—Saxon families—Saxons who retained their estates—Despoiled landowners—Village officers and artisans— Villeins—Bordarii—Cottarii—Servi—Socmen—Presbyter—Names of Normans—The teaching of Domesday.

There was a great stir in our English villages when the news was brought to them that William of Normandy had landed in England, and intended to fight for the English Crown. News travelled very slowly in those days. First the villeins and the cottiers who were not fighting with their lord heard that a great battle had been fought at Stamford Bridge, in Yorkshire, in which their gallant King Harold had defeated his own brother Tostig, aided by the King of Norway, Hardrada, and a large army. Then the news reached them that William of Normandy had arrived, and that Harold was marching night and day to meet him. Then they heard of the fatal battle of Hastings; and when it was told them that their brave King Harold was slain, and that William, the Norman, was the conqueror of England and the acknowledged king of the country, all England groaned to hear the fatal news. And then, after a few years, they found that their old lord had been deprived of his estates, and a new, haughty, proud Norman, who talked like a Frenchman, and laughed at their dear old Saxon language, came and ruled over them. He brought Norman servants with him, who took the best of the land, and made the Saxons do all the hard work on the farm, treating them like slaves.

And now we must examine a most valuable document which throws a wonderfully clear light on the condition of England just before and after the Conquest. I refer to the Domesday Book, or survey of the country which William caused to be made. The Anglo-Saxon chronicler tells us that after a great Council at Gloucester the king "sent his men over all England, into every shire, and caused to be ascertained how many hundred hides were in the shire, or what land the king himself had, and cattle within the land, or what dues he ought to have in twelve months from the shire. Also he caused to be written how much land his archbishops had, and his suffragan bishops, and abbots, and earls; and though I may narrate somewhat prolixly, what or how much each man had who was a holder of land in England, in land, or in cattle, and how much money it might be worth. So very narrowly he caused it to be traced out, that there was not one single hide, nor one yard of land, nor even, it is shame to tell, though it seemed to him no shame to do, an ox, nor a cow, nor a swine was left that was not set down in his writ. And all the writings were brought to him afterwards."

The commissioners appointed by the king, among whom were Remigius, Bishop of Lincoln, and Walter Giffard, Earl of Buckingham, were to inquire the following details concerning each parish:—

Its name. Who held it in the time of King Edward the Confessor. The present possessor. Number of hides in the manor, number of ploughs, of homagers, villeins, cottars, free tenants, tenants in socage; how much wood, meadow, and pasture; number of mills and fishponds; the value in the time of the last king; and its present value.

Such a survey was of immense value. Its object, according to the king, was that every man might know and be satisfied with his rightful possessions, and not with impunity usurp the property of others. But it was also of great service to the king, so that he might know who were his vassals, the amount of taxation which he could draw from them, and the actual strength of his new kingdom.

The commissioners performed their work with much care and exactness. The survey is wonderfully complete, and was compiled in a very short time. It is of great value to the historians of subsequent ages. The writing of the book is very clear and beautiful, the abbreviations alone presenting some difficulty to an unaccustomed reader. No illuminations adorn the text. At the head of each page the name of the county is written in red ink. The book is preserved in an ancient chest in the Public Record Office, where it was removed from the Chapter House at Westminster.

As an example we may take the Domesday description of the parish of Barkham, which runs as follows:—

"IN CERLEDONE HD.

"Rex ten in dnio Bercheha. AElmer Tenuit de rege. E. Te 7 m iii hid. Tra e iii car. In dnio e una, 7 vi uilli 7 iiii bord cu iii car. Ibi v. ac pti. Silua de XL pore. Valuit iiii lib. T.R.E. 7 m: iii. lib."

TRANSLATION.

"In the hundred of Charlton.

"The king holds Barkham in demesne. AElmer held it of King Edward. Then, as now, it was rated for three hides. The land is three ploughlands. In demesne there is one ploughland. There are six villeins, four borderers with three ploughs. There are five acres of pasture. Wood for the pasturage of forty hogs. It was worth 4l. in the time of King Edward, afterwards, and now, 3l."

King Edward here mentioned was Edward the Confessor. A hide, when it is used as a measure of land, may be taken at about one hundred and twenty acres. A ploughland was as much land as one plough with oxen could plough in a year. The villeins were men who tilled their lord's land, and in return for certain services had holdings under him. The borderers were cottagers who also worked for their lord and held smaller holdings, from one to ten acres. In other entries we find the number of serfs recorded, and also mention of the hall of the lord of the manor, where the manorial courts were held, the church, the priest's house, the names of landowners and tenants, the mill, and of the various officers and artisans who made up the village community.

Domesday tells us of the old Saxon families, many of whom lost their estates when the Conqueror came, and were supplanted by the favourites of the new king. Some of them contrived to weather the storm and retain their lands. Almer, or Almar, the lord of Barkham, who succeeded his brother Stigand as Bishop of Elmham in 1047, when the latter became archbishop, was among the number of the dispossessed, and probably found shelter with many of his compatriots in the cloister. Several of William's Norman adventurers married the heiresses of the old Saxon gentry, and thus became possessed of great estates. Thus Robert D'Oili married the daughter of Wigod, lord of Wallingford, and soon gained possession of his father-in-law's property.

However, the names of the fortunate Saxons who retained their estates are few in comparison with those who were dispossessed. We find Edgar Atheling, real heir to the throne, retaining a small estate; but he was a feeble prince, and therefore not to be feared by William. His sister Cristina had also land in Oxfordshire. Bishop Osbern, of Exeter, a kinsman of the late king, also held his estates; and amongst the list we find Seward the huntsman, of Oxfordshire; Theodric the goldsmith; Wlwi the huntsman, of Surrey; Uluric the huntsman, of Hampshire, who were not deprived of their lands, their occupations being useful to the king.

The list of despoiled landowners is a long one, and need not here be recorded. One Brictric was very unfortunate. When ambassador to Baldwin of Flanders he refused to marry the count's daughter Maud. The slighted lady became the Conqueror's consort, and in revenge for her despised love caused Brictric to be imprisoned and his estates confiscated, some of which were given to the queen. The luckless relations and connections of the late royal house were consistently despoiled, amongst them Editha, the beautiful queen of King Edward, and daughter of Earl Godwin, of whom it was written: "Sicut spina rosam genuit Godwynus Editham"; and Gida, the mother of Harold; Godric, his son; and Gwith, his brother. Harold himself—the earl, as he is called, and not the king, who fought and died at Senlac, if he did not, as the romance states, end his life as a holy hermit at Chester—had vast estates all over England, which went to enrich William's hungry followers. Hereward the Wake, the English hero, also held in pre-Norman days many fat manors. Few of the Saxon landowners were spared, and it is unnecessary here to record the names of the Uchtreds, Turgots, Turchils, Siwards, Leurics, who held lands "in the time of King Edward," but whose place after Domesday knows them no more.

Domesday tells us also the names of the officers and artisans who played important parts in the old village communities. The villani, or villeins, corresponding to the Saxon ceorls, were the most important class of tenants in villeinage, and each held about thirty acres in scattered acre or half-acre strips, each a furlong in length and a perch or two in breadth, separated by turf balks. The villein thus supported himself and his family, and in return was bound to render certain services to the lord of the manor, to work on the home farm, and provide two or more oxen for the manorial plough-team. He was not a free tenant, could acquire no property, and his lord's consent was needed for the marriage of his daughters. But the law protected him from unjust usage; his holdings were usually regranted to his son. He could obtain freedom in several ways, and by degrees acquired the rights and privileges of a free tenant.

Next to the villeins were the bordarii, who lived in bords or cottages, i.e. boarded or wooden huts, and ranked as a lower grade of villeins. They held about five acres, but provided no oxen for the manorial plough-team. Below them were the cottarii, or cottiers, who were bound to do domestic work and supply the lord's table. They corresponded to the modern labourer, but lacked his freedom. The lowest class of all were the servi, or serfs, who corresponded to the Saxon theows. In Norman times their condition was greatly improved; they mingled with the cottiers and household servants, and gradually were merged with them.

The sochemanni, or socmen, our yeomen, who abounded chiefly in the Danish district of England, were inferior landowners who had special privileges, and could not be turned out of their holdings, though they rendered certain services to the lord of the manor, and in this respect differed little from the villeins. Domesday Book also mentions a class of men called burs or geburs, who were the same as coliberti; also the commendati, who received privileges in return for services rendered to the lord of the manor.

Each village community was self-contained, and had its own officers. Although Domesday Book was not compiled in order to ascertain the condition of the Church and its ministers, and frequently the mention of a parish church is omitted where we know one existed, the presbyter, or priest, is often recorded. Archbishop Egbert's Excerptiones ordained that "to every church shall be allotted one complete holding (mansa), and that this shall be free from all but ecclesiastical services." According to the Saxon laws every tenth strip of land was set aside for the Church, and Domesday shows that in many villages there was a priest with his portion of land set apart for his support.

Then there was a prepositus, bailiff or reeve, who collected the lord's rents, assisted by a bedellus, beadle or under-bailiff. Bovarii, or oxherds, looked after the plough-teams. The carpentarius, or carpenter; the cementarius, or bricklayer; the custos apium, or beekeeper; the faber, or smith; the molinarius, or miller—were all important officers in the Norman village; and we have mention also of the piscatores (fishermen), pistores (bakers), porcarii (swineherds), viccarii (cowmen), who were all employed in the work of the village community.

Domesday Book enables us to form a fairly complete picture of our villages in Norman and late Saxon times. It tells us of the various classes who peopled the village and farmed its fields. It gives us a complete list of the old Saxon gentry and of the Norman nobles and adventurers who seized the fair acres of the despoiled Englishmen. Many of them gave their names to their new possessions. The Mandevilles settled at Stoke, and called it Stoke-Mandeville; the Vernons at Minshall, and called it Minshall-Vernon. Hurst-Pierpont, Neville-Holt, Kingston-Lysle, Hampstead-Norris, and many other names of places compounded of Saxon and Norman words, record the names of William's followers, who received the reward of their services at the expense of the former Saxon owners. Domesday Book tells us how land was measured in those days, the various tenures and services rendered by the tenants, the condition of the towns, the numerous foreign monasteries which thrived on our English lands, and throws much light on the manners and customs of the people of this country at the time of its compilation. Domesday Book is a perfect storehouse of knowledge for the historian, and requires a lifetime to be spent for its full investigation.



CHAPTER XI

NORMAN CASTLES

Castle-building—Description of Norman castle—A Norman household— Edwardian castles—Border castles—Chepstow—Grosmont—Raglan—Central feature of feudalism—Fourteenth-century castle—Homes of chivalry— Schools of arms—The making of a knight—Tournaments—Jousts—Tilting at a ring—Pageants—"Apollo and Daphne"—Pageants at Sudeley Castle and Kenilworth—Destruction of castles—Castles during Civil War period.

Many an English village can boast of the possession of the ruins of an ancient castle, a gaunt rectangular or circular keep or donjon, looking very stern and threatening even in decay, and mightily convincing of the power of its first occupants. The new masters did not feel very safe in the midst of a discontented and enraged people; so they built these huge fortresses with strong walls and gates and moats. Indeed before the Conquest the Norman knights, to whom the weak King Edward the Confessor granted many an English estate, brought with them the fashion of building castles, and many a strong square tower began to crown the fortified mounds. Thence they could oppress the people in many ways, and the writers of the time always speak of the building of castles with a kind of shudder. After the Conquest, especially during the regency of William's two lieutenants, Bishop Odo and Earl William Fitz-osbern, the Norman adventurers who were rewarded for their services by the gift of many an English manor, built castles everywhere. The wretched men of the land were cruelly oppressed by forced labour in erecting these strongholds, which were filled "with devils and evil men." Over a thousand castles were built in nineteen years, and in his own castle each earl or lord reigned as a small king, coining his own money, making his own laws, having power of life and death over his dependants, and often using his power most violently and oppressively.



The original Norman castle consisted of a keep, "four-square to every wind that blew," standing in a bailey court. It was a mighty place with walls of great thickness about one hundred and fifty feet high. It contained several rooms, one above the other. A deep well supplied the inhabitants with water. Spiral stone steps laid in the thickness of the wall led to the first floor where the soldiers of the garrison resided. Above this was the hall, with a chimney and fireplace, where the lord of the castle and his guests had their meals, and in the thickness of the wall there were numerous chambers used as sleeping-apartments and garderobes, and the existence of a piscina in one of these shows that it was a small chapel or oratory. The upper story was divided by wooden partitions into small sleeping-rooms; and unlike our modern houses, the kitchen was at the top of the keep, and opened on the roof.

Descending some stone steps which led from the ground floor in ancient time we should visit the dungeons, dark, gloomy, and dreadful places, where deep silence reigns, only broken by the groans of despairing captives in the miserable cells. In one of these toads and adders were the companions of the captive. Another poor wretch reposed on a bed of sharp flints, while the torture-chamber echoed with the cries of the victims of mediaeval cruelty, who were hanged by their feet and smoked with foul smoke, or hung up by their thumbs, while burning rings were placed on their feet. In Peak Castle, Derbyshire, a poor, simple squire, one Godfrey Rowland, was confined for six days without either food or drink, and then released from the dungeon with his right hand cut off. In order to extract a heavy ransom, to obtain lands and estates, to learn the secrets of hidden treasure, the most ingenious and devilish tortures were inflicted in these terrible abodes.