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English Villages

by P. H. Ditchfield · English · Gutenberg #9197 · 457,245 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: English Villages

Author: P. H. Ditchfield


        
Release date: August 13, 2004 [eBook #9197]
                Most recently updated: January 2, 2021

Language: English

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        Illustrated HTML version by David Widger


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Produced by Brendan Lane, Beth Trapaga and Distributed Proofreaders.
Illustrated HTML version by David Widger





ENGLISH VILLAGES

BY

P.H. DITCHFIELD
M.A., F.S.A.


TO MY WIFE


PREFACE

Eleven years ago my little book on the antiquities of English villages
was published. Its object was to interest our rustic neighbours in
their surroundings, to record the social life of the people at various
times--their feasts and fairs, sports and pastimes, faiths and
superstitions--and to describe the scenes which once took place in the
fields and lanes they know so well. A friendly reviewer remarked that
the wonder was that a book of that kind had never been written before,
and that that was the first attempt to give a popular and readable
sketch of the history and associations of our villages. In the present
work I have attempted to fill in the sketch with greater detail, and to
write not only for the villagers themselves, but for all those who by
education are able to take a more intelligent interest in the study of
the past.

During the last decade many village histories have been written, and
if this book should be of service to anyone who is compiling the
chronicles of some rural world, or if it should induce some who have
the necessary leisure and ability to undertake such works, it will not
have been written in vain.

One of the most distressing features of modern village life is the
continual decrease of the population. The rural exodus is an alarming
and very real danger to the welfare of social England. The country is
considered dull and life therein dreary both by squire and peasant
alike. Hence the attractions of towns or the delights of travel empty
our villages. The manor-house is closed and labourers are scarce. To
increase the attractions of our villages, to arouse an interest in
their past history and social life, is worth attempting; and perhaps
this Story may be of some use in fostering local patriotism, and in
reconciling those who spend their lives far from the busy hives of men
to their lot, when they find how much interest lies immediately around
them.

The study of archaeology has been pursued with much vigour during
recent years, and increased knowledge has overthrown the many wild
theories and conjectures which were gravely pronounced to be
ascertained facts by the antiquaries of fifty years ago. Gildas,
Geoffrey of Monmouth, or Richard of Cirencester are no longer accepted
as safe and infallible guides. We know that there were such people as
the Druids, but we no longer attribute to them the great stone circles
nor imagine them sacrificing on "Druid's altars," as our forefathers
called the dolmens. The history of Britain no longer begins with the
advent of Julius Caesar, nor is his account of the Celtic tribes and
their manners accepted as a full and complete statement of all that
is known about them. The study of flint implements, of barrows and
earthworks, has considerably thrown back our historical horizon and
enabled us to understand the conditions of life in our island in the
early days of a remote past before the dawn of history. The systematic
excavation of Silchester, so ably conducted by the Society of
Antiquaries, and of other Roman sites of towns and villas, enables us
to realise more clearly the history of Britain under the rule of the
Empire; and the study of the etymology of place-names has overthrown
many of the absurd derivations which found a place in the old county
histories, and are often repeated by the writers of modern guide books.
Moreover patient labour amid old records, rolls, and charters, has
vastly increased our knowledge of the history of manors; and the
ancient parish registers and churchwardens' account books have been
made to yield their store of information for the benefit of industrious
students and scholars. There has been much destruction and much
construction; and this good work will doubtless continue, until at
length English archaeology may be dignified with the title of an exact
science. Destruction of another kind is much to be deplored, which has
left its mark on many an English village. The so-called "restoration"
of ancient parish churches, frequently conducted by men ignorant of the
best traditions of English architecture, the obliteration of the old
architectural features, the entire destruction of many interesting
buildings, have wrought deplorable ruin in our villages, and severed
the links with the past which now can never be repaired. The progress
of antiquarian knowledge will I trust arrest the destroyer's hand and
prevent any further spoliation of our diminished inheritance. If this
book should be found useful in stimulating an intelligent interest in
architectural studies, and in protecting our ancient buildings from
such acts of vandalism, its purpose will have been abundantly achieved.

I am indebted to many friends and acquaintances for much information
which has been useful to me in writing this book; to Sir John Evans
whose works are invaluable to all students of ancient stone and bronze
implements; to Dr. Cox whose little book on _How to Write the History
of a Parish_ is a sure and certain guide to local historians; to Mr.
St. John Hope and Mr. Fallow for much information contained in their
valuable monograph on _Old Church Plate_; to the late Dr. Stevens, of
Reading; to Mr. Shrubsole of the same town; to Mr. Gibbins, the author
of _The Industrial History of England_, for the use of an illustration
from his book; to Mr. Melville, Mr. P.J. Colson, and the Rev. W.
Marshall for their photographic aid; and to many other authors who are
only known to me by their valuable works. To all of these gentlemen I
desire to express my thanks, and also to Mr. Mackintosh for his
artistic sketch of a typical English village, which forms the
frontispiece of my book.

P.H.D.

BARKHAM RECTORY
_May_, 1901


CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I.     INTRODUCTION
II.    PREHISTORIC REMAINS
III.   TUMULI OR BARROWS
IV.    PIT AND PILE DWELLINGS
V.     CROMLECHS, CAMPS, AND EARTHWORKS
VI.    ROMAN RELICS
VII.   ANGLO-SAXON VILLAGES
VIII.  SAXON RELICS
IX.    ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE
X.     NORMAN VILLAGES AND THE "DOMESDAY BOOK"
XI.    NORMAN CASTLES
XII.   MONASTERIES
XIII.  THE MANOR-HOUSE
XIV.   PARISH CHURCHES
XV.    CHURCH PLATE
XVI.   MONUMENTAL EFFIGIES AND BRASSES
XVII.  THE PARISH CHEST
XVIII. STAINED GLASS, TILES, AND MURAL PAINTINGS
XIX.   CHURCH BELLS
XX.    THE MEDIAEVAL VILLAGE
XXI.   VILLAGE SPORTS AND PASTIMES
XXII.  THE VILLAGE INN
XXIII. VILLAGE SUPERSTITIONS AND FOLKLORE

       APPENDIX--BOOKS AND DOCUMENTS RELATING TO
       PAROCHIAL HISTORY

       INDEX


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FULL-PAGE

An English village
Village street
Palaeolithic implements
Neolithic and bronze implements
Old market cross
Broughton Castle
Netley Abbey, south transept
Southcote Manor, showing moat and pigeon-house
Old Manor-house--Upton Court
Stone Tithe Barn, Bradford-on-Avon
Village church in the Vale
An ancient village
Anne Hathaway's cottage
Old stocks and whipping-post
Village inn, with old Tithe Barn of Reading Abbey
Old cottages

IN THE TEXT

Barbed and leaf-shaped arrow-heads
Plan of a tumulus
Plan of tumulus called Wayland Smith's Cave, Berkshire
Celtic cinerary urn
Articles found in pit dwellings
Iron spear-head found at Hedsor
Menhir
Rollright stones (from Camden's _Britannia_, 1607)
Dolmen
Plan and section of Chun Castle
The White Horse at Uffington
Plan of Silchester
Capital of column
Roman force-pump
Tesselated pavement
Beating acorns for swine (from the Cotton MS., _Nero_, c. 4)
House of Saxon thane
Wheel plough (from the Bayeux tapestry)
Smithy (from the Cotton MS., B 4)
Saxon relics
Consecration of a Saxon church
Tower of Barnack Church, Northamptonshire
Doorway, Earl's Barton Church
Tower window, Monkwearmouth Church
Sculptured head of doorway, Fordington Church, Dorset
Norman capitals
Norman ornamental mouldings
Croyland Abbey Church, Lincolnshire
Semi-Norman arch, Church of St. Cross
Early English piers and capitals
Dog-tooth ornament
Brownsover Chapel, Warwickshire
Ball-flower mouldings, Tewkesbury Abbey
Ogee arch
Decorated capitals, Hanwell and Chacombe
Decorated windows, Merton College Chapel; Sandiacre, Derbyshire
Decorated mouldings, Elton, Huntingdonshire; Austrey, Warwickshire
Perpendicular window, Merton College Chapel, Oxford
Tudor arch, vestry door, Adderbury Church, Oxon
Perpendicular parapet, St. Erasmus' Chapel, Westminster Abbey
Perpendicular moulding, window, Christchurch, Oxford
Diagram of a manor
Ancient plan of Old Sarum
A Norman castle
Tournament
A monk transcribing
Ockwells manor-house
Richmond Palace
Doorway and staircase, Ufton Court
The porch, Ufton Court
Window of south wing, Ufton Court
Ancient pew-work, Tysoe Church, Warwickshire
Early English screen, Thurcaston, Leicestershire
Norman piscina, Romsey Church, Hants
Lowside window, Dallington Church, Northamptonshire
Reading-pew, seventeenth century, Langley Chapel, Salop.
Chalice and paten, Sandford, Oxfordshire
Pre-Reformation plate
Censer or thurible
Mural paintings
Ancient sanctus bell found at Warwick




CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Local histories--Ignorance and destruction--Advantages of the study
of village antiquities--Description of an English village--The church--
The manor-house--Prehistoric people--Later inhabitants--Saxons--Village
inn--Village green--Legends.


To write a complete history of any village is one of the hardest literary
labours which anyone can undertake. The soil is hard, and the crop after
the expenditure of much toil is often very scanty. In many cases the
records are few and difficult to discover, buried amidst the mass of
papers at the Record Office, or entombed in some dusty corner of the
Diocesan Registry. Days may be spent in searching for these treasures
of knowledge with regard to the past history of a village without any
adequate result; but sometimes fortune favours the industrious toiler,
and he discovers a rich ore which rewards him for all his pains. Slowly
his store of facts grows, and he is at last able to piece together the
history of his little rural world, which time and the neglect of past
generations had consigned to dusty oblivion.

In recent years several village histories have been written with varied
success by both competent and incompetent scribes; but such books are few
in number, and we still have to deplore the fact that so little is known
about the hamlets in which we live. All writers seem to join in the same
lament, and mourn over the ignorance that prevails in rural England with
regard to the treasures of antiquity, history, and folklore, which are to
be found almost everywhere. We may still echo the words of the learned
author of _Tom Brown's Schooldays_, the late Mr. Hughes, who said that
the present generation know nothing of their own birthplaces, or of the
lanes, woods, and fields through which they roam. Not one young man in
twenty knows where to find the wood-sorrel, or the bee-orchis; still
fewer can tell the country legends, the stories of the old gable-ended
farmhouses, or the place where the last skirmish was fought in the Civil
War, or where the parish butts stood. Nor is this ignorance confined to
the unlearned rustics; it is shared by many educated people, who have
travelled abroad and studied the history of Rome or Venice, Frankfort or
Bruges, and yet pass by unheeded the rich stores of antiquarian lore,
which they witness every day, and never think of examining closely and
carefully. There are very few villages in England which have no objects
of historical interest, no relics of the past which are worthy of
preservation. "Restoration," falsely so called, conducted by ignorant
or perverse architects, has destroyed and removed many features of our
parish churches; the devastating plough has well-nigh levelled many an
ancient barrow; railroads have changed the character of rustic life and
killed many an old custom and rural festival. Old legends and quaint
stories of the countryside have given place to talks about politics and
newspaper gossip. But still much remains if we learn to examine things
for ourselves, and endeavour to gather up the relics of the past and save
them from the destructive hand of Time.

A great service may thus be rendered not only to the cause of history,
but also to the villagers of rural England, by those who have time,
leisure, and learning, sufficient to gain some knowledge of bygone times.
It adds greatly to the interest of their lives to know something of the
place where they live; and it has been well said that every man's concern
with his native place has something more in it than the amount of rates
and taxes that he has to pay. He may not be able to write a history of
his parish, but he can gather up the curious gossip of the neighbourhood,
the traditions and stories which have been handed down from former
generations. And if anyone is at the pains to acquire some knowledge of
local history, and will impart what he knows to his poorer neighbours, he
will add greatly to their interest in life. Life is a burden, labour mere
drudgery, when a man has nothing in which he can interest himself. When
we remember the long hours which an agricultural labourer spends alone,
without a creature to speak to, except his horses or the birds, we can
imagine how dull his life must be, if his mind be not occupied. But here,
on his own ground, he may find an endless supply of food for thought,
which will afford him much greater pleasure and satisfaction than
thinking and talking about his neighbours' faults, reflecting upon his
wrongs, or imitating the example of one of his class who, when asked
by the squire what he was thinking so deeply about, replied, "Mostly
naught." To remove the pall of ignorance that darkens the rustic mind,
to quicken his understanding and awaken his interest, are certainly
desirable objects; although his ignorance is very often shared by his
betters, who frequently hazard very strange theories and manifest many
curious ideas with regard to village antiquities.

We will walk together through the main roads of the village, and observe
some of its many points of interest. Indeed, it is no small thing to live
in such a "city of memories" as every village is, when at every turn and
corner we meet with something that reminds us of the past, and recalls
the pleasing associations of old village life. To those who have lived
amid the din and turmoil of a large town, where everybody is in a hurry,
and there is nothing but noise, confusion, and bustle, the delicious
calm and quietude of an old English village, undisturbed by the world's
rude noise, is most grateful. But to live in memory of what has gone
before, of the lives and customs of our forefathers, of the strange
events that have happened on the very ground upon which we are standing,
all this will make us love our village homes and delight in them
exceedingly. In most of our large towns the old features are fast
disappearing; historical houses have been pulled down to make room
for buildings more adapted to present needs, and everything is being
modernised; but in the country everything remains the same, and it is
not so difficult to let one's thoughts wander into the past, and picture
to one's self the old features of village life in bygone times.

Most of our villages have the usual common features, and it is not
difficult to describe a typical example, though the details vary very
much, and the histories of no two villages are identical. We see arising
above the trees the church, the centre of the old village life, both
religious, secular, and social. It stands upon a site which has been
consecrated to the service of God for many centuries. There is possibly
in or near the churchyard a tumulus, or burial mound, which shows that
the spot was set apart for some religious observances even before
Christianity reached our shores. Here the early Saxon missionary planted
his cross and preached in the open air to the gathered villagers. Here
a Saxon thane built a rude timber church which was supplanted by an
early Norman structure of stone with round arches and curiously carved
ornamentation. This building has been added to at various times, and now
shows, writ in stone, its strange and varied history. The old time-worn
registers, kept in the parish chest in the vestry, breathe the
atmosphere of bygone times, and tell the stories and romances of the
"rude forefathers of the hamlet." The tombs and monuments of knights and
ancient heroes tell many a tale of valour and old-world prowess, of
families that have entirely died out, of others that still happily
remain amongst us, and record the names and virtues of many an
illustrious house. The windows, brasses, bells, and inscriptions, have
all some interesting story to relate, which we hope presently to examine
more minutely.

Nestling amid the trees we see the manor-house, standing probably on the
site of a much older edifice; and this building carries our thoughts back
to the Saxon and early Norman times, when the lord of the manor had
vassals and serfs under him, held his manorial court, and reigned as a
king in his own small domain. The history of the old English manor is a
very important one, concerning which much has been written, many
questions disputed, and some points still remain to be decided.

Then we notice an old farmhouse which has doubtless seen better days, for
there are the remains of an ancient moat around it, as if some family of
importance once lived there, and wished to guard themselves and their
possessions from troublesome visitors. This moat tells of the times of
war and lawlessness, of wild and fierce animals roaming the countryside;
and if the walls of the old house could speak how many stories could they
tell of the strange customs of our ancestors, of bread riots, of civil
wars, and disturbances which once destroyed the tranquillity of our
peaceful villages!

We shall endeavour to discover the earliest inhabitants of our villages
who left their traces behind in the curious stone and bronze weapons of
war or domestic implements, and who lived in far remote periods before
the dawn of history. The barrows, or tumuli, which contain their dead
bodies tell us much about them; and also the caves and lake dwellings
help us to form some very accurate notions of the conditions of life in
those distant days. We shall see that the Britons or Celts were far from
being the naked woad-dyed savages described by Caesar, whose account has
so long been deemed sufficient by the historians of our childhood. We
shall call to mind the many waves of invaders which rolled over our
country--the Celts, the Romans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans--all of whom
have left some traces behind them, and added sundry chapters to the story
of our villages.

The fields too proclaim their story, and tell us of the Saxon folk who
were our first farmers, and made clearings in the forests, and tilled the
same soil we work to-day. They tell us too of the old monks who knew so
much about agriculture; and occasionally the plough turns up a rusty
sword or cannon ball, which reveals the story of battles and civil wars
which we trust have passed away from our land for ever. The very names of
the fields are not without signification, and tell us of animals which
are now extinct, of the manners of our forefathers, of the old methods of
farming, and the common lands which have passed away.

The old village inn, with its curiously painted signboard, has its own
story to tell, of the old coaching days, and of the great people who used
to travel along the main roads, and were sometimes snowed up in a drift
just below "The Magpie," which had always good accommodation for
travellers, and stabling for fifty horses. All was activity in the stable
yard when the coach came in; the villagers crowded round the inn doors to
see the great folks from London who were regaling themselves with
well-cooked English joints; and if they stayed all night, could find
comfortable beds with lavender-scented sheets, and every attention. But
the railroads and iron steeds have changed all that; until yesterday the
roads were deserted, and the glory of the old inns departed. Bicyclists
now speed along in the track of the old coaches; but they are not quite
so picturesque, and the bicycle bell is less musical than the cheerful
posthorn.

On the summit of a neighbouring hill we see a curious formation which is
probably an earthwork, constructed many centuries ago by the early
dwellers in this district for the purpose of defence in dangerous times,
when the approach of a neighbouring tribe, or the advance of a company of
free-booting invaders, threatened them with death or the destruction of
their flocks and herds. These earthworks we shall examine more closely.
An ivy-covered ruin near the church shows the remains of a monastic cell
or monastery; and in the distance perhaps we can see the outlines of an
old Norman keep or castle; all of these relate to the story of our
villages, and afford us subjects for investigation and research.

Then there is the village green where so many generations of the
villagers have disported themselves, danced the old country dances
(now alas! forgotten), and reared the merry May-pole, and crowned
their queen. Here they held their rural sports, and fought their bouts
of quarter-staff and cudgel-play, grinned through horse-collars, and
played pipe and tabor at many a rustic feast, when life was young and
England merry. We shall try to picture to ourselves these happy scenes
of innocent diversion which cheered the hearts of our forefathers in
bygone times.

[Illustration: A VILLAGE STREET]

We will try to collect the curious legends and stories which were told to
us by our grandsires, and are almost forgotten by the present generation.
These we should treasure up, lest they should be for ever lost. Local
tradition has often led the way to important discoveries.

In this brief circuit of an ordinary English village we have found many
objects which are calculated to excite our imagination and to stimulate
inquiry. A closer examination will well repay our study, and reward the
labour of the investigator. It is satisfactory to know that all possible
discoveries as to the antiquities of our villages have not yet been made.
We have still much to learn, and the earth has not yet disclosed all its
treasures. Roman villas still remain buried; the sepulchres of many a
Saxon chieftain or early nomad Celt are still unexplored; the pile
dwellings and cave domiciles of the early inhabitants of our country have
still to be discovered; and piles of records and historical documents
have still to be sought out, arranged, and examined. So there is much
work to be done by the antiquary for many a long year; and every little
discovery, and the results of every patient research, assist in
accumulating that store of knowledge which is gradually being compiled
by the hard labour of our English historians and antiquaries.




CHAPTER II

PREHISTORIC REMAINS

Pytheas of Marseilles--Discovery of flint implements--Geological
changes--Palaeolithic man--Eslithic--Palaeolithic implements--
Drift men--Cave men--Neolithic man and his weapons--Dolichocephalic--
Celtic or Brachycephalic race--The Iron Age.


It was customary some years ago to begin the history of any country with
the statement, "Of the early inhabitants nothing is known with any
certainty," and to commence the history of England with the landing of
Julius Caesar B.C. 55. If this book had been written forty or fifty
years ago it might have been stated that our first knowledge of Britain
dates from 330 B.C. when Pytheas of Marseilles visited it, and described
his impressions. He says that the climate was foggy, a characteristic
which it has not altogether lost, that the people cultivated the ground
and used beer and mead as beverages. Our villagers still follow the
example of their ancestors in their use of one at least of these drinks.

Of the history of all the ages prior to the advent of this Pytheas all
written record is silent. Hence we have to play the part of scientific
detectives, examine the footprints of the early man who inhabited our
island, hunt for odds and ends which he has left behind, to rake over
his kitchen middens, pick up his old tools, and even open his burial
mound.

About fifty years ago the attention of the scientific world was drawn to
the flint implements which were scattered over the surface of our fields
and in our gravel pits and mountain caves; and inquiring minds began
to speculate as to their origin. The collections made at Amiens and
Abbeville and other places began to convince men of the existence of an
unknown and unimagined race, and it gradually dawned on us that on our
moors and downs were the tombs of a race of men who fashioned their
weapons of war and implements of peace out of flint. These discoveries
have pushed back our knowledge of man to an antiquity formerly never
dreamed of, and enlarged considerably our historical horizon. So we will
endeavour to discover what kind of men they were, who roamed our fields
and woods before any historical records were written, and mark the very
considerable traces of their occupation which they have left behind.

The condition of life and the character and climate of the country were
very different in early times from what they are in the present day; and
in endeavouring to discover the kind of people who dwelt here in
prehistoric times, we must hear what the geologists have to tell us
about the physical aspect of Britain in that period. There was a time
when this country was connected with the Continent of Europe, and the
English Channel and North Sea were mere valleys with rivers running
through them fed by many streams. Where the North Sea now rolls there
was the great valley of the Rhine; and as there were no ocean-waves to
cross, animals and primitive man wandered northwards and westwards from
the Continent, and made their abode here. It is curious to note that the
migratory birds when returning to France and Italy, and thence to the
sunny regions of Algiers and other parts of Northern Africa, always
cross the seas where in remote ages there was dry land. They always
traverse the same route; and it appears that the recollection of the
places where their ancestors crossed has been preserved by them through
all the centuries that have elapsed since "the silver streak" was formed
that severs England from her neighbours.

In the times of which we are speaking the land was much higher than it
is now. Snowdon was 600 feet greater, and the climate was much colder
and more rigorous. Glaciers like those in Switzerland were in all the
higher valleys, and the marks of the action of the ice are still plainly
seen on the rocky cliffs that border many a ravine. Moreover we find in
the valleys many detached rocks, immense boulders, the nature of which
is quite different from the character of the stone in the neighbourhood.
These were carried down by the glaciers from higher elevations, and
deposited, when the ice melted, in the lower valleys. Hence in this
glacial period the condition of the country was very different from what
it is now.

Then a remarkable change took place. The land began to sink, and its
elevation so much decreased that the central part of the country became
a huge lake, and the peak of Snowdon was an island surrounded by the sea
which washed with its waves the lofty shoulder of the mountain. This is
the reason why shells and shingle are found in high elevations. The Ice
Age passed away and the climate became warmer. The Gulf Stream found its
way to our shores, and the country was covered by a warm ocean having
islands raising their heads above the surface. Sharks swam around, whose
teeth we find now buried in beds of clay. The land continued to rise,
and attracted by the sunshine and the more genial clime animals from the
Continent wandered northwards, and with them came man. Caves, now high
amongst the hills, but then on a level with the rivers, were his first
abode, and contain many relics of his occupancy, together with the bones
of extinct animals. The land appears to have risen, and the climate
became colder. The sea worked its relentless way through the chalk hills
on the south and gradually met the waves of the North Sea which flowed
over the old Rhine valley. It widened also the narrow strait that
severed the country from Ireland, and the outline and contour of the
island began more nearly to resemble that with which we are now
familiar.

A vast period of time was necessary to accomplish all these immense
changes; and it is impossible to speculate with any degree of certainty
how long that period was, which transformed the icebound surface of
our island to a land of verdure and wild forests. We must leave such
conjectures and the more detailed accounts of the glacial and
post-glacial periods to the geologists, as our present concern is
limited to the study of the habits and condition of the men who roamed
our fields and forests in prehistoric times. Although no page of history
gives us any information concerning them, we can find out from the
relics of arms and implements which the earth has preserved for us, what
manner of men lived in the old cave dwellings, or constructed their rude
huts, and lie buried beneath the vast barrows.

The earliest race of men who inhabited our island was called the
Palaeolithic race, from the fact that they used the most ancient form
of stone implements. Traces of a still earlier race are said to have
been discovered a few years ago on the chalk plateau of the North Down,
near Sevenoaks. The flints have some slight hollows in them, as if
caused by scraping, and denote that the users must have been of a very
low condition of intelligence--able to use a tool but scarcely able to
make one. This race has been called the Eolithic; but some antiquaries
have thrown doubts upon their existence, and the discovery of these
flints is too recent to allow us to speak of them with any degree of
certainty.

[Illustration: PALAEOLITHIC IMPLEMENTS]

The traces of Palaeolithic man are very numerous, and he evidently
exercised great skill in bringing his implements to a symmetrical shape
by chipping. The use of metals for cutting purposes was entirely
unknown; and stone, wood, and bone were the only materials of which
these primitive beings availed themselves for the making of weapons or
domestic implements. Palaeolithic man lived here during that distant
period when this country was united with the Continent, and when the
huge mammoth roamed in the wild forests, and powerful and fierce animals
struggled for existence in the hills and vales of a cold and inclement
country. His weapons and tools were of the rudest description, and made
of chipped flint. Many of these have been found in the valley gravels,
which had probably been dropped from canoes into the lakes or rivers, or
washed down by floods from stations on the shore. Eighty or ninety feet
above the present level of the Thames in the higher gravels are these
relics found; and they are so abundant that the early inhabitants who
used them must have been fairly numerous. Their shape is usually oval,
and often pointed into a rude resemblance of the shape of a spear-head.
Some flint-flakes are of the knifelike character; others resemble awls,
or borers, with sharp points evidently for making holes in skins for the
purpose of constructing a garment. Hammer-stones for crushing bones,
tools with well-wrought flat edges, scrapers, and other implements, were
the stock-in-trade of the earliest inhabitant of our country, and are
distinguishable from those used by Neolithic man by their larger and
rougher work. The maker of the old stone tools never polished his
implements; nor did he fashion any of those finely wrought arrowheads
and javelin points, upon which his successor prided himself. The latter
discovered that the flints which were dug up were more easily fashioned
into various shapes; whereas Palaeolithic man picked up the flints that
lay about on the surface of the ground, and chipped them into the form
of his rude tools. However, the elder man was acquainted with the use
of fire, which he probably obtained by striking flints on blocks of
iron pyrites. Wandering about the country in families and tribes, he
contrived to exist by hunting the numerous animals that inhabited the
primeval forests, and has left us his weapons and tools to tell us what
kind of man he was. His implements are found in the drift gravels by
the riversides; and from this cause his race are known as drift men,
in order to distinguish them from the _cave men_, who seem to have
belonged to a little later period.

The first dwellings of man were the caves on the hillsides, before he
found out the art of building pile huts. In Palaeolithic times these
caves were inhabited by a rude race of feral nomads who lived by the
chase, and fashioned the rude tools which we have already described.
They were, however, superior to the drift men, and had some notion of
art. The principal caves in the British islands containing the relics of
the cave folk are the following: Perthichoaren, Denbighshire, wherein
were found the remains of Platycnemic man--so named from his having
sharp shin-bones; Cefn, St. Asaph; Uphill, Somerset; King's Scar and the
Victoria Cave, Settle; Robin Hood's Cave and Pinhole Cave, Derbyshire;
Black Rock, Caldy Island, Coygan Caves, Pembrokeshire; King Arthur's
Cave, Monmouth; Durdham Downs, Bristol; and sundry others, near Oban, in
the valleys of the Trent, Dove, and Nore, and of the Irish Blackwater,
and in Caithness.

In these abodes the bones of both men and animals have been found; but
these do not all belong to the same period, as the Neolithic people,
and those of the Bronze and Iron Ages, followed the occupation of the
earlier race. The remains of the different races, however, lie at
various depths, those of the earlier race naturally lying the lowest. An
examination of the Victoria Cave, Settle, clearly shows this. Outside
the entrance there was found a layer of charcoal and burnt bones, and
the burnt stones of fireplaces, pottery, coins of the Emperors Trajan
and Constantine, and ornaments in bone, ivory, bronze and enamel. The
animal remains were those of the _bos longifrons_ (Celtic ox), pig,
horse, roe, stag, fowl (wild), and grouse. This layer was evidently
composed of the relics of a Romano-British people. Below this were found
chipped flints, an adze of melaphyre, and a layer of boulders, sand, and
clay, brought down by the ice from the higher valley.

Inside the cave in the upper cave earth were found the bones of fox,
badger, brown bear, grizzly bear, reindeer, red deer, horse, pig, and
goat, and some bones evidently hacked by man. In the lower cave earth
there were the remains of the hyena, fox, brown and grizzly bears,
elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, urus, bison, and red deer, the
hacked bones of a goat, and a small leg-bone of a man.

Some idea of the time which has elapsed since primitive man inhabited
this rude dwelling may be formed from these excavations. Two feet below
the surface lay the Romano-British layer, and we know therefore that
about 1,600 years was required for the earth to accumulate to that
depth. The Neolithic layer was six feet below this; hence 4,800 years
would be necessary to form this depth of earth. So we may conclude that
at least 6,400 years ago Neolithic man used the cave. A long time
previous to this lived the creatures of the lower cave earth, the bison,
elephant, and the hyena with the solitary human bone, which belonged to
the sharp-shinned race (Platycnemic) of beings, the earliest dwellers in
our country.

It is doubtful whether Palaeolithic man has left any descendants. The
Esquimaux appear to somewhat resemble them. Professor Boyd Dawkins, in
his remarkable book, _Cave Hunting_, traces this relationship in the
character of implements, methods of obtaining food and cooking it, modes
of preparing skins for clothing, and particularly in the remarkable
skill of depicting figures on bone which both races display. In carving
figures on bone and teeth early man in Britain was certainly more
skilful than his successor; but he was a very inferior type of the human
race, yet his intelligence and mode of life have been deemed not lower
than those of the Australian aborigines.

The animals which roamed through the country in this Pleistocene period
were the elk and reindeer, which link us on to the older and colder
period when Arctic conditions prevailed; the Irish deer, a creature of
great size whose head weighed about eighty pounds; bison, elephant,
rhinoceros, hippopotamus, lion, wolf, otter, bear, horse, red deer, roe,
urus or gigantic ox, the short-horned ox (_bos longifrons_), boar,
badger and many others which survive to the present day, and have
therefore a very long line of ancestors.

The successor of the old stone implement maker was Neolithic man, to
whom we have already had occasion to refer. Some lengthy period of
geological change separates him from his predecessor of the Old Stone
Age. Specimens of his handiwork show that he was a much more civilised
person than his predecessor, and presented a much higher type of
humanity. He had a peculiarly shaped head, the back part of the skull
being strangely prolonged; and from this feature he is called
_dolichocephalic_. He was small in stature, about 5 feet 6 inches in
height, having a dark complexion, and his descendants are the Iberian or
Basque races in the Western Pyrenees and may still be traced in parts of
Ireland and Wales. The long barrows or mounds, the length of which is
greater than the breadth, contain his remains, and we find traces of his
existence in all the western countries of Europe.

He had made many discoveries which were unknown to his Old Stone
predecessor. Instead of always hunting for his food, like an animal, he
found out that the earth would give him corn with which he could make
bread, if only he took the trouble to cultivate it. Instead of always
slaying animals, he found that some were quite ready to be his servants,
and give him milk and wool and food. He brought with him to our shores
cows and sheep and goats, horses and dogs. Moreover he made pottery,
moulding the clay with his hand, and baking it in a fire. He had not
discovered the advantages of a kiln. He could spin thread, and weave
stuffs, though he usually wore garments of skins.

His dwellings were no longer the caves and forests, for he made for
himself rude pit huts, and surrounded himself, his tribe, and cattle
with a circular camp. Traces of his agricultural operations may still be
found in the "terraces," or strips of ground on hillsides, which
preserve the marks of our early Neolithic farmers.

[Illustration: BARBED AND LEAF-SHAPED ARROW-HEADS]

Their implements are far superior to those of the Old Stone men, and are
found on the surface of our fields, or on hillsides, where they tended
their flocks, or dug their rude pit shelters. Their weapons and tools
are highly polished, and have evidently been ground on a grindstone.
They are adapted for an endless variety of uses, and are most skilfully
and beautifully fashioned. There are finely wrought arrowheads, of three
shapes--barbed, tanged and barbed, and leaf-shaped; axes, scrapers for
cleansing and preparing skins for clothing, hammer stones, wedges,
drills, borers, knives, and many other tools. In the Reading Museum may
be seen a heavy quartzite axe and chipped flint hatchet, which were
found with some charred timber on an island in the Thames, and were
evidently used for scooping out the interior of a boat from a tree with
the aid of fire. So this New Stone man knew how to make boats as well as
a vast number of other things of which we shall presently speak more
particularly. His descendants linger on in South Wales and Ireland, and
are short in stature, dark in complexion, and narrow-skulled, like their
forefathers a few thousand years ago.

[Illustration: NEOLITHIC AND BRONZE IMPLEMENTS]

Another wave of invaders swept over our land, and overcame the
long-headed Neolithic race. These were the Celtic people, taller and
stronger than their predecessors, and distinguished by their fair hair
and rounded skulls. From the shape of their heads they are called
Brachycephalic, and are believed to have belonged to the original Aryan
race, whose birthplace was Southern Asia. At some remote period this
wave of invaders poured over Europe and Asia, and has left traces behind
it in the languages of all Indo-European nations.

Their weapons were made of bronze, although they still used polished
stone implements also. We find chisels, daggers, rings, buttons, and
spear-heads, all made of bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, and
fashioned by the skilled hands of these early Celtic folk. As they
became more civilised, being of an inventive mind, they discovered the
use of iron and found it a more convenient metal for fashioning axes to
cut down trees.

When Caesar came to Britain he found that the inhabitants knew the use
of iron, even the less civilised early Celtic settlers driven northwards
and westwards by the Belgae, had iron weapons, and the wild Caledonians
in the time of Severus, although they were naked, woad-dyed savages,
wore iron collars and girdles and were armed with metal weapons.

Such are some of the relics of antiquity which the soil of our native
land retains, as a memorial of the primitive people who first trod upon
it. Concerning their lives and records history is silent, until the
Conqueror tells us something of our Celtic forefathers. From the scanty
remains of prehistoric races, their weapons and tools, we can gather
something of the earliest inhabitants of our island, and try to realise
their habits and mode of life.




CHAPTER III

TUMULI OR BARROWS

Barrows near churchyards--Their universality--Contents--Food in
barrows--Curious burial customs--Belief in future life--Long and
round barrows--Interior of barrow--Position of bodies--Cremation--
Burial urns--Articles of dress and ornament--Artistic workmanship--
Pottery--Remains of agriculture--Organised condition of society
among prehistoric people.


Throughout the country we find many artificial mounds which are called
_tumuli_ or barrows, or in the neighbourhood of Wales, "tumps." These
are the ancient burial-places of the early inhabitants of our island,
the word "barrow" being derived from the Anglo-Saxon _beorh_, a hill or
grave-mound. It is not unusual to see a barrow in the centre, or near,
an old churchyard, as at Taplow, Bucks. The church was built, of course,
much later than the erection of the mound; but doubtless the early
preachers of the gospel took advantage of the reverence which was paid
to these ancient tombs, proclaimed there the story of the cross, and on
the spots so consecrated churches were ultimately built.

These mounds have much to tell us of the early inhabitants. To cover the
dead with a mound of earth was a custom common to all nations. All over
Europe, in Northern Asia, India, and in the new world of America, we
find burial-mounds. The pyramids of Egypt are only glorified mounds; and
our islands can boast of an endless variety, sometimes consisting of
cairns, or heaps of stones, sometimes of huge hills of earth, 130 feet
in height, as at Silbury, Wilts, and covering five acres; while others
are only small heaps of soil a few feet high.

The contents of the tumuli differ also. Sometimes the bodies were burnt
and the ashes preserved in rude urns; sometimes they were not cremated.
Sometimes they were buried in stone cists, or in the hollowed trunk of
trees; sometimes without any covering save that of the earth. In nearly
all cases we find numerous articles buried with the dead, such as
personal ornaments, weapons, pottery, and food.

The presence of food in the tumuli testifies to the natural instinct
implanted by the Creator in the human heart with regard to a future
existence. The idea that the soul of the departed is about to take a
long journey is constant and deeply rooted; the rainbow and the milky
way have often been supposed to be the paths trod by the departed, who
require sustenance for so long a journey. The Aztecs laid a water-bottle
beside the bodies to be used on the way to Mictlan, the land of the
dead. Bow and arrows, a pair of mocassins with a spare piece of deerskin
to patch them if they wear out, and sinews of deer to sew on the patches
with, together with a kettle and provisions, are still placed in the
graves by the North American Indians. The Laplanders lay beside the
corpse flint, steel, and tinder, to supply light for the dark journey. A
coin was placed in the mouth of the dead by the Greeks to pay Charon,
the ferryman of the Styx, and for a similar purpose in the hand of a
deceased Irishman. The Greenlanders bury with a child a dog, for they
say a dog will find his way anywhere. In the grave of the Viking warrior
were buried his horn and armour in order that he might enter the halls
of Valhalla fully equipped.

These and many other examples might be quoted showing the universality
of the belief in a future life, a belief that was evidently shared with
other nations by the primeval races who inhabited our islands in
prehistoric times.

The presence of food and drinking vessels in the tumuli clearly shows
this, and also the store of weapons and implements, adzes, hammers,
scrapers, and other tools which the barrows have preserved through so
many ages.

These barrows are not confined to one period or one race, as their shape
denotes. Some are long, measuring 200 to 400 feet in length by 60 or 80
feet wide; others are circular. The former were made by the long-headed
(dolichocephalic) race of whom we have already spoken; the latter by the
round-headed (brachycephalic), conquerors of their feebler long-skulled
forerunners. When we consider the poor tools used by these primitive
peoples, we may wonder at the amount of labour they must have expended
on the construction of these giant mounds. Picks made of deer's horns
and pointed staves enabled them to loosen the earth which was then
collected in baskets and thrown on the rising heap. Countless toilers
and many years must have been needed to produce such wonderful memorials
of their industry.

[Illustration: PLAN OF A TUMULUS]

With better tools we will proceed to dig into these mounds and discover
what they contain. First we notice an encircling trench and mound
surrounding the barrow, the purpose of which is supposed to have been to
keep the dead person in the tomb, and prevent it from injuring the
living. After much digging in the centre of the barrow we find a single
stone chamber, entered by a passage underneath the higher and wider end
of the mound. Sometimes the chamber is divided into three parts, the
centre one being covered by a dome, formed by the overlapping of the
stones in the upper parts of the walls. The passage leading to the
centre chamber is also built with large stones erected with much care
and skill. The contents of these long barrows are not so interesting, or
numerous, as those contained in the round barrows. The skeletons are
usually found in irregular positions, and few weapons or ornaments
accompany the buried bones. Derbyshire possesses many barrows; wherever
in a place-name the suffix _low_ occurs, derived from the Anglo-Saxon
_hlow_, signifying a small hill or mound, a barrow is generally to be
found. The long barrow is usually about 200 feet in length, 40 feet
wide, and 8 to 12 feet high. They run east and west, frequently
north-east by south-west, the principal interment being usually at the
eastern and higher end. The bodies are often found in a cist or box made
of large stones, and several were buried in one mound, generally on the
south and east sides, so that they might lie in the sun. This practice
may have been connected with sun-worship; and the same idea prevailed in
modern times, when the south side of the churchyard was considered the
favoured portion, and criminals and suicides were relegated to the
colder north side.

[Illustration: PLAN OF TUMULUS CALLED WAYLAND SMITH'S CAVE, BERKSHIRE]

The position of the bodies varied, but usually they were buried in a
crouching position, with knees bent and head drawn towards the knees.
This was probably the natural position which a man would assume when he
slept without a luxurious bed to lie upon, and with little to cover him,
in order to keep himself as warm as possible. Hence when he sank into
his last long sleep, his mourning relatives would place him in the same
posture. In the Channel Islands bodies were often placed in a kneeling
position.

The custom of burning the body seems to have been adopted later by the
same long-headed race who used the long barrows, and prevailed more in
the north of England, in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Scotland, than in
the south. The cremation was sometimes not very thoroughly performed.
The bodies were placed together, wood being piled about them, and over
the heap the mound was raised. Then the fire was lighted, which
naturally only partly consumed the bodies. We find also, mingled with
bones of men and women, the bones of animals, which were probably the
remains of funeral feasts.

As we have said the round-headed race introduced the circular barrow,
and cremation was their usual, though not exclusive, practice. These
people were much stronger and bigger men than their predecessors, their
powerful jaws and projecting chins showing much more power of will than
the softer narrow-faced dolichocephalic race. However, in the round
barrows we also find the bodies of the latter, and we gather that they
were not exterminated or driven out by their conquerors, but mingled
with them, intermarried, until at length the type of the long-skulled
race prevailed, and the Celt of later times possessed the features of
the race he had formerly subdued. At least such seems to be the teaching
of the barrows.

The Celt became acquainted with the use of bronze, and his tomb was
enriched with a store of the relics of the life and art of the
workmanship of the time. As cremation was the usual practice, it was no
longer necessary to have a chamber which the dead might inhabit; the
size of the sleeping-place of the dead was reduced, and a cist was
constructed for the receptacle of the urn in which the remains were
placed. The mound also was reduced in size and looked much less imposing
than the huge barrows of the Stone Age; but its contents were much more
important.

The ashes we find frequently contained in a rude urn of black pottery
with some ornamentation. Then we discover pins made of bones, which were
evidently used to fasten the dress. The people therefore were evidently
not naked, woad-dyed savages; moreover we find bits of woollen fabric
and charred cloth, and in Denmark people belonging to this same early
race were buried in a cap, shirt, leggings, and boots, a fairly complete
wardrobe. They also loved to adorn themselves, and had buttons of jet,
and stone and bone ornaments. Besides flint implements we find adzes and
hatchets and chisels, axe-hammers constructed with a hole in them for
the insertion of a handle, grain rubbers, wheat stones, and hammer
stones. The mounds also disclose a great variety of flint implements,
hatchets, scrapers, both round and long, knife-daggers, knives, saws,
drills, fabricators or flaking tools, sling stones, hammer stones,
polishers, arrow-points, either leaf-shaped, triangular, or barbed, and
heads of darts and javelins. A very curious object is sometimes found, a
stone wrist guard, for the purpose of protecting the wrist from the bow
string.

These barrows and their contents bear evidences to the artistic
workmanship of the prehistoric dwellers in our villages. Their tombs
show that these people did not confine themselves to the fabrication of
objects of utility, but that they loved to adorn themselves with
personal ornaments, which required much art and skill in the
manufacture. Necklaces of beads pleased their fancy, and these they made
of jet, or shells, the teeth of deer, and the vertebrae of fish.
Moreover they loved ear-rings, which were sometimes made of the teeth of
pigs. Objects of gold, bronze, glass, ivory, amber, clay, and bone were
also used as ornaments.

[Illustration: CELTIC CINERARY URN]

If we examine the pottery in the barrows we find that a vessel of
earthenware was usually placed at the back of the head of the body when
it was not cremated. There were also cinerary urns, cups, usually called
incense cups, which were certainly not used for incense, whatever may
have been their purpose, food and drinking vessels. This pottery was not
sun-dried, but burnt in a fire, though not made in a kiln, and the form
of the vessels shows that the makers were ignorant of the use of a
potter's wheel. The ornamentation consisted of a series of straight
lines made by a sharp-pointed instrument and by impressions of the
finger nails or string, often revealing much skill and artistic
workmanship.

From a study of the barrows we may learn much about the early inhabitants
of our island, who lived and worked and died on the same spots where we
now are spending our days. We can see them hunting in the wild woodlands,
rearing cows and sheep and goats, and cultivating their crops of corn.
We can still trace on the hillsides some curious terraces fashioned by
them for the growing of their grain, and discover querns, or hand
millstones, and stones for bruising the corn. The bones of young
oxen a few days old, discovered in the mounds, show that they knew the
use of milk, and how to get a good supply. A rude spindle-whorl shows
that they knew how to weave stuffs for their clothing, and the numerous
buttons, fasteners, and belts prove that the clothes were fitted to the
wearer, and not mere shapeless sacks.

The barrows also bear evidence to the existence of some organised
condition of society. In the early savage state of human existence
the family is the only community; but as man progressed towards
civilisation, he learnt how to combine with his fellows for mutual
defence and support. We gather from our examination of the tombs of
these early races that they had attained to this degree of progress.
There were chiefs of tribes and families who were buried with more
honour than that bestowed upon the humbler folk. Many families were
buried in one mound, showing that the tribal state had been reached,
while the many humbler graves denote the condition of servitude and
dependence in which a large number of the race lived. All this, and
much more, may be learnt from a careful study of the tombs of these
prehistoric people.




CHAPTER IV

PIT AND PILE DWELLINGS

Pit dwelling earliest form of house-building--Discoveries at
Bright-hampton, Worlebury--British oppida--Hurstbourne--Contents of
pit dwelling--Pot-boilers--Condition of civilisation--Pile dwellings--
Switzerland--Glastonbury--Hedsor--Crannogs--Modern use of pile
dwellings--Description of a lake dwelling--Contents--Bronze Age--
Recent discoveries at Glastonbury.


We have examined in our last chapter the abodes of the dead; we will
now investigate the abodes of the living which the earth has preserved
for us for so many centuries. The age of the cave dwellers had long
passed; and the prehistoric folk, having attained to some degree of
civilisation, began to devise for themselves some secure retreats from
inclement rains and cold winds. Perhaps the burrowing rabbit gave them
an idea for providing some dwelling-place. At any rate the earliest and
simplest notion for constructing a habitation was that of digging holes
in the ground and roofing them over with a light thatch. Hence we have
the pit dwellings of our rude forefathers.

Many examples of pit dwellings have been found by industrious explorers.
Some labourers when digging gravel at Brighthampton, near Oxford, came
across several such excavations. They were simply pits dug in the earth,
large enough to hold one or two persons, and from the sides of these
pits a certain quantity of earth had been removed so as to form a seat.
At the bottom of these a few rude flint arrow-heads were found. In the
remarkable British oppidum at Worlebury, near Weston-super-Mare, several
circular, well-like pits may be seen, fairly preserved in shape owing to
the rocky nature of the ground in which they have been excavated. One in
particular is very perfect, and about two feet from the bottom is a seat
formed of the rock extending all round the pit.

These ancient pit dwellings are usually surrounded by an earthen
rampart. Caesar says that "the Britons called that a town where they
used to assemble for the sake of avoiding an incursion of enemies, when
they had fortified the entangled woods with a rampart and ditch." The
remains of many of these oppida may still be seen in almost all parts of
the country; and in most of these hollows are plainly distinguishable,
which doubtless were pit dwellings; but owing to the sides having fallen
in, they have now the appearance of natural hollows in the earth.

At Hurstbourne, Hants, nine of these early habitations were discovered
by the late Dr. Stevens, some of which were rudely pitched with flint
stones, and had passages leading into the pit. A few flints irregularly
placed together with wood ashes showed the position of the hearths,
where cooking operations had been carried on. The sloping
entrance-passages are peculiar and almost unique in England, though
several have been met with in France. A rude ladder was the usual mode
of entrance into these underground dwellings. Fragments of hand-made
British pottery and the commoner kinds of Romano-British ware were
found, and portions of mealing stones and also a saddle-quern, or
grain-crusher, which instruments for hand-mealing must have been in
common use among the pit dwellers. The grain was probably prepared by
parching it before crushing; the hollow understone prevented the grain
from escaping; and the muller was so shaped as to render it easily
grasped, while it was pushed backwards and forwards by the hands.
Similar stones are used at the present time by the African natives, as
travellers testify.

[Illustration: ARTICLES FOUND IN PIT DWELLINGS
(1) Knife of deer-antler
(2) Bone needle
(3) Marrow scoop
(4, 5) Bone awls]

One of the pits at Hurstbourne was evidently a cooking-hole, where the
pit dwellers prepared their feasts, and bones of the Celtic ox (_bos
longifrons_), pig, red deer, goat, dog, and hare or rabbit were found
near it. One of the bones had evidently been bitten by teeth. The pit
dwellers also practised some domestic industries, as Dr. Stevens found a
needle, an awl or bodkin, and fragments of pointed bone, probably used
for sewing skins together. A rude spindle-whorl shows that they knew
something of weaving, and two bored stones were evidently buttons or
dress-fasteners. A large supply of flint implements, scrapers, and
arrow-heads, proves that the dwellings were inhabited by the Neolithic
people before the Britons came to occupy them. I must not omit to notice
the heating stones, or "pot-boilers." These were heated in the fire, and
then placed among the meat intended to be cooked, in a hole in the
ground which served the purpose of a cooking pot. I have found many such
stones in Berkshire, notably from the neighbourhood of Wallingford and
Long Wittenham. The writer of the _Early History of Mankind_ states that
the Assineboins, or stone-boilers, dig a hole in the ground, take a
piece of raw hide, and press it down to the sides of the hole, and fill
it with water; this is called a "paunch-kettle"; then they make a number
of stones red-hot in a fire close by, the meat is put into the water,
and the hot stones dropped in until it is cooked. The South Sea
Islanders have similar primitive methods of cooking. The Highlanders
used to prepare the feasts of their clans in much the same way; and the
modern gipsies adopt a not very dissimilar mode of cooking their stolen
fowls and hedgehogs.

We can now people these cheerless primitive pit dwellings with their
ancient inhabitants, and understand something of their manners of life
and customs. Their rude abodes had probably cone-shaped roofs made of
rafters lashed together at the centre, protected by an outside coat of
peat, sods of turf, or rushes. The spindle-whorl is evidence that they
could spin thread; the mealing stones show that they knew how to
cultivate corn; and the bones of the animals found in their dwellings
testify to the fact that they were not in the wild state of primitive
hunters, but possessed herds of cows and goats and other domestic
animals.

Who were these people? Mr. Boyd Dawkins is of opinion that the early pit
dwellers belonged to the Neolithic folk of whom I have already told you,
as the flint implements testify. But these dwellings were evidently
occupied by a later people. The querns and spindle-whorl probably
belonged to the Celts, or Britons, before the advent of the Roman
legions; and that these people were the inhabitants of the Hampshire pit
dwellings is proved by the presence of a British gold coin which is
recognised by numismatists as an imitation of the Greek stater of Philip
II. of Macedon. According to Sir John Evans, the native British coinage
was in existence as early as 150 years before Christ. Hence to this
period we may assign the date of the existence of these Celtic primitive
habitations.

Pit dwellings were not the only kind of habitations which the early
inhabitants of our country used, and some of our villages possess
constructions of remarkable interest, which recent industrious digging
has disclosed. These are none other than lake dwellings, similar to
those first discovered in Switzerland about fifty years ago. Few of our
villages can boast of such relics of antiquity. Near Glastonbury, in
1892, in a dried-up ancient mere a lake village was discovered, which I
will describe presently; and recently at Hedsor in Buckinghamshire a
pile dwelling has been found which some learned antiquaries are now
examining. In Ireland and Scotland there are found the remains of
fortified dwellings called Crannogs in some of the lakes, as in Dowalton
Loch, Wigtownshire, and Cloonfinlough in Connaught, but these belong to
later times and were used in the Middle Ages.

[Illustration: IRON SPEAR-HEAD FOUND AT HEDSOR]

In primitive times, when tribe warred with tribe, and every man's hand
was against his fellow-man, and when wild and savage beasts roamed o'er
moor and woodland, security was the one thing most desired by the early
inhabitants of Europe. Hence they conceived the brilliant notion of
constructing dwellings built on piles in the midst of lakes or rivers,
where they might live in peace and safety, and secure themselves from
the sudden attack of their enemies, or the ravages of beasts of prey.
Switzerland is famous for its numerous clusters, or villages, of ancient
lake dwellings, which were of considerable size. At Morges, on the Lake
of Geneva, the settlement of huts extends 1,200 feet long by 150 in
breadth; and that at Sutz on the Lake of Bienne covers six acres, and is
connected with the shore by a gangway 100 feet long and 40 feet wide.
Nor is the use of these habitations entirely abandoned at the present
time. Venezuela, which means "little Venice," derives its name from the
Indian village composed of pile dwellings on the shores of the Gulf of
Maracaibo, as its original explorer Alonzo de Ojeda in 1499 chose to
compare the sea-protected huts with the queen city of the Adriatic; and
in many parts of South America, in the estuaries of the Orinoco and
Amazon, such dwellings are still found, also among the Dyaks of Borneo,
in the Caroline Islands, and on the Gold Coast of Africa. Herodotus
describes similar dwellings on the Lake Prasias, existing in the fifth
century B.C., and Lord Avebury states that now the Roumelian fishermen
on the same lake "inhabit wooden cottages built over the water as in the
time of Herodotus."

These habitations of primitive man were built on piles driven into the
bed of the lake or river. These piles were stems, or trunks of trees,
sharpened with stone or bronze tools. A rude platform was erected on
these piles, and on this a wooden hut constructed with walls of wattle
and daub, and thatched with reeds or rushes. A bridge built on piles
connected the lake village with the shore whither the dwellers used to
go to cultivate their wheat, barley, and flax, and feed their kine and
sheep and goats. They made canoes out of hollow trunks of trees. One of
these canoes which have been discovered is 43 feet in length and over 4
feet wide. The beams supporting the platform, on which the huts were
erected, were fastened by wooden pins. Much ingenuity was exercised in
the making of these dwellings. Sometimes they found that the mud of the
lake was too soft to hold the piles; so they fashioned a framework of
trunks of trees, which they let down to the bottom of the lake, and
fastened the upright piles to it. Sometimes the rocky bed of the lake
prevented the piles from being driven into it; so they heaped stones
around the piles, and thus made them secure. The lake dwellers were very
sociable, and had only one common platform for all the huts, which were
clustered together. As all the actual dwellings have been destroyed by
time's rude action, it is impossible to describe them accurately; but
their usual size was about 20 feet by 12 feet. The floor was of clay,
and in the centre of the building there was a hearth made of slabs of
stone.

The people who inhabited these structures belonged either to the later
Stone Age, or the Bronze Age, as we learn from the relics which their
huts disclose. In the earlier ones are found celts, flint flakes,
arrow-heads, harpoons of stag's horn with barbs, awls, needles, chisels,
and fish-hooks made of bone, and sometimes wooden combs, and skates made
out of the leg-bone of a horse. Besides the remains of the usual
domestic animals we find bones of the beaver, bear, elk, and bison.

When the use of bronze was discovered the people still lived on in their
lake dwellings. Fire often played havoc with the wooden wattle walls;
hence we frequently find a succession of platforms. The first dwelling
having been destroyed by flames, a second one was subsequently
constructed; and this having shared the same fate, another platform with
improved huts was raised upon the ruins of its predecessors. The relics
of each habitation show that, as time went on, the pit dwellers advanced
in civilisation, and increased the comforts and conveniences of life.

Some of the dwellings of these early peoples belong to the Bronze Age,
as do those of the Auvernier settlement in the Lake of Neuchatel; and
these huts are rich in the relics of their former inhabitants. At Marin
on the same lake the lake dwellers were evidently workers in iron; and
the relics, which contain large spear-heads, shields, horse furniture,
fibulas, and other ornaments, together with Roman coins, prove that they
belonged to the period of which history tells us.

I have described at length these Swiss lake dwellings, although they do
not belong to the antiquities of our villages in England, because much
the same kind of habitations existed in our country, though few have
as yet been unearthed. Possibly under the peaty soil of some ancient
river-bed, or old mere, long ago drained, you may be fortunate enough
to meet with the remains of similar structures here in England. At
Glastonbury a few years ago a lake village was discovered, which has
created no small stir in the antiquarian world, and merits a brief
description. Nothing was known of its existence previously; and this is
an instance of the delightful surprises which explorers have in store
for them, when they ransack the buried treasure-house of the earth,
and reveal the relics which have been so long stored there.

All that met the eyes of the diggers was a series of circular low
mounds, about sixty in number, extending over an area of three acres.
Imagine the delight of the gentlemen when they discovered that each of
these mounds contained the remains of a lake dwelling which was
constructed more than two thousand years ago.

First they found above the soft peat, the remains of a lake long dried
up, a platform formed of timber and brushwood, somewhat similar to the
structures which we have seen in the Swiss lakes. Rows of small piles
support this platform, and on it a floor of clay, or rather several
floors. The clay is composed of several horizontal layers with
intervening thin layers of decayed wood and charcoal, each layer
representing a distinct floor of a dwelling. In the centre of each mound
are the remains of rude hearths. The dwellings, of which no walls
remain, were evidently built of timber, the crevices between the wood
being filled with wattle and daub. In one of the mounds were found
several small crucibles which show that the inhabitants knew how to work
in metals. Querns, whetstones, spindle whorls, fibulae, and finger-rings
of bronze, a horse's bit, a small saw, numerous implements of horn and
bone, combs, needles, a jet ring and amber bead, all tell the tale of
the degree of civilisation attained by these early folk. They worked in
metals, made pottery and cloth, tilled and farmed the adjoining lands,
and probably belonged to the late Celtic race before the advent of the
Romans. These lake dwellers used a canoe in order to reach the mainland,
and this primitive boat has been discovered. It is evidently cut out of
the stem of an oak, is flat-bottomed, and its dimensions are 17 feet
long, 2 feet wide, and 1 foot deep. The prow is pointed, and has a hole,
through which doubtless a rope was passed, in order to fasten it to the
little harbour of the lake village.

It will be gathered that these people, whether dwelling in their pit or
lake villages, showed so much capacity, industry, and social
organisation, that even in the Neolithic Age they were far removed from
a savage state, and a low condition of culture and civilisation. They
showed great ingenuity in the making of their tools, their vessels of
pottery, their ornaments, and clothing. They were not naked, woad-dyed
savages. They could spin and weave, grow corn, and make bread, and had
brought into subjection for their use domestic animals, horses and
cattle, sheep and goats, and swine. They lived in security and comfort,
and were industrious and intelligent; and it is interesting to record,
from the relics which the earth has preserved of their civilisation, the
kind of life which they must have lived in the ages which existed before
the dawn of history.




CHAPTER V

CROMLECHS, CAMPS, AND EARTHWORKS

Stone monuments--Traditions relating to them--Menhirs or hoar-stones--
_Alignements_--Cromlechs--Stonehenge--Avebury--Rollright stones--Origin
of stone circles--Dolmens--Earthworks--Chun Castle--Whittenham clumps--
Uffington--Tribal boundaries--Roman rig--Grims-dike--Legends--Celtic
words.


Among the antiquities which some of our English villages possess, none
are more curious and remarkable than the grand megalithic monuments of
the ancient races which peopled our island. Marvellous memorials are
these of their skill and labour. How did they contrive to erect such
mighty monuments? How did they move such huge masses of stone? How did
they raise with the very slender appliances at their disposal such
gigantic stones? For what purpose did they erect them? The solution of
these and many such-like problems we can only guess, and no one has as
yet been bold enough to answer all the interesting questions which these
rude stone monuments raise.

Superstition has attempted to account for their existence. Just as the
flint arrow-heads are supposed by the vulgar to be darts shot by fairies
or witches which cause sickness and death in cattle and men, and are
worn as amulets to ward off disease; just as the stone axes of early
man are regarded as thunder bolts, and when boiled are esteemed as a
sure cure for rheumatism, or a useful cattle medicine--so these stones
are said to be the work of the devil. A friend tells me that in his
childhood his nurse used to frighten him by saying that the devil lurked
in a dolmen which stands near his father's house in Oxfordshire; and
many weird traditions cluster round these old monuments.

[Illustration: MENHIR]

In addition to the subterranean sepulchral chambers and cairns which we
have already examined, there are four classes of megalithic structures.
The first consists of single stones, called in Wales, Cornwall, and
Brittany, _menhirs_, a name derived from the Celtic word _maen_ or
_men_ signifying a stone, and _hir_ meaning tall. In England they are
known as "hoar-stones," _hoar_ meaning a boundary, inasmuch as they
are frequently used in later times to mark the boundary of an estate,
parish, or manor. There is one at Enstone, Oxfordshire, and at
Wardington, Warwickshire. Possibly they were intended to mark the graves
of deceased chieftains.

The second class consists of lines of stones, which the French call
_alignements_. Frequently they occur in groups of lines from two to
fourteen in number, Carnac, in Brittany, possesses the best specimen
in Europe of this curious arrangement of giant stones.

The third class of megalithic monuments is the circular arrangement,
such as we find at Avebury and Stonehenge. These are now usually called
cromlechs, in accordance with the term used by French antiquaries,
though formerly this name was applied in England to the dolmens, or
chambered structures, of which we shall speak presently. According to
the notions of the old curator of Stonehenge the mighty stones stood
before the Deluge, and he used to point out (to his own satisfaction)
signs of the action of water upon the stones, even showing the direction
in which the Flood "came rushing in." The Welsh bards say that they were
erected by King Merlin, the successor of Vortigern; and Nennius states
that they were erected in memory of four hundred nobles, who were
treacherously slain by Hengist, when the savage Saxons came. There is
no need to describe these grand circles of huge stones which all
antiquaries have visited.

The cromlech at Avebury covers a larger area than that of Stonehenge,
the circle being about 1,300 feet in diameter. There is a fine circle
at Rollright, in Oxfordshire, which is the third largest in England.
The diameter of the circle is about 107 feet, and the stones numbered
originally about sixty. Near the circle stand the Five Whispering
Knights, five large stones leaning together, probably the remains of
a dolmen, and a large solitary stone, or menhir. Popular tradition has
woven a strange legend about these curious relics of bygone ages. A
mighty chieftain once ruled over the surrounding country; but he was
ambitious, and wished to extend his sway, and become King of England.
So he mustered his army, and the oracle proclaimed that if he could
once see Long Compton, he would obtain his desire. Having proceeded
as far as Rollright, he was repeating the words of the oracle--

  "If Long Compton I can see,
  King of England I shall be"--

when Mother Shipton, who had doubtless ridden on her broomstick from
her Norfolk home, appeared and pronounced the fatal spell--

  "Move no more; stand fast, stone;
  King of England thou shall none."

[Illustration: ROLLRIGHT STONES From Camden's _Britannia_]

Immediately the king and his army were changed into stone, as if the
head of Medusa had gazed upon them. The solitary stone, still called the
King Stone, is the ambitious monarch; the circle is his army; and the
Five Whispering Knights are five of his chieftains, who were hatching a
plot against him when the magic spell was uttered. The farmers around
Rollright say that if the stones are removed from the spot, they will
never rest, but make mischief till they are restored. Stanton Drew, in
Somersetshire, has a cromlech, and there are several in Scotland, the
Channel Islands, and Brittany. Some sacrilegious persons transported a
cromlech bodily from the Channel Islands, and set it up at Park Place,
Henley-on-Thames. Such an act of antiquarian barbarism happily has few
imitators.

For what purpose were these massive stones erected at the cost of such
infinite labour? Tradition and popular belief associate them with the
Druids. Some years ago all mysterious antiquarian problems were solved
by reference to the Druids. But these priests of ancient days are now
out of fashion, and it is certainly not very safe to attribute the
founding of the great stone circles to their agency. The Druidical
worship paid its homage to the powers of Nature, to the nymphs and genii
of the woods and streams, whereas the great stone circles were evidently
constructed by sun-worshippers. There is no doubt among antiquaries that
they are connected with the burial of the dead. Small barrows have been
found in the centre of them. Dr. Anderson is of opinion that the stone
circles were developed out of the hedge, or setting of stone, which
frequently surrounds the base of a barrow, and was intended to keep the
ghost in, and prevent it from injuring the living. By degrees the wall
was increased in size while the barrow or cairn decreased; until at last
a small mound of earth, or heap of stones, only marked the place of
burial, and the huge circle of stones surrounded it. Stonehenge, with
its well-wrought stones and gigantic trilitha, is much later than the
circles of Avebury and Rollright, and was doubtless constructed by the
people who used iron, about two hundred years before our era. The
earlier circles have been assigned to a period eight or ten centuries
before Christ.

[Illustration: DOLMEN]

Many conjectures have been made as to how the huge capstones of the
circle at Stonehenge were placed on the erect stones. Sir Henry Dryden
thought that when the upright stones were set on end, earth or small
stones were piled around them until a large inclined plane was formed,
on which "skids" or sliding-pieces were placed. Then the caps were
placed on rollers, and hauled up by gangs of men. Probably in some such
way these wonderful monuments were formed.

The last class of rude stone monuments is composed of dolmens, or
chambered tombs, so named from the Welsh word _dol_, a table, and _maen_
or _men_, a stone. They are in fact stone tables. Antiquaries of former
days, and the unlearned folk of to-day, call them "Druids' altars," and
say that sacrifices were offered upon them. The typical form is a
structure of four or more large upright stones, supporting a large flat
stone, as a roof. Sometimes they are covered with earth or stones,
sometimes entirely uncovered. Some antiquaries maintain that they were
always uncovered, as we see them now; others assert that they have been
stripped by the action of wind and rain, and snow, frost, and thaw,
until all the earth placed around them has been removed. Possibly
fashions changed then as now; and it may console some of us that there
was no uniformity of ritual even in prehistoric Britain. Dolmens contain
no bronze or iron implements, or carvings of the same, and evidently
belong to the time of the Neolithic folk.

Among prehistoric remains none are more striking than the great camps
and earthworks, which hold commanding positions on our hills and downs,
and have survived during the countless years which have elapsed since
their construction. Caesar's camps abound throughout England; it is
needless to say that they had nothing to do with Caesar, but were made
long years before the Conqueror ever set foot on British land. These
early camps are usually circular in shape, or follow the natural curve
of the hill on which they stand. Roman camps are nearly always square
or rectangular. They consist of a high vallum, or rampart of earth,
surrounded by a deep ditch, and on the _counterscarp_, or outside edge
of the ditch, there is often another bank or rampart. The entrance to
these strongholds was often ingeniously contrived, in order that an
enemy endeavouring to attack the fortress might be effectually resisted.

Chun Castle, in Cornwall, is an interesting specimen of ancient Celtic
fortress. It consists of two circular walls separated by a terrace. The
walls are built of rough masses of granite, some 5 or 6 feet long. The
outer wall is protected by a ditch. Part of the wall is still about 10
feet high. Great skill and military knowledge are displayed in the plan
of the entrance, which is 6 feet wide in the narrowest part, and 16 in
the widest, where the walls diverge and are rounded off on either side.
The space within the fortress is about 175 feet in diameter. The
Herefordshire Beacon on the Malvern Hills is a fine example of a
triple-ramparted Celtic camp.

[Illustration: PLAN AND SECTION OF CHUN CASTLE]

In Berkshire we have the well-known Whittenham Clumps, the Sinodun
of the Celts, on the summit of which there is a famous camp, with a
triple line of entrenchment, the mound and ditch being complete. The
circumference of the fortress is over a mile. Berkshire and Oxfordshire
are very rich in these camps and earthworks, which guard the course of
the old British road called the Iknield Way. Hill-forts crown the tops
of the hills; and the camps of Blewberry, Scutchamore Knob (a corruption
of Cwichelm's law), Letcombe, Uffington, and Liddington, command the
ancient trackway and bid defiance to approaching foes.

The object of these camps was to provide places of refuge, whither the
tribe could retire when threatened by the advent of its enemy. The Celts
were a pastoral people; and their flocks grazed on the downs and
hillsides. When their scouts brought news of the approach of a hostile
force, some signal would be given by the blowing of a horn, and the
people would at once flee to their fortress driving their cattle before
them, and awaiting there the advent of their foes.

At Uffington there is a remarkable relic of British times called the
Blowing Stone, or King Alfred's Bugle-horn, which was doubtless used by
the Celtic tribes for signalling purposes; and when its deep low note
was heard on the hillside the tribe would rush to the protecting shelter
of Uffington Castle. There, armed with missiles, they were ready to hurl
them at the invading hosts, and protect their lives and cattle until all
danger was past. Those who are skilled at the art can still make the
Blowing Stone sound. The name, King Alfred's Bugle-horn, is a misnomer,
and arose from the association of the White Horse Hill with the battle
which Alfred fought against the Danes at Aescendune, which may, or may
not, have taken place near the old British camp at Uffington. There are
several White Horses cut out in the turf on the hillsides in Wiltshire,
besides the famous Berkshire one at Uffington, celebrated by Mr. Thomas
Hughes in his _Scouring of the White Horse_. We have also some turf-cut
crosses at White-leaf and Bledlow, in Buckinghamshire. The origin of
these turf monuments is still a matter of controversy. It is possible
that they may be Saxon, and may be the records of Alfred's victories;
but antiquaries are inclined to assign them to an earlier date, and
connect them with the builders of cromlechs and dolmens. It is certainly
improbable that, when he was busily engaged fighting the Danes, Alfred
and his men would have found time to construct this huge White Horse.

[Illustration: THE WHITE HORSE AT UFFINGTON]

In addition to the earthen mounds and deep ditch, which usually formed
the fortifications of these ancient strongholds, there were wicker-work
stockades, or palisading, arranged on the top of the vallum. Such
defences have been found at Uffington; and during the present year on
the ancient fortifications of the old Calleva Atrebatum, afterwards the
Roman Silchester, a friend of the writer has found the remains of
similar wattle-work stockades. Evidently tribal wars and jealousies were
not unknown in Celtic times, and the people knew how to protect
themselves from their foes.

Another important class of earthen ramparts are the long lines of
fortifications, which extend for miles across the country, and must have
entailed vast labour in their construction. These ramparts were
doubtless tribal boundaries, or fortifications used by one tribe against
another. There is the Roman rig, which, as Mrs. Armitage tells us in her
_Key to English Antiquities_, coasts the face of the hills all the way
from Sheffield to Mexborough, a distance of eleven miles. A Grims-dike
(or Grims-bank, as it is popularly called) runs across the southern
extremity of Oxfordshire from Henley to Mongewell, ten miles in length;
and near it, and parallel to it, there is a Medlers-bank, another
earthen rampart, exceeding it in length by nearly a third. Near
Salisbury there is also a Grims-dike, and in Cambridgeshire and
Cheshire. Danes' Dike, near Flamborough Head, Wans-dike, and Brokerley
Dike are other famous lines of fortifications.

There are twenty-two Grims-dikes in England. The name was probably
derived from Grim, the Saxon devil, or evil spirit; and was bestowed
upon these mysterious monuments of an ancient race which the Saxons
found in various parts of their conquered country. Unable to account for
the existence of these vast mounds and fortresses, they attributed them
to satanic agency.

There is much work still to be done in exploring these relics of the
prehistoric races; and if there should be any such in your own
neighbourhood, some careful digging might produce valuable results.
Perhaps something which you may find may throw light upon some disputed
or unexplained question, which has perplexed the minds of antiquaries
for some time. I do not imagine that the following legend will deter you
from your search. It is gravely stated that years ago an avaricious
person dug into a tumulus for some treasure which it was supposed to
contain. At length after much labour he came to an immense chest, but
the lid was no sooner uncovered than it lifted itself up a little and
out sprang an enormous black cat, which seated itself upon the chest,
and glowed with eyes of passion upon the intruder. Nothing daunted, the
man proceeded to try to move the chest, but without avail; so he fixed a
strong chain to it and attached a powerful team of horses. But when the
horses began to pull, the chain broke in a hundred places, and the chest
of treasure disappeared for ever.

Some rustics assert that if you run nine times round a tumulus, and then
put your ear against it, you will hear the fairies dancing and singing
in the interior. Indeed it is a common superstition that good fairies
lived in these old mounds, and a story is told of a ploughman who
unfortunately broke his ploughshare. However he left it at the foot of a
tumulus, and the next day, to his surprise, he found it perfectly whole.
Evidently the good fairies had mended it during the night. But these
bright little beings, who used to be much respected by our ancestors,
have quite deserted our shores. They found that English people did not
believe in them; so they left us in disgust, and have never been heard
of since.

If you have no other Celtic remains in your neighbourhood, at least you
have the enduring possession of the words which they have bequeathed to
us, such as _coat, basket, crook, cart, kiln, pitcher, comb, ridge_, and
many others, which have all been handed down to us from our British
ancestors. Their language also lives in Wales and Brittany, in parts of
Ireland and Scotland, and in the Isle of Man, where dwell the modern
representatives of that ancient race, which was once so powerful, and
has left its trace in most of the countries of Europe.




CHAPTER VI

ROMAN RELICS

Roman remains numerous--Chedworth villa--Roads--Names derived from
roads--_Itinerary_ of Antoninus--British roads--Watling Street--Iknield
Street--Ryknield Street--Ermyn Street--Akeman Street--Saltways--
Milestones--Silchester--Its walls--Calleva--Its gardens and villas--
Hypocausts--Pavements--Description of old city--Forum--Temple--Baths--
Amphitheatre--Church--Roman villa.


"The world's a scene of change," sings Poet Cowley; but in spite of all
the changes that have transformed our England, the coming and going of
conquerors and invaders, the lapse of centuries, the ceaseless working
of the ploughshare on our fields and downs, traces of the old Roman life
in Britain have remained indelible. Our English villages are rich in the
relics of the old Romans; and each year adds to our knowledge of the
life they lived in the land of their adoption, and reveals the treasures
which the earth has tenderly preserved for so many years.

If your village lies near the track of some Roman road, many pleasing
surprises may be in store for you. Oftentimes labourers unexpectedly
meet with the buried walls and beautiful tesselated pavements of an
ancient Roman dwelling-place. A few years ago at Chedworth, near
Cirencester, a ferret was lost, and had to be dug out of the rabbit
burrow. In doing this some Roman _tesserae_ were dug up; and when
further excavations were made a noble Roman villa with numerous rooms,
artistic pavements, hypocausts, baths, carvings, and many beautiful
relics of Roman art were brought to light. Possibly you may be equally
successful in your own village and neighbourhood.

If you have the good fortune to live near a Roman station, you will
have the pleasing excitement of discovering Roman coins and other
treasures, when you watch your labourers draining the land or digging
wells. Everyone knows that the names of many of the Roman stations
are  distinguished by the termination _Chester, caster_, or _caer_,
derived from the Latin _castra_, a camp; and whenever we are in the
neighbourhood of such places, imagination pictures to us the
well-drilled Roman legionaries who used to astonish the natives with
their strange language and customs; and we know that there are coins
and pottery, _tesserae_ and Roman ornaments galore, stored up beneath
our feet, awaiting the search of the persevering digger. Few are the
records relating to Roman Britain contained in the pages of the
historians, as compared with the evidences of roads and houses, gates
and walls and towns, which the earth has preserved for us.

Near your village perhaps a Roman road runs. The Romans were famous for
their wonderful roads, which extended from camp to camp, from city to
city, all over the country. These roads remain, and are evidences of
the  great engineering skill which their makers possessed. They liked
their roads well drained, and raised high above the marshes; they liked
them to go straight ahead, like their victorious legions, and never swerve
to right or left for any obstacle. They cut through the hills, and
filled up the valleys; and there were plenty of idle Britons about,
who could be forced to do the work. They called their roads _strata_ or
streets; and all names of places containing the word _street_, such as
_Streatley_, or _Stretford_, denote that they were situated on one of
these Roman roads.

You may see these roads wending their way straight as a die, over hill
and dale, staying not for marsh or swamp. Along the ridge of hills they
go, as does the High Street on the Westmoreland hills, where a few
inches below the grass you can find the stony way; or on the moors
between Redmire and Stanedge, in Yorkshire, the large paving stones, of
which the road was made, in many parts still remain. In central places,
as at Blackrod, in Lancashire, the roads extend like spokes from the
centre of a wheel, although nearly eighteen hundred years have elapsed
since their construction. The name of Devizes, Wilts, is a corruption of
the Latin word _divisae_, which marks the spot where the old Roman road
from London to Bath was _divided_ by the boundary line between the Roman
and the Celtic districts.

In order to acquire a knowledge of the great roads of the Romans we must
study the _Itinerary_ of Antoninus, written by an officer of the
imperial Court about 150 A.D. This valuable road-book tells us the names
of the towns and stations, the distances, halting-places, and other
particulars. Ptolemy's _Geographia_ also affords help in understanding
the details of the _Itinerary_, and many of the roads have been very
satisfactorily traced. The Romans made use of the ancient British ways,
whenever they found them suitable for their purpose. The British roads
resembled the trackways on Salisbury Plain, wide grass rides, neither
raised nor paved, and not always straight, but winding along the sides
of the hills which lie in their course. There were seven chief British
ways: Watling Street, which was the great north road, starting from
Richborough on the coast of Kent, passing through Canterbury and
Rochester it crossed the Thames near London, and went on through
Verulam, Dunstable, and Towcester, Wellington, and Wroxeter, and thence
into Wales to Tommen-y-Mawr, where it divided into two branches. One
ran by Beth Gellert to Caernarvon and Holy Head, and the other through
the mountains to the Manai banks and thence to Chester, Northwich,
Manchester, Ilkley, until it finally ended in Scotland.

The second great British road was the way of the Iceni, or Iknield
Street, proceeding from Great Yarmouth, running through Cambridgeshire,
Bedfordshire, Bucks, and Oxon, to Old Sarum, and finishing its course at
Land's End. We have in Berkshire a branch of this road called the
Ridgeway.

The Ryknield Street beginning at the mouth of the Tyne ran through
Chester-le-Street, followed the course of the Watling Street to
Catterick, thence through Birmingham, Tewkesbury, and Gloucester, to
Caermarthen and St. David's.

The Ermyn Street led from the coast of Sussex to the south-east part of
Scotland.

The Akeman Street ran between the Iknield and Ryknield Streets, and
led from what the Saxons called East Anglia, through Bedford, Newport
Pagnel, and Buckingham to Alcester and Cirencester, across the Severn,
and ending at St. David's.

The Upper Saltway was the communication between the sea-coast of
Lincolnshire and the salt mines at Droitwich; and the Lower Saltway led
from Droitwich, then, as now, a great centre of the salt trade, to the
sea-coast of Hampshire. Traces of another great road to the north are
found, which seems to have run through the western parts of England
extending from Devon to Scotland.

Such were the old British roads which existed when the Romans came. The
conquerors made use of these ways, wherever they found them useful,
trenching them, paving them, and making them fit for military purposes.
They constructed many new ones which would require a volume for their
full elucidation. Many of them are still in use, wonderful records of
the engineering skill of their makers, and oftentimes beneath the
surface of some grassy ride a few inches below the turf you may find
the hard concreted road laid down by the Romans nearly eighteen hundred
years ago. Roman milestones we sometimes find. There is one near
Silchester, commonly called the Imp Stone, probably from the first three
letters of the Latin word _Imperator_, carved upon it. Curious legends
often cluster round these relics of ancient times. Just as the
superstitious Saxons, when they saw the great Roman roads, made by a
people who had long vanished from the land, often attributed these great
works to evil spirits, and called parts of these well-made streets the
Devil's Highway, so they invented a strange legend to account for the
Imp Stone, and said that some giant had thrown it from the city, and
left on it the marks of his finger and thumb.

Our English villages contain many examples of Roman buildings. Where
now rustics pursue their calling, and sow their crops and reap their
harvests, formerly stood the beautiful houses of the Roman nobles, or
the flourishing towns of Roman citizens. Upon the sites of most of these
old-world places new towns have been constructed; hence it is difficult
often to trace the foundations of Roman cities in the midst of the
masses of modern bricks and mortar. Hence we fly to the villages; and
sometimes, as at Silchester, near a little English village, we find the
remains of a large, important, and flourishing town, where the earth has
kept safely for us during many centuries the treasures and memories of a
bygone age.

Every student of Roman Britain must visit Silchester, and examine the
collections preserved in the Reading Museum, which have been amassed by
the antiquaries who have for several years been excavating the ruins.
The city contained a forum, or marketplace, having on one side a
basilica, or municipal hall, in which prisoners were tried, business
transactions executed, and the general affairs of the city carried on.
On the other side of the square were the shops, where the butchers,
bakers, or fishmongers plied their trade. You can find plenty of oyster
shells, the contents of which furnished many a feast to the Romans who
lived there seventeen hundred years ago. The objects which have been
found tell us how the dwellers in the old city employed themselves,
and how skilful they were in craftsmanship. Amongst other things we
find axes, chisels, files for setting saws, hammers, a large plane, and
other carpenters' tools; an anvil, a pair of tongs, and blacksmiths'
implements; shoemakers' anvils, very similar to those used in our day,
a large gridiron, a standing lamp, safety-pins, such as ladies use now,
and many other useful and necessary objects.

In order to protect the city it was surrounded by high walls, which seem
to defy all the attacks of time. They are nine feet in thickness, and
are still in many places twenty feet high. Outside the wall a wide ditch
added to the strength of the fortifications. Watch-towers were placed at
intervals along the walls; and on the north, south, east, and west sides
were strongly fortified gates, with guard chambers on each side, and
arched entrances through which the Roman chariots were driven.

These walls inclose a space of irregular shape, and were built on the
site of old British fortifications. Silchester was originally a British
stronghold, and was called by them Calleva. The Celtic tribe which
inhabited the northern parts of Hampshire was the Atrebates, who after a
great many fights were subdued by the Romans about 78 A.D. Then within
the rude fortifications of Calleva arose the city of Silchester, with
its fine houses, temples, and baths, its strong walls, and gates, and
streets, the great centre of civilisation, and the chief city of that
part of the country.

It is often possible to detect the course of Roman streets where now the
golden corn is growing. On the surface of the roads where the ground is
thin, the corn is scanty. Observation of this kind a few years ago led
to the discovery of a Romano-British village at Long Whittenham, in
Berks. In Silchester it is quite easy to trace the course of the streets
by the thinness of the corn, as Leland observed as long ago as 1536. One
is inclined to wonder where all the earth comes from, which buries old
buildings and hides them so carefully; but any student of natural
history, who has read Darwin's book on _Worms_, will cease to be
astonished. It is chiefly through the action of these useful creatures
that soil accumulates so greatly on the sites of ancient buildings.

[Illustration: SILCHESTER. PLAN OF CITY]

Within the walls of Silchester were gardens and villas replete with all
the contrivances of Roman luxury. The houses were built on three sides
of a square court. A cloister ran round the court, supported by pillars.
The open space was used as a garden. At the back of the house were the
kitchens and apartments for the slaves and domestics. The Romans adapted
their dwellings to the climate in which they lived. In the sunny south,
at Pompeii, the houses were more open, and would be little suited to our
more rigorous climate. They knew how to make themselves comfortable,
built rooms well protected from the weather, and heated with hypocausts.
These were furnaces made beneath the house, which generated hot air; and
this was admitted into the rooms by earthenware flue-tiles. The dwellers
had both summer and winter apartments; and when the cold weather arrived
the hypocaust furnaces were lighted, and the family adjourned to their
winter quarters.

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.

[Illustration: CAPITAL OF COLUMN]

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.

[Illustration: ROMAN FORCE-PUMP]

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.

[Illustration: TESSELATED PAVEMENT]

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.

[Illustration: BEATING ACORNS FOR SWINE
Cotton MS., _Nero_, c. 4]

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.

[Illustration: HOUSE OF SAXON THANE]

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.

[Illustration: WHEEL PLOUGH
From Bayeux Tapestry]

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.

[Illustration: SMITHY
From the Cotton MS., B 4]

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.

[Illustration: SAXON RELICS
(1) Sword
(2) Top of Sword Handle
(3) Buckle
(4) Spear-head
(5) Plain Fibula]

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.

[Illustration: AN OLD MARKET CROSS]

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."

[Illustration: CONSECRATION OF A SAXON CHURCH]

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.

[Illustration: TOWER OF BARNACK CHURCH, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE]

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.

[Illustration: DOORWAY, EARL'S BARTON CHURCH]

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.

[Illustration: TOWER WINDOW, MONKWEARMOUTH CHURCH
Built by Benedict Biscop, _circa_ A.D. 674]

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.

[Illustration: SCULPTURED HEAD OF DOORWAY, FORDINGTON CHURCH, DORSETSHIRE]

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.

[Illustration: NORMAN CAPITALS
(1) Crypt, Worcester Cathedral
(2) Winchester Cathedral]

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.

[Illustration: NORMAN ORNAMENTAL MOULDINGS.
(1)  Indented. Stoneleigh, Warwickshire
(2)  Zig-zag. Iffley, Oxfordshire
(3)  Alternate Billet. Stoneleigh, Warwickshire
(4)  Double Cone. Stoneleigh, Warwickshire
(5)  Pellet. Stoneleigh, Warwickshire
(6)  Lozenge. Essendine, Rutland
(7)  Cable. Fritwell, Oxfordshire
(8)  Star. Stringham, Norfolk
(9)  Medallion. Iffley, Oxfordshire
(10) Beak-Head. Steetley, Derbyshire
(11) Nail-Head. St. Ethelred's, Norwich
(12) Embattled. Lincoln Cathedral]

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.

[Illustration: CROYLAND ABBEY CHURCH, LINCOLNSHIRE]

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.

[Illustration: SEMI-NORMAN ARCH, CHURCH OF ST. CROSS]

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.

[Illustration: EARLY ENGLISH PIERS AND CAPITALS
(1) Salisbury Cathedral
(2) Lincoln Cathedral]

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.

[Illustration: TOOTH OR DOG-TOOTH ORNAMENT]

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.

[Illustration: BROWNSOVER CHAPEL, WARWICKSHIRE]

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.

[Illustration: MOULDINGS, TEWKESBURY ABBEY]

[Illustration: OGEE ARCH]

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.

[Illustration: CAPITALS
(1) Hanwell
(2) Chacombe Church]

[Illustration: DECORATED WINDOWS
(1) Merton College Chapel
(2) Sandiacre, Derbyshire]

[Illustration: MOULDINGS
(1) Elton, Huntingdonshire
(2) Austrey, Warwickshire]

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.

[Illustration: MERTON COLLEGE CHAPEL, OXFORD]

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.

[Illustration: VESTRY DOOR, ADDERBURY CHURCH, OXON]

[Illustration: ST. ERASMUS' CHAPEL, WESTMINSTER ABBEY]

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.

[Illustration: WINDOW, CHRISTCHURCH, OXFORD]

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.

[Illustration: DIAGRAM OF A MANOR]




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.

[Illustration: OLD SARUM]

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.

[Illustration: A NORMAN CASTLE
(1) The dungeon.
(2) Chapel.
(3) Stable.
(4) Inner bailey.
(5) Outer bailey.
(6) Barbican.
(7) Mount.
(8) Soldiers' lodgings.]

The same style of castle-building continued for a century and a half
after the Norman Conquest. It is possible to distinguish the later keeps
by the improved and fine-jointed ashlar stonework, by the more frequent
use of the stone of the district, instead of that brought from Caen, by
the ribs upon the groins of the vaulting of the galleries and chambers
in the walls, and by the more extensive use of ornaments in the bosses,
windows, doors, and fireplaces. The style of the decoration approaches
the Early English character.

The walls of the keep were not the only protection of the fortress. A
moat surrounds the whole castle, crossed by a drawbridge, protected
on the side remote from the castle by a barbican. High walls with an
embattled parapet surround the lower court, or ballium, which we enter
by a gate defended by strong towers. A portcullis has to be raised, and
a heavy door thrown back, before we can enter; while above in the stone
roof of the archway there are holes through which melted lead and pitch
can be poured upon our heads, if we attempt to enter the castle as
assailants. In the lower court are the stables, and the mound where the
lord dispenses justice, and where criminals and traitors are executed.
Another strong gateway flanked by towers protects the inner court, on
the edge of which stands the keep which frowns down upon us as we enter.

An immense household was supported in every castle. Not only were there
men-at-arms, but also cooks and bakers, brewers and tailors, carpenters,
smiths, masons, and all kinds of craftsmen; and all the crowd of workers
had to be provided with accommodation by the lord of the castle. Hence
a building, in the form of a large hall, was erected sometimes of stone,
usually of wood, in the lower or upper court for these soldiers and
artisans, where they slept and had their meals.

A new type of castle was introduced during the reigns of the three
Edwards. The stern, massive, and high-towering keep was abandoned, and
the fortifications arranged in a concentric fashion. A fine hall with
kitchens occupied the centre of the fortress; a large number of chambers
was added, and the inner and outer courts both defended by walls, as we
have already described, were introduced. The Edwardian castles of
Caernarvon and Beaumaris belong to this type of fortress.

[Illustration: BROUGHTON CASTLE]

The border counties of Wales are remarkable for the number and beauty
of their ancient castles. On the site of British earthworks the Romans
established their camps. The Saxons were obliged to erect their rude
earthen strongholds in order to keep back the rebellious Welsh, and
these were succeeded by Norman keeps. Monmouthshire is famous for its
castles; out of the eleven hundred erected in Norman times twenty-five
were built in that county. There is Chepstow Castle, with its early
Norman gateway spanned by a circular arch flanked by round towers. In
the inner court there are the gardens and ruins of a grand hall, and in
the outer the ruins of a chapel with evidences of beautifully groined
vaulting, and also a winding staircase leading to the battlements. In
the dungeon of the old keep at the south-east corner of the inner court
Roger de Britolio, Earl of Hereford, was imprisoned for rebellion
against the Conqueror, and in later times Henry Martin, the regicide,
lingered as a prisoner for thirty years, employing his enforced leisure
in writing a book in order to prove that it is not right for a man to be
governed by one wife. Then there is Grosmont Castle, the fortified
residence of the Earl of Lancaster; Skenfrith Castle; White Castle, the
_Album Castrum_ of the Latin records, the Landreilo of the Welsh, with
its six towers, portcullis, and drawbridge flanked by massive tower,
barbican, and other outworks; and Raglan Castle, with its splendid
gateway, its Elizabethan banqueting-hall ornamented with rich stone
tracery, its bowling-green, garden terraces, and spacious courts, an
ideal place for knightly tournaments in ancient days. Raglan is
associated with the gallant defence of the castle by the Marquis of
Worcester in the Civil War.

The ancient castles of England were the central feature of feudal
society. They were the outward and visible sign of that system. M.
Guizot in his _History of Civilisation_ says, "It was feudalism which
constructed them; their elevation was, so to speak, the declaration of
its triumph." On the Continent they were very numerous long before
castle-building became the fashion in England, and every suzerain saw
with displeasure his vassal constructing his castle; for the vassal thus
insured for himself a powerful means of independence. The Norman barons
in the troublous times of Stephen lived a life of hunting and pillage;
they were forced to have a fortified retreat where they might shut
themselves up after an expedition, repel the vengeance of their foes,
and resist the authorities who attempted to maintain order in the
country.

Others followed the example of the barons. The townsfolk fortified their
towns, monks their monasteries; and even within the town-walls many
houses had their towers and gates and barriers in order to keep back
troublesome visitors.

Here is a description of a French castle in the fourteenth century:--

"First imagine to yourself a superb position, a steep mountain,
bristling with rocks, furrowed with ravines and precipices; upon the
declivity is the castle. The small houses which surround it set off its
grandeur; the river seems to turn aside with respect; it forms a large
semicircle at its feet. This castle must be seen when, at sunrise, the
outward galleries glimmer with the armour of the sentinels, and the
towers are shown all brilliant with their large new gratings. Those high
buildings must be seen, which fill those who defend them with courage,
and with fear those who should be tempted to attack them.

"The door presents itself covered with heads of boars or wolves, flanked
with turrets and crowned with a high guard-house. Enter, there are three
inclosures, three moats, three drawbridges to pass. You find yourself in
a large square court, where are cisterns, and on the right and left the
stables, hen-houses, pigeon-houses, coach-houses; the cellars, vaults,
and prisons are below; above are the dwelling-apartments; above these
are the magazines, larders, or salting-rooms, and arsenals. All the
roofs are bordered with machicolations, parapets, guard-walks, and
sentry-boxes. In the middle of the court is the donjon, which contains
the archives and the treasure. It is deeply moated all round, and can
only be entered by a bridge, almost always raised. Although the walls,
like those of the castle, are six feet thick, it is surrounded up to
half its height with a chemise, or second wall, of large cut stones.
This castle has just been rebuilt. There is something light, fresh,
laughing about it, not possessed by the heavy massive castles of the
last century."

One would scarcely expect to hear a castle described as "light, fresh,
laughing"; yet so a fourteenth-century castle seemed to eyes accustomed
to the gloomy, stern, and massive structures of the eleventh and twelfth
centuries. In these no beauty or display of art was attempted. Defence
and safety were the only objects sought after in the construction of our
ancient strongholds.

Strange as it may seem, these castles were the birthplaces and homes of
chivalry. Women were raised to an exalted position, and honoured and
reverenced by knights and warriors. A prize won in a tournament was
esteemed of vastly greater value, if it were bestowed upon the
successful combatant by some lady's hand. "Queens of Beauty" presided at
these contests of knightly skill and daring. The statutes and ordinances
for jousts and tournaments made by John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, at
the command of Edward IV., conclud

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