VIII. 2 BOOK of personal civilities, visits, messages, and presents, was perpetually taking place. Whatever that was rare, curious, or valuable, which one person possessed, he communicated, and not unfrequently gave to his acquaintance. This is very remarkable in the letters of Boniface and his friends, of whom some were in England, some in France, some in Germany, and elsewhere. The most cordial phrases of urbanity and affection are usually followed by a present of apparel, the aromatic productions of the East, little articles of furniture and domestic comfort, books, and whatever else promised to be acceptable to the person addressed. This reciprocity of liberality, and the perpetual visits which all ranks of the state were in the habit of making to Rome, the seat and centre of all the arts, science, wealth, and industry of the day, occasioned a general diffusion and use of the known conveniences and approved inventions which had then appeared. 3 Among the furniture of their rooms we find hangings, to be suspended on the walls, most of them silken, some with the figures of golden birds in needlework, some woven, and some plain. At another time, a veil or piece of hanging is mentioned, on which was sewed the destruction of Troy. These were royal presents. We also read of the curtain of a lady, on which was woven the actions of her husband, in memory of his probity. These articles of manufacture for domestic use are obviously alluded to by Aldhelm in his simile, in which he mentions the texture of hangings or curtains; their being stained with purple and different varieties of colours, and their images, embroidery, and weaving. Their love of gaudy colouring was as apparent in these as in their dress, for he says, "if finished of one colour, uniform, they would not seem beau"tiful to the eye." Curtains and hangings are very often mentioned; sometimes in Latin phrases, pallia or cortinas ;' 6 2 These are in the sixteenth volume of the Magna Bibliotheca Patrum. 3 Ingulf, p. 53. • Ibid. p. 9. 5 3 Gale Script. 495. Aldhelm de Laud. Virg. 283. 7 Dugd. 130. 3 Gale, 418 and 495. Ingulf, 53. 8 sometimes in the Saxon term wahrift. Thus Wynfleda be- CHAP. queaths a long heall wahrift and a short one, and Wulfur bequeaths an heall wahrifta; the same testator also leaves a heall reafes. Whether this is another expression for a hanging to the hall, or whether it alludes to any thing like a carpet, the expression itself will not decide. The, probability is, that it expresses a part of the hangings. We can perceive the reasons why hangings were used in such early times: their carpenters were not exact and perfect joiners; their buildings were full of crevices, and hangings were therefore rather a necessity than a luxury, as they kept out the wind from the inhabitants. Nothing can more strongly prove their necessity, than that Alfred, to preserve his lights from the wind, even in the royal palaces, was obliged to have recourse to lanthorns.' Their hangings we find were not cheap enough to be used perpetually, and therefore when the king gave them to the monastery, he adds the injunction to the one gift, that it should be suspended on his anniversary, and to another, that it should be used on festivals." Benches" and seats, and their coverings, are also mentioned. In one gift, seven set hrægel, or seat coverings," occur. Wynfleda bequeaths three setl hrægl." Their footstools appear to have been much ornamented. Ingulf mentions two great pedalia with lions interwoven, and two smaller ones sprinkled with flowers." Some of their seats or benches represented in the drawings, have animals' heads and legs at their extremities." Their seats seem to have been benches and stools. Their tables are sometimes very costly: we read of two tables made of silver and gold." Ethelwold, in Edgar's reign, is said to have made a silver table worth three hundred pounds." We also read of a wooden table for an altar, which BOOK was adorned with ample and solid plates of silver, and with Candlesticks of various sorts are mentioned; two large candlesticks of bone (gebonede candelsticcan), and six smaller of the same kind, are enumerated," as are also two silver candelabra, gilt, and two candelabra well and honourably made." Bede once mentions that two candles were lighted. 20 22 Hand-bells also appear. At one time twelve are stated to have been used in a monastery." A disciple of Bede sends to Lullus, in France, "the bell which I have at my hand.” A silver mirror is also once mentioned." Of bed furniture we find in an Anglo-Saxon's will bed-clothes (beddreafes), with a curtain (hryfte), and sheet (hoppscytan), and all that thereto belongs; to his son he gives the bedreafe and all the clothes that appertain to it.26 An AngloSaxon lady gives to one of her children two chests and their contents, her best bed-curtain, linen, and all the clothes belonging to it. To another child she leaves two chests, and "all the bed-clothes that to one bed belong." She also mentions her red tent" (giteld). On another occasion we read of a pillow of straw." A goat-skin bed-covering was sent to an Anglo-Saxon abbot." In Judith we read of the gilded fly-net hung about the leader's bed. 3° Bear-skins are sometimes noticed as if a part of bed furniture. There is a drawing of a Saxon bed and curtain in Claud. B. 4. which may be seen in Strutt, Horda Angelcynn. pl. xiii. fig. 2. The head and the bottom of the bed seem to be both boarded, and the pillows look as if made of platted straw. Not to go into a bed, but to lay on the floor, was occasionally enjoined as a penance.' 31 34 35 32 36 33 For their food and conviviality they used many expensive CHAP articles. It was indeed in these that their abundant use of VI. the precious metals principally appeared. We perpetually read of silver cups, and sometimes of silver gilt. Byrhtric, in his will, bequeaths three silver cups. Wulfur 'bequeaths four cups, two of which he describes as of four pounds value." Wynfleda gives, besides four silver cups, a cup with a fringed edge, a wooden cup variegated with gold, a wooden knobbed cup, and two smicere scencing cuppan, or very handsome drinking cups. In other places we read of a golden cup, with a gold dish; a gold cup of immense weight; a dish adorned with gold, and another with Grecian workmanship.” A lady gave a golden cup, weighing four marks and a half. The king of Kent sent to Boniface, the Anglo-Saxon missionary in Germany, a silver bason, gilt within, weighing three pounds and a half." On another occasion, a great silver dish of excellent workmanship, and of great value, is noticed. * Two silver cups, weighing twelve marks, were used by the monks in a refectory, to serve their drink. “ Two silver basons were given by a lady to a monastery. A king, in 833, gave his gilt cup, engraved without with vine-dressers fighting dragons, which he called his cross-bowl, because it had a cross marked within, and it had four angles projecting like a similar figure; two silver cups, with covers, in one place;** five silver cups in another; and such-like notices, sufficiently prove to us that the rich and great among the Anglo-Saxons had no want of plate. At other times we meet with cups of bone, brazen dishes," and a coffer made of bones. 48 infer that the less affluent used vessels of We may 45 43 42 38 Ibid. 240. 47 16 Mag. Bib. 93, 39 16 Mag. Bib. p. 64. 4° Dugd. 123. BOOK VIII. wood and horn. A council ordered that no cup or dish made of horn should be used in the sacred offices. 49 Horns were much used at table. Two buffalo horns are in Wynfleda's will. s Four horns are noticed in the list of a monastery's effects." Three horns worked with gold and silver occur;" and the Mercian king gave to Croyland monastery the horn of his table, "that the elder monks may drink there"out on festivals, and in their benedictions remember "sometimes the soul of the donor, Witlaf."" The curiously carved horn which is still preserved in York cathedral was made in the Anglo-Saxon times, and deserves the notice of the inquisitive, for its magnitude and workmanship. Glass vessels, which are among the most valuable of our present comforts, were little used in the time of Bede and Boniface. A disciple of Bede asked Lullus, in France, if there were any man in his parish who could make glass vessels well; if such a man lived there, he desired that he might be persuaded to come to England, because, adds he, "we are ignorant and helpless in this art.' glass, and vessels for many uses. in the conveniences of domestic life towards the period of the Norman conquest. 99 54 55 Bede mentions lamps of Glass became more used Gold and silver were also applied to adorn their sword hilts, their saddles and bridles, and their banners." Their gold rings contained gems; and even their garments, saddles, and bridles, were sometimes jewelled. " 57 The presents which the father of Alfred took with him to Rome deserve enumeration, from their value, and because they shew the supply of the precious metals which the AngloSaxons possessed; we derive the knowledge of them from Anastasius, a contemporary: a crown of the purest gold, weighing four pounds; two basons of the purest gold, weigh 49 Spelm. Conc. 295. "1 Dugd. 221. 53 Ingulf, 9. 16 Mag. Bib. 88. 0 Hickes Præf. 52 Ibid. 40. 55 Bede, p. 295. 56 Dugd. Mou. 266. ib. 24. Bede, 3. 11. 57 Aldhelm de Laud. Virg. 307. Eddius, 60.62. 3 Gale Script. 494. Dugd. Mon, 24. |