Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/116

 96 Hiflory of Domefiic Manners from the fame manufcript as the lall;, in which two men are feated, in a very lingular manner. It was not uncommon, however, to have feats which held feveral perfons together, fuch as the one reprefented in an Anglo-Saxon illumination given in a former chapter (p. 31), and fuch as are ftill to be feen in country public-houfes, where they have preferved the Anglo-Saxon name of fettle. One of thefe is reprefented in our cut No. 68. The perfons feated in it, in this cafe, are learned men, and the crofs above feems to fhow that they are monks. One has a table-book, and two of the others have rolls of parchment, which are all evidently the fubje6t of anxious difcuffion. Chairs, and even ftools, were, as has been already obferved, by no means abundant in thefe early times, and we can eafily fuppofe that it No. 68. An Anglo-Norman Settle. would be a difficult thing to accommodate numerous vifitors with feats. To remedy this, when houfes were built of ftone, it was ufual to make, in the public apartments, feats, like benches, in receffes in the wall, or proje£ting from it, which would accommodate a number of perfons at the fame time. We find fuch feats ufually in the cloifters of monafteries, as well as in the chapter-houfes of our cathedral churches. In the latter they generally riui round the room, and are divided by arches into feats which were evidently intended to accommodate two perfons each, for the convenience