Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/118

 98 Hijiory of Domejiic Manners CHAPTER VL THE NORMAN HALL. SOCIAL SENTIMENTS UNDER THE ANGLO-NOR- MANS. DOMESTIC AMUSEMENTS. CANDLES AND LANTERNS. FURNI- TURE. BEDS. OUT-OF-DOOR RECREATIONS, HUNTING. ARCHERY. CONVIVIAL INTERCOURSE AND HOSPITALITY. TRAVELLING. PUNISHMENTS. THE STOCKS. — A NORMAN SCHOOL. EDUCATION. ALEXANDER NECKAM has left us a fufficiently clear defcription - of the Norman hall. He fays that it had a veftibule or fcreen {viftilulum), and was entered through a porch {porticus), and that it had a court, the Latin name of which {atrium) he pretends was derived from ater (black), " becaufe the kitchens ufed to be placed by the fide of the ftreets, in order that the paffers-by might perceive the fmell of cooking." This explanation is fo myflerious, that we may fuppofe the pafTage to be corrupt, but the coquince of which Neckam is fpeaking are evidently cook's fhops. In the interior of the hall, he fays, there were pofts (or columns) placed at regular diftances. The few examples of Norman halls which remain are divided internally by two rows of columns. Neckam enumerates the materials required in the conftruftion of the hall, which feem to fliow that he is fpeaking of a timber building. A fine example of a timber hall, though of a later period, is, or was recently, ftanding in the city of Gloucefter, with its internal "pofts" as here defcribed. There appears alfo to have been an inner court-yard, in which Neckam intimates that poultry were kept. The whole building, and the two court-yards, were no doubt furrounded by a wall, outfide of which were the garden and orchard. The Normans appear to have had a tafte for gardens, which formed a very important adjun6t to the manfion, and to the caftle, and are not unfrequently alluded to in mediaeval writers, even as far back as the twelfth century. Giraldus Cambrenfis, fpeaking of