Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/21

 HisroRT DOMESTIC MANNERS AND SENTIMENTS. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. THE ANGLO-SAXONS BEFORE THEIR CONVERSION. GENERAL ARRANGEMENT OF A SAXON HOUSE. MUCH has been written at different times on the coftume and fome other circumftances conne6ted with the condition of our forefathers in paft times, but no one has undertaken with much fuccefs to treat generally of the domeftic manners of the middle ages. The hiftory of domeftic manners, indeed, is a fubjeft, the materials of which are exceedingly varied, widely fcattered, and not ealily brought together ; they, of courfe, vary in charafter with the periods to which they relate, and at certain periods are much rarer than at others. But the intereft of the fubjed muft be felt by every one who appreciates artj tor what avails our knowledge of coftume unlefs we know the manners, the mode of living, the houfes, the furniture, the utenfils, of thofe whom we have learnt how to clothe ? and, without this latter knowledge, hiftory itfelf ' can be but imperfeftly underftood. In England, as in moft other countries of weftern Europe, at the period of the middle ages when we firft become intimately acquainted with them, the manners and cuftoms of their inhabitants were a mixture of thofe of the barbarian fettlers themfelves, and of thofe which they found among the conquered Romans ; the latter prevailing to a greater or lefs extent, according to the peculiar circumftances of the country. B This