Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/279

 and Sent'unents. 259 his arrival has given alarm to a man who was in bed, and who is efcaping without any kind of clothing. In the Englifli romance of " Sir Ifumbras," the caftle of Ifumbras is burnt to the ground in the night, and his lady and three children efcaped from their beds 3 when he hurried to the fpot, he found them without clothing or Ihelter — A dolefullc jyghte the knyghte gane fee Of hh lojfe and Ms cMldir three. That fro the fyre ivere fede ,• Alle ah nakede ah thay ivere borne Stode togedlr iindir a thorne, Braydede o'lvte of t hair e bedd. Curioufly enough, while fo little care was taken to cover the body, the head was carefully covered at night, not with a nightcap, but with a kerchief {couvrechief), which was wrapped round it. The pra6tice of warm-bathing prevailed very generally in all clalTes of fociety, and is frequently alluded to in the mediaeval romances and ftories. For this purpofe a large bathing-tub was ufed, the ordinary form of which is reprefented in the annexed cut (No. 184), taken from the No. 1 84. A Lady Bathing. manufcript of the St. Graal, of the thirteenth century, in the Britilh Mufeum (MS. Addit. No. 10,292, fol. 266). People fometimes bathed immediately after rifing in the morning ; and we find the bath ufed after dinner, and before going to bed. A bath was alfo often prepared for a vilitor