Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/284

 264 Hiftory of Domejlic Manners poem in the Exeter Book, it is remarked in proof of the richnefs of a chieftain : — >eah >e feoh-geflreon Although he riches under hord-locan, in his treajure-kckcrs, hyrjia un/im, jewels innumerable, ahte ofe> ecr]i,i. p'-jfejfed upon c^rM.— Exeter Book, p. 245. Among the Anglo-Saxons the lady of the houfehold had the charge of the CO tiers. In one of the laws of Cnut relating to robberies, it is declared that " if any man bring a flolen thing home to his cot, and he be detefted, it is juft that the owner have what he went for 3 and unlefs it has been brought under his wife's key-lockers (cceg-locan), let her be clear 3 for it is her duty to keep the keys of them, namely, her ftorehoufe No. 189. ^ M;fir and hh Hoard. {hord-ern), and her cheil {cyfie), and her box {tege)^ (Cnut's Laws, No. 180.) In the old metrical romances, when a town is taken and facked, the plunderers are defcribed as hurrying to the chambers, to rifle the chefts and coffers, which were kept there. Thus, in the romance of the " Mort de Garin," when Fromont's town is taken by the followers of the hero of the romance, "the Lorrains," we are told, "haffened to deftroy the town ; there you might fee many a chamber broken open, and many a hutch burft and torn, where they found robes, and filver, and glittering gold" — Loheren