Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/34

 14 Hijlory of Domejlic Manners preventing his enemies from being admitted into the inclofure by treachery. He lay in his chamber, or bower. One night, the watch- men having drunk more than ufual, were unguarded in their fpeech, and talked together of a plot into which they had entered againll the life of their lord. He, happening to be awake, heard their converlation from his chamber, and defeated their projeft. We fee here the chamber of the lord of the manlion lb little fubftantial in its conftruftion that its inmates could hear what was going on out of doors. At a ftill later period, a Northumbrian noble, whom Hereward vifited in his youth, had a building for wild beafts within his houfe or inclofure. One day a bear broke loofe, and immediately made for the chamber or bower of the lady of the houfehold, in which llie had taken flicker with her women, and whither, no doubt, the lavage animal was attracted by their cries. We gather from the context that this alylum would not have availed them, had not young Hereward flain the bear before it reached them. In fad, the lady's chamber was ftill only a detached room, probably with a very weak door, which was not capable of withftanding any force. The Harleian Manufcript, No. 603 (in the Britifli Mufeum), contains feveral illuftrations of Anglo-Saxon domeftic architedure, moft of which are rather Iketchy and indefinite j but there is one pidure (fol. 57, v°.) which illuftrates, in a very interefting manner, the diftribution of the houfe. Of this, an exad copy is given in the accompanying cut. No. 12.* The manufcript is, perhaps, as old as the ninth century, and the pidure here given illuftrates Pfalm cxi., in the Vulgate verfton, the defcription of the juft and righteous chieftain : the beggars are admitted within the inclofure (where the fcene is laid), to receive the alms of the lord 5 and he and his lady are occupied in diftributing bread to them, while his fervants are bringing out of one of the bowers raiment to clothe the naked. The larger buildins? behind, endinsf in a fort of round tower a small Saxon house, consisting of one hall or place for living in, with a chamber attached, exactly like the domestic chapel and its attached chamber in our cut, No. 12. This seems to have been the usual shape of small houses in the Anglo- Saxon period. with
 * Strutt has engraved, without Indicating the manuscript from which it is taken,