Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/403

 and Sentiments. 383 feems to have been equally fi:ri6t with her daughters. At the beginning of the reign of Edward IV., flie wrote to her fon John concerning his lifter Anne, who had been placed in the houfe of a kinfman of the name of Calthorpe. " Since ye departed," flie fays, "my coufin Calthorpe fent me a letter complaining in his writing that forafrauch as he cannot be paid of his tenants as he hath been before this time, he propofeth to lelTen his houfehold, and to live the ftraitlier, wherefore he defireth me to purvey for your lifter Anne 5 he faith Ihe waxeth high {grows tall), and it were time to purvey her a marriage. I marvel what caufeth him to write fo now, either Ihe hath difpleafed him, or elfe he hath taken her with default 5 therefore I pray you commune with my coufin Clare at London, and weet {learn) how he is difpofed to her-ward, and fend me word, for I fliall be fain to fend for her, and with me fhe fliall but lofe her time, and without llie will be the better occupied llie lliall oftentimes move {vex) me and put me in great inquietnefs ; remember what labour I had with your filler, therefore do your part to help her forth, that may be to your worlhip and mine." There certainly appears here no great alFeftion between mother and daughter. Among other leflbns, the ladies appear to have been taught to be very demure and formal in their behaviour in company. Our cut No. 250 reprefents a party of ladies and gentlemen in the parlour engaged in converfation. It is taken from an illumination in the manufcript of the romance of the " Comte d' Artois," formerly in the poirellion of M. Barrois. They are all apparently feated on benches, which feem in this inftance to be made like long chefts, and placed along the fides of the wall as if they ferved alfo for lockers. Thefe appear to be the only articles of furniture in the room. There is a certain conventional pofition in moft of the ladies of the party which has evidently been taught, even to the holding of the hands crofted. The four ladies with the gentleman between them are no doubt intended to be the attendants on the lady of the houfe, holding towards her the pofition of Elizabeth and Anne Pafton. We have precifely the fame conventional forms in the next cut (No. 251), which is taken from an illumination in a manufcript of the " Legenda Aurea," in the National Library in Paris (No. 6889). We fee here the fame