Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/72

 52 Hijiory of Doinejlic Manners When the Anglo-Saxon youth, if a boy, had paffed his infancy, he entered that age which was called cnithad (knighthood), which lafted from about eight years of age until manhood. It is very rare that we can catch in hiftory a glimpfe of the internal economy of the Anglo-Saxon houfehold. Enough, however, is told to fhow us that the Saxon w^oman in every clafs of fociety poflelTed thofe charafteriftics which are Hill conlidered to be the befi: traits of the charader of Englilhwomen ; Ihe was the attentive houfewife, the tender companion, the comforter and confoler of her huiband and family, the virtuous and noble matron. Home was her efpecial place 3 for we are told in a poem in the Exeter Book (p. 337) that, "It befeems a damfel to be at her board (table) 5 a rambling woman fcatters words, flie is often charged with faults, a man thinks of her with contempt, oft her cheek fmites." In all ranks, from the queen to the peafant, w^e find the lady of the houfehold attending to her domeftic duties. In 686, John of Beverley performed a fiippofed miraculous cure on the lady of a Yorkfhire earl 3 and the man who narrated the miracle to Bede the hiftorian, and who dined with John of Beverley at the earl's houfe after the cure, faid, " She prefented the cup to the bifliop (John) and to me, and continued ferving us with drink as flie had begun, till dinner was over." Domeflic duties of this kind were never confidered as degrading, and they were performed with a fimplicity peculiarly charafteriftic of the age. Bede relates another flory of a miraculous cure performed on an earl's wife by St. Cuthbert, in the fequel of which we find the lady going forth from her houfe to meet her hulband's vifitor, holding the reins while he dilrnounts, and conducing him in. The wicked and ambitious queen Elfthrida, when her ftep-fon king Edward approached her refidence, went out in perfon to attend upon him, and invite him to enter, and, on his refufal, flie ferved him with the cup herfelf, and it was while ftooping to take it that he was treacheroully fl:abbed by one of her attendants. In their chamber, befides fpinning and weaving, the ladies were employed in needlework and embroidery, and the Saxon ladies were fo Ikilful in this art, that their work, under the name of Englifh work {opus Anglicum), was celebrated on the continent. "We read