Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/81

 and Sentiments. 6 1 k com zurtejire >onne heo. I am more delicate than it. >eah )pa lilie jy Though that the lily be leofmon-cynnc^ dear to mankind, heorht on hloftman, bright in its bloJJ'om, ic eom betre >onne heo. I am better than it. —Exeter Book, p. 423. So in another of thefe poems we read — ^^g^''f"Sl^ reord, Sivect ivas the Jong of birds, folde gebloivcii, the earth ivas. co-vercd iviih fowers, geacas gear biidcn. cuckoos announced the year. — ibid. p. 14(. Before we quit entirely the Saxon hall^ and its feftivities and cere- monies, we mufl. mention one circumftance connefted with them. The laws and cuftoms of the Anglo-Saxons earneftly enjoined the duty of almfgiving, and a multitude of perfons partook of the hofpitality of the rich man's manlion, who were not worthy to be admitted to his tables. Thefe affembled at meal-times outlide the gate of his houfe, and it was a cuftom to lay afide a portion of the provilions to be diftributed among them, with the fragments from the table. In Alfric's homily for the fecond Sunday after Pentecoft, the preacher, after dwelling on the ftory of Lazarus, who was fpurned from the rich man's table, appeals to his Anglo-Saxon audience — " many Lazarufes ye have now lying at your gates, begging for your fuperfluity." Bede tells us of the good king Ofwald, that when he was once fitting at dinner, on Eafier-day, with his billiop, having a filver difli full of dainties before him, as they were jufl ready to blefs the bread, the fervant whofe duty it was to relieve the poor, came in on a fudden and told the king that a great multitude of needy perfons from all parts were fitting in the ftreets begging fome alms of the king. The latter immediately ordered the provifions fet before him to be carried to the poor, and the difh to be cut in pieces and divided among them. In the pifture of a Saxon houl'e given in our firfi: chapter (p. 15), we fee the lord of the houfehold on a fort of throne at the entrance to his hall, prefiding over the diftribution of his charity. This feat, generally under an arch or canopy, is often reprefented in the Saxon manufcripts, and the chief or lord fcated under it, diftributing juftice or charity. In the accompanying cut. No. 40, taken from the Anglo-Saxon manulcript