Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/95

 and Sentiments. 7S the ihaft." He was not coniidered blameable if he held the fpear quite horizontally. The traveller always wore a covering for his head, which, though of various Ihapes, none of which refembled our modern hat, was charaAerifed by the general term of hcet. He feems to have been further protected againft the inclemency of the weather by a cloak or mantle {mentel). One would be led to fuppofe that this outer garment was more varied in form and material than any other part of the drefs, from the great number of names which we find applied to it, fuch as lafing, hcecce, hcecela, or hacela, pcell, pylca, fcyccels, lucefels, Sec. The writings which remain throw no light upon the provifions made by travellers againft rain ; for the diftionary-makers who give fcur-fcead (lliower-lliade) as fignifying an umbrella, are certainly miftaken.* Yet that umbrellas were known to the Anglo-Saxons is proved beyond a doubt by a figure in the Harleian manufcript. No. 603, which is given in our cut No. 51. A fervant or attendant is holding an umbrella over the head of a man who appears to be covered at the fame time with the cloak or mantle. Travelling to any difiance muft have been ren- dered more uncomfortable, efpecially when pafling through wild diftri6ls where there were no inns. The word inn is itfelf Saxon, and fignified a lodging, but it appears to have been more ufually applied to houfes of this kind in towns. A tavern was alfo called a gejl-hus or geft-hur, a houfe or chamber for guefts, and cumena-hus, a houfe of comers. Gueft-houfes, like caravanferais in the Eaft, appear to have been eftablifiied in difterent parts of Saxon England, near the high roads, for the recep- No. 51. y^'n Anglo-Saxcn Umbrella. the poem attributed to Casdmon. Adam says that when the inclement weather arrives {cyme's haglcsfcur — the hail shower will come) they had nothing before them to serve for a defence or shade against the storm — " Nys unc ivuht befcrcU to Jcur keade." tion
 * The word occurs in the reflections of our first parents on their nakedness, in