Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/87

 The peacock was a favourite dish; so were crane and porpoise. Spiced wines and cordials were drunk freely by the Normans, who were naturally a more temperate people than the Saxons, but with the rapid assimilation of the two races this restraint soon disappeared. So fast indeed did Norman and Saxon blend, that in dress and language they soon became identical. The tunic, cloak and leg bandages were still worn; the women's gown became the "robe," her headgear the couvre-chef or kerchief. The women of the period wore their hair in long plaits, sometimes reaching to the feet, one on either side. So much indeed did the Normans admire the long flowing hair of the Saxons, that they imitated them by allowing their closely cropped hair to grow immoderately long. This fashion was denounced strongly by the clergy as effeminate, and it is recorded that on Easter Day, 1105, the priest, after inveighing against it, coolly drew a huge pair of scissors from his pocket and went from seat to seat mercilessly cropping the whole congregation, from the King downwards!

The clergy, after the Conquest, had much to contend with. The Church was in a deplorable condition. The Saxon clergy had grown illiterate