Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 1.djvu/157

TO A.D. 1200.] Bede applied to Lullus, in France, to know if there was any man in that neighbourhood who could make glass vessels well; "for," said he, "we are ignorant and helpless ill this art."



Of the furniture in use among the Anglo-Saxons little information has come down to us. Mention has already been made of hangings to be suspended on the walls of rooms, and adorned with figures of golden birds in needlework. The love of gaudy colours which prevailed at that day was apparent in the furniture as well as in the dresses of the people; and the hangings and curtains were stained with purple and various other colours. Among the benches and chairs in use, some are represented as having animals' heads at the extremities.



Candles have probably been in use from a period of high antiquity, and were certainly known in the tenth century. The Anglo-Saxon word for candlestick candtlsticea—seems to denote that the earlier candlesticks were made of wood. At this period the candle was not placed in a socket, as at present, but fixed on a long spike.

We find mention made of a curtain, sheets, and other clothes appertaining. A pillow of straw is also mentioned. Bear-skins were sometimes used as a part of bed furniture. The engraving of a saxon bed above given, is taken from Claud., B.4 MSS., Brit. Museum.



The Anglo-Saxons seem to have practised great personal cleanliness. The use of the warm bath was common, for mention is made of a nun, who, as an act of voluntary penance, washed in them only on festivals. It was also enjoined by the canons as a charitable duty to give to the poor meal, fire, fodder, bathing, bed, and clothes.



The practice of burning the dead was common at one period among the northern nations, but among the Anglo-Saxons the custom of interment has prevailed from the earliest times to which the records of the monkish historians extend. The common coffins were of wood; those of kings and nobles were usually of stone.

At the time of the Conquest, the condition of the people in France and Normandy differed little from what it was in our own country. The nobles and higher ecclesiastics, all who possessed wealth, or were in a position to seize it by force, inhabited their castles and country houses, where they collected about them whatever the age could afford of objects of luxury and elegance.



Solitude and discouragement reigned around their dwellings. Industry and the arts languished obscurely in the towns, and commerce, restrained in its developments, was often conducted in secrecy