Page:Leechdoms wortcunning and starcraft of early England volume 2.djvu/19



No historical records are complete without the usual chapter on Manners and Customs; and the true scholar never feels himself well in possession of the requisite knowledge of the past age, till he has so learnt its time honoured tale, as to apprehend in a human and practical sense those feelings which made its superstitions plausible, its heathenism social, its public institutions tend, in the end, to the general welfare.

The Saxons have not been more fortunate than others in their appreciation by us, self satisfied moderns. They have been, and still are, I believe, commonly regarded as mangy dogs, whose success against the Keltic race in this country was owing chiefly to their starved condition and ravening hunger. The children protest that, positively, as they know from their most reliable handbooks, these roving savages stuffed their bellies with acorns, and the enlightened literati and dilettanti begrudge them any feeling of respect for their queens and ladies, or any arts such as befit our "Albion's glorious isle" under an English king.

The work now published for the first time, and from a unique manuscript, will, if duly studied, afford a large store of information to a very different effect, and show us that the inhabitants of this land in Saxon times were able to extract a very fair share of comfortable food, and healing medicines, and savoury drinks directly or indirectly from it. Many readers