Page:Sussex Archaeological Collections, volume 6.djvu/39

 Saxon times was by driving large stakes into the ground, and filling up the spaces by interweaving pliant branches of young trees, and covering the whole with clay or mud—a style of building still retained for out-houses in some parts of Sussex, and known by the rather unclassical designation of "raddle-and-dab." Within this extempore fort were assembled the men of London, and Kent, and Hertford, and Essex, and Surrey, and Sussex, and St. Edmund, and Suffolk, and Norwich, and Norfolk, and Canterbury, and Stamford, and Bedford, and Huntingdon, and Northampton, and York, and Buckingham, and Nottingham, and Lincoln, and Lindsay, and Salisbury, and Dorset, and Bath, and Somerset, and Gloucester, and Worcester, and Winchester, and Hampshire, and Berkshire, and elsewhere. This enumeration is from Wace, who informs us that, in addition to these, "the villains were also called together from the villages, bearing such arms as they found; clubs, and great picks, iron forks, and stakes"—a mixed and motley group, animated by the fire of a generous patriotism, and fully bent upon a vigorous resistance.

The manner in which the night of the 13th of October was spent by them redounds little to their honour. On the eve of such a crisis as they knew the next day must inevitably bring, they might have been more rationally employed than in drinking and dissipation. The Saxon camp in fact rather resembled that of a victorious host, than that of one which stood upon the very brink of destruction. "All night," says our graphic chronicler, "they might be seen carousing, gambolling, and dancing, and singing; bublie, they cried, and wassail, and laticome and drinkheil, and drink-to-me. Sad the contrast between that hilarious toast-drinking and the shrieks and groans which were, a few hours later, to resound from the blood-drenched hill.

Far different was the scene presented by the Norman army on the eve of the battle. The priests were everywhere busy, confessing and shriving the soldiery, and mingling with their penances and pardons exhortations to valorous deeds. All night they watched and prayed in portable chapels which had been fitted up throughout the camp. Among the priests-militant so engaged, two were especially conspicuous: Odo, VI.