Page:The Mabinogion.djvu/82

Rh justice. On these blocks, or on the tree which was generally planted near them, were usually suspended the shields of those Eoiights who wished to challenge all comers to feats of arms. They were also sometimes used as a place of judgment, and a rostrum, on which the baroDs took their seats when they determined the differences between their vassals, and from whence the publick criers made proclamations to the people."—(II. 229.)

—Page 13.

custom of painting figures upon the panels of rooms was much practised and esteemed at the time when we may suppose that this Tale was put into its present dress. Chaucer has several instances, of which we may notice more particularly the allegorical figures on the wall, at the opening of the Romaunt of the Hose, and the far more interesting and descriptive representations in the Temples of Mars, Venus, and Diana, in the "Knightes Tale." The paintings at the Temple of Mars were executed with so much art that even sounds were emitted by them.

First on the wall was peinted a forest

In which ther wonneth neyther man ne best

With knotty knarry barrein trees old

Of stubbes sharpe and hidous to behold.

In which ther ran a romble and a swough.

As though a storme shuld bresten every bough," &c.—(1977.)

—Page 14.

word is the same as that in the original Welsh, and is used by the old writers to signify a thin kind of silk like Cyprus. The dress of the "Doctour of Phisike" one of the pilgrims to Canterbury, was, no doubt, a handsome one, and of him we are told—

In sanguine and in perse he clad was alle

Lined with tafiata and with sendalle."—(441.)

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these personal services may appear to be at variance with the manners of the present day, it is clear that they were in perfect accordance with those of our ancestors. Of this, the following passage from the Life of Merlin will afibrd an example:—

"When they went to the palace and had disarmed themselves,