The Normans were more temperate and refined in their mode of living
than the Saxons. In dress they made great display. In Henry I's
reign it became the custom for the nobility to wear their hair very
long, so that their curls resembled those of women. The clergy
thundered against this effeminate fashion, but with no effect. At
last, a priest preaching before the King on Easter Sunday, ended his
sermon by taking out a pair of shears and cropping the entire
congregation, King and all.
By the regulation called the curfew, a bell rang at sunset in summer
and at eight in winter, which was the government signal for putting
out lights and covering up fires. This law, which was especially
hated by the English, as a Norman innovation and act of tyranny, was a
necessary precaution against fire, at a time when London and other
cities were masses of wooden hovels.
Surnames came in with the Normans. Previous to the Conquest,
Englishmen had but one name; and when, for convenience, another was
needed, they were called by their occupation or from some personal
peculiarity, as Edward the Carpenter, Harold the Dauntless. Among the
Normans the lack of a second, or family, name had come to be looked
upon as a sign of low birth, and the daughter of a great lord
(Fitz-Haman) refused to marry a nobleman who had but one, saying, "My
father and my grandfather had each two names, and it were a great
shame to me to take a husband who has less."
The principal amusements were hunting, and hawking (catching birds and
other small game by the use of trained hawks).
The Church introduced theatrical plays, written and acted by the
monks. These represented scenes in Scripture history, and, later, the
careers of the Vices and the Virtues were personified.
Jousts and tournaments, or mock combats between knights, were not
encouraged by William I, or his immediate successors, but became
common in the period following the Norman Kings. On some occasions
they were fought in earnest, and resulted in the death of one, or
more, of the combatants.