The infant state of our Saxon ancestors when the Romans first observed
them, exhibited nothing from which human sagacity could have predicted
greatness. A territory on the neck of the Cimbric Chersonesus, and three
small islands, contained those whose descendants occupy the circle of
Westphalia, the Electorate of Saxony, the British Islands, the United
States of North America, and the British Colonies in the two Indies.
Such is the course of Providence, that empires, the most extended and
the most formidable, are found to vanish as the morning mist; while
tribes, scarcely visible, or contemptuously overlooked, like the springs
of a mighty river, often glide on gradually to greatness and veneration.
Our inquiry, however, must be confined to the arts of these people.
Concerning their architecture, it is supposed that the most ancient
buildings were of wood; since the Saxon verb _Getymbrian_, to build,
signifies literally to make of timber. The early English churches were
built of logs of wood; and the erection of buildings of reeds and trunks
of trees seems to have existed in some parts of England to a late
period; since, in 940, Hoel Dha, King of North Wales, erected his White
House, where his famous laws were made, of twisted branches, with the
bark stripped and left white, whence it derived its name. Even in the
days of Henry I. also, Pembroke Castle was built of twigs and turf.
Bricks were made in England by the Saxons; but they were thin, and were
called wall-tiles. It has been supposed that the Saxons and Normans
adopted the masonry which the Romans introduced into England, altering
it as architecture improved. The principal peculiarities of the Saxon
style are the want of uniformity in all its parts, massive columns,
semicircular arches, and diagonal mouldings. The first two are common to
the barbaric architecture of Europe; the round arches are believed to
have been taken from the Romans; and the zig-zag mouldings have been
thought to allude to the stringing of the teeth of fishes. According to
the best authorities, there are very few specimens of architecture now
in existence in this country which can properly be called Saxon,--that
is, of date anterior to the Conquest, and not of Roman origin; and these
few are of the rudest and most inferior description. Saxon, therefore,
as far as the architecture of this country is concerned, is an improper
term.[15]
[Illustration: SAXON HOUSE.]
The ordinary Saxon homes were of clay, held together by wooden frames;
bricks being uncommon, and only used as ornaments: the houses were
generally low and mean, or as we should call them, cottages. In a Saxon
house of larger proportions, the upper rooms only are lighted by
windows; there is no appearance of chimneys; the doorway is in one of
the gables, and reaches more than half-way to the top of the house; and
above it are some small square windows, which indicate an upper room or
rooms. On one side is a low shed, or wing, apparently constructed with
square stones, or large bricks, covered, like the house, with
semicircular tiles, probably shingles, such as we to this day see on
church-spires.
From the Mead-hall and the other Saxon houses of the period, we also get
the type of the modern English mansion, with its _enceinte_ and its
lodge-gate, as distinguished from its hall-door. The early Saxon house
was the whole inclosure, at the gate of which beggars assembled, for
alms, and the porter received the alms of strangers. The whole mass
inclosed within this wall constituted the burgh, or tun; and the hall,
with its _duru_, or door, was the chief of its edifices. Around it were
grouped the sleeping-chambers, or _bowers_, as they were designated till
a late age, with the subordinate offices. Mr. Wright (in his able work
on the _Domestic Life of the Middle Ages_) draws many of his inferences
from the description of the Mead-hall, or _beer-hall_, of Hrothgar, and
adds that he believes Bulwer's description of the Saxonized Roman house
inhabited by Hilda, in _The Last of the Barons_, is substantially
correct.
We learn from the romance of Beowulf, that "there was for the sons of
the Geats (Beowulf and his followers altogether), a bench cleared in the
beer-hall; there the bold spirit, free from quarrel, went to sit; the
thane observed his office, he that in his hand bare the twisted ale-cup;
he poured the bright sweet liquor; meanwhile the poet sang serene in
Heorot (the name of Hrothgar's palace); there was joy of heroes."
Although our conceptions of this scene are faint and vague, the
antiquary is enabled to represent certain items as "the twisted
ale-cup," a favourite fashion of our forefathers, many of whose
ale-cups, as discovered in their barrows or graves, are incapable of
standing upright, implying that their proprietors were thirsty souls.
The lamps of the Romans were certainly used by the Saxons, and were
indispensable in the winter-time. Their beds were simply sacks filled
out of the chest with fresh straw, and laid on benches as they were
wanted; though the pictures indicate that there were some bedsteads of a
more elaborate construction, and that others were placed in recesses and
protected by curtains. These bed-rooms were public enough, for they were
sitting-rooms as well, and we find Dunstan walking to the king's bedside
"as he lay in his bed with the queen," and rating him as freely as if he
had audience by appointment. The Saxon ladies were very opt to scourge
their domestic servants for very slight offences, and the punishment of
servile and other transgressors was in other respects barbarous. They
were given much to bathing in the baths which the Romans had left them,
and it may be that this resource had some influence in determining the
national bias towards personal cleanliness, which is such a
distinguishing characteristic of the English among northern nations. We
may add that the Saxon knew how to build a gallows, how to bait a bear,
drive a chariot, fly a hawk, cultivate roses and lilies, and that he
certainly knew the use of an umbrella.
A convivial custom which originated in this rude age is too interesting
to be omitted here. It is said by some writers that Vortigern married
Rowena, the daughter of Hengist. She was very beautiful; and when
introduced by her father at the royal banquet of the British king, she
advanced gracefully and modestly towards him, bearing in her hand a
golden goblet filled with wine. Young people, even of the highest rank,
were accustomed to wait upon their elders, and those unto whom they
wished to show respect; therefore, the appearance of Rowena as the
cup-bearer of the feast was neither unbecoming nor unseemly. And when
the lady came near unto Vortigern, she said in her own Saxon
language--"_Wæs heal plaford Conung_;" which means, "Health to my Lord
the King." Vortigern did not understand the salutation of Rowena, but
the words were explained to him by an interpreter. "_Drinc heal_," "Drink
thou health," was the accustomed answer, and the memory of the event was
preserved in merry old England by the _wassail cup_--a vessel full of
spiced wine or good ale, which was handed round from guest to guest, at
the banquet and the festival. Well, therefore, might Rowena be
recollected on high tides and holidays for the introduction of this
concomitant of good cheer.
This story has, however, a pendant. At our great city feasts, to this
day--especially at the Mansion House of the Lord Mayor--the Wassail or
Loving Cup is passed round the table immediately after dinner, the Lord
Mayor having drunk to his visitors a hearty welcome. The more formal
practice is for the person who pledges with the loving cup to stand up
and bow to his neighbour, who, also standing, removes the cover of the
cup with his right hand, and holds it while the other drinks; a custom
said to have originated in the precaution to keep the right, or dagger
hand employed, that the person who drinks may be assured of no
treachery, like that practised by Elfrida on the unsuspecting King
Edward the Martyr at Corfe Castle, who was slain while drinking: this
was why the cup possessed a cover.
The usages of domestic life, especially at dinner, are copiously
illustrated in ancient manuscript illuminations. Mr. Wright quotes the
_Boke of Kervyng_, which enjoins the carver to handle the meats with his
thumb and two fingers only,--for the Middle Ages, with all their
artistic ingenuity, had not attained to the invention of a fork. In none
of the pictures have the guests any plates; they seem to have eaten with
their hands and thrown the refuse on the table. We know also that they
often threw the fragments on the floor, where they were eaten up by cats
and dogs, which were admitted into the hall without restriction.[16] In
the _Boke of Curtesye_ it is blamed as a mark of bad breeding to play
with the cats and dogs while seated at table. The drinking vessels of
this period display fine workmanship and ingenious devices. The
Anglo-Saxons were unquestionably huge drinkers, and ornamented their
drinking vessels with all the skill in working the precious metals for
which they were so famous. But the primitive drinking-cup was the simple
horn of the bullock, which was retained as an appendage of the
Anglo-Saxon dinner-table until after the Conquest. There were also other
drinking vessels, suggested by that ornamentation with which the
Anglo-Saxon artificers had enriched the simple cup of the Danes. Peg
Tankards are of the Saxon period: one is to be seen in the Ashmolean
Museum; but a finer specimen, of undoubted Anglo-Saxon work, formerly
belonging to the Abbey of Glastonbury, is now in the possession of Lord
Arundel, of Wardour: it holds two quarts, and formerly had eight pegs
inside, dividing the liquor into half-pints. On the lid is carved the
crucifixion, with the Virgin and John, one on each side; and round the
cup are carved the twelve apostles.
Drinking-horns are represented on the Bayeux tapestry, and in the
magnificent collection of antiquities in the British Museum there is a
capacious specimen of one formed of the small tusk of an elephant,
carved with rude figures of that animal, unicorns, lions, and
crocodiles. It is mounted with silver; a small tube, ending in a silver
cup, issues from the jaws of a pike, whose head and shoulders inclose
the mouth of the vessel, on which the following legend is engraved:--
Drink you this and think no scorne
All though the cup be much like horn.
The horn was not long before it had rivals: the commonest of these was
the Mazer-bowl, a utensil which, with its cover on, resembled two
saucers placed together rim to rim, with a topknot on the upper one. It
was usually made of maple wood, from which it is supposed to have
derived its name--_maeser_ being Dutch for maple. Of this shape was the
early and famous wassail-bowl. When these bowls, which in process of
time were made of costlier materials than maple, were large, they were
lifted to the mouth with both hands; when small, in the palm of one
hand. Our ancestors were much attached to their mazers, and incurred
considerable expense in embellishing them, in embossing legends
admonitory of peace and good fellowship on the metal rim or on the
cover, or in engraving on the bottom a cross or the image of a saint.
Spenser, in _The Shepherds Calendar_, thus describes a vessel of this
kind:--
"A mazer ywrought of the maple warre,
Wherein is enchased many a fayre sight
Of bears and tygers, that maken fiers warre;
And over them spred a goodly wilde vine,
Entrailed with a wanton yvy twine.
"Tell me, such a cup hast thou ever seene?
Well moughte it beseeme any harvest queene."
The Mazer continued in use to the seventeenth century, when it was still
a favourite with the humbler classes. But on the tables of the rich it
gave place to new vessels. There was the Hanap, a cup raised on a stem,
with or without a cover. Besides the Hanap, a sort of mug or cup, called
the Godet, had also come into vogue; then there were the Juste, used in
monasteries to measure a prescribed allowance of wine; the Barrel, the
Tankard, the "standing-nut," or mounted shell of the cocoa-nut; and the
Grype, or Griffin's Egg, probably the egg of the ostrich. These vessels,
except of course the nut and the egg, were ordinarily of silver, and
sometimes of ivory, but rarely of gold; and still more rarely of glass,
which did not obtain for drinking cups until the close of the fifteenth
century. They were for the most part embossed or enamelled with the
armorial bearings of their owners, parcel-gilt--_i.e._ where part of the
work is gilt and part left plain; set with jewels and elaborately
designed with dances of men and women, with dogs, hearts, roses, and
trefoils.
One of the most esteemed Saxon trades was the smith, including workers
in gold, silver, iron, and copper. The English were very expert in these
arts; and in the laws of Wales the smith ranked next to the chaplain in
the Prince's court. The Saxons produced some very highly-finished
specimens of jewellery, goldsmith's work, and even of enamelling. A very
beautiful specimen of gold enamelled work is preserved in the Ashmolean
collection at Oxford: it is commonly known as _Alfred's Jewel_, as it
bears his name, and was found in 1693, in the immediate neighbourhood of
his retreat. It is filagree work, inclosing a piece of rock crystal,
under which appears a figure in enamel, which has not been
satisfactorily explained. The ground is of a rich blue, the face and
arms of the figure white, the dress principally green, the lower portion
partly of a reddish-brown. The inscription is "Aelfred mee heht
gevrean," (Alfred ordered me to be made,) thus affording the most
authentic testimony of its origin. Curious reliquaries, finely carved
and set with precious stones, were, for excellence, called "the English
work" throughout Europe. The representations of the crowns of the Saxon
kings, commencing with Offa, present us with specimens of the
ornamentation of the period. The ring was also a most important
ornament. It was used not only for display, but also as a charm, or
protection against natural or supernatural evil. The gems with which the
ring was set, were believed to possess, severally, special qualities,
and symbolical meanings. The sapphire indicated purity--the diamond,
faith--the ruby, zeal--the amethyst was good against drunkenness--the
sapphire was a protection against witchcraft, and the toad-stone against
sickness. The accredited properties of decade rings, pontifical rings,
alchemy rings, posie rings, and gimel rings are illustrated in various
anecdotes and legends. In the medal-room of the British Museum is a gold
ring, bearing the name of Ethelwulf, upon blue and black enamel: it was
found in a cart-rut, at Laverstock in Hampshire; its weight is 11 dwts.
14 grains.
The crosiers of the bishops of this period were curious specimens of
metal-work and gem ornamentation; as were also the shrines of the
saints. In 1840 a hoard of about 7,000 coins (beside many silver
ornaments) was discovered at Coverdale, near Preston, in Lancashire;
they are considered by the best numismatists indisputably to belong to
the chief of the Danish invaders in the ninth century, and their
immediate successors. In the sepulchre of Thyra, ancestress of Canute,
in Jutland, have been found the figure of a bird formed of thin plates
of gold, as well as a silver cup plated with gold, both being remarkable
examples of the state of the decorative arts in the tenth century.
The art of glass-making was introduced to the Saxons in the seventh
century, and ordinary window-glass was first used for building purposes
at the great monasteries at Monkwearmouth, on the river Wear, and at
Jarrow-on-the-Tyne; although we have already seen that window-glass was
used in the Roman city of Uriconium. The Venerable Bede, in the seventh
century, relates that his contemporary, the Abbot Benedict, sent for
artists beyond seas to glaze the Monastery of Wearmouth; and such was
the change made in their churches by the use of glass, instead of other
and more obscure substances for windows, that the unlettered people
avowed a belief, which was handed down as a tradition for many
generations, "that it was never dark in old Jarrow Church." By a
singular coincidence, the first manufactory of window or crown glass in
Great Britain was established at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, within a few miles
of these monastic establishments. In the year 1616 Admiral Sir Robert
Maunsell erected glassworks at the Ouseburn, Newcastle, which were
carried on without interruption till nearly the middle of the present
century, when they were closed.
The art of making woollen cloth, which was known to the Britons, was, by
this time, brought to perfection in England, especially in the south.
This seat of manufacture must have been handy to the fuller's-earth pits
of Nutfield, where fuller's-earth has been for centuries dug:--"While
Bradford was still the little local centre of a wild hill tract in
pastoral Yorkshire, the 'grey cloths of Kent' kept many a loom at work
in the homesteads of Tenterden, and Biddenden, and Cranbrook, and all
the other little mediæval towns that dot the Weald with their carved
barge-boards and richly-moulded beams." (_Saturday Review_, No. 182.)
The distaff and the spindle, which appear to have been anciently the
type, and symbol, and the insignia of the softer sex in nearly every
age and country, were in the Saxon times still more conspicuous as the
distinguishing badge of the female sex. Among our Saxon ancestors the
"spear-half" and the "spindle-half" expressed the male and female line;
and the spear and the spindle are to this day found in their graves.
The Saxons had the arts of dyeing of purple and various colours; and the
Saxon ladies were eminent for their embroidery. There are descriptions
extant of a robe of purple embroidered with large peacocks in black
circles; and a golden veil worked with the siege of Troy, the latter a
king's bequest to Croyland Abbey, where it was to be hung up on his
birthday. The standards were also beautifully worked: the Danish
standard, called the Raefen, was woven in one night by the three sisters
of Ubbo, the Danish leader. The standard of Harold, the last Saxon
sovereign of England, was the figure of a warrior richly embroidered
with precious stones. In the Anglo-Saxon, and even in late periods, men
worked at embroidery, especially in abbeys. At this time the dressing of
hides and working in leather was practised to a great extent by the
shoewright; and the wood-workman, answering to our modern carpenter, was
also in general estimation. Sandals were worn by the early Saxons: there
exists a print of one, made of leather, partly gilt, and variously
coloured, and for the left foot of the wearer; so that "rights and
lefts" are only a very old fashion revived.
The art of smelting iron was known in England during the Roman
occupation; and in many ancient beds of cinders, the refuse of
iron-works, Roman coins have been found. Cæsar describes iron as being
so rare in Britain, that pieces of it were employed as a medium of
exchange; but a century later it had become common, since in Strabo's
time it was an article of exportation. There is reason to believe that
the Romans worked iron ore in the hills of South Wales, as they
undoubtedly did in Dean Forest, where ancient heaps of slag have
occasionally been struck upon. Remains of ancient iron furnaces have
also been found in Lancashire, Staffordshire, and Yorkshire.[17]
The working in steel was also practised in Britain before the Norman
Conquest; and we are told that not only was the army of Harold well
supplied with weapons and defensive armour of steel, but that every
officer of rank maintained a smith, who constantly attended his master
to the wars, and took charge of his arms and armour, and had to keep
them in proper repair.
The inventions attributed to Alfred must be noticed. It will be
remembered how he measured time by graduated wax-tapers--the consumption
of an inch denoting twenty minutes; but the wind rushing through
windows, doors, and crevices of the royal palace, or the tent-coverings,
sometimes wasted them, and disordered Alfred's calculations. He then
inclosed his tapers in lanterns of horn and wood; but their invention
has been attributed to an earlier period, from some Latin verses
attributed to Aldhelm, Abbot of Malmesbury, in the seventh century. "Let
not," say they, "the glass lantern be despised, or that made of a horn,
hide, or thin skin, although a brass lamp may excel it." This passage
has, however, sometimes been referred to the twelfth century.
Travelling, in the Saxon times, was very different from what it is in
the present day: coaches were not invented, and the only vehicles which
went upon wheels were carts and wagons, and these were very heavy and
clumsy. Horseback was the only conveyance, so that the sick and infirm
could hardly ever leave their houses. In those times there were very few
roads upon which one could travel with safety. The Romans left excellent
roads, which, however, were neglected, and they fell into decay. Marshes
were perilous to cross: a bridge might be broken down, and when you
tried to ford the stream, your horse might get out of his depth, and
then he and his rider might be drowned. Sometimes the traveller had to
pass through a dark forest, abounding with bears and wolves; and, at the
end of his day's journey, instead of putting up at a comfortable inn, he
was often compelled to stretch his cloak on the dark earth, in some
wretched hut. And what was worst, the kings and princes were almost
always at war with each other, and a stranger was constantly liable to
be plundered and seized, or put to death by the contending parties.[18]
Stirrups and spurs were known to the Saxons; the Britons had bridles
ornamented with ivory: a bit, presumed to have belonged to a British
chief in the Roman service, is a jointed snaffle. The side-pieces, or
branches, of curb bits, are of equal antiquity. The Saxons had very
superb bridles, ornamented with plates of tin and pewter; and those for
women's horses were lily-white. We have seen a bridle of Norman
manufacture, said to have been on the horse which William Rufus rode
when killed in the New Forest: it has blinkers, is very broad; and
cloth, cut by a mould into rich patterns, is glued upon the leather. We
read of Athelstan receiving valuable presents of running horses, with
their saddles and bridles studded with gold; one of our earliest
illustrations of horse-racing.