CHAP.

XI.

43

45

for bad ale the offender paid as such, or else was placed on a dunghill.

At Southwark, no one took any toll on the strand, or the water, but the king. At Arundel, a particular person is named who took the custom paid by foreigners. 44 At Canterbury, a prepositus is stated to have taken the custom from foreign merchants, in certain lands there, which another ought to have received. At Lewes, it is mentioned, that whoever either bought or sold, gave the governor a piece of money.

Particular laws were made by the AngloSaxon government to regulate the manner of buying and selling. These laws had two objects in view; to prevent or detect theft; and to secure the due payment of the tax or toll which became due on such occasions. 46

When the produce of the labour and fertility of a country begins to exceed its consumption, and no calamity obstructs its natural progress, the amount of its surplus accumulations increases in every generation, till the whole community becomes furnished with permanent goods, and some individuals with peculiar abundance. The Anglo-Saxons had reached this state in the reign of Ethelred. A considerable quantity of bullion, coined and uncoined, had then become diffused in the nation, and they were enabled to pay those heavy taxations, which were so often imposed, with such impolitic

VII.

BOOK weakness, to buy off the Danish invasions. These

unwise payments vexed but did not exhaust the nation. It became wealthy again under the peaceful reign of the Confessor. Both the taste for luxuries, and the spirit of increased production, were then pervading the country, and the national affluence was visibly increasing when the Norman armament landed on its coasts.

In the ninth and tenth centuries, the Northmen were very enterprising in their navigation. They discovered Iceland and Greenland, and a more distant country, which they called Vinland, and which has been considered, not unjustly, to have been some part of the North American continent. 47

A REMARK may be added on their travelling and hospitality. It would seem that they travelled armed. We read of one journeying with his horse and spear; when he alighted, he

gave

his spear

to his attendants. 48

Their hospitality was kind : on the arrival of a stranger he was welcomed ; they brought him water to wash his hands; they washed his feet, and for this purpose warm water was used; they wiped them with a cloth, and the host in one case cherished them in his bosom. We also read of warm wine administered to the new guest.

HOSPITALITY was, however, dangerous in some degree from its responsibility: if any one entertained a guest (cuman, literally a come-one,) three

49

CHAP.

XI.

nights in his own house, whether a trader, or any other person that had come over the boundary, and fed him with victuals, and the guest did any thing wrong, the host was to bring him to justice, or to answer for it. 50 By another law, a guest, after two nights' residence, was reckoned part of the family, and the owner of it was to be answerable for his actions. 51

If a shorn man travelled steorless, or vagrantly, hospitality might be given to him once, but he was to have leave of absence before he could be longer maintained. 52

TRAVELLING was attended with some penal regulations: if a stranger in any part went out of the road, or through woods, it was a law that he should either shout aloud, or blow with a horn, on pain of being deemed a thief, and suffering as such. 63

It was the habit of depredation that made every traveller an object of legal suspicion at this period. From the peril of the roads, want of communication, the poverty of the middling and lower classes, and the distance, violence, and rapacity of the barons and knights, travelling for the purposes of traffic was very rare, and became more so when the Northman invaders were in the island, and while their unsettled emigrants were continually moving over it. Hence few men left their towns or burghs but for pillage or revenge; and this occasioned that jealous mistrust of the law which operated so long to discourage even mercantile journies.

CHAP. XII.

Their Chivalry.

VII.

a

BOOK THERE is no evidence that the refined and en

thusiastic spirit of gallantry which accompanied chivalry in its perfect stage, prevailed among the Anglo-Saxons; but that chivalry, in a less polished form ,and considered as a military investiture, conferred with religious ceremonies, by putting on the belt and sword, and giving the knight a peculiar dignity among his countrymen ; — that this kind of chivalry existed in England before the Norman conquest, the authorities adduced in this chapter will sufficiently ascertain.

In the reign of Edward the Confessor, Hereward, a noble Anglo-Saxon youth, distinguished himself by his daring valour and eccentricity. As his character is highly romantic, and affords a remarkable instance of the Anglo-Saxon chivalry, I will state the main incidents of his life, from the plain and temperate narration of his contemporary, who was the Conqueror's secretary.

“ His father was Leofric, lord of Brunne, in Lincolnshire, a nobleman who had become very illustrious for his warlike exploits. He was a relation of the great earl of Hereford, who had married the king's sister.

“ Hereward was the son of this Leofric and his wife Ediva. He was tall and handsome, but too warlike, and of an immoderate fierceness of mind. In his juvenile plays and wrestlings he was so ungovernable, that his hand was often raised against every one, and every one's hand against him. When the youths

CHAP.
XII.

of his age went to wrestling and such other sports, unless he triumphed over all, and his playfellows conceded to him the laurel of victory, he very often extorted by his sword what he could not gain by his muscular strength.

“ The youths of his neighbourhood complaining of this conduct, his father's anger was excited against him. Leofric stated to king Edward the many intolerable tricks that had been practised even upon himself, and his excessive violence towards others. Upon this representation, the Confessor ordered him into banishment.

“ Hereward, thus exiled, went fearlessly to Northumbria, thence to Cornwall, thence to Ireland, and afterwards to Flanders; and every where most bravely carrying himself, he soon obtained a glorious and magnificent reputation.

“ In every danger intrepidly pressing forward, and happily escaping; in every military conflict always throwing himself on the bravest, and boldly conquering; it was doubtful whether he was more fortunate or brave. His victories over all his enemies were complete, and he escaped harmless from the greatest battles.

Becoming so illustrious by his military successes, his valiant deeds became known in England, and were sung through the country. The dislike of his parent, relatives, and friends, was changed into the most ardent affection.

“In Flanders he married a noble lady, Turfrida, and had by her a daughter, who lately married (I am transcribing Ingulf) an illustrious knight, a great friend to our monastery, and lord of Depyng and the paternal inheritance of Brunne and its appurtenances.

“ The mother of Turfrida coming to England with her husband, with his permission forsook all earthly pomp, and became a nun in our monastery of Croyland.

“ Hereward returning to his native soil with his wife, after great battles, and a thousand dangers frequently dared and bravely terminated, as well against the king of England as the earls, barons, prefects, and presidents, which are yet sung in our streets (says Ingulf), and having avenged his mother with his powerful right hand, at length, with the king's pardon, obtained his paternal inheritance, and ended his days in peace, and was very lately buried near his wife in our monastery.” |

1

| Ingulf, p. 67, 68.