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VILLAGE INN WITH OLD TITHE BARN OF READING ABBEY
“The Catherine Wheel” tells us the sad story of St. Catherine, who was born at Alexandria, and for converting fifty heathen philosophers to Christianity was sentenced by the Emperor Maxentius to death on a wheel, devised by most ingenious cruelty, armed with knives, saws, and nails. It is recorded that she was rescued from this fate, but was afterwards beheaded (305 A.D.). It is curious that this instrument of torture and the story of St. Catherine’s heroism should be recorded on a signboard. But it may have been brought before the public by a certain miracle play, founded on the life of St. Catherine, which used to be performed on festival days. However, the Catherine wheel appears frequently on the coats-of-arms of several families, and it may be that the sign was taken from these.
“The George,” also, is a very popular sign; and the “St. George of merry England” is the patron saint of this country, and the battle-cry of her knights and yeomen of ancient days. Who does not remember that stirring scene on St. George’s Mount during the Crusades, described in Sir Walter Scott’sTalisman, when King Richard tore down the Austrian banner, which the Austrian monarch had dared to erect beside the Royal Standard of England? St George is generally represented as slaying a dragon. He was a soldier who served gallantly under the Emperor Diocletian, and commanded a legion of soldiers; he was a Christian, and by the dragon whom he slew is meant the devil, red with the blood of the Christians. So popular a personage as St. George, whose name inspired our ancestors with courage, and was often borne by them into the heart of the foe, would soon be recorded in paintings and become a general sign. “The Goat” is a common sign, and is taken from the crest of the Duke of Bedford; but “The Goat and Compasses” has puzzled many people as to its origin. It appears to be a corruption of a pious expression, “God encompasseth us”; and this shows how strangely words may be twisted and converted by ignorant and careless usage.
There are some very noted inns where great events have taken place, amongst which I may mention the Bull Inn at Coventry. Here Henry VII. was entertained the night before the battle of Bosworth Field, when he won for himself the English crown. Here Mary Queen of Scots was detained by order of Elizabeth. Here the conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot met to devise their scheme for blowing up the Houses of Parliament. And when the citizens refused to open their gates to Charles I. and his soldiers, no doubt there were great disputings amongst the frequenters of “The Bull” as to what would be the result of their disloyal refusal.
Some of the inns in remote country places did not enjoy a very enviable reputation, and were little better than man-traps, where the unfortunate traveller was robbed and murdered. At Blewbury, in Berkshire, there was an inn, the landlord of which was suspected of murdering his guests with great secrecy and mystery, and no one could tell what he did with the bodies of the victims he was supposed to have murdered. A few years ago an old tree in the neighbourhood of the inn was blown down, and on digging up the roots a skeleton was found among them. People wondered how it could have been placed there, but at last a very old inhabitant told the story of the mysterious disappearance of the bodies of the late landlord’s guests, and the mystery was at length accounted for. Whenever he slew a man he planted a tree, placing the body of the murdered victim beneath it. The constables never thought of looking there; and probably under every tree which he planted (and there were several), when their roots are dug up, the bones of his numerous victims will be discovered.
Another story is connected with the old “Hind’s Head” at Bracknell, which was another of these mantraps, where many travellers slept to rise no more. One winter’s night a stout-hearted farmer stayed there, and joined several jovial companions round the kitchen fire. They ate and drank merrily, and at last the serving-maid showed the traveller to his chamber. She told him that he was surrounded by robbers and murderers, showed him a trap-door at the side of the bed, on which if he stepped he would tumble headlong into a deep well. She directed him to tie the bed into a bundle, put it on the trap-door, and escape by the window. He did so; down went the bundle, instead of the farmer, into the well, and he managed to effect his escape. Rousing the neighbourhood he captured the villains, who were all executed, and the bones of many of their victims were found in the well. Happily such inns were rare.
To describe the conditions of the old inns for which England was famous, of the good fare which awaited the travellers by the coach, of the spacious corridors, of the comfortable beds hung with silk and smelling of lavender; to tell of all the great folk who entered their doors—kings, queens, poets, generals, highwaymen, statesmen, grooms, conspirators, coachmen—all this would require much space to relate. When railways came in, their ancient glory departed; the old stables are destroyed; grass grows in the courtyard; and the object of their existence has almost ceased to be.
Belief in witches—Survival of water ordeal—Witches turned into hares— Cruelties practised on witches—Bishop Jewel on the “evil eye”— Fairies—Berkshire popular superstitions—Field-names—Homes of famous men—Washington Irving’s description of an English village—Rural exodus—Conclusion.
There is yet another class of subjects connected with old village life, of absorbing interest and importance. I refer to the old superstitions and folklore which still linger on in the recollections of the “oldest inhabitant,” and which ought to be at once treasured up, lest they should be altogether lost. The generation of those who believed firmly in the power of the “evil eye” of the witch, and who feared to disturb the revels of the fairies on their rings and mounds, is only just passing away. An old gipsy has told me some strange stories of the superstitions of former days. He has told me of the witch at Farnham who made the cows wild and prevented them from giving milk; of another witch who lived at Henley-on-Thames, and who when thrown into the river “floated like a cork.” Here we have a survival of the old Saxon method of trying culprits by the water ordeal, often used in examining witches. This particular witch could turn herself into a hare, so my venerable gipsy friend, aged one hundred and six years, informed me, and the dogs hunted her. He told me of the Tadley witch, who “wished” several people, and greatly injured them. It seems to have been a common practice of the old witches to turn themselves into hares, in order to vex the squires, justices, and country parsons, who were fond of hunting, as the old dames could elude the speed of the swiftest dogs. An old writer states “that never hunters nor their dogs may be bewitched, they cleave an oaken branch, and both they and their dogs pass over it.” Mary Dore, a witch of Beaulieu, Hampshire, used to turn herself into a hare in order to escape detection when caught in the act of wood-stealing, to which she was somewhat addicted.
Old women were rather harshly used in the days when people believed in the power of witches. If any farmer’s cattle died, it was immediately concluded that the animals were bewitched; and some wretched old woman was singled out, and summarily tried and burnt. If anyone fell ill, some “witch” had evidently a waxen image of the sufferer, and stuck needles into it; and such was the power of the witch that, wherever the person was, he felt the stab of the cruel needle. Hence the witch had to be found and burnt. If the corn crops failed, was not witchcraft the cause? for had not old Mother Maggs been heard to threaten Farmer Giles, and had not her black cat been seen running over his fields? Even good Bishop Jewel did not disbelieve in the power of the evil eye. In preaching before Queen Elizabeth he said: “It may please Your Grace to understand that witches and sorcerers are marvellously increased within Your Grace’s realm. Your Grace’s subjects pine away even unto the death, their colour fadeth, their flesh rotteth, their speech is benumbed, their senses are bereft. I pray God they never practise further than on the subject.” To so great an extent did faith in the witches’ fatal power prevail. Our forefathers used to believe in the existence of other, and more pleasant little companions than the old toothless witches—the bright little fairies who, on account of the neglect which they have received from the present generation of Englishmen, have, so it is reported, left our shores in disgust, never to return. The previous inhabitants of our villages did not so treat them; and did not the fairies always bring them luck? They nailed the horseshoe to the stable door to keep out the witches, lest the old beldams should ride their steeds by night to the witches’ revels; but no one wished to exclude the fairies. Did not the dairymaids find the butter ready churned, and the cows milked by these kind assistants? Was there not an old lady in Yorkshire who knew all about the fairies, had often heard them making butter, and had seen the butter smeared all over the gate by a little green man with a queer cap who had been seen slipping under a culvert? Canon Atkinson told us of this lady who knew all these strange things, and of the Hart Hall “Hob” who worked so hard with his flail, and of many other curious folk who frequented the Yorkshire moors in olden days. The last witch had just died before he went to Danby, but he found the whole atmosphere of the folklore firmament so surcharged with the being and work of the witch, that he seemed able to trace her presence and her activity in almost every nook and corner of the neighbourhood.
The wells all over England were haunted by fairies, and is it not confidently asserted that “the good people” (as the fairies are called) live in wilds and forests, and shun great cities because of the wickedness which exists therein? Have they never appeared to the lonely traveller, clothed in green, with long hair floating over their shoulders, and with faces more blooming than the blush of a summer morning? Then there were the fairy rings formed by the dancing of their merry feet.
“Some say the screech-owl, at each midnight hour,Awakes the fairies in yon ancient tower.Their nightly dancing ring I always dread,Nor let my sheep within that circle tread;When round and round all night, in moonlight fair,They dance to some strange music in the air.”
Then there were brownies; and knockers, who worked in mines, and showed rich veins of silver; and elves—all of whom were included in old village superstitions, and many were the tales told of the good deeds they did, and the luck they brought. Nor must we forget the story of the invisible smith who inhabited Wayland Smith’s Cave, in Berkshire. Whenever a farmer tied up his horse in the cave, and left the money on a particular stone, on his return he found his horse shod by the kind efforts of the invisible smith. There is also the old Berkshire story of the old witch who lived in a cave by the roadside, and who, by the power of her “evil eye,” could stop the strongest team of horses, so that, however much the carters lashed and swore at them, the animals would not budge an inch until she permitted them to go. Here are a few of the common superstitions current in Berkshire. If a corpse be kept over a Sunday another death will occur before the week is out; should a big bumble-bee enter the window, a guest may be expected; and when the woodpecker, commonly called the yaffle, laughs, they say the rain is coming. When the thick mist lies in the valley, the people say it is the White Lady, a belief closely akin to the Dame Blanche, who is said in Normandy to haunt streams. If one row of freshly sown seeds or potatoes does not come up, it foretells a death in the family. If a girl mends her clothes on her back, she risks having a drunken husband. A screech-owl is unlucky, and so also is it if a bird fly against the window.
A woman came to the rectory a few years ago for a drop of sacramental wine, which she wanted for an infant who had “the graspings.” This complaint I discovered to be a craving for something, accompanied by restlessness; and it was supposed that a drop of sacramental wine would cure an infant so troubled. If the mother before the child was born craved for drink, this craving was communicated to the child, and could only be remedied by a drop of wine used in Holy Communion. This superstition, which I have met with elsewhere, probably is a relic of pre-Reformation days, and of sacramental Reservation.
A tramp was passing through a Hampshire village a short time ago, and calling at a house, begged for a glass of water. The woman who lived there said that she was sorry she could not give him water to drink, as there was a child in the house unbaptised, and therefore it would be unlucky. The origin of this superstition it is difficult to trace.
These are some of the legends and superstitions which linger amongst us. Every neighbourhood has its stories, its legends, and romantic histories. It is a sad pity that these should pass away without any record being made. Many curious customs and ceremonies relating to christenings, marriages, and burials linger in remote hamlets; and charms, curious remedies, and other relics of the quaint superstitions of our forefathers, are full of interest to the lover of our English villages.
As we walk in the fields, or study the old map of the parish, the names of the fields invite our attention. These are full of interest, and often tell us about matters which would be entirely forgotten. Some names tell us of the great forests which used to exist all over the country, when kings and noblemen, outlaws and poachers, used to hunt the deer and the wild boars in many a successful run. These forests were large tracts of country in its natural state, partly wood, partly heather and grass, which were owned by the king, and were especially brought under the harsh forest laws of the Norman sovereigns.
Some of our field-names remind us of the existence of these old forests where corn now grows, and also of swamps and islands where everything now is dry and far removed from water. Sometimes they tell us of the old common lands which used to be farmed by the villeins and borderers, and of the strange way in which they used to manage their farming. Each man used to keep one or more oxen for the village plough until they made up the team into eight; then they ploughed the land in strips of an acre or half-acre each, divided by a bit of unploughed turf called a balk. Each strip was a furlong,i.e.a “furrow long,”i.e.the length of the drive of a plough before it is turned. This was forty rods, or poles, and four of these furrows made up the acre. These pieces of land were called “shots,” and there were “headlands,” or common field-ways, to each shot; and “gored acres,” which were corners of the fields which could not be cut up into strips, and odds and ends of unused land, which were called “No Man’s Land,” or “Jack’s Land.” It is curious, too, that all the strips belonging to one man did not lie together, but were scattered all over the common land, which must have been a very inconvenient arrangement for farming purposes. There were also in each village community a blacksmith, whose duty it was to keep in repair the ironwork of the village ploughs, a carpenter for the woodwork, and a pound-keeper, or punder, who looked after the stray cattle. Many of the “balks” still remain on the hillsides where these old common lands existed, and the names of the fields bear witness to the prevalence of this old field system.
They tell us, too, of the way in which attempts were made to force the growth of particular crops, and in many parishes you will find a “flax piece,” which reminds us of a foolish Act of Henry VIII. ordering the cultivation of that plant. Metals, too, which have long ago been worked out, and trades which no longer exist, have left their traces behind in the names of our lanes and fields. Also they speak of the early days when the wolf or the bear might be seen in our woods or fields, or of the beaver which loved the quietude of our streams, of the eagle which carried off the lambs undisturbed by sound of the keeper’s gun. Sometimes he was disturbed in his thefts by the flight of a good strong English arrow, which came from a sturdy English bow drawn by a good strong English arm. The English archers were famous everywhere, and many a battle has been won by their valour and their skill. A law was passed in the reign of Edward IV. that every Englishman should have a bow of his own height, and that butts for the practice of archery should be set up in every village; and every man was obliged to shoot up and down on every feast-day, or be fined one halfpenny. Consequently, in some villages we find a field called “The Butts,” where this old practice took place.[11]
Many villages are associated with the lives of distinguished men—authors, soldiers, and statesmen. Perhaps your village may have bred other poets besides “the mute inglorious Milton” of Gray’sElegy. Not far from where I am writing was Pope’s early home, the village of Binfield, which he calls—
“My paternal home,A little house, with trees arow,And, like its master, very low.”
On the other side lies the village of Three Mile Cross, where Miss Mitford lived and wrote “Our Village”; and Arborfield, called in her book Arborleigh, about which she tells some pleasant stories, is the adjoining parish. Sometimes, as I ride down a grassy lane, a favourite haunt of the distinguished authoress, I seem to see her seated on a fallen tree weaving her pretty romances, while her favourite dog, which she often describes, plays and barks around her. A few miles in another direction lies Eversley, the loved abode of Charles Kingsley, about whom many stories linger in the countryside. To visit the uncomfortable brick-paved study where he wrote, the garden where he used to pace and think out his great thoughts, is delightfully refreshing and invigorating to a jaded writer.
ENLARGE
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OLD COTTAGES
These are only instances of places which have become interesting on account of the famous men who once lived in them; and England has many heroes of the sword and pen whose lives each Englishman should study; and when you visit their dwelling-places you will recall their achievements, and perhaps endeavour to imitate their examples. Here is an instance of how little the villagers know of the distinguished men who once lived amongst them. The great Duke of Wellington did not live a very long time ago, and yet some friends of mine who were staying at Strathfieldsaye, near the Iron Duke’s house, and made inquiries amongst the villagers about their recollections of the hero of Waterloo, could obtain no information. At last one venerable rustic vouchsafed the extraordinary intelligence, “I believe as ’ow ’e were very good at war”! What a thing it is to be famous!
Much more remains to be said upon the various subjects which this history of our village suggests. But the day is closing, and our walk through its sequestered lanes and our thoughts about the various scenes which yonder venerable oaks have witnessed, must cease. But enough has been said to show what a wealth of interest lies beneath the calm exterior of ordinary village life. An American truly observes that everything in the rural life of England is associated with ideas of order, of quiet, sober, well-established principles, of hoary usage, and reverent custom—the growth of ages of regular and peaceful existence. The impression which the appearance of an English village left on his mind is beautifully described in the following passage:—
“The old church of remote architecture with its low, massive portal, its gothic tower, its windows rich with tracery and painted glass, its scrupulous preservation, its stately monuments of warriors and worthies of olden times, ancestors of the present lords of the soil; its tombstones, recording successive generations of sturdy yeomanry, whose progeny still plough the same fields, and kneel at the same altar; the parsonage, a quaint, irregular pile, partly antiquated, but repaired and altered in the tastes of various eyes and occupants; the stile and footpath leading from the churchyard, across pleasant fields, and along shady hedgerows, according to an immemorial right-of-way; the neighbouring village, with its venerable cottages, its public green sheltered by trees, under which the forefathers of the present race have sported; the antique family mansion, standing apart in some little rural domain, but looking down with a protecting air on the surrounding scene. All these common features of English landscape evince a calm and settled security, and hereditary transmission of homebred virtues and local attachments, that speak deeply and touchingly for the moral character of the nation.”
One of the most distressing features of modern village life is the continual decrease of its population. All our young men flock to the towns, attracted by the greater excitement which town life offers, as compared with the more homely pleasures of the country. The rural exodus is an alarming and very real danger to the welfare of social England. Agricultural machinery has greatly diminished the number of labourers required on a farm. Agricultural depression and the decreased value of land have caused many old country families to close their old manor-houses, as they cannot afford to live on their estates.
Let us hope that those whose happy lot it is to live in the quiet hamlets of our native land, afar from the noise and din of busy towns, will learn to love more deeply their village homes, and interest themselves in their surroundings. To those who read the history of their native place, each house and field, each stone and tree, will tell its story, and recount the wonders it has witnessed. And as the stories of wars and fights, of superstition and of crime, fall on our ears, we shall be thankful that our lot is cast in more peaceful days, when no persecutions, religious or political, disturb the tranquillity of our village life. And when we read of the piety and simplicity of our forefathers, their veneration of their church, their love of home, their innocent joys and social customs, we should strive to imitate their virtues which have materially helped to make England a great and powerful nation. It is hoped that these chapters upon the old life of our country, and the manners and customs of our forefathers, may induce many of my readers to read and study history more deeply, may serve to create an interest in the relics that remain to us of the past, and to preserve the fleeting traditions that Time doth consecrate.
[11] In many cases the name “Butts” refers to the fact of the land, under the common-field system,abuttingon meadows or roads,e.g.“Butt-close,” in the parish of St. Mary Bourne.
To anyone who sets himself the task of writing a history of his village, the following notes may be useful. With regard to the etymology of the name, concerning which absurd errors are made in most guide books and old county histories, it would be well to consult Canon Taylor’sWords and Places, being careful to study the earliest form of the word inDomesdayand old documents. Bede’sHistory, theAnglo-Saxon Chronicles, and other old English chronicles, published by Bohn, may contain some allusions to the parish and neighbourhood, and also Kemble’sSaxons in England. TheDomesday Bookis, of course, a mine of wealth. The Public Record Office contains many documents which will be of great service—theTesta de Neville(Edward II.),Marshall Rolls, Nonarum Inquisitiones, Pipe Rolls, Patent Rolls, Close Rolls, Hundred Rolls, Inquisitiones post-mortem, and theFeet of Fines. TheManor Court Rolls, if they still exist, in the custody of the lord of the manor, should also be consulted. The journals of local antiquarian societies and county histories will of course be examined. The history of the families connected with the parish must be traced. The British Museum and the College of Arms contain fine collections ofHeralds’ Visitations, and Burke’sLanded Gentryand Dugdale’sBaronageare the chief sources of information. Oldwillswill yield much information, many of which are in course of publication by the Index Society, and county archaeolgical journals; and Somerset House and many diocesan registries contain the original documents. The Historical Manuscripts Commission has published many volumes of borough records which are of great service, and the lives of any great men connected with the parish may be studied in theDictionary of National Biography. As we have already pointed out, the parish chest contains valuable sources of information upon the history of the village, and its contents should be carefully examined.
The registers of the diocese contain many documents relating to the ecclesiastical history of the parish, and from them we can obtain a list of the rectors or vicars. If the church was connected with any monastery, Dugdale’sMonasticonwill furnish some information. The Public Record Office contains the documentsTaxatio Ecclesiastica P. Nicholai IV.andValor Ecclesiasticus, which give an account of the value of the first-fruits and tenths, and also some volumes on the sale of chantries, and the inventories of church goods. The name of the saint to whom the church is dedicated must not always be accepted, in spite of years of usage, and should be confirmed by reference to some early will of a chief person of the village buried in the church, which usually gives the name of the patron saint. The story of the church writ in stone should be traced by the various styles of architecture, with the help of Rickman’sGothic Architectureor Parker’sGlossary of Gothic Architecture. If there has ever been a monastery in the parish, Dugdale’sMonasticonshould be consulted; and if there are any remains of a castle, Clark’sMediaeval Military Architecture in Englandwill be useful. Prehistoric remains, such as barrows, earthworks, pit dwellings, and caves should be described; also any Roman roads and villas; the flora and fauna of the neighbourhood, geology, folklore, and dialect.
The following books are recommended:—
Evans’Ancient Stone Implements of Great Britain.Evans’Ancient Bronze Implements.Boyd Dawkins’Cave Hunting.Boyd Dawkins’Early Man in Britain.Greenwell’sBritish Barrows.Fergusson’sRude Stone Monuments.Cox’sHow to Write the History of a Parish.Wright’sEssays on Archaeological Subjects.Parker’sMediaeval Domestic Architecture.Sims’Manual for the Topographer and Genealogist.Burn’sHistory of Parish Registers.Seebohm’sEnglish Village Community.Toulmin Smith’sEnglish Gilds.Haine’sManual of Monumental Brasses.Bloxam’sPrinciples of Gothic Architecture.Tanner’sNotitia Monastica.Cutts’Middle Ages.Lee’sGlossary of Liturgical and Ecclesiastical Terms.
Akeman Street, 60Aldhelm, church-builder, 103Alfriston clergy-house, 180Alignements, 46Allington rectory, 180Almshouses, 181Altars, 191Amphitheatre, Roman, 67Anchoresses, 183Anchor-hold, 183Anglo-Saxon villages, 74-89Archery, 277, 298Architecture, English, 102-24Arresting a dead body, 227Arrow-heads, 20Art of Husbandry, 255Astrology, belief in, 222Aumbry, 192Avebury cromlech, 46
B
Ball-flower moulding, 118Barkham inDomesday, 128Barnack Church, 106Barrows or tumuli, 23-3" long and round, 25" near churchyards, 23" Saxon, 90-3" their contents, 24, 29Basilica, Roman, 66Beacons, 268Beating the bounds, 276Bede, 75Bell-ringing customs, 250Bells, 245-53" christening of, 246" inscription on, 247-50Benedict Biscop, 103Benedictine monks, 161Bewcastle cross, 98Bishops, treating of, 229Black Death, 255Blood-letting, 167-9Blowing Stone, 52Bordarii, 131Border castles, 140Brachycephalic race, 21Brasses, monumental, 212-18Bridal cup, 207Brief Book, 226Brighthampton, pit dwellings at, 33British Church, 93" oppida, 34" roads, 60, 61" saints and martyrs, 94Bronze Age, 21, 40Budworth hermitage, 182Burial urns, 29, 30" urns in woollen, 220
C
Caesar’s camps, 50Camps, 50-52Carthusian monks, 162Castles, 135-53Cave men, 16Celts, 21, 34, 37, 56Cemeteries, Saxon, 92Censers, 205Chancels, 190Charles II., adventures of, 267Chaucer’s satire on monks, 160Chepstow Castle, 140Chest, parish, 218-29Chivalry, 143, 148Chrismatory, 206Christmas in olden time, 278Chun Castle, 51Church ales, 258Church bells, 245-53" house, 258" plate, 200-8" yard, 243Churches, parish, 184 99Churchwardens’ account books, 223-6Cistercian monks, 114, 161Civil War, effects of, 153, 220, 265Cloister of monastery, 163Cluny, monks of, 161Consecration crosses, 239Conversion of Saxons, 94, 95Crannogs, 38Cremation, 28, 29, 92Cromlechs, 46-9Crosses, Saxon, 95-101Cross-legged effigies, 211Cucking-stool, 280
D
Decay of old sports, 271Decorated architecture, 117Desecration of monasteries, 159Devil’s Highway, 61Dog-tooth ornament, 116Dog-whipper, 228Dolichocephalic race, 19Dolmen, 49, 50Domesday Book, 125-34Donnington Castle, 152Druids, 48, 50
E
Early English architecture, 115-17Earthworks, 50-6Easter sepulchre, 193Edge Hill, battle of, 264Edwardian castles, 140Emblems on brasses, 217Enstone, menhir at, 45Eslithic man, 14Epitaphs, curious, 243Ermyn Street, 60“Evil eye,” 291-3
F
Fairford windows, 232Fairies, 56, 293Fairs, 261Feudalism, 141Field-names, 296-8Flint implements, discovery of, 11Flint implements, 15, 20Fonts, 186Food in barrows, 24, 25Football, 277Force-pump, Roman, 68Frescoes, 234Friars, preaching, 161Future life, belief in, shown by barrows, 24
G
Gambassi, glass-painter, 232Geburs, 82Gentleman, accomplishments of a, 149Geological changes, 11-13Glaciers in Britain, 12Glass, stained, 230-3Glastonbury, pit dwellings at, 37, 41, 42Green, village, 8, 280Grims-dike, 54, 55Grosmont Castle, 141Guizot on castles, 141
H
Hagioscopes, 194Hall marks, 208Harvest homes, 275Hastings, battle of, 264Heart burial, 222Hedsor, pile dwellings at, 37, 38Hereivard the Wake, 264Hermits, 181Hexham church, 104" crosses, 99Highwaymen, 283Hocktide sports, 225, 273Homes of famous men, 298Hospitium of monastery, 169House, evolution of country, 172-7Hundreds, origin of, 87Hurstbourne, Hants, pit dwellings at, 34
I
Ice Age, 12, 13Iknield Street, 60Ilkley cross, 99Inigo Jones, 176Inns, 7, 282-90Inventories, 201Iron Age, 21" work in churches, 233Itineraryof Antoninus, 59
J
Jervais, glass-painter, 232Johnson, Dr., on monasteries, 159
K
Keep of Norman castle, 137Kelvedon rectory, 179Kenilworth Castle, 151King’s evil, 228Knaresborough hermitage, 182Knighthood, admission to, 145
L
Laindon reclusorium, 183Lammas lands, 79Lecterns, 191Legends, 44, 55, 263“Lepers’ windows,” 195Lich-gate, 242Local Government, 254Low side windows, 195
M
Manor-house, 172-7Manors, 79, 133Man-traps, 289Markets, 260May Day, 225, 273Mediaeval village, 254-70Menhir, 45“Merry England,” 256Milestones, Roman, 61Miracle plays, 274Misereres, 191Monasteries, Saxon, 102" 154-71" charity of, 159Monastic day, 166, 167" inns, 282Monks, benefits conferred by, 155" corruption of, 160Monstrances, 206Monumental effigies, 209-12Mothering Sunday, 273Mouldings, Decorated, 118, 120" Early English, 116" Norman, 112" Perpendicular, 123Mural paintings, 234-41
N
Neolithic man, 15, 18, 20, 37Norman architecture, 109-15" castles, 135-53" place-names, 132" villages, 125-34Normans, coming of, 125
O
Ockwells manor-house, 173Ogee arch, 118Organised condition of society among prehistoric races, 31Ornaments, Saxon, 91Osculatorium, 192Oxford, poor scholar of, 229
P
Pageants, 149-52Paleolithic man, 14Palimpsests, 213Parish chest, 218-29" registers, 218-23Paschall money, 225Pastimes, 271-81Pavements, Roman, 71, 72Pax, 192, 206Perpendicular architecture, 120Pews, 187Piers Ploughman, 165, 174, 181Pile dwellings, 37-43Pilgrimages, 259Piscina, 192Pit dwellings, 33-7Place-names, 76, 101Plague, 255-7Plate, church, 200-8" " in bishop’s coffin, 202Ploughman’s lament, 84Plough Monday, 272Porch, 185“Pot-boilers,” 36Pre-Reformation plate, 202-5Pulpits, 188Pytheas of Marseilles, 10Pyx, 191, 206
Q
Quintain, 277
R
Raglan Castle, 141Reading Abbey, 171Reading-pews, 197Reclusorium, 183" at Rettenden, 183Rectories, 177-81Registers, parish, 218-23Religion of Saxons, 93“Restoration,” 199Rollright Stones, 46, 47Roman relics, 57-73" rig, 54" roads, 58-62" villas, 70-3Rood-loft, 188Royal arms in churches, 190Rural exodus, 300Rush-bearing, 276Ruthwell cross, 97Ryknield Street, 60
S
Sacring bell, 252St. Christopher, 238Salisbury Cathedral, 115Saltways, 61Sanctus bell, 252Saxon architecture, 106-9" house, 172" monasteries, 102" place-names, 76, 77" relics, 90-101Saxons, coming of, 74, 75Screens, 189Secret chambers, 177Settle, Victoria Cave at, 17Shires, origin of, 88Shrovetide sports, 273Signs of inns, 284-8Silchester, 54, 62-70Slavery under Saxons, 84Sluggard waker, 228Smoke farthings, 226Socmen, 83, 131Spenser’s description of hermitage, 182Sports and pastimes, 271-81Stocks, 280Stonehenge, 46Stone monuments, 44-50Stourbridge Fair, 261Sudeley Castle, pageant at, 149-51Sun-worship, relics of, 27Superstitions, 44, 295Switzerland, pile dwellings in, 38-41
T
“Terraces,” 19Tesserae, 65, 71Thanes, 80Thane’s house, 81Thuribles, 205Tiles, 233Tournaments, 146-9Tudor arch, 121" houses, 175Tumuli,seeBarrowsTurf monuments, 53, 54Twelfth Night, 272Tympana, Norman, 110
U
Uffington, 52-4Ufton Court, Berks, 176, 178
V
Vernicle, 201Vestry, contents of, 196Vicarages, 177-81Villas, Roman, 70-3Villeins, 130, 255
W
Wars, 262-70Watling Street, 60Wayland Smith’s Cave, 27, 294Whalley cross, 96" reclusorium, 184White Castle, 141White Horse Hill, 53Whittenham Clumps, 52Wilfrid, St., 96, 104, 108, 230Witches, 291" turned into hares, 292Woollen, burials in, 220Worlebury, pit dwellings at, 34
Y
Yeomen, 83, 131Yew tree in churchyard, 241