At the beginning of the twelfth century, when the Normans became securely established in their conquests, they displayed the utmost activity in the erection of magnificent buildings both in England and Normandy. According to William of Malmesbury,[3] churches rose up in every village, and monasteries in the towns and cities, built in a style unknown before. "You might behold ancient buildings restored upon their sites throughout the country, so that each wealthy man considered that day as lost to him, on which he neglected to perform some magnificent action."
The Anglo-Norman barons who engaged in these works obtained from their own country and from France the assistance of the best architects and sculptors. William of Sens, one of these artists, reconstructed the cathedral of Canterbury in 1176; and other foreign artists were employed to restore the abbeys of Croyland, of York, of Monkwearmouth, and others.
NORMAN SOLDIERS. (From the Bayeux Tapestry.)
While it is evident that results highly favourable to the progress of literature and the arts in this country were produced by the Norman conquest, there is also every reason to believe that the tendency to sensuality, which was so strong among the English people, experienced a salutary check from the introduction of Norman manners. The foreign invasion entailed immediate sufferings upon the conquered race, but its results were favourable to the progress of civilisation, and tended in no small degree to the advance of the nation in power and greatness.
NORMAN BOWMEN OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY.
The Normans are understood to have introduced into England many elegancies and refinements in the habits of common life and the customs of the table. It has been already stated that the English were a people of gross appetite, who were accustomed to spend many hours of the day at feasts. The Normans, on the other hand, appear, on their arrival in England, to have distinguished themselves by the moderation and refinement of their mode of living. Among the dainties held in the highest esteem by the Normans were the peacock and the crane. The boar's head was considered a regal dish, and it was brought in at great feasts in a kind of procession, preceded by musicians.
