PLATE 12.
(Fig. 1): The Anglo-Saxon tower of Earl’s Barton Church, Northants. At the angles, there are “quoins,” or corner-stones, formed of long stones set upright, alternately with others laid horizontally, and technically known as “long and short work.” The surface of the walls is also divided up by “pilaster strips,” which are an imitation in stone of wooden construction, and are evidently intended to bind together the rude masonry of the walls. It is “the design of a carpenter executed by a mason.” The parapet is comparatively recent in construction. (Fig. 2): Tower arch of Anglo-Saxon character at Barnack, Northants. Barnack was one of the places where the old church was burnt by the Danes, in their raid through that part of the country, and rebuilt by order of Canute after the settlement of the Danes. The impost mouldings (b) appear to have been suggested by a pile of boards overlapping. (Fig. 3): An enlargement of the belfry window (a, Fig. 1). Double windows are usually round-headed or triangular-headed. The lights or single windows are not separated by a stone moulding, but by a kind of shaft or “baluster,” set in the middle of the wall, and supporting the impost. (Fig. 4): Belfry window in the tower of Deerhurst Church (1050 A.D.). The windows are triangular-headed, the head being formed of two straight stones placed obliquely, and meeting at a point. (Fig. 5): A window at Caversfield, Bucks, with small opening and very wide “splay.” This window is splayed, or widened out, both outside and inside, the window itself being set in the middle of the wall, so that the wicker-work or oiled parchment, that did duty as a glass, was protected from the weather. (Fig. 6): Section of Anglo-Saxon wall, which consisted of two rows of fairly regular stones, the intervening space being filled with irregularly shaped stones, embedded in mortar, the latter comprising nearly half the substance of the wall. The layer of stones in the interior of the building was generally plastered over. (Fig. 7): An Anglo-Saxon triangular-headed doorway. (Figs. 8, 9 and 10): Different forms of Anglo-Saxon balusters.
[SAXON CUSTOMS.]
At meal-times the company sat down in the hall, the master, mistress, and honoured guests taking their places at a “high” table placed on a dais at the upper end of the apartment. Dinner was generally served either at noon or at about 3 o’clock in the afternoon.
The walls were decorated with coloured and embroidered curtains, for English ladies and their maidens were famed for their skill with the needle in embroidery and decorative needlework. The tables consisted of boards laid upon trestles, which could be easily removed when, the meal being over, the ladies retired to the bower and the men settled down to drinking.
Sometimes the tables were bare, at other times covered with a table-cloth. Some MSS. show a circular table arranged for the meal. On the table appear the round cakes which served the Saxons as bread, also dishes containing meat, fish, and other food. A few spoons and razor-shaped knives, and drinking vessels of varying sizes and shapes, were also placed upon the table.
While the meal was in progress, wandering minstrels played on their instruments and sang; jugglers and conjurers delighted their patrons with feats of balancing and sleight-of-hand; while others danced and postured, or exhibited the feats of dancing bears and other animals that they led about.
