The Dark Ages, as this period is called, if lacking in progress, were replete with adventure. During this period, which might equally well be called the Age of Romance, there sprung up a brotherhood of men noted for skill in combat, who were dubbed knights. There also spread a creed about that time that uncleanliness was next to godliness, and clergy and laymen vied with each other to see which could live in the most filthy manner. They associated in their minds luxury and cleanliness as inconsistent with godliness, while squalor and bodily filth were considered as outward indications of inward piety and sanctification. So it came to pass that bathing, instead of a daily practice, became uncommon; homes and inhabitants became filthy and streams polluted. Such violations of sanitary principles could not continue indefinitely without evil results, and scourge after scourge of filth diseases that swept over Europe and Asia, claiming over 40,000,000 victims, were due to the unsanitary condition that prevailed. The restless, seething, venturesome spirit of the times and the emotional zeal displayed in religious matters contributed greatly to the spread of pestilence. The crusades, starting out with a romantic and religious fervor, but with no set rules of conduct for guidance, and lacking a leader strong enough in discipline to hold in check men whose only claim to distinction lay in their powers in a tilt and their love of battle, soon degenerated into the most disorderly and lewd of rabble. Women camp-followers joined their fortunes with that of the knights, who in most cases forgot the object of the crusade, and gave themselves up to indolence and debauchery. Sanitary precautions were dispensed with on the march, and the result was that wherever the crusaders went they left sickness and pestilence in their wake.
Leaden Cup, of the time of Vespasian, found in Rome. The band was decorated with colored glass
Lead Pipehead and Pipe
Lead Cistern with the Arms of the Fishmongers' Company, in the possession of Mr. Merthyr Guest