23. How were the English treated by the Norman soldiers?
26. What was the Camp of Refuge, and by whom established?
31. What became of Hereward?
CHAPTER VIII.
THE NORMAN PERIOD.—1087 TO 1154.
DEATH OF WILLIAM RUFUS.
1. The Normans were a cleverer people than the English, and lived in a superior manner. They were better acquainted with the arts of agriculture and architecture, and they knew a great deal more about useful gardening; for all the convents in Normandy had good gardens, planted with vegetables and herbs; and the monks brought over plenty of seeds and roots to sow or plant in gardens here.
2. The Normans built stone castles, and strong houses of timber, with upper stories, so that their dwellings, in general, were higher and more substantial than those of the Saxons; and one great improvement was that they had chimneys; but their furniture was as rough and clumsy as the furniture used in the Saxon times, and their way of living was almost the same, except that they did not care so much about feasting, but preferred spending their time in hunting, hawking, and fighting in sport, for pastime.
3. I should here tell you that William the Conqueror made the first game laws, and very severe they were, and very hard upon the poor people, who used to be at liberty to kill game in the forests; but, after these new laws, they dared not so much as take even a hare or partridge in their own fields.