[11.] It was in part a principle of Anglo-Saxon society at the earliest period, and attaches itself to that other universal principle of fosterage. A Teuton chieftain always gathered round him a troop of young retainers in his hall who were voluntary servants, and they were, in fact, almost the only servants he would allow to touch his person. T. Wright.
[12.] Compare Skelton’s account of Wolsey’s treatment of the Nobles, in Why come ye not to Courte (quoted in Ellis’s Letters, v. ii. p. 3).
—“Our barons be so bolde,
Into a mouse hole they wold
Runne away and creep
Like a mainy of sheep:
Dare not look out a dur
For drede of the maystife cur,
For drede of the boucher’s dog