Saxon Chronicle, the _witan_, or council, fell from an upper-floor (_of ane úp-floran_), while Dunstan himself avoided their fate by supporting himself on a beam (_uppon anum beame_). The buildings in the above picture are all roofed with tiles of different forms, evidently copied from the older Roman roof-tiles. Perhaps the flatness of these roofs is only to be considered as a proof of the draughtsman’s ignorance of perspective. One of Alfric’s homilies applies the epithet _steep_ to a roof--_on tham sticelan hrofe_. The hall is not unfrequently described as lofty. The collective house had various names in Anglo-Saxon. It was called _hús_, a house, a general term for all residences great or small; it was called _heal_, or hall, because that was the most important part of the building--we still call gentlemen’s seats halls; it was called _ham_, as being the residence or home of its possessor; and it was called _tún_, in regard of its inclosure. The Anglo-Saxons chose for their country-houses a position which commanded a prospect around, because such sites afforded protection at the same time that they enabled the possessor to overlook his own landed possessions. The Ramsey Chronicle, describing the beautiful situation of the mansion at “Schitlingdonia” (Shitlington), in Bedfordshire, tells us that the surrounding country lay spread out like a panorama from the door of the hall--_ubi ab ostio aulæ tota fere villa et late patens ager arabilis oculis subjacet intuentis_. CHAPTER II. IN-DOOR LIFE AMONG THE ANGLO-SAXONS.--THE HALL AND ITS HOSPITALITY.--THE SAXON MEAL.--PROVISIONS AND COOKERY.--AFTER-DINNER OCCUPATIONS.--DRUNKEN BRAWLS.