And one of the poetical riddles in the same collection contains the lines-- _Ic eom on stence_ _I am in odour_ _strengre þonne ricels,_ _stronger than incense,_ _oþþe rosa sy,_ _or the rose is,_ _on eorþan tyrf_ _which on earth’s turf_ _wynlic weaxeð;_ _pleasant grows; _ic eom wræstre þonne heo._ _I am more delicate than it._ _þeah þa lilie sy_ _though that the lily be_ _leof mon-cynne,_ _dear to mankind,_ _beorht on blostman,_ _bright in blossom,_ _ic eom betre þonne heo._ _I am better than it._--Exeter Book, p. 423. So in another of these poems we read-- _Fæger fugla reord,_ _Sweet was the song of birds,_ _folde geblowen,_ _the earth was covered with flowers,_ _geacas gear budon._ _cuckoos announced the year._--Ibid. p. 146. Before we quit entirely the Saxon hall, and its festivities and ceremonies, we must mention one circumstance connected with them. The laws and customs of the Anglo-Saxons earnestly enjoined the duty of almsgiving, and a multitude of persons partook of the hospitality of the rich man’s mansion, who were not worthy to be admitted to his tables. These assembled at meal-times outside the gate of his house, and it was a custom to lay aside a portion of the provisions to be distributed among them, with the fragments from the table. In Alfric’s homily for the second Sunday after Pentecost, the preacher, after dwelling on the story of Lazarus, who was spurned from the rich man’s table, appeals to his Anglo-Saxon audience--“many Lazaruses ye have now lying at your gates, begging for your superfluity.” Bede tells us of the good king Oswald, that when he was once sitting at dinner, on Easter-day, with his bishop, having a silver dish full of dainties before him, as they were just ready to bless the bread, the servant whose duty it was to relieve the poor, came in on a sudden and told the king that a great multitude of needy persons from all parts were sitting in the streets begging some alms of the king. The latter immediately ordered the provisions set before him to be carried to the poor, and the dish to be cut in pieces and divided among them. In the picture of a Saxon house given in our first chapter (p. 15), we see the lord of the household on a sort of throne at the entrance to his hall, presiding over the distribution of his charity. This seat, generally under an arch or canopy, is often represented in the Saxon manuscripts, and the chief or lord seated under it, distributing justice or charity. In the accompanying cut, No. 40, taken from the Anglo-Saxon manuscript of Prudentius, the lady Wisdom is represented seated on such a throne. It was, perhaps, the _burh-geat-setl_, or seat at the burh-gate, mentioned as characteristic of the rank of the thane in the following extract from a treatise on ranks in society, printed with the Anglo-Saxon laws: “And if a ceorl thrived, so that he had fully five