To anticipate what belongs to subsequent chapters, we may say here that when the insane were no longer treated in monasteries, or brought to sacred wells, or flogged at "trees of truth," they fared no better--nay, I think, often worse--when they were shut up in mad-houses and crowded into workhouses. They were too often under the charge of brutal keepers, were chained to the wall or in their beds, where they lay in dirty straw, and frequently, in the depth of winter, without a rag to cover them. It is difficult to understand why and how they continued to live; why their caretakers did not, except in the case of profitable patients, kill them outright; and why, failing this--which would have been a kindness compared with the prolonged tortures to which they were subjected--death did not come sooner to their relief. FOOTNOTES: [2] Collected and edited by the Rev. Oswald Cockayne, M.A., 1865. Published under the direction of the Master of the Rolls. [3] Corn or seed to cure bewitching (Saxon). Supposed to be the seeds of "wild saffron." [4] _Op. cit._, vol. ii. p. 137; Leech Book, I. lxiii. [5] That is, a small bell used in the church, probably the acolyte's. St. Fillan's was twelve inches high. See _postea_. [6] _Op. cit._, vol. i. p. 161. [7] _Op. cit._, p. 171. [8] _Op. cit._, pp. 313-315. [9] _Op. cit._, p. 351 ("Medicina de quadrupedibus" of Sextus Placitus). [10] _Op. cit._, p. 361. [11] _Op. cit._, vol. ii. pp. 343, 143, 343, 307, and 345. [12] Wodnes (Saxon) signifies madness. "Ance wod and ay waur," _i.e._ increasing in insanity. (See Jamieson's Scotch Dictionary, 1825: "Wodman = a madman.") [13] _Op. cit._, vol. ii. p. 335. [14] Preface to vol. ii. p. xix.-xxiii. [15] Vol. iv., preface, p. xxxiv. [16] Vol. iv. p. 225. [17] In Chambers's "Book of Days," in an article on "Holy Wells," it is added to the above statement that in the seventeenth century St. Winifred could boast of thousands of votaries, including James II. [18] In the "Miller's Tale," the carpenter is befooled into looking like a madman. "They tolden every man that he was wood," etc. (Percy Society's edition, vol. i. p. 152). [19] Early English Text Society, vol. iii. p. 163. See also Clarendon Press Series, edited by Mr. Skeats. London, 1866. [20] "Archæologia Britannica," by Ed. Lhuyd, 1707. The Armoric word for mania is _diboelder_ or _satoni_; the Cornish, _meskatter_; the British, _mainigh_, among others. [21] These passages from Dr. Borlase and Dr. Boase will be found in the valuable address at the Royal Institution of Cornwall, by W. C. Borlase, F.S.A., 1878 (Journal of the Institution, 1878, No. xx. pp. 58, 59). It forms a little work on Cornish Saints, and from it is derived the statement made in regard to St. Nonna or Nun.