Whether the Saxon burghs were represented in the _witenagemote_, or general assembly of the nation, is another question which has given rise to much controversy. On this point we are also inclined to follow sir Francis Palgrave. He considers that "the elected or virtual representatives of townships, or hundreds, constituted the multitude noticed as the people in the narratives describing the great councils, and other assemblies; for the share taken by the folk in the proceedings, forbids the conjecture that the bystanders were a mere disorderly crowd, brought together only as spectators, and destitute of any constitutional character." Yet he does not consider that they attended as mere deputies, chosen by popular election--but that they were the municipal authorities, who came by virtue of their office, or were sent to represent their brethren in the borough magistracy, who were unable themselves to attend; and he thinks that the expedient of authorizing a person not bearing office, to appear as a deputy on behalf of those who did, would be easily suggested, and would thus approximate to something like the modern system of parliamentary representation. All this seems feasible; but we are not warranted to conclude that there was anything fixed and definite in the modes of representing these boroughs; we should suppose that they were rather irregular, and were shaped by local, and even accidental circumstances. As to the appearance, the classes of population, and the internal economy of the Saxon towns, we have more precise information. Almost all the buildings were of wood. Hence the complaint in King Edward's charter to Malmesbury Abbey, that the monasteries of the realm were to the sight "nothing but worm-eaten and rotten timbers and boards." Yet there were some edifices of stone at an early period; witness St. Wilfred's church, at Hexham, built A.D. 674, of which an elaborate account is preserved, written by prior Richard, in the twelfth century. The churches built of stone were probably of a simple form, resembling some of our oldest parish churches, with a nave and chancel, and sometimes side aisles. In cases where timber was employed, there was, perhaps, more of decoration. We read of glass windows in the monastery of Wearmouth, as early as the seventh century: but, as late as the time of Alfred, they must have been very uncommon; for, when the ingenious monarch tried to measure the time by burning candles, they so flared about in the wind, which came rushing through the lattices of the apartment, that he made horn lanterns to shelter them from the blast. Chimneys were luxuries unknown, the fires in the houses being made in the centre of the floor, over which there was generally an opening in the roof to allow the escape of smoke; and when the fire went out, or the family retired to rest, the place in which it was made was closed by a cover. What must have been the state of the highways in provincial