Because that once a yeare They can affoord the poore some slender cheere, Observe their country feasts or common doles, And entertain their Christmass wassaile boles, Or els because that, for the Churche’s good, They in defence of _Hock-tide_ custome stood, A Whitsun-ale or some such goodly motion, &c. The custom has now long been abolished. One feature of the social life of the Saxons is especially interesting, in which we see the precursor of the modern club. Voluntary associations, or _sodalitates_, were frequently formed, the objects of which were variously, protection, conviviality, and relief, both for soul and body. Turner mentions a gild-scipe (_guild-ship_) at Exeter, which purported to have been made for God’s love and their soul’s need. The meetings were three times a year, besides the holy-days after Easter. Every member was to bring a certain quantity of malt, and every cniht was to add a less quantity and some honey. The fines of their own imposition imply that the materials of conviviality were not forgotten.[46] Historians are for once unanimous in depicting the general character of the Anglo-Saxons. Perhaps none have painted it in blacker colours than Niebuhr. England, he says, at the time of the Conquest was not only effete with the drunkenness of crime, but with the crime of drunkenness. The soldiery, as was natural, shared in the general demoralisation. They laboured under a greater deficiency than any which can result from the want of weapons or of armour. Stout, well-fed, and hale, the Anglo-Saxon when sober was fully a match for any adversary who might be brought from the banks of the Seine or the Loire. But they were addicted to _debauchery_, and the wine-cup unnerves the stoutest arm.[47] These were the troops who fortified themselves for the fatal battle of Hastings with strong drink, and whose cries of revelry resounded throughout the night. In the quaint language of Fuller, ‘The English, being revelling before, had in the morning their brains arrested for the arrearages of the indigested fumes of the former night, and were no better than drunk when they came to fight.’[48] FOOTNOTES: [35] The life of St. Elphege may be found in Wharton’s _Anglia Sacra_, vol. ii., and a brief account of him in Butler’s _Lives of the Saints_, sub. April 19. An engraving of the saint is given in the _Calendar of the Prayer Book Illustrated_, taken from an effigy in Wells Cathedral. [36] MS. Reg. 12, D. xvii., fol. 13-20. Cf. Wright, _Biog. Britann. Liter._, p. 98, &c. [37] Hume: _Hist. Eng._, vol. i. 123. [38] _Timon of Athens_, act i. sc. 2. [39] Some interesting information on this head may be found in an article in Du Cange’s _Glossarium ad Script. Lat._, sub ‘Bibere in amore Sanctorum.’ [40] Cf. Fosbroke, _British Monachism_, who cites MS. Cott. Tiber, B. 13.