Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776: June 2011 (Sixth) EditionReilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage: King AEthelbert - King George III, 600 A.D. - 1776: June 2011 (Sixth) Edition
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
Men wore long-sleeved wool and linen garments reaching almost to the
knee, around which they wore a belt tied in a knot. Men often wore a
gold ring on the fourth finger of the right hand. Leather shoes were
fastened with leather thongs around the ankle. Their hair was parted in
the middle and combed down each side in waving ringlets. The beard was
parted in the middle of the chin, so that it ended in two points. The
clergy did not wear beards. Great men wore gold-embroidered clothes,
gilt buckles and brooches, and drank from drinking horns mounted in
silver gilt or in gold. Well- to-do women wore brightly colored robes
with waist bands, headbands, necklaces, gem bracelets, and rings. Their
long hair was in ringlets and they put rouge on their cheeks. They had
beads, pins, needles, tweezers of bronze, and workboxes of bronze, some
highly ornamented. They were often doing needlework. Silk was affordable
only by the wealthy.
Most families kept a pig and pork was the primary meat. There were also
sheep, goats, cows, deer, hare, and fowl. Fowl was obtained by fowlers
who trapped them. The inland waters yielded eels, salmon, and trout. In
the fall, meat was salted to preserve it for winter meals. There were
orchards growing figs, nuts, grapes, almonds, pears, and apples. Also
produced were beans, lentils, onions, eggs, cheese, and butter. Pepper
and cinnamon were imported.
Fishing from the sea yielded herrings, sturgeon, porpoise, oysters,
crabs, and other fish. Sometimes a whale was driven into an inlet by a
group of boats. Whale skins were used to make ropes.
The roads were not much more than trails. They were often so narrow
that two pack horses could hardly pass each other. The pack horses each
carried two bales or two baskets slung over their backs, which balanced
each other. The soft soil was compacted into a deep ditch which rains,
floods, and tides, if near the sea, soon turned into a river. Traveling
a far distance was unsafe as there were robbers on the roads. Traveling
strangers were distrusted. It was usual to wash one's feet in a hot tub
after traveling and to dry them with a rough wool cloth.
There were superstitions about the content of dreams, the events of the
moon, and the flights and voices of birds were often seen as signs or
omens of future events. Herbal mixtures were drunk for sickness and
maladies. From the witch hazel plant was made a mild alcoholic
astringent, which was probably used to clean cuts and sooth abrasions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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