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
Feasts were stately occasions with costly tables and splendid apparel.
There were practical jokes, innocent frolics, and witty verbal debating
with repartee. They played chess, checkers, and various games with cards
and dice. Most people could sing and some could play the lute.
Lighting of the hall at night was by oil lamps or candles on stands or
on wall fixtures. For outside activities, a lantern [a candle shielded
by a metal cage with panels of finely shaved horn: lant horn] was used.
The residence of the lord's family and guests was at a screened off area
at the extreme end of the hall or on a higher floor. Chests stored
garments and jewels. Iron keys and locks were used for chests and doors.
The great bed had a wooden frame and springs made of interlaced rope or
strips of leather. It was covered with a feather mattress, sheets,
quilts, fur covers, and pillows. Drapery around the bed kept out cold
drafts and provided privacy. There was a water bowl for washing in the
morning. A chamber pot was kept under the bed for nighttime use. Hay was
used as toilet paper. The lord's personal servants slept nearby on
benches or trundle beds. Most of the gentlemen servants slept communally
in a "knight's chamber". The floor of the hall was strewn with straw, on
which common folk could sleep at night. There were stools on which to
sit. Cup boards (boards on which to store cups) and chests stored spices
and plate. One-piece iron shears were available to cut cloth. Handheld
spindles were used for weaving; one hand held the spindle [a small stick
weighted at one end] while the other hand alternately formed the thread
and wound it around the spindle. On the roofs there were rampart walks
for sentry patrols and parapets from which to shoot arrows or throw
things at besiegers. Each tenant of the demesne of the king where he had
a castle had to perform a certain amount of castle guard duty for its
continuing defense. These knights performing castle-guard duty slept at
their posts. Bathing was done in a wooden tub located in the garden in
the summer and indoors near the fire in winter. The great bed and tub
for bathing were taken on trips with the lord. The entire household was
of men, except for the lord's lady with a few lady companions. The
ladies rode pillion [on a cushion behind the saddle] or in litters
suspended between two horses.
Markets grew up outside castle walls. Any trade on a lord's land was
subject to "passage", a payment on goods passing through, "stallage", a
payment for setting up a stall or booth in a market, and "pontage", a
payment for taking goods across a bridge.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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