The custom, one can scarcely question, was evolved from the military requirements of early Teutonic society; and, as private war died down, so the status of the page became impaired, until in the reign of Elizabeth we find him a pampered domestic, whose pert air and gaudy dress represented all that was left of a formidable troop armed with sword and buckler. Ben Jonson deplores and ridicules the transformation in lines with which the present volume may well close. The host in the play has refused his son as page to Lord Lovel, saying that he would hang him sooner than "damn him to that desperate course of life." _Lovel_. Call you that desperate, which, by a line Of institution from our ancestors, Hath been derived down to us, and received In succession for the noblest way Of brushing up our youth, in letters, arms, Fair mien, discourses civil, exercise, And all the blazon of a gentleman? Where can he learn to vault, to fence, To move his body gracefully, to speak The language pure; or turn his mind Or manners more to the harmony of nature Than in these nurseries of nobility? _Host_. Ay, that was when the nursery's self was noble And only virtue made it, not the market, That titles were not vended at the drum And common outcry; goodness gave the greatness And greatness worship; every house became An academy; and those parts We see depicted in the practice now Quite from the institution. _Lovel_. Why do you say so? Or think so enviously? Do they not still Learn thus the Centaur's skill, the art of Thrace, To ride? or Pollux's mystery, to fence? The Pyrrick gestures, both to stand and spring In armour, to be active for the wars; To study figures, numbers, and proportions May yield them great in counsel and the arts: To make their English sweet upon their tongues, As Chaucer says? INDEX a Becket, Thomas, 53, 247 Abbeys, Bath, 13; Eynsham, 66; Girwy, 13; Monte Cassino, 14; Oseney, 66; Wearmouth, 13; York, 14 Abbot of Unreason, 41 "Abbot, The," 41 Abelard, 91 Abjuration, 83, 163-5, 170 Ad Montem ceremony, 50 Affiliation of towns, 173-4, 177-8 Alcuin, 12-14 Aldgate, 188, 193 Aliens, 179 Allotments, 210-11 Alms and loans, 61-70, 104 Alnwick, 210 Alwyn, 134 Ancients, 117 _Angild_, 152 "Antiquary," the, 173, 226 Appeals, 77 Apprentices-at-law, 119-21, 123 _Arles_, 196 Arrears of rent, 172 Ashburton, 59, 61 Assise, the, 149 "Assises de Jerusalem," 140, 142 Assize of Clarendon, 165; of Northampton, 140 Athelstan, King, 20, 133, 160 Augustine, St., 27 Aungerville, Richard, 68 Austin Friars, 108-9 "Austins," 107, 109 Australs and Boreals, 93 Bachelor of Arts, 102-3, 109 Bacon, Roger, 108 Badges, 242-3 Bailiffs, 205-6 Bakers, 183-4, 186, 195; "baker's dozen," 186 Ballantine, Mr. Serjeant, 125-6 Banishment, 98 Banner of St Paul, 222-3