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ANECDOTES OF FEUDAL TIMES IN ENGLAND. 



A SUSPICION is pretty generally attached to our early historians, 

 who were for the most part connected with religious establishments, 

 that they have greatly exaggerated the vices of the periods which 

 they describe. Frequently suffering from the rapacity of the mo- 

 narch, or the proximate nobility, they certainly may, in many cases, 

 have employed the language of exasperation, and, magnifying the 

 evils inflicted upon their order, have depicted with a highly-coloured 

 pencil the characters of their oppressors. On the other hand, as 

 many of the marauding barons were founders of monasteries and 

 augmented the possessions of the church, some with the hope of 

 expiating crimes already perpetrated, and more to obtain preter- 

 natural assistance in future expeditions, the religious historians may, 

 from motives of gratitude and policy, have exalted their characters 

 as splendid examples for imitation. 



With these or similar limitations to implicit reliance on the au- 

 thority of their predecessors, modern historians have received their 

 accounts, and generalised their facts. The recent publications of 

 the Record Commissioners have confirmed, in innumerable instances, 

 the minute accuracy with which the fathers of English history re- 

 corded events. If we find them thus corroborated in some circum- 

 stances, shall we, because the official record has not yet been dis- 

 covered, or has long since ceased to exist, refuse them credence in 

 others? I am for enlarging the sphere of their influence upon our faith, 

 and would deem them equally credible in many matters which, at 

 present, rest solely upon their own authority. If the character of the 

 times be not absolutely repugnant to the occurrence of a particular 

 event, shall we, because it may sound strangely to a modern ear, 

 regard it as a monkish fable, invented in irritation, and narrated in 

 animosity ? 



The general history of a country is like the picture of an exten- 

 sive landscape, in which only the more prominent features of the 

 scene can be perceived. To acquire a perfect acquaintance with 

 the individual objects, the place must be visited and its parts exa- 

 mined. I propose to offer a few of those anecdotes, which would 

 have encumbered the lucubrations of a Hume, but which are essen- 

 tial to the acquisition of a correct knowledge of manners, which in- 

 terest us by the very fact that they are dissimilar to our own. I do 

 not intend to burden this, or, if the subject should be more extensive 

 than it at present appears, any other paper with dry antiquarian de- 

 tails, and shall omit the results of a careful collation of some of our 

 ancient historians with the records which frequently substantiate 

 their statements. Of these I select the most remarkable, with a 

 view to the amusement of readers, who would deem their time ill 

 spent in consulting the sources which supply them. 



