298 



A. D. 1066. 



appears from the charter of "WilHam the Conqueror, that London en- 

 joyed feme privileges fuperior to thofe of other cities : and it fecms' prob- 

 able that the fupremacy or confervancy of the river was veiled in the 

 city at this time, or earlier. (See below under the year 1070.) The in- 

 habitants, or burgeffes, alfo enjoyed the highly-prized privilege of hunt- 

 ing in the extenlive chaces of Chiltern, Middlefex, and Surry, as we 

 learn from the confirmation of it contained in the charter of Henry I to 

 the city. 



There feems no reafon to believe that in thofe times there was any 

 town in Scotland, or in Wales, which would now be called a good vil- 

 lage, though, in the eftimation of the laft writer of the Pichtifli Chron- 

 icle (one of the mo ft antient extant monuments of Scottifh hiftory, 

 which was finifhed in or about the year 972), Brechin was a great city. 

 It is now but a village with the rank of a burgh ; and there is not, I 

 believe, any reafon to fuppofe that it ever was much larger, though it 

 has been a bifhop's fee. 



To the gleanings of the commercial hiftory of the Anglo-Saxons it 

 may not be improper to add a ftiort account of their manners, from the 

 obfervations of a judicious hiftorian, who, living immediately after the 

 conquefl, had an opportunity of marking the features which diftinguifh- 

 ed the Anglo-Saxon from the Norman charader, before they were obli- 

 terated by long-continued intercourie. 



Before the conqueft learning appears to have been almoft at as low 

 an ebb in England, as it was at the commencement of the reign of Al- 

 fred. Few of the clergy could repeat the offices of religion ; and a cler- 

 gyman who was mafler of grammar was efteemed a prodigy of learn- 

 ing. The nobles abandoned themfelves to the exceifes of gluttony, 

 drunkennefs, and promifcuous concubinage, not fcruphng to confign 

 the objeds of their lull, and even their own offspring, to the miieries 

 of flavery for a little money. They expended their whole revenues in 

 riotous entertainments, without any degree of elegance or tafte, their 

 houfes being fmall and mean. Their upper garments reached only half- 

 way down to the knee. They cut their hair, and fliaved their beards, 

 except upon the upper lip. Their arms were loaded with weighty gold- 

 en (or gilded) bracelets. And their fkins were marked with painted fi- 

 gures *. But the hiftorian candidly requefts his readers not to a})ply 

 this unfavourable character univerfally to the Enghfh. He himlelf knew 

 many exceptions to it, as well among the laity as among the clergy. 



* TViis ciidom ot paiuting ttic fliin, tlic trutli of of tlie iflaiid tlio moll remote from ttic countrj' of 



which caiitiot be qutlHoiied, nill fecni flranfrc to the Pichts, who, we arc generally, but crroneoul'- 



many p.oplc. Tiie jirai^lice had been prohibited ly, told, were called PiSi (pa'nilid jitople) by the 



in the 19th canon, or chapter, of n council held in Romans, bccanfe they alone letained tliC tudom of 



the prcfct.ce of the king of Northumberland in the painting their ftin-!, after it was given up by the 



year 787. [^Sj>e/r/yw, Cc/ncil. Brilann. />. Zfj^)."] But other nations of Britain. 



ve ftc ilia', it ftill prevailed, and even in that part 3 



