MAHAUT, COUNTESS OF ARTOIS 



tended, but when we look at contemporary 

 representations of the surgery of the day, 1 we 

 tremble at the mere thought of the heroic 

 methods adopted. Besides the actual necessaries 

 which she provided for the hospital at Hesdin, 

 Mahaut constantly sent gifts of fish, game, and 

 wine. Similar gifts she likewise made to the 

 hospitals in Artois generally, as well as to those 

 in Paris, and, on fete-days, to the poorer religious 

 houses. 



From her beneficence to the sick and sorry, 

 the aged and the poor, we turn to her hospitality 

 to her relations and friends, and to all those in 

 spiritual or temporal authority in the towns 

 or villages of Artois. The Castle of Hesdin, 

 destroyed in the sixteenth century only a few 

 stones remaining to mark the site, was situated 

 a few miles from the present modern town of 

 Hesdin. It must have been not only a scene 

 of constant festivity and social intercourse, and 

 a treasure-house withal, but also a veritable hive 

 of industry, with workers and workshops within 

 the Castle enclosure as well as in the town 

 nestling beneath its walls. Here might be 

 found artists and craftsmen of all sorts and 

 degrees sculptors and workers in stone, ivory- 

 workers, wood-carvers, carpenters, artificers in 

 silver and precious stones as well as in copper, 

 forgers of iron, painters of wall-decoration, 

 stonework, saddle-bows, and even masquerading- 



1 Sec Roger of Parma, Treatise on Surgery. French thirteenth 

 century. Brit. Mus., Sloane MS., 1977. 



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