Feudalism. 1 5 i 



Charlton spur, wliicli was always served up in a covered dish 

 whenever the Hesleyside larder was empty, a relic which brings 

 us back to that period of history when any excuse was good 

 enough for starting a foray, and from which some of these old 

 customs have led us astray. 



Such briefly was the famous Feudal System, out of which 

 the artist's brush and the novelist's pen have extracted so 

 much to charm the mind, that it is difflcult for a modem 

 imagination to make room for what in it was inimical to the 

 subject's freedom and the nation's progress. A casual observer 

 sees only in it the picturesque attire of the noble, hears only 

 the rescuing shout of the knights errant, or drinks in the 

 melody of its minstrelsy. 



And yet there was much in it to admire ; for did it not 

 create a now extinct courtesy betwixt man and man, a punc- 

 tilious reverence for the woman, and a generous respect for 

 weakness and old age, which rendered it a fitting attribute 

 of that religion which was fast spreading over Western 

 Europe ? The creed and the polity of Christendom acted and 

 reacted upon each other, so that the chivalry of feudalism 

 permeated religion, and Christian integrity found expression 

 in the affairs of secular life. AVhat else was it that induced 

 the rude warrior to doff his head-covering in the presence of 

 the priest, and led St. Louis of France to tend the sick on 

 bended knee, and made Francis de Sales preach reverence 

 rather than pity for the impotent, or stamped knighthood 

 with the impress of the most scrupulous honour, and elevated 

 mere animal strife into a contest where to take an unfair 

 advantage was to commit social suicide ? 



