SAXON. 
717 
uions for youth to be instructed in learning. We find also 
in Alfred’s time, that most of the nobles and many of the 
inferior orders, were put under masters, who taught them 
both Latin and Saxon books, and also writing. Neverthe¬ 
less, the great and powerful undervalued knowledge. The 
education of the Saxons was much assisted by the emigra¬ 
tions or visits of Irish ecclesiastics ; and after the prevalence 
of Christianity, a portion of the youth was taken into the 
monasteries. We may observe, in general, that the Saxon 
youth seem to have been accustomed to habits of docility 
and obedience. The Anglo-Saxons cultivated both wheat 
aqd barley, and reared oxen, sheep and swine for their food. 
They used likewise fowls, deer, goats, and hares; and they 
also fed on various kinds of fish, and particularly eels, 
which, as well as hogs, they used in great abundance. Their 
orchards afforded figs, grapes, nuts, almonds, pears, and 
apples. Honey appears to have been a favourite diet, and 
salt they used in great quantities. Ale and mead were their 
favourite drinks, and wine was an occasional luxury. They 
boiled, baked, and broiled their victuals. In their dress 
they indulged vanity by a variety of ornaments. The ladies 
had costly necklaces and bracelets, and rings on their fin¬ 
gers. Their hair was twisted and delicately curled. They 
also studied to improve their natural complexion by paint. 
The men also intruded on the province of the females, by 
using similar ornaments, such as necklaces of gold and pre¬ 
cious stones, bracelets on their arms, and rings on their 
fingers. They had also silk, linen, and woollen garments. 
The hair of the men was divided from the crown to the 
forehead, and combed down the sides of the head in waving 
ringlets: their beards were continued whiskers on each side, 
meeting the hair from the chin, but there dividing, and end¬ 
ing in two forked points. Young men, and sometimes ser¬ 
vants, are represented without beards; and they were for¬ 
bidden to the clergy. Their shoes were tied with thongs. 
Their garments were lined with furs made from sables, 
beavers, and loxes, or, when they wished to be less expen¬ 
sive, with the skins of lambs or cats. Their dwelling-houses 
were small and inconvenient, and their furniture rude and 
coarse. Some of their tables were very costly, being made 
of silver and gold. In their food and convivial entertain¬ 
ments they used many expensive articles, formed of the 
precious metals. The Anglo-Saxons seem to have been ac¬ 
quainted with the precious stones, and also with the odori¬ 
ferous productions of the East. They also used the luxury 
of hot baths; and it was an indispensable part of hospitality 
to offer to visitors the refreshment of washing the feet in 
warm water; and washing the feet of the poor was one of 
the acts of penance to be performed by the rich. At the 
cheerful meetings of the Anglo-Saxons it was the practice 
for all to sing in turn, and for this purpose the harp was 
sometimes circulated. Dancing, bear-baiting, games at 
hazard, hunting, hawking, falconry, and fowling, were di¬ 
versions to which the Anglo-Saxons were addicted. 
Among these people, females were held in honourable 
estimation. They were allowed to possess, to inherit, and 
to transmit, landed property; they shared in all the social 
festivities; they were present at the witena gemot and the 
shire gemot; they were permitted to sue and be sued in the 
courts of justice; their persons, their safety, their liberty, 
and their property, were protected by express laws; and 
they possessed all that influence which they will always re¬ 
tain in countries that have the wisdom and the urbanity to 
treat them as equal, intelligent, and independent beings. The 
earliest institutions respecting the Anglo-Saxon marriages 
occur in the laws of Ethelbert; and the customary forms 
attendant upon their marriage-contracts are more clearly 
displayed to us in the laws of Edmund. Within certain 
degrees of consanguinity marriages were forbidden, and 
severe penalties were attached to the violation of female 
chastity. The different classes of society among the Anglo- 
Saxons were such as belonged to birth, office, or property, 
and such as were occupied by a freeman, a freedman, or one 
of the servile description. It is to be lamented in the review 
of these different classes, that a large proportion of the 
Vol. XXII. No. 1535. 
Anglo-Saxon population was in a state of abject slavery. 
They were bought and sold with land, and were conveyed 
in the grants of it promiscuously with the cattle and other 
property upon it; and in the Anglo-Saxon wills these 
wretched beings were given away precisely as we now dis¬ 
pose of our plate, our furniture, or our money. At length 
the custom of manumission, and the diffusion of Christianity, 
meliorated the condition of the Anglo-Saxon slaves. Some¬ 
times individuals, from benevolence, gave the slaves their 
freedom; sometimes piety procured a manumission. But 
the most interesting kind of emancipation appears in those 
writings which announce to us, that the slaves had purchased 
their own liberty, or that of their family. The Anglo-Saxon 
laws recognised the liberation of slaves, and placed them 
under legal protection. The liberal feelings of our ancestors 
towards their enslaved domestics, are not only evindenced 
in the frequent manumissions, but also in the generous gifts 
which they appear to have made them. The grants of lands 
from masters to their servants were very common. The gilds, 
or social confederations, in which the Anglo-Saxons chose to 
arrange themselves, were establishments that have been par¬ 
ticularly noticed in the history of these people. These gilds 
are sometimes alluded to in the laws. Such associations 
were a kind of clubs. In mercantile towns and sea-ports 
there were also gilds, or fraternities of persons constituted 
for the purpose of carrying on more successful enterprises in 
commerce. The tradesmen of the Anglo-Saxons were, for 
the most part, men in a servile state: but, by degrees, the 
manumission of slaves increased the number of the indepen¬ 
dent part of the lower orders. Besides those persons who 
made particular trades their business, some of the clergy 
laboured to excel in the mechanical arts. And the fortunate 
connection which Christianity established between the clergy 
of Europe favoured the advancement of all these arts. The 
external commerce of these ancient times was restricted ; 
because imperfect civilization, and the poverty of a great 
body of the population, prevented an extensive demand for 
foreign commodities. At length commerce became more 
general; public markets were established in various parts of 
England; and laws were enacted for the protection and en¬ 
couragement of buyers and sellers. We must not forbear to 
mention, that hospitality was exercised with circumstances 
of peculiar attention and kindness. Piracy was gradually 
restrained, and commerce became honourable ; and in time, 
kings became the patrons of merchants. It is stated, that 
after the tenth century, piracy became disreputable, and in 
every reign after that time it approached nearer to its extinc¬ 
tion, until it was completely superseded by the influence of 
commerce, the firmer establishment of legal governments, 
improved notions of morality, and the experience of the 
superior comforts of social order, industry, and peaceful 
pursuits. 
The Saxon money was sometimes reckoned by pennies, 
but the name for money most frequently occurring in the 
charters is the mancus, the value of which was six shillings, 
or thirty pennies, five pennies making one shilling. But 
by the laws of Alfred, there were two sorts of pennies, the 
greater and the less. The money mentioned in our earliest 
law consists of shillings, and a minor sum called scaztta. 
In the laws of Ina, the pening occurs, and the pund as a 
weight. In those of Alfred the pund appears as a quantity 
of money, as well as the shilling and the penny ; but the 
shilling is the usual notation of his pecuniary punishments. 
In a treaty with the Danes, the half mark of gold, and the 
mancus, are the names of the money ; as is the ora in the 
Danish compact with Edward. In the laws of Ethelstan, 
we find the thrymsn, as well as the shilling and the penny ; 
the sc-aetta and the pund. The shilling, the penny, and the 
pound, appeared under Edgar. In the time of Ethelred, the 
pound is frequently the amount of the money noticed. The 
shilling and penny, the healf-marc, and the ora, also occur. 
In the charters we find pennies, manCusa, pounds, shillings, 
and sicli, mentioned. As no Anglo-Saxon gold coins have 
reached modern times, though we have numerous specimens 
of their silver coinage, it is presumed by antiquaries that 
8 U none 
