This eBook was produced by Tapio Riikonen
and David Widger
Four meals a day, nor those sparing, were not deemed too extravagantan interpretation of the daily bread for which the Saxon prayed. Fourmeals a day, from earl to ceorl! "Happy times!" may sigh thedescendant of the last, if he read these pages; partly so they werefor the ceorl, but not in all things, for never sweet is the food, andnever gladdening is the drink, of servitude. Inebriety, the vice ofthe warlike nations of the North, had not, perhaps, been the pre-eminent excess of the earlier Saxons, while yet the active and fieryBritons, and the subsequent petty wars between the kings of theHeptarchy, enforced on hardy warriors the safety of temperance; butthe example of the Danes had been fatal. Those giants of the sea,like all who pass from great vicissitudes of toil and repose, from thetempest to the haven, snatched with full hands every pleasure in theirreach. With much that tended permanently to elevate the character ofthe Saxon, they imparted much for a time to degrade it. The Anglianlearned to feast to repletion, and drink to delirium. But such werenot the vices of the court of the Confessor. Brought up from hisyouth in the cloister-camp of the Normans, what he loved in theirmanners was the abstemious sobriety, and the ceremonial religion,which distinguished those sons of the Scandinavian from all otherkindred tribes.
The Norman position in France, indeed, in much resembled that of theSpartan in Greece. He had forced a settlement with scanty numbers inthe midst of a subjugated and sullen population, surrounded by jealousand formidable foes. Hence sobriety was a condition of his being, andthe policy of the chief lent a willing ear to the lessons of thepreacher. Like the Spartan, every Norman of pure race was free andnoble; and this consciousness inspired not only that remarkabledignity of mien which Spartan and Norman alike possessed, but alsothat fastidious self-respect which would have revolted from exhibitinga spectacle of debasement to inferiors. And, lastly, as the paucityof their original numbers, the perils that beset, and the good fortunethat attended them, served to render the Spartans the most religiousof all the Greeks in their dependence on the Divine aid; so, perhaps,to the same causes may be traced the proverbial piety of theceremonial Normans; they carried into their new creed something offeudal loyalty to their spiritual protectors; did homage to the Virginfor the lands that she vouchsafed to bestow, and recognised in St.Michael the chief who conducted their armies.
After hearing the complin vespers in the temporary chapel fitted up inthat unfinished abbey of Westminster, which occupied the site of thetemple of Apollo [53], the King and his guests repaired to theirevening meal in the great hall of the palace. Below the dais wereranged three long tables for the knights in William's train, and thatflower of the Saxon nobility who, fond, like all youth, of change andimitation, thronged the court of their Normanised saint, and scornedthe rude patriotism of their fathers. But hearts truly English werenot there. Yea, many of Godwin's noblest foes sighed for the English-hearted Earl, banished by Norman guile on behalf of English law.
At the oval table on the dais the guests were select and chosen. Atthe right hand of the King sat William; at the left Odo of Bayeux.Over these three stretched a canopy of cloth of gold; the chairs onwhich each sate were of metal, richly gilded over, an