Manners and customs of the English nation, from the invasion of Julius Cæsar to the present time

Preface

The object of this work is to give an idea of the manners, customs, and curious particulars of our forefathers, which to most persons are the most interesting part of our history. To obtain any thing like a correct idea thereof, it is necessary to consult not only history, but also laws, poems, and biographies. For this few have opportunity or inclination. In this work I have endeavoured to supply what I have frequently found to be a desideratum ; and I believe it contains a connected narrative of events not to be found in any other volume. I have made no statement without the most patient research.

J. B.

Contents

PAGE

CHAPTER I. Manners and Customs, &c, of the Ancient Britons; from the

earliest times to the arrival of the Saxons, a.d. 450 ... 9

CHAPTER IT.

Manners and Customs, &c M of the Saxons and Danes; from the year 450 to the Norman Conquest in 1066 30

Chapter VII

Manners and Customs, &c, of the English ; from 1603 to the present time— during the reigns of James I., Charles I., the Commonwealth, Charles II., James II., William III., and Mary II., Ann, the Your Georges, William IV., and Victoria 220

MAMERS AND CUSTOMS, &o.

Chapter I

Manners and Customs, &c, of the Ancient Britons, from the earliest times to the arrival of the Saxons, a.d. 450.

Of the ancient Britons we know little or nothing before the invasion of that great man — Julius Csesar. It is not till then that we have the personal observation of known intelligent men. Ornaments and weapons have been found from time to time in Great Britain, and acknowledged as neither of Roman nor Saxon workmanship ; hence, with the aid of a little scanty testimony,* we may presume that the earliest inhabitants of this country had relapsed into barbarism as they receded from the civilized south — that in the course of their migrations, having lost the art of working metals and weaving of cloth, they were clothed in skins, decorated with beads and flowers, and armed with weapons of bone and flint — and that their stained and punctured bodies must have given them the appearance of the islanders of the South Pacific, as described by Captain Cook.

For size, stature, and fairness of complexion, the ancient Britons were remarkable. The women

♦Herodotus, Book IV. ; Plutarch in Mario; and "Welsh Triads, 4 and 5.

in particular were very fair — fairer, perhaps, than most Englishwomen of the present day, but not so delicate. They had blue eyes, which they much admired, and long hair, of which they were very proud. The last and most earnest request of a young warrior who was taken prisoner, and condemned to be beheaded, is said to have been, that no slave might be permitted to touch his hair, and that it might not be stained with his blood.*

They did what some folk do nowadays — used hair-dye. Men of rank amongst the Gauls and Britons shaved the chin, but wore immense tangled mustaches. Strabo describes those of the inhabitants of Cornwall and the Scilly Isles as hanging down upon their breasts like wings. He says the people of the latter place wore long black garments like tunics, and carried staves in their hands ; so that, when walking, they looked like furies in a tragedy, though really a quiet and inoffensive people, f The Britons were not only of good stature, but they were very strong — they excelled in running, swimming, wrestlings — in a word, in most kinds of bodily exercises. Their faculties were like their bodies — active. When Julius Agricola came to Briton, he praised those young Britons who studied the Latin language and literature, and declared that in genius they excelled the youths of Gaul. When Julius Csesar landed on our shores — B. c. 55 years — he found the inhabitants of Kent the most civilized of all the Britons, and differing but little in their manners from the Gauls. J Strabo says, "The Britons in their manners resemble the Gauls ; " and Tacitus, " They are near and like the Gauls/'

* Adams's New History of Great Britain, p. 31.

f Lib. III. J De Bell. Gall., Lib. V. v. 14.

The best informed of the ancient Britons were acquainted with the arts of spinning, dyeing, and weaving wool, &c. The people of Kent practised these arts after the Gaulish fashion, and possessed, in common with their continental relatives, some valuable secrets in them, unknown to other nations. Of this fact we have the direct evidence of Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, and Pliny; the latter of whom enumerates several herbs used for this purpose, and tells us that they dyed purple, scarlet, and several other colours, from these alone.* But the herb/ which they chiefly used was the glastum, or woad, with which they stained their bodies, Csesar says, in order to make themselves look dreadful in battle, f Isidorus describes the British method of tatooing in these words: — " They squeeze the juice of certain herbs into figures made on their bodies with the points of needles." $ It seems to have been done in infancy, as Pliny tells us the British wives and nurses did it.|| Their clothing varied, from plaids and simple sheepskins, &c, to the fur of wolves, cats, and rabbits. " By some persons of high rank, the fur or wool was worn inside, while the smooth sides of the skins were dressed and curiously stained with the juice of the woad, a plant greatly prized among the ancient Britons on account of a fine blue dye which was obtained from it. With this colour it was the custom of the ancient Britons to paint not only their garments, but also their faces and bodies, in stripes and stars, and various other figures. The effect of the painting was very similar to that of tattooing, which prevails among

*Hist. Nat., Lib. XVI. c. 18; Lib. XXII. c. 26. f De. Bell. Gall., Lib. V. t Orig., Lib. XIX. c 23.

|] Nat. Hist, Lib. XXIL c. 2.

the savages of the South Sea islands ; and, indeed, in various other respects there was a great similarity, in many of the customs of the original inhabitants of Briton, to those of the islanders discovered in modern times in the South Atlantic regions." *

The Britons, according to a Celtic custom, flung off their garments when fighting ; and hence arose the error, that they lived always (i in puris naturalibus" We have the testimony of Csesar himself to the fact, that even the least civilized went clad in skins ; whilst the southern or Belgic Britons were like the Gauls, and therefore not only completely but splendidly attired, as may be proved from various unquestionable authorities.

Of the several kinds of cloth manufactured in Gaul, one, according to Pliny and Diodorus Siculus, was composed of fine wool dyed of several colours, which, being spun into yarn, was woven either in stripes or in chequers, and of this the Gauls and Britons made their lighter or summer garments. Here we have the undoubted origin of the Scotch plaid or tartan, which is called u the garb of old Gaul" to this day; and indeed, with the exception of the plumed bonnet and the tasselled sporran or purse, a Highland chief in his full costume, with truis, plaid, dirk, and target, affords as good an illustration of the appearance of an ancient Briton of distinction as can well be imagined. t

In speaking of the Belgic Gauls, Diodorus says they wore dyed tunics, beflowered with all manner of colours. With- these they wore close trousers, which they called braccce $ — these trousers,

* Agnes Strickland— Tales from History, Vol. I., p. 25 and 26. t History of British Costume, by Planche, p. 14. + Lib. V. c. 30.

an* article of clothing by which all barbaric nations seem to have been distinguished from the Romans, being made by the Gauls and Britons of their chequered cloth. Over the tunic both the Gauls and the Britons wore the sagum — a short cloak, so called by the Eomans from the Celtic word saic, which, according to Varro, signified a skin or hide, such having been the materials which the invention of cloth had superseded. The British sagum was of one uniform colour, generally either blue or black.*

The predominating colour in the chequered tunic and braccce was red. The hair was turned back upon the crown of the head, and fell down in long and bushy curls behind.^ If covered at all it was by the cappan, or cap — so called from the British cab, a hut, which it resembled in its conical shape. The houses of the Britons were made with wattles stuck in the ground, and fastened together at the top. "It is somewhat singular that the form of this ancient pointed cap is to this day exhibited in what the Welsh children call the cappan cymicyll) the horn-like cap made of rushes tied at top, and twisted* into a band at bottom." %

The dress of the British women may be ascertained from Dion Cassius's account of the appearance of Boadicea, queen of the Iceni. Her hair fell down upon her shoulders — she wore a torque of gold — a tunic of several colours, all in folds — and over the tunic a robe of coarse stuff, fastened by a fibula or brooch. The less civilized tribes

* Diodorus Siculus, Lib. V. c. 33.

f Ibid., Lib. V. ; and Ceesar De Bell. Gall., Lib. V.

J Costume of the Original Inhabitants of the British Islands: by S. R. Meyrick, LL.D. and F.S.A. It is to this learned author we are indebted for the first general collection of ancient British authorities.

14 MAHNEES AND CUSTOMS OF

that inhabited the interior of the country went simply clad in skins.* The hide of the brindled ox was generally preferred ; but some wore the ysgyn, which was the name for the skin of any wild beast, but more particularly the bear. Others assumed the sheepskin cloak, according as they were herdsmen, hunters, or shepherds.t That, in the absence of more valuable fastenings, the cloak was secured, as amongst the ancient Germans, by a thorn, we have tolerable evidence in the fact of this primitive brooch being still used in Wales. J They had no shoes or boots, but tied a piece of the skin of a horse, cow, or other animal, about their feet, with the hair outwards.

About the year 78, Julius Agricola succeeded in establishing the Roman dominion, and introducing the Roman manners and language ; so that, before the end of the first century, the ancient British habit began to be thought little of by the chiefs, and regarded as a badge of barbarism. Tacitus says, cc The sons of the British chieftains began to affect our dress/' || " The braccce were abandoned by the southern and eastern Britons, and the Roman tunic, reaching to the knee, with the cloak or mantle, still however called the sagum, became the general habit of the better classes." § The change in women's garb was very little, as it had originally been similar to that of the Roman women. One of their garments was sometimes confined by a girdle, and was called in British gicn, the gaunacum of Varro, and the origin of our word gown.^f Both sexes cut and dressed their hair after the Roman fashion.

* De Bell. Gall., Lib. V. c. 10. f Meyrick- Orig. Inhab.

I History of British Costume, by Planche, p. 20. II In Vit. Agric. § Planche— Hist, of Brit. Costume, p. 23.

% Meyrick— Orig. Inhab.

The ornaments of the Britons, like those of the Gauls, consisted of rings, bracelets, armlets, a collar or necklace of twisted wires of gold or silver, called torch or dorch in British, and peculiarly a symbol of rank and command. * So fond were they of such ornaments as torques, that those who could not afford to get them made of the precious metals wore them of iron, of which they were not a little proud. We learn from Pliny that the ring was worn on the middle finger, f

An extremely curious ornament, or piece of armour, was found at Mold in Flintshire, and is now in the British Museum. It has been called a breastplate or gorget, and, although exceedingly mutilated, its form certainly leads to that conclusion. It is of pure gold, three feet seven inches in length, and its width in front, where it appears to have been hollow r ed out to receive the neck, about eight inches. It is embossed with a figured pattern in various degrees of relief. An elaborate account may be found in the Arch^eologia, vol. xxvi., p. 22. $ Necklaces, armlets, and other ornaments of bone or ivory, and of a substance known by the name of Kimmeridge coal, are often discovered in the early British barrows. Some found in Derbyshire in 1846, have been engraved by the British Archaeological Society in ]S o. 7 of their journal. In the armoury at Goodrich court, is a most interesting relic of the early period under consideration. It is the metal coating of a shield, such as the Britons fabricated after they had been induced to imitate the Roman fashions. It appears to have been gilt, a practice continued for a

* Blanche" — History of British Costume, p. 16.

f Hist. Nat., Lib. XXXIII. c. 6.

% Planche — Hist, of Brit. Costume, p. 17.

long time by the descendants of the Britons, and is adorned on the umbo or boss with the common red cornelian of the country. This unique specimen was found, with several broken swords and spear-heads of bronze, in the bed of the river Witham, in Lincolnshire.*

The habitations of the ancient Britons were little better than thickets, dens, and caves. Their towns consisted of wicker huts, placed at short distances from each other in a tract of woody land, and surrounded by a trench, to secure them from their enemies. Their winter lodgings, and places of retreat in time of w r ar, being dug deep in the ground and covered with earth, were rendered by art secure and warm. Some of these subterraneous houses are still to be seen in Cornwall. They next made themselves wooden houses, w^hich were not square but round, with high tapering roofs, at the top of which were apertures for the admission of light, and emission of smoke. In short, their houses in shape were very much like sugar-loaves, the holes at the tops serving for windows as well as chimneys.

The most admired and popular virtue of the ancient Britons w r as valour. The older they grew the more sensible they became that every thing in this life depended on their courage. The praises of the bards — the smiles of the fair sex — the favour of the great and rich — the applauses of the people — and even happiness after death, were only to be obtained by brave, daring, and noble exploits in

* Planche" — History of British Costume. Much that we have said on costume and ornaments is taken from this excellent work. Should the reader wish to know more about the costume of this period, he is referred to " Selections of the Ancient Costume of Great Britain and Ireland. By C. H. Smith, 1 vol. fol. London, 1814;" and to "Costume of the Original Inhabitants of the British Islands. By S. R. Meyrick, LL.D., &c, 1 vol. fol. London, 1821."

THE EKGLISH NATION. 17

war. Each young Briton looked forward to the time when he could say, " Mine arm rescued the feeble ; the haughty found my rage was fire. For this my fathers shall meet me at the gates of the airy halls, tall, with robes of light, with mildly kindled eyes." *

War being their favourite profession, they had many curious customs in the prosecution of it. When an unfortunate chieftain begged the protection and assistance of another, he went to the place where the chieftain lived, with a bloody shield in one hand, and a broken spear in the other. The shield was to intimate the death of his friends, and the broken spear to represent his own incapacity to revenge it. When one chieftain entered the territories of another on a friendly visit, he and his followers carried their spears inverted, with the points behind them ; but when they came with an hostile intention, they carried them with the points before. An invading army never neglected to draw blood from the first animal they met on the enemy's ground, and to sprinkle it upon their colours. When two British chiefs or kings made peace, or entered into an alliance, they generally confirmed the agreement by feasting together — by exchanging arms — and sometimes by drinking a few drops of each other's blood.f

Their armouries were furnished with lances, helmets, coats of mail, shields, daggers, swords, battle-axes, bows and arrows, and chariots — some of which are preserved in the armoury at Goodrich Court, Herefordshire. Several dagger-blades

♦Quoted by Adairs in his "K"ew Historv of Great Britain," p. 26. t Adams.

of bronze, of a very eastern form, have been recentlydiscovered. In number seven of the Journal of the British Archaeological Association, p. 235, there is an engraving of one found in a tumulus, near Church Sterndale, Derbyshire, in 1846. Another very beautiful specimen, with a wooden sheath lined with cloth, is engraved in Mr. Fairholt's u Costume in England," p. 8. The flat circular shields, which, like their quivers, their boats, and their idols, were of wicker, were soon either imitated in bronze, or covered with a thin plate of it; and then, from their sonorous quality, were called tarians or dashers. The metal castings of two of these shields are preserved in a perfect state in the Meyrick collection. They are rather more than two feet in diameter — are ornamented with concentric circles, between which are raised as many little knobs as the space will admit — and have each a hollow boss in the centre to admit the hand, as they were held at arm's length in action. A smaller one, rather differing in pattern, was found in the river Isis in 1836, and is now in the British Museum.* The chariot, helmet, and coat of mail, were only used by the chieftains. Common soldiers always fought on foot, Their chariots were drawn by two horses — carried one or two men— and had scythes fastened to the axle trees.

One of the most shining virtues of the ancient Britons was their hospitality. Upon seeing a stranger near their huts, they spoke kindly to him, and gave him a pressing invitation to spend some time with them. If he accepted the invitation, they gave him some water with which to wash his feet. If he took the water and used it, and at the same time delivered his arms to the master of

* Hist, of British Costume, by Planche.

the house, it was taken as a hint that he would spend at least one night with them. Then they became merry, a meal was prepared, the harp was brought out, and they passed the time merrily.

The drinks of the Britons were water, the milk of animals, mead, ale, and beer. Before the Romans taught them farming, the strongest drink they had was mead, honey diluted with water, and fermented.

They had also wine, and their feasts were neither few nor far between. Every time they had an opportunity, they indulged in feasting. There was no public assembly, no marriage, no birthday, no treaty of peace or alliance, not even a funeral, without a great and jolly feast* Certainly there is nothing like a good dinner to make a man forget a wrong done to him, and become cheerful and charitable. " The way to a man's heart is through his stomach," says a proverb, and the Britons appear to have known this. Those who made the most and the greatest feasts were the most popular.

Many of their feasts lasted for a week, sometimes more. The guests seldom departed till they had consumed all the provisions, and drunk all the liquor.

They had only two meals a day, breakfast and supper. At supper they ate and drank with great freedom, often to excess. They sat in a circle upon the ground, their only seats, for a long time, being grass, hay, or the skins of some animals.

The meat that was before them they took up with their hands, and tearing some off with their teeth, ate it as well as they could. It sometimes happened that a piece of meat could not easily be separated, in such cases a knife was used, which

20 MANNEHS AND CUSTOMS OF

lay in a particular place for the use of the whole company.

For some time many of the Britons lived on the spontaneous productions of the earth. When Julius Cassar invaded this country, however, they had great herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, the flesh and milk of which yielded them a variety of substantial dishes. They used little bread, but ate much meat. They had also venison, game, and poultry, though, through some superstitious fancy, they would not for many ages eat either hares, hens, geese, or fish. The decline of the Druidical religion removed many of the restraints which the prejudices of national faith imposed upon their palates.

Before the Britons became so effeminate through Roman luxury, they did their utmost to make their children hardy, strong, and brave. Even in winter-time they took their little children to some stream or lake, and plunged them right into it, with a view to harden their bodies. Women nursed their own children without having the least idea that it was possible for any one else to do it for them. Parents were not severe, but allowed their sons to climb, wrestle, jump, swim, and run.

Much exercise, liberty, and plain diet, were probably the cause of their having such strength of body and boldness of spirit. They were renowned for the warmth of their natural affections, their duty towards their parents and masters, and their attachment to their family and friends. The members of a clan, or family, were animated with one spirit ; and whoever did an injury or offered an insult to one of them, drew upon himself the resentment of the whole.

Their religion was under the direction of priests, who were called Druids, from the Greek word Agus, an oak — because they worshipped their gods in groves of oak. Besides being the priests, they were the physicians, judges, and teachers of the Britons — a tremendous power to be lodged in the hands of any peculiar class. The severest penalty inflicted by the Druids, was the interdiction of the sacrifice to those who had offended them. Woe unto the unhappy wretch on whom the awful sentence fell ! He ceased to be considered as a human being. Like the beast of the forest, his life was at the mercy of any one who chose to take it. He lost all his civil rights — could neither inherit land, nor sue for the recovery of debts — and even his nearest relations fled from him in horror and aversion, as from the pest. Unlike the Britons generally, the Druids wore long beards and clothes.* They enjoyed great honours and privileges, and lived in caves or grottoes, where they practised their superstitious rites. Of their temples there are still some remains. The most remarkable in England are those at Stonehenge, and at Abury, in Wiltshire. The remains at Stonehenge consist of 139 enormous stones, ranged in a circle ; those at Abury cover a space of twenty-eight acres of land. But the largest of all the remains of the Druid temples is situated at Carnac, in the department of Morbihan, in France. It is formed

* The Priesthood was divided into three orders : the "Druids, the Bards, and the Ovates. The dress of the druidical or sacerdotal order was white, the emblem of holiness and peculiarity of truth. The bards wore a one- coloured robe of sky-blue, being emblematical of peace. The ovate or ovydd, professing astronomy, medicine, &c, wore green, the symbol of learning, as being the colour of the clothing of nature. The disciples of the orders wore variegated dresses of the three colours, blue, green, and white, or blue, green and red. A disciple, about to be admitted a graduate, is called by the bards, " a dog with spots of red, blue, and green." — See Meyrick and Planches works.

of 400 stones, varying from five to twenty-seven feet in length, and ranged in eleven concentric lines.

" Among the other remains of the works of the Druids, are the great moving masses, principally found in Cornwall, and called loggan-stones, or rockinor-stones. These consist of a large block of stone, so finely balanced on one small point, that though it stands securely, which, in fact, it has done for many hundreds of years, yet it can be moved, and made to rock by a very small force. These loggan-stones were used by the Druids for the purpose of deceiving the heathen Britons. They pretended that, if the stone moved, the gods were kindly disposed, and if it stood still, that they were angry with the people. But these crafty Druids were provided with an instrument which, by placing it under the point of the stone, enabled them to move it, or not, at pleasure/'*

The Druids sometimes sacrificed human beings — hundreds of persons, enclosed in large wicker frames, were burnt on particular occasions as offerings to their gods. They believed in the immortality of the soul — in transmigration of souls — in a heaven, and in a hell. Heaven they called Flathinnisj which they supposed was a most beautiful place, and only to be entered by the brave, the virtuous, and the good. Hell they thought was a dreary, gloomy, frozen place. They held the oak and mistletoe in high veneration — knew something of botany, sculpture, painting, glass-making, mechanics, and medicine — had an admirable taste for poetry, and a fondness for music — and excluded none from their order, to w T hich merit and long study gave access.

* Agnes Strickland— Tales from History, Yol. I., pp. 8 and 9.

Dr. Brewer says, that it was customary for the Gauls to send their sons into Britain to be instructed by the Druids in law, astronomy, and poetry. The same writer — in his English History, p. 3 — says, that the Druids were very celebrated for their wisdom. We are sorry to see such an assertion. We grant that they were better informed, and that they possessed more influence than any other class of men in Britain ; but they were certainly not celebrated for their wisdom, unless burning their fellow countrymen and deceiving the people with the loggan-stones prove it. Dr. Brewer should have known that what we know is knowledge, and that the right use of knowledge is wisdom — that of knowledge the Druids possessed more than any other class of Britons, but that of wisdom they had precious little.

The teachings of Christ were probably introduced into Britain about the end of the first century. " We know that Caractacus, the old British king, was a fellow-prisoner at Rome with St. Paul, and that he was converted to Christianity; and upon the testimony of the British Triads, or ancient records, his family brought back Christianity from Rome."*

Lacius is said to have been the first Christian king in Britain — he died A. D. 181.

With respect to their dead, as far as we can ascertain, they sometimes buried them, but the south Britons oftener burned them. They went so far as to throw on the fire, in which the body was burnt, those friends, servants, animals, and things, in which the dead person had most delighted, and all were reduced to ashes in the same fire ! Those who were buried generally had their dogs,

* Bromby — Antiquity of British Church.

swords, bows and arrows, buried with them. Their most splendid and important rite of sepulture was the funeral song. It contained all the good qualities the dead person had possessed, and was sung by a number of bards to the music of their harps when the body was interred. To want a funeral song was thought the greatest misfortune and disgrace, because they thought without it their souls w T ould enjoy neither rest nor happiness in the next world.

The Britons were idolaters, but they were a brave and generous people ; and though they were few in number when Julius Caesar invaded this country with eighty ships full of men, yet he found them energetic, determined, and valiant.

One of the bravest, noblest, and greatest men, of whom the Britons had good reason to be proud, was Caractacusj king of the Silures, He resisted most manfully the invasion of Ostorius, by whom he was defeated, and sent with his family to Rome as a noble trophy of conquest. Tacitus relates that the first remark Caractacus made on. seeing Rome, was surprise that those who possessed such magnificent palaces at home should envy him a poor hovel in Britain. He w T as conducted before the emperor, Claudius Caasar. Going up to the throne, he said to the emperor — u If I had, Caesar ! in prosperity, a prudence equal to my birth in fortune, I should have entered this city as a friend, and not as a captive ; and probably thou wouldst not have disdained the alliance of a man descended from illustrious ancestors, who gave laws to several nations. My fate this day appears as sad for me as it is glorious for thee. I had horses, soldiers, arms, and treasures : is it surprising that I should regret the loss of them ? If it is thy will to command the universe, is it a reason we should voluntarily accept slavery ? Had I yielded sooner, thy fortune and my glory would have been less*, and oblivion soon have followed my execution. If thou sparest my life I shall be an eternal monument of thy clemency." His bold manly demeanour so pleased the emperor, that he gave both him and his family their liberty. Caractacus was not the only brave, noble, and true Briton, whose names will ever remain in the brightest pages of our history.