MRS. MATTHEW asnn's QUEENS BEFORE THE CONQUEST. * THE success of
Miss Strickland's "Lives of the Queens of Eng- land" has stimulated more than one imitation of her work, with- - out a fall consideration of means or power. Miss Strickland is a feminine antiquarian of a rare stamp, combining considerable re- search and archeological knowledge with a remarkable literary knack of turning all her materials to account in a readable not to say a gossipy manner. Those materials, too, for a large part of the period over which her work ranges, were pretty ample, and of a kind adapted to her genius. The records gave her names and offices, inventories of "ladies' materials" and the making-up, as well as the costs of work or the wages of workmen. The poets and the chronicles exhibit the properties and performers in action, with, in the chronicles, frequent notices really biographical. As centuries roll on, Miss Strickland approaches the period of trials and memorials—Ienry the Eighth and. his matrimonial troubles ; shortly after which the age of personal memoirs am& correspondence is reached, when the task of selection begins for the real bio- grapher, and of tellingly using up everything for the pleasant gossipy compiler of "lives.' The "Queens before the Conquest" have few of these advan- tages as regards materials, and they fall short of attraction for the reader. The research and inventive. induction. of Mr. Kembler and other Anglo-Saxon scholars bath German and English, have given more interest than was formerly felt for the Anglo-Saxon times, by their revival of the life, laws, anclinstitutions of the people. Still the times before the Heptarchy and, the Roman-British period have mall attraction : the very battles are, in Milton's language, little more than the combats of kites and craws. Fables, poetical per- haps, but logically shocking—speculations, which fanatical anti- guarrans elevate into facts—the mistaken piety or miracles of vtonkish chroniclers, mingled here and. there with really biogra- el*ral information—constitute the materials for queenly biography *The Queens before, the Conquest. Pry Mrs. Matthew HAIL In two volumes.
Published by Hurst mad Elackett.. before Alfred, and even down to the Conquest. These authorities, however, in the hands of Mrs. Matthew Hall, have produced more than the reader would have supposed. It is true that a good deal of the matter relates to the husband rather than the wife, or fur- 1 ther to the history of the times. Some of the subjects are not ' Queens of England, but Empresses of Rome with England for their birthplace,—as St. Helena, the mother of Constantine. Others verge closely upon the fabulous,—as the wives of Arthur of the Bound Table ; while fabulous personages occasionally appear in the narrative,—as Brutus the Trojan and Ring Lud. Imagination or conjecture also helps out; and a person 'who took the trouble to bring together all such phrases as " we may imagine," " it may be presumed," " there is reason to think," " although no particulars have reached us," and so forth, would have a goodly collection of hypothetical terms. Still it is very carious to see how much Mrs. Hall has brought together relating to persons, if not always connected with them, about the larger number of whom most people would think nothing could be said. It is done, too, agreeably enough ; pleasant, feminine, readable. As might be expected, Mrs. Hall is more at home in the mild and domestic than the heroic. The greatest of the British Queens, Boadicea, is not handled with the force and breadth which such a heroine required.
Besides the modes of expansion already mentioned, arts, man- ners, and amusements, are introduced, and form not the least in- teresting portions of the book. Here are needles and basket-work. "The ancient British needle was made of bone, and resembled that used for the heads of arrows. The Welsh word 'Nedwydd ' literally implies sharp-pointed wood ; the British word Gwaell signifies a needle, bocikin, skewer, or broche, and, singularly enough, is a denomination made use offer several bones ; thus ' Gwaell y goes' is the spindle-bone of the leg, and Gwaell yr Yswydd,' the shoulder-blade-bone, which perhaps was split for needles or bodkins.
"With the rude implements described, the skins of animals which bad been killed in the chase were sewn together, either with leathern thongs or vegetable fibres.
"Another favourite employment of the early British maiden was that of weaving baskets ; and the structure of these baskets was so much admired by the Romans, that they not only introduced them into Italy, but even adopted the British name for the bascawd, terming them bascaudw. The daughters of modern England and Scotland, who are so familiarly acquainted with the many domestic uses of the basket, must not forget that they owe its invention to the native island maidens who preceded them, nineteen centuries ago. Amongst these, no doubt, was the royal Boadicea, who was instructed in all such feminine accomplishments as existed in her time."
Where there were needles and female leisure, embroidery was to be found almost as a matter of course.
"During the seventh century, much talent was exhibited by our Anglo- Saxon countrywomen in the art of embroidery : women of the highest rank excelled in the accomplishment, and the example was followed by others. The products of this feminine industry and skill were usually devoted to the Church and its ministers, and were esteemed so valuable as to become heir- looms, bequeathed by their owners to those most dear to them. The needles of illustrious women were busy, from the fair Ostrida, who wrought the tragedy of a murdered uncle, to the Norman Matilda, who depicted upon canvass the heroic actions of a warlike husband. The Anglo-Saxon ladies excelled in needlework and gold embroidery, and also were acquainted with the arts of weaving and dyeing. The last is alluded, to by St. Aldhelin,. in these words—' The shuttles, not filled with purple only, but with various colours, are moved here and there among the thick spreading of the threads, and by the embroidering art they adorn all the woven work with various groups of images.' Spinning was, indeed, so common an employment of the female sex, even among women of royal blood, that the will of King Alfred terms the members of his family-who were of the female sex, 'the spindle side ' ; so that the modern term of spinster'. has descended to us in allusion to those unmarried, and able to devote themselves to feminine ac- complishments more exclusively.
'The banner of Ostrida is said to have been wrought of purple and gold: a robe worn by Aldheln was constructed of a purple ground, composed' of delicate thread, upon which appeared black circles ; and in those circles were wrought the figures of peacocks, of an ample size. Such was the taste of the seventh century, in which age abundance of goldsmiths and jewellers were to be found ready to assist the fair patronesses- of their art ; of whom Bede says, that they were skilled in collecting 'remarkable and precious stones, to be placed among the gold and silver, which were mostly of a ruddy or aerial colour.' It was customary with the sovereigns of the Heptarchy to present rich garments, vases, bracelets, and rings, to their witenagemote and courtiers, which example was followed by their queens-consort." The following passage, descriptive of court etiquette and bilmeity under the Danes, is from the life of Emma, wife of Canute.
"The Danish manners and customs had been common in England long before so that a Danish court would not occasion much astonishment among the A.410-Saxons. Amongst the Danes themselves, some court ceremonies, unknown before, had been introduced by Olaf Kyrre, or 'the Quiet.' For each guest at the royal table he appointed a torch-bearer, to hold a candle. The butler stood in front of the King's table to fill the cups ; which, we are told, before his time were of deer's horn. The court-marshal had a table opposite to the King's, for entertaining guests of inferior dignity. The drinking was either by measure or without measure ; that is, in each horn or cup there was a perpendicular row of studs at equal distances, and each guest, when the cup or horn was passed to him, drank doweto the stud or rderk below. At night, and on particular oecasionai the drinking was without measure, each taking what he pleased ; and to be drunk at night appears to have been common even for the kings. Such cups, with studs, are still preserved in museums, and in families on the Borders.. "Until a few years since, the manor of Pusey in Berkehive has belonged to a family of the same name ; their ancestor having, received it. from Abet King by the medium of a horn, which bears the following inscription—t
• Kynge Knowd geve Wyilyam Pewse
Hys born to holde by the Mode.' This curious relic. of antiquity is of a dark brown tortoise.abell colour, mounted at each end with rings of silver, and a third, round the middle,, en which the inscription is written in characters of =mit Num date than. those of the time of Canute. The horn is of an ox or buffalo;. two feet. are fimed to the middle ring, and the stopper is shaped like &dog's head.. The length of the horn is two feet and half an inch, its greatest circumference onefoot. The person to whom the horn was originally given is said, by tradition, tA have been an officer in Canute's army, who had informed hie 5overeign.of se ambuscade formed by the Saxons to intercept him, and received the Mall9X
la.remard.fer hie
Previous page
