Normans

nounced that brutal intemperance to which all the other branches of the great German family were too much inclined. The polite luxury of the Norman The presented a striking contrast to the coarse voracity fond of and drunkenness of his Saxon and Danish neigh- arts and bours. He loved to display his magnificence, not in huge piles of food and hogsheads of strong drink, but in large and beautiful buildings, rich armour, gallant horses, choice falcons, banquets delicate rather

Enriched Norman Window - St. Cross, Winchester.

than abundant, and wines remarkable rather for their fine flavour, than for their intoxicating power.” * These tastes, and this higher civilisation, the Normans imparted to our Anglo-Saxon forefathers.

* Macaulay.

William advances towards London.

William the Conqueror reigns over England.

A. D. 1066.

I must now return to the events which followed the battle of Hastings. As I have already said, this battle by no means gave William complete possession of England. After his victory, William took possession of Dover, and then cautiously marched towards London. He found the Anglo-Saxons ready to op

pose him, and, therefore, after burning Southwark, he ravaged the surrounding counties of Surrey,

goes to

stead.

Buckinghamshire, and Hertfordshire, and finally took William up a position at Great Berkhampstead, in order to eat prevent London being relieved from the North. BerkhampThither the Anglo-Saxon chiefs sent a deputation, and submitted themselves to William, who then marched to London. Before entering the city, however, he built a strong fortress, which has since grown into the Tower of London; and when this was completed, William entered London, and was crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.

William

ravages

Defeated in the South, the Saxons gathered to gether in the North of England, and were supported the north by the Kings of Denmark and Scotland. But William of England. was never wanting in resolution or in speed. He hastened to the North and defeated the allied armies. His vengeance was terrible. A writer, who describes the state of the country sixty years afterwards, says: "From York to Durham not an inhabited village remained. Fire, slaughter, and desolation made it the vast wilderness which it continues to this day." Some of the country people, taking refuge in the mountains and forests, tried to subsist by plundering their oppressors; many sold themselves into slavery; and so hard pressed were they by hunger, that the flesh of dogs, horses, and even men, was greedily devoured. What was called peace was thus made in the North of England, and the Anglo-Saxon cause was utterly broken. Other efforts were made to resist the Normans, but in vain; the conquerors possessed the land.

The New

Forest.

The curfew bell.

William creates the New Forest in Hampshire.

Among the acts of William the Conqueror, of which we find traces to this very day, I must mention the creation of the New Forest in Hampshire. William carried his love of hunting to excess, and, with a view to provide himself with a tract of country where deer, wild boars, and all sorts of game, might increase and multiply, he turned the cultivated ground of a great part of Hampshire into a forest, and so it remains to the present day. It is being gradually brought back into cultivation, but a large portion of the New Forest planted by William the Conqueror still remains. A writer of the time gives this character of him: "So stern was he and hot, that no man durst gainsay his will. He had earls in prison; bishops he hurled from their bishoprics. He overran Scotland, and he would in two years have won Ireland. In his time men had much distress. He took money by right and by unright. He made many deer parks, and he established laws by which whosoever slew a hart or hind was deprived of his eyesight. He forbade men to kill harts or boars, and he loved tall deer as if he were their father."

The curfew bell was introduced by William the
Conqueror. You have all of you, I am sure,
I am sure, heard
of the curfew bell:

"The curfew tolls the knell of parting day."

The word is derived from two French words, couvre feu, meaning cover fire.

This curfew bell was rung every evening, at about

sunset in summer, and about eight o'clock in the evening in winter. On hearing this bell, all lights and fires were to be put out. This was a precaution against fire, but it is said that it was one of the means by which William kept the people in subjection.

The curfew bell was done away with in the reign of William Rufus, but, even now, it is still rung at Norwich, at Winchester, at Oakham in Rutlandshire, and some other places.

Domesday Book.

Book.

A view of the reign of William would be very Domesday incomplete without a notice of what is called Domesday Book. This was a book drawn up by order of William, and contained a complete account of the state of England in his reign. The original written book still exists in the Chapter House of Westminster Abbey. It is the most complete and most curious account of a country in such far off times that has ever been written. It gives the names of the owners and tenants of every estate in England, and shows us the different classes and occupations of the rest of the people. We find there were Norman Barons and Saxon Thanes. These were the nobility of the land, and were called freemen. Then there was a class called Villeins,-not villains, meaning bad men; but a class of men allowed to occupy the land at the will of the lord, on condition of performing certain services, often of the meanest nature. But they could acquire no property in land or goods. Below these were the slaves.

Domesday Book gives a very complete account Cultivation