... thrust a leaden bodkin into the head of that image
‘... called secretly at the chamber dore’
‘... cast her into a cauldron’
‘... compellyd them for to devour the same writte’
‘... constructed a pantomime dragon on the pattern of the real article’
'... crossed to England’'
... caused to sytte down and in large wyse to gape
... sware ‘gret othes’ and took himself by the hair
Robert Berewold in the pillory
The unfortunate “fowle” was “hurten so sore”’
sat for its portrait to Matthew Paris
A young novice of the priory
A ‘herauld’
Pilgrims
‘The broken bough fell on the head of a man standing down below’
‘The tiger and the mirror’
‘The young Edward III.’
‘When a lion looks at you it becomes a leopard’
‘Dymoke of Scrivelsby’
‘Hakeney’
‘He incontinently fled’
‘Henry’s badge’
‘St. Piran’
‘latten “Agnus Dei”’
‘... playing innumerable pranks’
‘... showed him his injuries’
‘... thrust him out of the church’
‘... with drawn swords stood in the doorway’
‘A wonderful sight’
‘An impromptu entertainment by three minstrels’
‘Diabolus ligatus’
‘... failed to identify the geese’
‘... fully armed with swords and bucklers’
‘... got his arms round a branch’
‘... gyrd abowte his bodye in iij places with towells and gyrdylls’
‘... led through the middle of the city’
‘... ducking him in a horse-pond’
Angler [The four images are taken from an exact facsimile of the first English treatise on fishing, printed in 1496]
fysshynge [The four images are taken from an exact facsimile of the first English treatise on fishing, printed in 1496]
fysshynge [The four images are taken from an exact facsimile of the first English treatise on fishing, printed in 1496]
fysshynge [The four images are taken from an exact facsimile of the first English treatise on fishing, printed in 1496]
Leathern Apron Blacksmith wearing a leathern apron
Apron
Baptism of Clovis
A miracle of Remigius 2
A miracle of Remigius
Swine Hunting - IX Century The engraving represents a Saxon chieftain, attended by his huntsman and a couple of hounds, pursuing the wild swine in a forest, taken from a manuscriptal painting of the ninth century in the Cotton Library.
Spearing a Boar—XIV. Century The above is a representation of the manner of attacking the wild boar, from a manuscript written about the commencement of the fourteenth century, in the possession of Francis Douce, Esq.
A Band of Minstrels frequently the different members of the same band of minstrels present differences of costume, as in the instance here given, from the title-page of the fourteenth century MS. Add., 10,293; proving that the minstrels did not affect any uniformity of costume whatever.
Wool Merchants from Northleach Church Wool Merchants from Northleach Church
William the Conqueror’s Ship The Bayeux tapestry is probably our earliest trustworthy authority for a British ship, and it gives a considerable number of illustrations of them, intended to represent in one place the numerous fleet which William the Conqueror gathered for the transport of his army across the Channel; in another place the considerable fleet with which Harold hoped to bar the way. The one we have chosen is the duke’s own ship; it displays at its mast-head the banner which the Pope had blessed, and the trumpeter on the high poop is also an evidence that it is the commander’s ship.
William de Langley William de Langley, who gave to the monastery a well-built house in Dagnale Street, in the town of St. Alban’s, for which the monastery received sixty shillings per annum, which Geoffrey Stukeley held at the time of writing. William de Langley is a man of regular features, partly bald, with pointed beard and moustache, the kind of face that might so easily have been merely conventional, but which has really much individuality of expression. The house—his benefaction—represented beside him, is a two-storied house; three of the square compartments just under the eaves are seen, by the colouring of the illumination, to be windows; it is timber-built and tiled, and the upper story overhangs the lower. The gable is finished with a weather-vane, which, in the original, is carried beyond the limits of the picture.
William and Johanna Cheupaign The donors seem to be chiefly tradespeople rather than merchants of the higher class, and of the latter half of the fourteenth century. Here, for example, are William Cheupaign and his wife Johanna, who gave to the Abbey-church two tenements in the Halliwelle Street. One of the tenements is represented in the picture, a single-storied house of timber, thatched, with a carved stag’s head as a finial to its gable.
Warrior 11th Cenury In the Additional MS. 11,695, in the British Museum, a work of the eleventh century, there are several representations of warriors thus fully armed, very rude and coarse in drawing, but valuable for the clearness with which they represent the military equipment of the time. At folio 194 there is a large figure of a warrior in a mail shirt, a conical helmet,[Pg 316] strengthened with iron ribs converging to the apex, the front rib extending downwards, into what is called a nasal, i.e., a piece of iron extending downwards over the nose, so as to protect the face from a sword-cut across the upper part of it.
Walter of Hamuntesham attacked by a Mob They were grateful men, these Benedictines of St. Alban’s; they have immortalised another of their inferior officers, Walterus de Hamuntesham, fidelis minister hujus ecclesiæ, because on one occasion he received a beating at the hands of the rabble of St. Alban’s while standing up for the rights and liberties of the church.
View of Jerusalem View of Jerusalem
Use of the Pavis The archers of the castle found shelter behind the merlons of the battlements, and had the windows from which they shot screened by movable shutters; as may be seen in the next woodcut of the assault on a castle. It would have put the archers of the assailants at a great disadvantage if they had had to stand out in the open space, exposed defenceless to the aim of the foe; all neighbouring trees which could give shelter were, of course, cut down, in order to reduce them to this defenceless condition, and works were erected so as to command every possible coigne of vantage which the nooks and angles of the walls might have afforded. But the archers of the besiegers sought to put themselves on more equal terms with their opponents by using the pavis or mantelet. The pavis was a tall shield, curved so as partly to envelop the person of the bearer, broad at the top and tapering to the feet.
Traders entering a Town The illustration shows a group of people crossing the bridge into a town, and the collector levying the toll. The oxen and pigs, the country-wife on horseback, with a lamb laid over the front of her saddle, represent the country-people and their farm-produce; the pack-horse and mule on the left, with their flat-capped attendant, are an interesting illustration of the itinerant trader bringing in his goods.
Timber Fort In the middle of the picture is a castle with a bridge, protected by an advanced tower, and a postern with a drawbridge drawn up. Archers, cross-bowmen, and men-at-arms man the battlements. In front is a group of men-at-arms and tents, with archers and cross-bowmen shooting up at the defenders. On the right is a group of men-at-arms who seem to be meditating an attack by surprise upon the postern. On the left, opposed to the principal gate, is the timber fort shown in the woodcut. Its construction, of great posts and thick slabs of timber strengthened with stays and cross-beams, is well indicated. There seem to be two separate works: one is a battery of two cannon, the cannon having wheeled carriages; the other is manned by archers. It is curious to see the mixture of arms—long-bow, cross-bow, portable fire-arm, and wheeled cannon, all used at the same time; indeed, it may be questioned whether the earlier fire-arms were very much superior in effect to the more ancient weapons which they supplanted.
Thirteenth Century Pilgrims (the two Disciples at Emmaus) The most usual foreign pilgrimages were to the Holy Land, the scene of our Lord’s earthly life; to Rome, the centre of western Christianity; and to the shrine of St. James at Compostella.
The number of pilgrims to these places must have been comparatively limited; for a man who had any regular business or profession could not[Pg 160] well undertake so long an absence from home. The rich of no occupation could afford the leisure and the cost; and the poor who chose to abandon their lawful occupation could make these pilgrimages at the cost of others; for the pilgrim was sure of entertainment at every hospital, or monastery, or priory, probably at every parish priest’s rectory and every gentleman’s hall, on his way; and there were not a few poor men and women who indulged a vagabond humour in a pilgrim’s life. The poor pilgrim repaid his entertainer’s hospitality by bringing the news of the countries through which he had passed, and by amusing the household after supper with marvelous saintly legends, and traveler’s tales.