Chapter XXIV: Section IV: Anglo-Saxon Boroughs

The boroughs of our Anglo-Saxon fathers claim our notice. When the Romans conquered this island, they founded in different parts of the country their _civitates_, or cities. Twenty-eight of these are enumerated by Gildas, an historian of the sixth century, as existing in his time, which was about a hundred years after the Roman conquerors had relinquished their dominion in Britain. Beside these cities, the Romans formed a number of military stations, or strongholds. These cities and stations became Saxon towns, after the invasion of Britain by its new masters; the latter receiving the name of boroughs from the Latin burgus, which signifies a fortification. Other towns also sprang up in various directions, where local advantages invited a settlement of population; and long before the Norman conquest our island was thickly studded with townships of various sizes. It is very remarkable, that, with few exceptions, all the towns and villages of England appear to have existed from the Saxon times. Some of these towns, however, must have been extremely small, consisting of some few dwellings and other buildings, around the homestead of the Saxon lord, and not bearing any more resemblance to what they have since become, than some little hamlet bears to an important city.

"We must abandon," says sir Francis Palgrave, "any conjectures as to the government of the boroughs in the earlier periods. We must rest satisfied with the fact that, in the reign of the Confessor, the larger boroughs had assumed the form of communities, which, without much impropriety, may be described as territorial corporations. The legal character of the burgess arose from his possessions; it was a real right, arising from the qualifications which he held. The burgess was the owner of a tenement within the walls, and the possession might descend to his heirs, or be freely alienated to a stranger." The same writer considers that, in some instances, the possession of land imparted the right of judicature in the borough mote, or town assembly; but that while such persons were aldermen by tenure, there were other boroughs which possessed an elective magistracy. The nature of the Anglo-Saxon institutions has long been matter of dispute, and considerable doubt surrounds the interesting subject, which the most diligent and learned antiquaries are unable to dispel; but, so far as our municipal history is concerned, probably the twofold view of the organization of the Saxon towns suggested by sir F. Palgrave, is correct. The towns in which the tenure of land gave magisterial authority would most likely be the smaller ones, while elective magistrates would distinguish the larger communities. The following account by M. Thierry is, perhaps, accurate:--"The burgesses of London,[1] like those of most of the larger Anglo-Saxon towns, composed, under the designation of _hause_, a municipal corporation, which had the privilege of conducting the government of the city, and regulating its police. The presence of the king made no difference in its institutions, and the burgesses might, even without his permission, assemble and deliberate together on the internal administration of their city."[2] But this account, we apprehend, must be carefully restricted to the large towns of the Anglo-Saxons, or it will mislead the reader. Towns in general we cannot believe had attained to such power and independency. Still, even the existence of a few such towns, tending as they did to leaven the mass of the community with their own free sentiments, indicate the attainment of a no small degree of liberal civilisation by our Saxon ancestors.

Whether the Saxon burghs were represented in the _witenagemote_, or general assembly of the nation, is another question which has given rise to much controversy. On this point we are also inclined to follow sir Francis Palgrave. He considers that "the elected or virtual representatives of townships, or hundreds, constituted the multitude noticed as the people in the narratives describing the great councils, and other assemblies; for the share taken by the folk in the proceedings, forbids the conjecture that the bystanders were a mere disorderly crowd, brought together only as spectators, and destitute of any constitutional character." Yet he does not consider that they attended as mere deputies, chosen by popular election--but that they were the municipal authorities, who came by virtue of their office, or were sent to represent their brethren in the borough magistracy, who were unable themselves to attend; and he thinks that the expedient of authorizing a person not bearing office, to appear as a deputy on behalf of those who did, would be easily suggested, and would thus approximate to something like the modern system of parliamentary representation. All this seems feasible; but we are not warranted to conclude that there was anything fixed and definite in the modes of representing these boroughs; we should suppose that they were rather irregular, and were shaped by local, and even accidental circumstances.

As to the appearance, the classes of population, and the internal economy of the Saxon towns, we have more precise information. Almost all the buildings were of wood. Hence the complaint in King Edward's charter to Malmesbury Abbey, that the monasteries of the realm were to the sight "nothing but worm-eaten and rotten timbers and boards." Yet there were some edifices of stone at an early period; witness St. Wilfred's church, at Hexham, built A.D. 674, of which an elaborate account is preserved, written by prior Richard, in the twelfth century. The churches built of stone were probably of a simple form, resembling some of our oldest parish churches, with a nave and chancel, and sometimes side aisles. In cases where timber was employed, there was, perhaps, more of decoration. We read of glass windows in the monastery of Wearmouth, as early as the seventh century: but, as late as the time of Alfred, they must have been very uncommon; for, when the ingenious monarch tried to measure the time by burning candles, they so flared about in the wind, which came rushing through the lattices of the apartment, that he made horn lanterns to shelter them from the blast. Chimneys were luxuries unknown, the fires in the houses being made in the centre of the floor, over which there was generally an opening in the roof to allow the escape of smoke; and when the fire went out, or the family retired to rest, the place in which it was made was closed by a cover. What must have been the state of the highways in provincial towns, may be conjectured from the well-known fact that, in the eleventh century, the ground in Cheapside was so soft, that when the roof of Bow Church was blown off, four of the beams, each twenty-six feet long, were so deeply buried in the street, that little more than four feet of the timber remained above the surface.

The internal appearance of the Anglo-Saxon dwellings of the higher class, according to the researches of antiquaries, exhibited some advance in the cultivation of the arts. Let us enter one of them.--The walls are hung with silk, embroidered with gold, the work of Saxon maidens, who, like the damsels of Israel, produce "divers colours of needlework." Chairs and benches may be seen in the apartments, adorned with carvings of the heads and feet of lions, eagles, griffins. They are of wood, and some of them are adorned with precious metals. The tables are of a similar description. You see them spread with cloths for the approaching meal, and furnished with knives, spoons, drinking horns, cups, bowls, and dishes. Lamps, and other vessels of glass, though rare, are not unknown; and silver candelabra, and candlesticks of various descriptions, adorn the rooms. There are also lanterns of horn, and mirrors of silver. The Anglo-Saxon bedsteads resemble cribs, or cots, and are furnished with beds, pillows, bed-clothes, curtains, sheets, and coverlets of skin. The luxury of a warm bath, too, may be obtained. Stepping into the kitchen, you have ovens and boiling vessels, and yonder is a cook, dressing some meat. He is thrusting a stick, with a hook at the end, into a caldron, which stands on a four-legged trivet, within which the fire is made. The roast meat is brought up to the table by the servants, upon spits, the guests cutting off such portions as they please.[3]

The Anglo-Saxons are addicted to the pleasures of the table; and to their lasting dishonour be it said, "that excess in drinking is the common vice of all ranks of people, in which they spend whole nights and days, without intermission."[4] A number of men and women prepare the wine chamber, the minstrel sings his lay, the hall games follow, and the drinking cup goes round the festive circle.[5]

Let us walk through the streets of an Anglo-Saxon town of the largest class, and look at the different orders of the population. The greater number of persons we meet with are the Saxon ceorls, or churls. The Domesday-hook speaks of some who belonged to the class of ceorls as "_liberi homines_." Some of these are freemen: others, though they have personal rights, and are under the full protection of the laws, are notwithstanding bound to the soil on which they live and labour. They form a peculiar class of vassals, being under certain obligations to their lord, yet having a property in the land they till. These churls constitute the commonalty of the country, in distinction from the nobles, or eorls. The weregild, or compensation for murder, so common among the Germanic nations, who overthrew the Roman empire, and forming an index of the social position of different classes of the community, values the life of a ceorl at two hundred shillings, and that of an eorl at twelve hundred. These churls are labourers, artisans, and traders, of various descriptions; they wear a woollen tunic, descending to the knee, with a collar round their necks. The legs of some are naked; but most wear shoes. Certain of these passers-by wear bandages, or cross garters, commonly red or blue, above their ancles, and round the calf. From the shoulders of the better sort, you may also notice short cloaks, about the same length as the tunics. Their long hair, profuse beard, fair complexion, and light eyes, evince their Teutonic origin; while their countenance and bearing seem to proclaim that they belong to an intelligent and freeborn race. Yonder goes a Saxon eorl, alderman, or thane. He is of gentle blood, and has a place in the witenagemote, or national assembly: persons of his class are lords of townships, and are assessors in judgment with the bishop and the sheriff, in the well-known county courts, which form the palladium of Saxon justice. Just by him there walks one of the inferior nobility, or lesser thanes. The dress of these parties distinguishes them from the common multitude. The same in form, it is costlier in material and ornament. The tunic is of rich cloth, and embroidered on the border; the mantle is of silk, and lined with fur, with a large brooch fastening it round the neck. The women who are passing through the street wear a long garment with loose sleeves, over a kirtle, and their head-dress is made of a piece of serge, or silk, wrapped round the head and neck.

The clergy rank with the nobility; indeed, they form the highest order. Their office invests them with a dignity, which men in general revere. Even the _world thane_, as the nobleman is called, looks with respect upon the mass thane, or common priest, and treats him as an equal; while the greatest eorl gives precedence to the bishop. Men of this class may be easily recognised by the ecclesiastical garb.

We arrive at the house of a Saxon nobleman. Before us is the great hall, with a projecting porch, supported by pillars and arches. Folds of drapery are discerned through the opening, and lamps are seen suspended from the ceiling. On the one side of the hall is the chapel, with a curtain in front, withdrawn, and a lamp hanging near the door. On the roof of the building is a globe, surmounted by a cross. On the other side are various buildings appropriated to the domestics. The noble thane is now sitting in the open hall, surrounded by his family, and attended by a number of servants, armed with shields and spears; yet are they there for no warlike purpose, for he is engaged in acts of charity, giving alms to the poor, who throng around him in suppliant attitudes, and gratefully receive his generous offerings.

We now reach the county court, where the thanes are assembled to sit in judgment. Oaths of allegiance are here administered to freemen; inquiries are made into breaches of the peace, criminals are tried, and civil claims determined. The following is the record of a suit in the reign of Canute:--"It is made known by this writing, that in the shiregemot, county court, held at Agelnothes-stane, (Aylston, Herefordshire,) in the reign of Canute, there sat Athexton the bishop, and Raing the alderman, and Edwin his sone, and Leofwin, Wulfig's son, and Thurkil the white; and Tofig came there on the king's business: and there was Bryning the sheriff, and Athelweard of Frome, and Leofwin of Frome, and Goodrie of Stoke, and all the thanes of Herefordshire. Then came to the mote Edwin, son of Euneawne, and sues his mother for some lands, Weolintun and Cyrdeslea. Then the bishop asked, who would answer for his mother. Then answered Thurkil the white, and said that he would, if he knew the facts, which he did not. Then were seen in the mote three thanes that belonged to Feligly, (Fawley, five miles from Aylston,) Loefwin of Frome, Ægelwig the red, and Thinsig Stægthmans; and they went to her, and inquired what she had to say about the lands which her sone claimed. She said that she had no land which belonged to him, and fell into a noble passion against her son, and calling for Leofleda her kinswoman, the wife of Thurkil, thus spake to her before them:--'This is Leofleda, my kingswoman, to whom I give my lands, money, clothes, and whatever I posses after my life.' And this said, she spake thus to the thanes, 'Behave like thanks, and declare my message to all good men in the mode, and tell them to whom I have given my lands, and all my possessions, and nothing to my son;' and bade them be witnesses of this. And thus they did; rode to the mote, and told al the good men what she had enjoined them. Then Thurkil the white addressed the mote, and requested all the thanes to let his wife have the lands which her kinswoman had given her; and thus they did; and Thurkil rode to the church of St. Ethelbert, with the leave and witness of all the people, and had this inserted in a book in the church."

It need scarcely be observed that the document shows "the crude state of legal process and inquiry" at the time to which it relates, and "in the practical jurisprudence of our Saxon ancestors, even at the beginning of the eleventh century, we perceive no advance of civility and skill from the state of their own savage progenitors on the banks of the Elbe."[6] It is important to remark that the county court is the great constitutional judicature in all questions of civil right, and, unless justice be there denied, no appeal can be made to the royal tribunal.

Among the Anglo-Saxons the practice of "compurgation" obtains in criminal cases; the accused has the privilege of clearing his character, and establishing his innocence, by his own oath, supported by the oaths of a certain number of persons who can pledge themselves to the truth of his testimony.[7] Where he fails to obtain these compurgators he appeals to the ordeal, by the issue of which his cause is decided.

In walking through the Anglo-Saxon town we perceive some indications of trade. Artificers are at work; among whom the tanner, the blacksmith, and the carpenter are most distinguished and useful. But let us hasten to the market. Some encouragement is afforded to commerce by the laws of the country; by which it is enacted, that every merchant who has made three voyages over the sea, with a ship and cargo of his own, shall be elevated to the rank of a thane, or nobleman. That the principle of commerce is understood appears from the following conversation which we overhear between a merchant and his neighbour:

_Merchant_.--"I say that I am useful to the king, and to aldermen, and to the rich, and to all people. I ascend my ship with my merchandise, and sail over the sea-like places, and sell my things, and buy dear things, which are not produced in this land, and I bring them to you here with great danger over the sea: and sometimes I suffer shipwreck with the loss of all things, scarcely escaping myself."

_Neighbour_.--"What do you bring us?"

_Merchant_.--"Skins, silks, costly gems, and gold; various garments, pigments, wine, oil, ivory, orichalcus, (perhaps brass,) copper, and tin, silver, glass, and such like."

_Neighbour_.--"Will you sell your things here as you bought them there?"

_Merchant_.--"I will not, because what would my labour benefit me? I will sell them here dearer than I bought them there, that I may get some profit to feed me, my wife, and children."

But commercial dealings in this market are sadly fettered. Witness the following enactments: "If any of the people of Kent buy anything in the city of London, he must have two or three honest men, or the king's ports' reeve present at the bargain."--"Let none exchange one thing for another, except in the presence of the sheriff, the mass priest, the lord of the manor, or some other person of undoubted veracity. If they do otherwise they shall pay a fine of thirty shillings, besides forfeiting the goods so exchanged to the lord of the manor." These restrictions, which apply to the sale of all articles above the value of twenty pence, are evidently intended for the security of the revenue, to which a certain tax is paid on everything which is purchased at a price above that sum. We may add, that the market is held once a week. Sunday was once, in most towns, the market-day--and still is, in some--to suit the convenience of the people who then have leisure, and are congregated together in the town to attend on mass: but the clergy, who justly consider this a sad profanation, have long endeavoured to put a stop to the practice, and to shift the market to the Saturday; in which laudable design they have succeeded, in many places.

In our imaginary ramble through the Anglo-Saxon town, we have met with a number of slaves. They form the population below the ceorls. Slavery existed in England before the Saxon invasion, and has been perpetuated by the conquerors. Part of the conquered Britons were reduced to this degraded state by their new lords; and some freeborn Saxons have, on account of debt, want, crime, or inability to resist oppression, been drawn into this abject class of the population. The disenfranchisement of the free is attended by significant and disgraceful rites. The unhappy individual resigns his sword and lance, and receives the bill and goad; he then humbly kneels, and places his head under the hand of his master, as a sign of full submission. Slaves are common articles of traffic, and are publicly sold in the Anglo-Saxon markets. The importation of slaves from other countries is allowed, but the exportation of native slaves is forbidden; yet an illicit trade of the latter kind is carried on particularly at Bristol, where the Anglo-Saxons may be found selling to the Irish, not only their servants, but even their own children and other relatives.

Here we must close our notice of the towns in the dark ages, and, with it, our brief and imperfect review of the general social condition of Europe, during that period. It certainly was not the age of great cities. They did not flourish then; manufactures, commerce, the arts and habits of peaceful enterprise, all of which form the sinews of strength in civic communities, were in a feeble state. Towns did not take a leading part in the movement of society, and did not give expression to the spirit of the age, as they do in our day. In looking at the church, the monastery, and the feudal castle, it must be felt that there, not in the town, was to be found the presiding genius of the times. They were the chief social elements then at work; they belonged to the period; they inspired it, and gave a shape to its affairs; but towns, properly speaking, belong to other eras, to times before and after, and come in, during the age reviewed, merely as links uniting the forms of ancient and modern civilisation. Yet toward the end of the dark ages they are seen reviving, and beginning once more to play a conspicuous part on the stage of the world, giving obvious presages of what they have since become.

Abundant materials for reflection are presented to the reader, in the five short chapters which compose this little volume.

These sketches illustrate the plan of Divine Providence. Perhaps, in looking at the facts reviewed, the reader will be struck with the slow advance of human improvement, and with the permission and long continuance of so much that was apparently useless, and even pernicious in the institutions, habits, and spirit of society. Without touching upon the great problem of the ultimate cause of moral evil in the universe of God--which is a question not to be fathomed by the limited intellect of man--it may be observed, that the state of things which obtained in Europe, for so many centuries, is but analogous to what we find has taken place in the physical creation. In looking back upon the natural history of our world, we find that the operation of the Divine laws has been slow and gradual; that geological eras of long duration have occurred, in which much was going on that might seem useless, and even hurtful: we see, for example, that vast spaces of time were occupied by the growth of vegetation in wild and rank luxuriance, which apparently yielded no advantage, which was connected with a state of the atmosphere unfavourable to animal life, and which was, at length, submerged beneath the waters, probably by some terrific convulsions. But these slow and gradual changes have issued in the present beautiful and useful condition of the physical world, and these long periods of seeming useless, and even pernicious vegetation, were the eras of our coal formations, when those treasures were being prepared upon which modern comfort, modern art, and modern civilisation so much depend. In the institutions and events of the dark ages, there were being formed the elements of that civilisation which is now developing itself, and which will, under Christian influence and the blessing of God, doubtless, ultimately yield the highest benefits to man, in his present state of existence. But after all, it becomes us humbly and devoutly to admit that Divine providence is a scheme but imperfectly understood by the human mind, even when enlightened by the Holy Spirit; and such a mind is willing now to leave the dark recesses unexplored. "Lo, these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him!" Here we have but his whisper word! the Almighty! we find Him not. But what we know not now, we shall know hereafter; and what a large measure of pure enjoyment will be afforded, in a future state of existence, to those who, through the atonement of our Divine Redeemer, and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, shall attain to a blessed immortality, as they receive, in a manner of which we have now no conception, revelations of the mystery of providence; as they stand before His throne whose glory it will then be to unfold, as it is now his glory "to conceal a thing;" and as they discern the connexion of the whole history of mankind with the glorious economy of redeeming love.

[1] The population of London in the fourteenth century did not exceed 35,000. Mr. Hallam thinks that, at the time of the conquest, it was less. York contained about 10,000 inhabitants.

[2] History of the Norman Conquest.

[3] Pictorial History of England, i. 323

[4] William of Malmesbury.

[5] Poem of Beowulf. Pict. Hist. 337.

[6] Hallam.

[7] Trial by jury has often been described as an Anglo-Saxon practice, for which we are indebted to the wisdom of Alfred. Without going into this disputed point we would refer the reader to an article in the Penny Cyclopædia, (Jury,) where he will find it discussed, and from which we quote the following extract:--"The trial by twelve compurgators, which was of canonical origin and was known to the Anglo-Saxons, and also to many foreign nations, resembled the trial by jury only in the number of persons sworn: and no conclusion can be drawn from this circumstance, as twelve was not only a common number throughout Europe for canonical and other purgations, but was the favourite number in every branch of the polity and jurisprudence of the Gothic nations."

RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY: INSTITUTED 1799.