n such matters.

Whilst touching upon such a subject as this, it may be a surprise to
some to learn that in large towns baths were provided for those who
could not afford to have them in their own homes, and that there were
also professional women hair-washers.

[Illustration: THIRTEENTH-CENTURY TREATISE ON SURGERY, IN FRENCH.

Sloane MS. 1977.

_To face page 103._]

But to return to the hospital. On one side of the ward were ten
windows, each four feet square, and on the opposite side was a large
door leading into the cloister with its garden, where the
convalescents and the old people, whilst sheltered, could enjoy the
sunshine and see the flowers and the birds. In addition to this there
was a smaller ward for women, a chapel, a kitchen, and a room for the
matron, as well as accommodation for the resident doctor, Maitre
Robert, and the serving-women. It is some consolation to think that
these poor suffering folk of centuries ago were even thus well
tended, but when we look at contemporary representations of the
surgery of the day,[29] we tremble at the mere thought of the heroic
methods adopted. Besides the actual necessaries which she provided for
the hospital at Hesdin, Mahaut constantly sent gifts of fish, game,
and wine. Similar gifts she likewise made to the hospitals in Artois
generally, as well as to those in Paris, and, on fete-days, to the
poorer religious houses.

[29] See Roger of Parma, _Treatise on Surgery_. French
thirteenth century. Brit. Mus., Sloane MS., 1977.

From her beneficence to the sick and sorry, the aged and the poor, we
turn to her hospitality to her relations and friends, and to all those
in spiritual or temporal authority in the towns or villages of Artois.
The Castle of Hesdin, destroyed in the sixteenth century--only a few
stones remaining to mark the site,--was situated a few miles from the
present modern town of Hesdin. It must have been not only a scene of
constant festivity and social intercourse, and a treasure-house
withal, but also a veritable hive of industry, with workers and
workshops within the Castle enclosure as well as in the town nestling
beneath its walls. Here might be found artists and craftsmen of all
sorts and degrees--sculptors and workers in stone, ivory-workers,
wood-carvers, carpenters, artificers in silver and precious stones as
well as in copper, forgers of iron, painters of wall-decoration,
stonework, saddle-bows, and even masquerading-masks, i