D ENGLAND

BY

F. J. SNELL

METHUEN & CO. LTD.
36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
LONDON

_First Issued in this Cheap Form in 1919_

_This Book was First Published (Crown 8vo) February 16th, 1911_

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|Transcribers Note: In this book superscript is represented by|
|the carat "^" |
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PREFACE

The aim of the present volume is to deal with Old English Customs, not
so much in their picturesque aspect--though that element is not wholly
wanting--as in their fundamental relations to the organized life of the
Middle Ages. Partly for that reason and partly because the work is
comparatively small, it embraces only such usages as are of national
(and, in some cases, international) significance. The writer is much too
modest to put it forth as a scientific exposition of the basic
principles of mediaeval civilization. He is well aware that a book
designed on this unassuming scale must be more or less eclectic. He is
conscious of manifold gaps--_valde deflenda_. And yet, despite
omissions, it is hoped that the reader may rise from its perusal with
somewhat clearer conceptions of the world as it appeared to the average
educated Englishman of the Middle Ages. This suggests the remark that
the reader specially in view is the average educated Englishman of the
twentieth century, who has not perhaps forgotten his Latin, for Latin
has a way of sticking, while Greek, unless cherished, drops away from a
man.

The materials of which the work is composed have been culled from a
great variety of sources, and the writer almost despairs of making
adequate acknowledgments. For years past admirable articles cognate to
the study of mediaeval relationships have been published from time to
time in learned periodicals like "Archaeologia," the "Archaeological
Journal," the "Antiquary," etc., where, being sandwiched between others
of another character, they have been lost to all but antiquarian experts
of omnivorous appetite. Assuredly, the average educated Englishman will
not go in quest of them, but it may be thought he will esteem the
opportunity, here offered, of gaining enlightenment, if not in the full
and perfect sense which might have been possible, had life been less
brief and art not quite so long. The same observation applies to books,
with this difference tha