niture of a Norman keep was not unlike that of an English house.
There was richer ornament--more elaborate carving. A _faldestol_, the
original of our arm-chair, spread its drapery and cushions for the
chieftain in his lounging moods. His bed now boasted curtains and a
roof, although, like the English lord, he still lay only upon straw.
Chimneys tunnelled the thick walls, and the cupboards glittered with
glass and silver. Horn lanterns and the old spiked candle-sticks lit up
his evening hours, when the chess-board arrayed its clumsy men, carved
out of walrus-tusk, then commonly called whale's-bone. But the baron had
an unpleasant trick of breaking the chess-board on his opponent's head,
when he found himself checkmated; which somewhat marred that player's
enjoyment of the game. Dice of horn and bone emptied many a purse in
Norman England. Draughts were also sometimes played.

Dance and music whiled away the long winter nights; and on summer
evenings the castle courtyards resounded with the noise of football,
wrestling, boxing, leaping, and the fierce joys of the bull-bait. But
out of doors, when no fighting was on hand, the hound, the hawk, and the
lance attracted the best energies and skill of the Norman gentleman.

The Normans probably dined at nine in the morning. When they rose they
took a light meal; and ate something also after their day's work,
immediately before going to bed. Goose and garlic formed a favourite
dish. Their cookery was more elaborate, and, in comparison, more
delicate, than the preparations for an English feast; but the character
for temperance, which they brought with them from the continent, soon
vanished.

The poorer classes hardly ever ate flesh, living principally on bread,
butter, and cheese; a fact in social life which seems to underlie that
usage of our tongue by which the living animals in field or stall bore
English names--ox, sheep, calf, pig, deer; while their flesh, promoted
to Norman dishes, rejoiced in names of French origin--beef, mutton,
veal, pork, venison. Round cakes, piously marked with a cross, piled the
tables, on which pastry of various kinds also appeared. In good houses
cups of glass held the wine, which was borne from the cellar below in
jugs.

Squatted around the door or on the stairs leading to the Norman
dining-hall, which was often on an upper floor, was a crowd of beggars
or gluttons, who grew so insolent in the days of Rufus, that ushers,
armed with rods, were