The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1853-11-03
For the National Era.
TuE SAXON Sc Rf

For inc NSttonhi Mo
THE SAXON SeRF:
TALE OF ENGLISH SLAVERY, IN THE
TWELFTH CENTURY.
NY HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT
CHAP. I.
The Forest of Sherwood.
lie rode half n mile the way;
He saw no light that came of day;
Then came he TO q river broad,
Never man over such one rode
Within he place OF green,
Such one had he never erst seen.
Eayiv DIetrieai Romaunfs Guy of WayNoicA.
In the latter part of the twelfth century
when. in the reign of Henry H. fourth success
ar of the Conqueror, and grandson of the first
n,inee of that name, known as Beauolerc-the
condition of the vanquished Saxons had be-
GUN in some sort to amend, though no fusion
Of the races had as yet commenced, and tran
ouiIity was partially restored to England, the
steater part of tn, northern counties, from the
Trent to the mouths of Tyne and Solway, were
Lttla better than an unbroken chase or forest,
with the exception of the fefs Of a few great
bar,ns. or the territories of few cities and
free borough towns ; and thence, northward to
the Scottish frontier, all was q rude and path
less desert of morasses, mOors, and mountains,
untrodden save by the foot of the prosecuted
Saxon outlaw
In the west and north Rulings of the great
and important Shire of York, there were, it is
true already few towns of more than grow
ing Importance; several of which had been
originally the SITES or had grown up in the
vicinity and under the shelter of Roman
Sta.iye encampm ants whereof not few of
them have retained the evidence in their COM
mon termination, caster, while others yet re-
tanned the more modern Saxon sppellations.
OF these two casss, Donc Aster, Pontefract
Rotterdam, Sheffield, Ripon, may be taken as
examples which were even then hOurishing
snd for the times, even opulent manufacturing
bOroughs, while the vastly larger and more
wealthy commercial places, which have since
sprung up, mushroom like, around them, had
then neither hearths nor homes names nor ex-
Istence.
In addition to these many great lords and
powerful barons already possessed vast de-
mesnes and manors, and had erected almost
royal fJrtaices, the venerable ruins of which
still bear evidence to the power and the mar
tslspirit of the Norman Lords of Englsnd; and
even more majestic and more richly endowed
institutions Of the church, such as Fountains,
Joryaulx, and Bolton Abbayes, still the won
der and reproach of modern architecture, and
the admiration Of modern artists, had created
around themselves garden like GASES among the
green glades and grassy aisles Of the imme-
mortal British forests while, emulating the ex-
ample of their feudal or clerical superiors many
military tenant, many q gray-frocked friar,
had reared his tower of strength, or built his
lonely cell, upon s)me moat- surrounded mount,
or in some bo.ky dingle of tho wood
In the East Riding all to the north of the
ancient city of the Shire, even then famous for
lts minister and its castle, even then the see
and palace of the second archbishop Of the
realm was wilder yet, ruder and more uncivil
lied. Even to this day, it is comparatively
speaking, bleak and barren region, over
swept by the cold gusts from the German
ocean, Astounding more in black and stormy
wolds than in the cheerful green of copse or
wildwood rejoicing little in pasture, less in
hage and bOasting of nothing superior to the
dull marke towns of the interior, and the
small fish ng villages, nested among the crags
OF it. iron coast
NJ st pitAessly had this district been ravsged
blythe Conqueror and his immediate successor,
after its first desperate and protracted resist
ance To the arms of the Norman after the
Saxon hope of England fell, to arise no more,
upon the bloody field of Hastings; and after
each one of the fierce Northern Risngs
The people were of the hard old, stubborn
DANISH stock, more pertinacous even, and
more 'tubborn, than the enduring Saxon, but
with dash of hotter and more daring spirit
than belonged to their slower and more slug
glsh brethren.
These men would not yield, could not be
euoduei by the iron-sheathed cavalry of the
intrusive kings. They were destroyed by them
the lands swept bare,* the buildings burned
'he churches desecrated Manors, which under
menauve rule Of the Confessor had easily yield.
ed sixty shillings of annual rent, without dis
ne.s to their occupants, scarcely paid five to
Their foreign lords; and estates, which under
The ancient rule opulently furnished forth a
living to twot English gentlemen of rank with
oenttng households, now barely supported two
miserable Saxon cultivators, slaves of the soil
paying their foreign lords, with the blood OF
9sr hands and the sweat Of their brows
scarcely the twelfth part Of the revenue drawn
from them by the old proprietors.
When, 10 subsequent instruction, the Nor
man king again marched northward, in full
resolve to carry his conquering arms to the
Honuers OF Scotland, and sustained by his fe.
.Ocous energy, did actually force his way
through the misty moorlands and mountainous
MSHld'rrgons Of Durham Northumberland, and
"eslm Ireland, he had 70 traverse above sixty
,a''es vi country, once not the least fertile Of
H' ne"iy'conquercd realm, in which his mail
ia, IA men'at arms saw neither green leaves on
-. uee-, nor green crops in the field for the
~ ana The torch had done their work, no,
Lososeh'y passed neither standing roof nor
bo,ns hearth encountered neither human
wb nor cattle of the field only the wolves
N 49, Hdo Decome 30 numerous from desuetude
No "ght OF man, that they scarce cared to
s;ns oI,oie the clash and clang of the marching
y 10 the northward and northeastward va, o,
Wu%kshlre, including what are now Lancashire
"@'moreland, N Northumberland and Gambler.
%%Id though the Conquefor, in his first irres;st.
IO'e prosecution Of red-handed victory had
marched and cOuntermarched across them
suere was, even ut the time Of my narrative
Then nearly a century hsd fed little if any.
ug Of permanent progress or civilization, be-
,O1a The establishment Of few feudsl holds
a4 oorder fortresses, each with its petty ham.
e' clustered beneath its shelter The marches
eu of Lancashire toward it's southern ex.
,IsS IVY were IN some degree permanently set
s,a ny military c0lonists; in not q few in-
WIos composed Of Flemings, as were the
Chs"a frontiers Of the neighboring province Of
,bs planted there to check the nroads OF
sun unconquered Cymri to the protection
m.,inaa 'unt wasta. Modo omnius wasta. Tx
300 pA''e ~asia.--Domssday Book Vol. l, fol
q, ,up IAini tenuers ibi sunt Il VILLAIN cum I came
'Auii al solidos modo iii soI