The daily gazette., 1878-12-19
King Alrred,s Lantern.

''o"p'J1 "h"V hiiiu vi pcbIib llOSe OLD
Anglo-Saxons were, and how they lived?
They were our far-oh ancestors, and our
language, for the most part, was made
from theirs in fact, we are called Anglo
Saxons ourselves so we ought TO be in
terested in them.
They were rude people in many re-
spects, and lived in rude way, com
pared with our. How would you like
windows which had no glass in them
very small windows, too-but had oiled
paper or sheets of horn instead !? OF
course the rooms must have been dark
and dismal, you will say. And what
would you think of houses without
chimneys, or anything we should call
chimneys? But matters were really not
much better, even in kings houses,
about ten hundred years ago.
The most important room in those
days was called the hall =; and it was
large enough TO accommodate the family,
the great company of servants, and ali
the guests who chose to come. They ate
there, sat there, and most of them slept
there, on rough benches, or rolled up IN
skins on the floor. 1t was open to every
chance traveller, to the wandering har-
pers, to beggars and to everybody else.
The fire was built against a clay or
stone arrangement, answering for fire.
place, a. one end, or on an immense
stone hearth in the middle {; and the
smoke, after floating up overhead, found
Its way out through an opening or kind
of turret in the roof. At dark they
heaped high the logs and fagots, and hap
py was he who on dark and stormy
night could get near the blaze. When
supper time came servants stood beside
those at table and held torches over their
heads till the meal was over ; and when
bedtime came the guests who had any
other place than the hall to sleepin were
lighted to it In the same way.
As for the king, he was more privileg-
ed than that; though just what they
first used for lights, and just when lamps
became common among the Anglo
Saxons, it is not easy to find out. We
see in some very old pictures simple lit
tie lamp, shaped perhaps like saucer
hung by chains at the side of the room,
and holding, no doubt, piece of wax or
some kind of oil, with strip of cloth in
it for a wick. Sometimes, in the royal
chambers, for very long time after
King Alfred's day, light was kept by
means of cake of wax in a silver
basin.
They knew how to make candles,
however but instead of putting one in
a candestick, il was put on il. The can
dlestick had point at the top, called q
spike, and the candle was made hollow
at the bottom, and slipped down over the
! lat HynI Enntpn a
: "prcke.."
There is among some illustrations OF
old customs, a picture OF candlestick
which is very queer, though very elegant
and looks like little piece of furniture
1t is tall stem rising from a athree-footed
= three-cornered stand, very much orna-
mented; it comes to point at the top
I and little way below is plate to holC
, the tallow or wax that might run down
We do rot know that King Alfred haC
l anything like this but he had what no
body had ever seen before in that coun
try, for he invented it himself, and thai
: was lantern.
This good King was very busy man
q the people around him might be willing
to idle away their days over the fire
listening to the harpers, telling storie
and playing with the hounds, but he fel
that lie had great work to do. liz
wanted to make his subjects more civil
= lied to teach them useful arts, and III
# had not an hour to waste. He bull
n towns, he built ships; he read am
!. studied and wrote-and that was won
derful indeed in those days when ther
were but few books, and when evel
| 4 a hair names
lie was The best, the wisest and the mos
: learned king that the Saxons had eve
l. had.
l. He used to carry in his bosom memo
y randun leaves, in which he made coliet
a tlons from his studies, and this journs
~ ne was in the habit of examining so muc
that "he called IL his handbook" AnC
perhaps, that is where the word "han'
book" came from. OF course, he rea
far into the night, but he soon found wv
m troubles-there was no way 10 marx ttl
time. for there were no clocks or watch,
then, and he could not keep a stead
light, because the houses were so ope
that the wind came in from every qua
ter. He had noon marks, out tho'
amounted to nothing on rainy days, an
everybody knows what a country En-
land is for rain. .,.-
However, when such a man as Alfre
" makes up his mind to do thing, he
nd almost sure to find way. So he had
ouantity of wax prepared, took enoue
OF IL TO weigh down seyehty-two alV'
peDnies, and of it hal six candles mad
all weighing the same, and each twei'
Inches long, and marked off into twei'
divisions. He planned so nicely tn
these SIX would burn twenty-four hour
and he kept one lighted day and nigh
before some holy relics and images
saints which he had, and which, bcing
ws pious man, he carried about with MS III
gage wherever he went.
ns, He would now have had only toler
w. BILE light, but very good way OF mar
ING the hours, If the candles had aiwa
m. been sure of burning given time. b
If the wind blew the flame would MAJ
ns, and. perhaps, go out; and the KING ma
IN his mind that there could be son
thing done to remedy this-and he did
80. He made frame work and fixed into
:. little plates or windows of horn, scrap
n, 30 thin that the light could shine throuf
as' Get his candle inside and shut 1t in-ar
the thug was done. He had u lantel
.15 sure in ali weathers. A very small am
il NAV seem to you, but 1t was gr'
- one to him HIM. Co..
ms once saw picture of a rude sax
- lantern somewhat like his, perha
III though it was probably an improveme
an '"S o,,onar does one man lnYe