Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1885-09-25
YOUNG PEOPLE OF THE OLDeA TINES.
Harper,s Young People.

1t may not be surprising that the
early AnglO.SaxOns were rude and
superstitious, but it is difficult
to imagine parents hardhearted
enough to place their little babies,
when only a few months old, on a
slanhng roof or waving bough
of a tree, where they were IN
danger of falling at every passing
breeze. If the wee stranger was
frightened and cried, it was i'm
mediately put to death, for they
believed it would grow up a
nlthing," or coward, and disgrace
the nation. a laugh, however,
would save its life, and it was
carried home in triumph to its
trembling mother. 1t has been
thought our nursery song,
Hush-a-by, baby, on the tree top"
may have come from this curious
Anglo-Saxon custom.
AS they grew older, in place of
reading and writing, the little
Ediths and Ethelberts we're taught
psalm.singing and poetry, and
there was but one mode Of instruc.
ton. The masters first told them
what they wished them to learn,
and then flogged them to make
them remember it. SO universal
was this practice that the Saxons
always spoke OF their school-days
rs "when they were under the
rod"
The Normans who came over
and conquered England were many
of them more cruel than the Sax
ons, although reading and writing
now began to be taught. Think of
father tearing out the bright eyes
of his children because in play
they ventured to hide their heads
beneath his cloak and yet this is
what one Roger de Montgomery is
said to have done. Indeed, for
many years after, parents con-
sidered it their duty to keep their
little ones at q distance, and trea,
them with severity. Children
never sat down in the presence OF
their elders, and never spoke un'
less spoken to while ladies carried
fans with handles a yard long with
which to correct their daughters
even if they we're grown women.
That gentle, unfortunate girl
Lady Jane Grey, who was put tC
death at sixteen, once said to
Roger Ascham: "One of tht
greatest benefits God ever gave
me is that he sent me so sharp an(
severe parents and so gentle q
school master. For when | am II
the presence either of father 0l
mother, whether | speak, keel
silence, sit, stand, or go, eat, drink
be merry or sad, be sewing,playing
dancing, or doing anything else,
must DO it, as it were, so perfectly
rs God made the world, or else
am so sharply taunted, so cruelty
threatened, yea, with pinches, nlps
and bObs, and other ways (whicl
| will not name for the horror
bear them), so without measure
misordered that | think myself IL
torment till time comes that | mus
90 to Mr. Elmer, who teacheth m
so gently, so pleasantly, that
think time nothing while with him
and when am called from him
fall to weeping, because whatsoeve
| do else bat learning is full o
trouble, fear, and whole mislikinI
to me- And yet of this yOunI
girl, Fuller writes. "She had tn
innocency of childhood, the beaut.
of youth, the solidity Of middle
the gravity of old age, the birth o
a princess, the learning of clerk
the life of q saint, yet the death o.
a martyr for her parents offenses.
But you must not think the littl
folks of long ago never had an.
good times. There were, no doubt
jolly romps on the playground ant
in the nursery. The girls delight
ed in dancing, and the boys il
wrestling bull and bear batting
RAINING, and boxing. About th
twelfth century, too, we hear O
balls, tops, nine-pins, dolls, ant
queer little knights on horseback
called jousting toys. Dolls wer
! first used by Roman children, an
were more like little wooden an
. ivory statues than like the life.lik
images our girls delight in. Bu
they were loved and cherished, an
often buried in the cofiins of thei
/. little owners, where they hav
. since been found.
D Live pets, too, children had i
abundance, particularly dogs
D birds, and monkeys, while part 0
the bedroom furniture was a perc
4 for the falcons used in hunting
We read great deal about MAG
; pies in those days, and mischiev
t Gus creatures they were. A funn
story is told of one in little boo
| of cOunsels written by a father TO
his daughter:
"a lady once kept a magpie Il
a cage, that chatted of everything
he saw and heard. Her HUSBAND
had preserved large eel in a pom
on his estate, which he was savinI
, 10 give some friends he expecte'