The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1885-09-12
Youn. People of the Olden Time.

We hear great deal about tho "good
old days, but youag people Of today
have no reason t. complain of the time
in which they live. The nineteenth GEN.
fury is without doubt the golden age of
childhood, and boys and girls may con-
graduate themselves that they were not
born few hundred years ago.
1t may not be surprising that the early
Anglo Saxons were rude and supersti-
tlous, but it is difficult to imagine parents
hard-hearted enough to place their little
| babies when only few months old, on
a slanting roof or wavering bough of
a tree, where they were in danger of fall
ing at every passing breeze. If the wee
stranger was frightened and cried it was
Immediately put to death, for they be-
lieved it would grow up "nithing," 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
'ui hul Sely sung,
''Hush-a-by, baby, on the tree-top,'
may have come from this curions Anglo
Saxon custom.
AS they grew older, in place of reading
and writing, the Ediths and Ethelberts
were 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
logged them to make them remember it.
So universal was this practice that the
Saxons always spoke of their school days
as "when they were under the rod
The Normans who came over and con-
quered England were many of them more
cruel than the Saxons, 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
considered it their duty to keep the lit
tie ones at a distance, and treat them
with severity. Children never sat down
in the presence of their elders, and never
spoke unless spoken to; while ladies car
ried fans with handles yard long with
which to correct their daughters, even
if thew wara proUp yuop,op
That gentle, unfortunate girl, Lady
Jane Grey, who was put to death at six.
teen, once said to Roger Ascham: "One
of the greatest benefits God ever gave
me is that he sent me so sharp and Sc
we're parents and SO gentle a school
master. For when am in the presence
either of father Or mother, whether l
speak, keep silence, st, stand, or 60, eat,
drink, be merry or sad, be sewing, play
ing. dancing, or doing anything else, l
must do it, as it were, so perfectly as
God made the world, or else l am so
sharply tainted, so cruelty threatened,
yea, with pinches, nips, and hobs, and
other ways (Which will not name for
the horror l bear them), so without
measure misordered that think myself
in torment till time come that must 90
to Mr.. Elmer, who teacheth me so gently
so pleasantly, that think time nothing
while with him; and when 1 am called
from him l fall to weeping, because
whatsoever do else but learning is full
of trouble, fear, and whole misliking to
me-"
And yet of this young girl, Fuller
writes, "She had the innocency of child
hood, the beauty of youth, the solidity
of middle, the gravity of old age, the
birth of a princess, the learning of
clerk, the life of saint, yet the death of
a martyr for her parents otfenses."
But you must not think the little folks
of long ago never had any good times.
There were, no doubt, jolly romps on
the play ground and in the nursery.
The girls delighted in dancing, and the
boys in wrestling, bull and bear batting,
running, and boxing. About the twelfth
century, too, we hear ofballs, tops, nine
pins, dolls, and queer little knights on
horseback, called jousting toys.
Dolls We're first used by Roman chill
dren, and were more like little wooden
and ivory statues than the life-like i'm
ages our girls delight in. But they were
loved and cherished, and often buried III
the collins of their little owners, where
they have since been found.
Live pets, too, children had in abund
ance, particularly dogs, birds and monk
eys, while part of the bedroom furniture
ing.
We read great deal about magpies in
those days, and mischievous creatures
they were. A funny story is told of one
in a little book of counsels written by
father for his daughter:
ga lady once kept magpie in cage,
that chatted of everything it saw and
heard. Her husband had preserved
large eel in pond on his estate, which
he was saving to give some friends he
expected to dine with him. My lady,
however, took fancy to the eel, and one
day she and her maid RECALLED themselves
upon it. All this the magpie watched
with attention, and when the master re-
turned it shouted, My lord, my lady has
eaten the eel
''Going to the pond and missing the
fish, he asked his wife what had become
of it. She tried to excuse herself, but
he declared he knew all. for the magpie
had told him. The result was quarrel,
and the lady and her maid, in their wrath,
seized the poor bird and plucked all the
feathers from his head, exclaiming, You
told about the eel
''The bird was left with bare pate,
and whenever after lie saw a bald-headed
person, he always shouted, mockingly,
sAh! you told about the eel.'"
Monkeys, too, were prime favorites,
and on the antics of one of them once
hung the destiny OF England. When
Oliver Cromwell, of whom you have all
heard, was a baby, he was taken on a
visit to his grandfather, old Sir Henry
Cromwell, who owned a very large and
strong monkey. One day when the nurse
was out of the way this monkey snatched
little Oliver out of the cradle, and ran
swiftly with him To the roof of tba bouso