New-York tribune., 1902-07-25
OLD ENGLAND.
PICTURES OF LIFE IN PLANTAGENET
TIMES.

COURT LIFE UNDER THE ,6.tt PkANTAG66SETs N5 6staIe
pp Vi, III E. P. Dutton Co.
Mr. Hall has made many minute researches
IN the public records of England, which he mas
turned to account in this book He has under
taken to give, in the guise Of a narrative or the
experiences of Richard de Anesti real lord
of the manor of the twelfth century, during a
visit he paid to the court of Henry II at Lon
don. some of the most striking features of me-
disevaI life and poIity Richards adventures
were not exactly thrilling. but they are the
groundwork upon which the author has be-
slowed a vast amount of local color and de-
scription First we are introduced to the Manor
. Of Anesti, between London and Cambridge, with
a sight Of the courtyards and Enclosures, or the
villeins at work. and of a court Of the manor,
when the tenants came to make their present.
ments connected with the customs profits or
boundaries Of the manor: Of the reliefs, es-
cheats wardships marriages, waits and strays
or other incidents: and of the various lines
FOR trifling offences The scene then changes to
London, where Richard de Anesu visits his
brother, John, the Clerk Here is the picture of
the London they found:
The houses were built entirely of wood, with
one or rarely two gables facing the street. The
lower part Of these houses was usually OF sohd
timbers, but the projecting gabie ABOVE was
merely a framework filed in with plaster, the
external surface of the entire front being usually
daubed with whitewash. The roofs were
matched with reeds, straw or shingles, and
rarely tiled and the windows were protected
at the best only by hinged lattices Of wood o
or from The roads unmade and the
footways before the houses were uneVenly
tagged with natural stone. Fowls, pigs.
and even milch kline roamed freely apout @ tne
streets and fierce looking dogs preyed upon
the garbage in the company of kites and crows
Then they visited a miracle play, performed at
the Church of st. Paul, representing the fourth
miracle Of st. Nicholas-a pleasant entertain
ment"; which followed by the public exer-
cises Of the scholars of London. from the three
great schools of St. PauIs. St. Martins and
Holy Trinity, answering questions in logic,
grammar and arithmetic, and engaging in dis
putation, according to the schoolmen's methods.
Past the hamlet of Charing and the gardens and
orchards of wealthy citizens they reached the
Kings house at Westminster:
The spacious courtyard was thronged with
wallets busiy polishing hunting spears, horns
and other implements of the chase; grooms
leading chargers and palfreys magnihcently
caparisoned: falconers from the neighboring
news, seated on the stone benches against the
walls allowing their hooded falcons to bask in
the warm rays OF the morning sun; huntsmen
holding in the leash shaggy Wolfhounds, slen-
der coursing dogs and wiry vulperets; whilst to
and fro hurried endless stream of clerks and
serjeants and men at upon the business Of
the King. who required Of all men that punctu-
ality and order which he wholly neglected in his
own person
We are allowed to hear the animated discus
sions about dreams and apparitions and witch
craft there going on, and get glimpse Of
the King, with his piercing gray eyes, the lion
like jaw and the broad shoulders and muscular
arms. We taken to the Kings council; to
his court; to the Receipt at Westminster, where
we see the curious method Of accounting by
notches on a stick, and the Exchequer, with
all its formalties by which the Sheriff of Hamp-
shire rendered his annual account. We are taken
upon a royal hunt at Windsor, and get sight
of the canons at Waltham and the schoolmen
at St Adams Mr.. Halls style and method
are somewhat didatic, with all the narra-
tive apparatus that he uses to convey his infor-
nation; and he does not always succeed in max
ing the scenes he brings before us live and
palpitate. But he tells vast number Of in
teresting things that put more or less sue
cessfully into relation with the actual life of the
period. His descriptions are accompanied by
many reproductions Of contemporary drawings;
several full page colored plates add TO the at
tractiveness of the book.