fourth are chiefly Germans, who attend to the armies, and promiscuously use charms, potions, oil, and wood; the fifth are old women and ignorant people, who in all cases have recourse to the saints.-G. de Cauliaco, apud Freind.

Agriculture.

THE frequency of famines, which prevailed in the earlier centuries, affords too clear a proof of the slow progress of agricultural improvement. The wretched tenure by which the inferior farmers held their lands (a tenure which obliged them to discontinue that labour which they were employing in their own fields, and to transfer it to that of their lords, whether prelates or barons,) was an effectual bar to every amendment of soil.

Horticulture.

IF gardening throve better, it was because it flourished immediately by the protection of the great. Almost every castle or monastery had its kitchengarden, physic-garden, orchard, and, frequently, its vineyard; and, strange as it may appear to those who consider how much less is now brought about, although with much greater advantages, yet it does appear from evidence we cannot well doubt, that at the period we now allude to, there was wine made in England in great quantity, and of a quality too, which at least is never mentioned to its disparagement.

34

ARTS, SCIENces, AND COMMERCE OF ENGLAND, FROM THE HEPTARCHY TO THE END OF THE REIGN OF RICHARD II.

Poetry, Music, and Musical Instruments.

POETRY was in the highest esteem with all the northern nations, and the fragments left by the Welsh bards, show that Britain stood forward in that science. It wanted not regal encouragement: "Should I desire the moon of my Prince as a present, (sings a Briton, with a happy enthusiasm,) he would bestow it on me."-Specimens of Welsh Poetry.

The sacred regard in which the minstrels were held, even by the barbarous Danes, is plainly shewn by the method that Alfred took to inspect the camp of his foe.

Music was not unknown in these gloomy times; the harp was universally studied and honoured by Saxons and Britons. A crath or crowd, which in some measure resembled the modern violin, was used in Wales; in the reign of Edgar, St. Dunstan gave a fine organ to Glastonbury; and thus W. of Malmsbury describes it :-" Organo, ubi per æneas fistulas musicis mensuris elaboratas, dudum conceptas, follis vomit anxius auras."

But it was to vocal improvements in church music that the greatest attention was paid in England; teachers were sent for, at a great cost, from distant countries; and the monks frequently tra

velled to Rome, that they might learn to excel their brethren in a science on which their promotion often depended.—Bede, &c.

Bells.

BELLS, though not large ones, grew common throughout Europe, toward the tenth century, and were hung in the wooden towers of churches * ; the altars alone, were ordered by the canons to be built of stone.-Mezeroy.

In the reign of Athelstane, Turketul, Abbot of Croyland, gave to that monarch the first set of bells (as Ingulphus asserts,) ever known in England, Nevertheless there had been single bells in England, in the seventh century. The venerable Bede makes mention of them.

Clocks.

THE first clock which appeared in Europe, was probably that which Eginhard, (the secretary of Charlemagne,) describes as sent to his Royal master, by Abdalla, King of Persia. "A horologe of brass, wonderfully constructed, for the course of the twelve hours, answered to the hour glass, with as many little brazen balls, which drop down on a

*The application of bells, as well as the degree of favour shown to their music, has varied much at different periods. We are told by M. Paris, that the bells were not allowed to ring at funerals, apparently from their inspiring too gay ideas; on the other hand, at a time somewhat later, the citizens of Bourdeaux, who had, for rebellious behaviour, been deprived of their bells, refused to receive them again, “having never been so happy as since they had been rid of their odious jingling."

şort of bells underneath, and sounded each other." -The Venetians had clocks in 872, and sent a specimen of them in that year to Constantinople.

Woollen Manufactures, Dying, &c.

THE necessary art of making woollen cloth, was brought to such perfection in England, that a Norman writer speaks of English weavers with admiration. The value of a sheep's fleece was well understood, and rated at two-fifths of the animal's whole price.

The art of dying cloths was not unknown in England. On the contrary, it was at this time

common.

At Rome and Ravenna, and in some large French towns, there were in the ninth century manufacturers of woollen stuffs and of iron wares inlaid with gold and silver; they made glass also. Silk was not woven in the west until 400 years afterwards, but the Venetians began to import it from Constantinople.

St. Boniface desires, about this time, a German Bishop to send him "some cloth with a long nap, to be used in washing his feet." He appears to mean woollen cloth. Linen was extremely scarce : this circumstance probably occasioned the leprosies, so common in the early ages.-Voltaire.

Physic and Surgery.

PHYSIC and chirurgery were in the early ages at a low ebb; old women seem chiefly to have stu

died the medical arts among the northern nations, and as they mingled charms and spells with their prescriptions, the patient's fancy sometimes effected, or at least assisted, the cure: as Christianity gained ground, the clergy, having time in their hands, applied themselves to the study of medicine, but made so little progress, that, for a long space, holy water was the prescription to which they chiefly trusted.-Keyler. Ant. Sept. Bede.

Necessaries of Life, state of Agriculture, &c. THE means of supplying life with necessaries, were but imperfectly known and cultivated. The poor Pagans of Sussex, though starving for want of food, knew not how to catch any fish, except eels, until Bishop Wilfred, (who, in 678, took shelter in that district,) instructed them in the use of nets. He took three hundred at a draught; and by thus supplying the bodily wants of his catechumens, rendered their minds tractable to his doctrines, and easily accomplished their conversion.-V. Welfr.

We know little of the state of agriculture in England; in the laws of Wales are many regulations respecting ploughs, which were so scarce, that societies were formed under legal protection, to fit them out with oxen, geer, &c.—Leg. Wall.

Throughout the island, the monks were much the best husbandmen; they seem to have been also the only gardeners; and we have actually a record, describing a pleasant and fruitful close at