Great Britain, says, "In France, A.D. 1147, the great vassals emulated
and even surpassed the sovereign in pomp and cost of living." As an
instance of the wild liberality of the age, we are informed, that Henry
the "munificent" Count of Champagne, being applied to by a poor gentleman
for a portion to enable him to marry his two daughters: his steward
remonstrated to him, "that he had given away every thing," "thou _liest_,"
said Henry, "I have _thee_ left;" so he delivered over the steward to the
petitioner, who put him into confinement until he gave him 500 livres, a
handsome sum in those days.

Bede tells us, "Archbishop Theodore, when (in the seventh century) he
gave lectures on medicine at Canterbury, remonstrated against bleeding on
the 4th day of the moon, since at that period (he said) the light of the
planet and the tides of the ocean were on the increase." Yet Theodore was,
for his era, deeply learned.

William of Malmsbury says, "Very highly finished works in gold and silver,
were the produce even of our darkest ages. The monks were the best
artists. A jewel, now in the museum at Oxford, undoubtedly made by
command of, and worn by Alfred the Great, is an existing witness of the
height to which the art was carried. Curious reliquaries, finely wrought
and set with precious stones, were usually styled throughout Europe,
Opera Anglica."

Howel tells us, "In the education of their children, the Anglo-Saxons
only sought to render them dauntless and apt for the two most important
occupations of their future lives--war and the chase. It was a usual
trial of a child's courage, to place him on the sloping roof of a
building, and if, without screaming or terror, he held fast, he was
styled a _stout-herce_, or brave boy."