It would seem somewhat a hard one to a lover of modern ease. They rose
early, as we have already seen, and before breaking their fast went with
their father and most of the household to the early mass at the
monastery of St. Wilfred, returned to an early meal, and then worked
hard, on ordinary occasions at their Latin, and such other studies as
were pursued in that primitive age of England. The midday meal was
succeeded by somewhat severe bodily exercise, generally hunting the boar
or wolf which still abounded in the forests, an excitement not
unattended by danger, which, however, their father would never permit
them to shun. He knew full well the importance of personal courage at an
age when the dangers of hunting were only initiatory to the stern duties
of war, and no Englishman could shun the latter when his country called
upon him to take up arms. Nor were martial exercises unknown to the
boys; the bow, it is true, was somewhat neglected then in England, but
the use of sword, shield, and battle-axe was daily inculcated.

"_Si vis pacem_," Father Cuthbert said on such occasions, "_para arma._"

Wearied by their exertions, whether at home or abroad, the brothers
welcomed the evening social meal, and the rest which followed, when old
Saxon legend or the harp of the gleeman enlivened the household fire,
till compline sweetly closed the day.

Swiftly and pleasantly were passing the weeks succeeding the visit of
the prince, when a royal messenger appeared, bearing a letter sealed
with the king's signet. The old thane, who had passed his youth in more
troublous times, and could scarcely read the Anglo-Saxon version of the
Gospels, then extant, could not construe the monkish Latin in which it
was King Edred's good pleasure to write.