HISTORY IN STITCHES

Shannon News, 16 November 1926, Page 2

HISTORY IN STITCHES

THE BAYEUX TAPESTRIES

History tells us thrilling stories of heroes and battles, Of thrones schemed for, lost and won, but it is little we know about the dally'doings of these people, how they lived,, and how they were cothed. Little , writing was don© in those olden days except the pious- records kept by the, monks in the monasteries. These included no elvery-day. details , such as we should like to*kriew. Parts of poems and mins'trei songs of olden times give us some news of castle and hall, but for the period of King William I. and hi 3 conquest of England we have a rare picture history. From this relic we learn much of costumes and customs. It is the Bayeux Tapestry, a strip of linen 230 ft long and 20 inches wide. It is embroidered in coloured wool's with 72 scenes, beginning with the visit of Harold to 'Normandy and ending with the, rout of the, English 1 at the battle of'Hastings (or'Senlac); Some say it was worked by Duchess Mathilda, wife of William. Perhaps it was done by .the family of Oda Bishop of-Bayeux, for his cathedral. . Odo was the Conqueror's half-brother In any case, it waß the delicate hands of women sitting long hours at the tapestry frame that preserved for us in its six hundred figures a picture of these far-away times. From these designs it seems that a man was fully armed if he had a helmet, hauberk and shield, with his weapons. The Norman lady \va a plainly clad in loose-hanging homespun, gathered at the waist by a belt.

A lady in those times was a housewife in a way which we know nothing about Everything for the comfort of h6v family she had to make with ner own hands. She cooked, prepared simples (medicines), spun, wove, and embroidered. She was her own milliner and dressmaker, and frequently her husband's tailor. The noblest of families lived in bare stone rooms of the tower or keep, with rush-strewn floors and tapestry-hung walls. Open fires were usually in the centre of the feast-hall, with an outlet through the celling. The small openings'in the thick stone walls were not glazed, but at night and in cold or storm must hare been covered with crude boards tapestry, or rush mats. The dart within was lighted by feeble flares from wicks floating in oil or from smoky torches set in metal sconces on the walls

The-great hall was the place Of most of the family life. Everyone ate at one long table ,the lord and his lady, her women and his knights at the top. At the foot of the board sat the servants, all alike drinking from great horn cups and tearing their meat with teeth and fingers, now and then cutting off with a sword thrust■a dripping portion to be thrown to the dogs that waited for their share. Thus lived king and courtier nine hundred years ago. With speechless