WOMEN IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXV, Issue 242, 12 October 1891, Page 2

WOMEN IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

The households, the way of living, the occupations of the women, can be clearlj made outla^veiy detail from the AngloSaxon literature. The women m the country made the garments, carded the wool, washed the things, beat the flax, ground the corn, sat at the spinning-wheel, and prepared the food, In towns they had no shearing to do, but all the rest of these duties fell to their province. The Eaglish women excelled in embroidery. " English" work meant the best kind of work. They worked church vestiments with gold and pearls and precious stones. " Urfrey," or e mbrodery in gold, was a special art. Of course, they are accused by the «colesiastics of an overweening desire to wear finery ; they certainly curled their hair, and, one ia sorry to read, they painted, and thereby spoiled their pretty cheeks. If a man was the hlaf-ord-— the owner or winner of the loaf—the wife was hlaf.dig —its distributer ; the servants and the retainers were hlaf-oetas, or eaters of it. When nunneries began to be founded the Saxon ladies in great number forsook the world for the cloister. And here they began to learn latin, and became able, at least, to carry on correspondence—specimens of which still exist— in that language,