Spirited and interesting picture of life in castles and manors, monasteries and towns during the Middle Ages. The description of the customs of knights is especially full. Chapter titles include Page, Squire, and Knight; The Knight's Arms and Armor; Jousts and Tournaments; How to Capture a Castle; Daily Life in a Castle; Life on a Manor; Pilgrimages and Crusades; Military Orders, Monks, and Monasteries; Hermits, Friars, and Missionaries; Life in Town; Merchant Gilds and Craft Gilds; How Goods Were Sold; Schools and Literature; Science and Medicine; and Architecture and the Arts. Show All     Download:     PDF       EPUB

TRUSTY SENTINEL

Preface

This book is in no degree an attempt to relate the involved and intricate history of the Middle Ages. Its plan is, rather, to present pictures of the manner of life and habits of thought of the people who lived between the eighth and fifteenth centuries. Our writings and our everyday conversation are full of their phrases and of allusions to their ideas. Many of our thoughts and feelings and instincts, of our very follies and superstitions, have descended to us from them. To become better acquainted with them is to explain ourselves. In selecting from the enormous amount of material, I have sought to choose those customs which were most characteristic of the times and which have made the strongest impression upon the life of to-day, describing each custom when at its height, rather than tracing its development and history. I hope that the volume will be found sufficiently full to serve as a work of reference, and sufficiently interesting to win its way as a book of general reading.

EVA MARCH TAPPAN.

Worcester, Mass.