nd other sources have been made, but the bulk of our
language is Saxon. Three-fourths of us are Anglo-Saxon by descent.
Whatever there is in the English character of persistence, obstinacy,
patience, industry, sobriety, love of freedom, we are accustomed to
attribute to our Anglo-Saxon descent. In religion, arts, learning,
literature, culture, we owe little or nothing to the Anglo-Saxon. In all
these things we are indebted to the South.

Let us see how the Anglo-Saxon Londoner lived.

He was a trader or a craftsman. As a trader he received from the country
inland whatever it had to produce. Slaves, who were bred like cattle on
the farms, formed a large part of the exports; hides, wool, iron, tin,
the English merchant had these things, and nothing more, to offer the
foreigner who brought in exchange wine, spices, silk, incense, vestments
and pictures for the churches and monasteries, books, and other
luxuries. The ships at first belonged to the foreign merchants: they
traded not only at London, but also at Bristol, Canterbury, Dover,
Arundel, and other towns. Before the Conquest, however, English-built
ships and English-manned fleets had already entered upon the trade.

The trader, already wealthy, lived in great comfort. He was absolute
master in his own house, but the household was directed or ruled by his
wife. Everything was made in the house: the flour was ground, the bread
was baked, the meat and fish were salted; the linen was woven, the
garments were made by the wife, the daughters, and the women servants.
The Anglo-Saxon ladies were remarkable for their skill in embroidery;
they excelled all other women in this beautiful art.

The Anglo-Saxon house developed out of the common hall. Those who know
the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge can trace the growth of the house
in any of them. First there is the Common Hall. In this room, formerly,
the whole family, with the serving men and women, lived and slept. There
still exists at Higham Ferrars, in Northampton, such a hall, built as an
almshouse. It is a long room: at the east end, raised a foot, is a
little chapel; on the south side is a long open stove; the almsmen slept
on the floor on reeds, each man wrapped in his blanket.

[Illustration: SAXON CHURCH AT BRADFORD-ON-AVON, WILTS.]

Everybody lived and slept in the Common Hall. All day long the women
worked at the spinning and weaving and sewing and embroidery. Women were
defined by this kind of work--we still