A previous chapter (Chapter XVIII.) described some
features of domestic life in castle and village during the age of feudalism. In
England, where the Norman kings discouraged castle building, the manor house
formed the ordinary residence of the nobility. Even in Continental Europe many
castles were gradually made over into manor houses after the cessation of
feudal warfare. A manor house, however, was only less bare and inconvenient
than a castle. It was still poorly lighted, ill-ventilated, and in winter
scarcely warmed by the open wood fires. Among the improvements of the
fourteenth century were the building of a fireplace at one or both ends of the
manor hall, instead of in the center, and the substitution of glass windows for
wooden shutters or oiled paper.
FURNITURE
People in the Middle Ages, even the well-to-do, got along
with little furniture. The great hall of a manor house contained a long dining
table, with benches used at meals, and a few stools. The family beds often
occupied curtained recesses in the walls, but guests might have to sleep on the
floor of the manor hall. Servants often slept in the stables. Few persons could
afford rugs to cover the floor; the poor had to put up with rushes. Utensils
were not numerous, and articles of glass and silver were practically unknown,
except in the houses of the rich. Entries in wills show the high value set upon
a single spoon.
