11. Their advancement in the arts appears to have been more respectable than in the sciences. Music was much practised, and though their strains would in all probability have sounded harsh to a modern car, yet over their simple and strong sensations they had a powerful influence. Music had not yet been disjoined from its natural alliance with poetry ; a circumstance which gave to both arts a fascination unknown to them separately. The most astonishing effects are ascribed to their music ; stories are told of the perfect witchery which their bards exercised, over the passions of their audience ; of coin pinies being melted into tears by their doleful airs ; then exhilarated to laughter, dancing and shouting, by their sprightly songs; and roused at last to madness and mutual wounds, by the fierce notes that provoked re venge. All this is perfectly intelligible, without suppos ing their musicians to have possessed any secret in melo dy, that is lost to the present age, when we consider the convivial nature of those assemblies, where music was generally introduced. It is not uncommon to see the manliest natures melted into tears by simple melody, or a company to join in dancing and shouting, when the glass has circulated and the fiddle has struck up. Our northern ancestors drank very heartily ; and it is much more credible, that the strong potations which they had swallowed, rather than the hand of the harper, introduc ed riots into their meetings.
From an illuminated MS. of the Anglo-Saxon bible, it appears that they had a variety of musical instruments, sufficient at least to make a considerable noise in their concerts. In the picture alluded to, there is a harp of eleven strings, a four stringed instrument like a violin with a bow, a short trumpet, and a carved horn. In the reign of Edgar, the famous St Dunstan gave a fine organ to Glastonbury, which is thus described by William of Glastonbury ; Organo ubi Izer aeneas fistulas nzusicis men saris elaborates, dudum concelztas follis vomit anxius au ras. But it was to vocal and church music that the greatest attention was paid. Teachers were.sent for, at a great cost, from distant countries, and the monks fre quently travelled to Rome, that they might learn to excel their brethren in an accomplishment on which their pro motion often depended. In the reign of Athelstan, the first set of bells was introduced into England, and pre sented to the monastery of Croyland, by their abbot Turketul. Single bells, however, must have been known in the 7th century, as they are mentioned by the vener able Bede.
The art of making cloth was so far advanced among the Anglo-Saxons, that a Norman writer speaks of their weavers with admiration. The art of dying cloth was also practised. The value of a sheep's fleece was well understood, and rated at one fifth of the animal's price.
Wherever the harder metals are found, the rudest na tions seem to acquire a skill in manufacturing them, for the purposes of war at least, far beyond their knowledge in other arts. Hence the Britons and Caledonians had
swords at their sides, and scythes to their chariots, be fore they knew how to cover their nakedness with corn lOrtable clothing. But the Anglo-Saxons had advanced far beyond that pitch of semi-barbarism, when the anvil is employed for framing instruments of bloodshed alone. In this happy island, the abundance of iron had brought the smith's craft to great perfection ; and even the pre cious metals were manufactured so successfully, that finely-wrought ornaments of jewellery were styled throughout Europe, English work. There is a jewel now in the museum of Oxford, and which exhibits no contemptible workmanship, that was made by the order of Alfred, and worn by that monarch. Among the monks, though they had little inclination for literature, there were many skilful artists in metals. It was at this em ployment, in which the saint was very famous, that his satanic majesty is said to have found St Dunstan, on the famous occasion when he plied him with indecent songs and conversation. St Dunstan at first civilly warned the devil to depart ; hut, provoked at last by his obscenity, took the red-hot pincers from his furnace, and pinned the infernal visitant by the nose, till he alarmed the neigh bourhood by his howlings.
Yet, though the useful arts had made considerable progress, all the finer means for prolonging and com forting existence, compared with those which are at pre sent enjoyed, seem to have been imperfectly understood. Physic and surgery, like all the other sciences, were at a wretched ebb. These had been principally practised among the northern nations by their old women. But as religion advanced among the Anglo-Saxons, it became fashionable for the clergy to prescribe; and from their prescriptions, which were generally given with holy water, and regulated by the aspect of the moon and stars, it does not appear probable that they were better at the healing art, or less superstitious, than the aged nurses whom they had supplanted. In their Pagan state, the poor Anglo-Saxons are described as even difficient in some of the most common arts of subsistence ; and fa mines were often the consequence of their ignorance and improvidence, (combined with unproductive years) of which we have happily no adequate idea in modern times. A story is told of the barbarous Pagans in Sus sex, though starving for want of food, yet being so ig norant of fishery, that they knew only how to catch eels, till bishop Wilford, who, in 678, took shelter among them, instructed them in the art of procuring other fish. This may be intelligible to those who are better acquaint ed with the subject of fisheries ; but to common obser vation it seems odd, that an eel should be easier caught than other animals of the same element.