6. They had brought from Rome the knowledge of many useful arts, which they taught to the people, who thus learned to be smiths and carpenters, and to make a variety of things out of metal, wood and leather, which the Saxons did not know how to make before.
7. Then the priests could read and write, which was more than the nobles, or even the kings could do; and they used to write books, and ornament the pages with beautiful borders, and miniature paintings; and the books, thus adorned, are called illuminated manuscripts.
8. Still the Saxons, or English, as I shall henceforth call them, were very rough and ignorant as compared with the Romans.
9. Their churches and houses, and even the palaces of the kings, were rude wooden buildings, and the cottages of the poor people were no better than the huts of the ancient Britons.
10. The common people were almost all employed in cultivating the land, and lived in villages on the different estates to which they belonged; for the Saxon landlords were not only the owners of the land, but of the people also; who were not at liberty, as they are now, to go where they pleased; neither could they buy land for themselves, nor have any property but
