The
summer seems to linger here after it has fled from the uplands.
There was a goodly company gathered in Ina's hall for the twelfth
night feasting. Truly, the hall was not so great as that in the
palace at Winchester, but it was all the brighter for that reason.
It was hard to get that great space well lighted and warmed at
times, when the wind blew cold under eaves and through narrow
windows; but here all was well lit and comfortable to look on and
to feel also, as one sat and feasted with the sweet sedges of the
mere banks deep under foot on the floor and the great fire in the
hall centre near enough to every one. I think that this hall in
Glastonbury was as pleasant as any that I know in all Wessex.
There was a great door midway in the southern side of the hall, and
as one entered, to right and left along that wall ran the tables
for the house-carles and other men of the lower ranks, and for
strangers who might come in to share the king's hospitality and had
no right to a higher place. Then at either end of the hall were
cross tables, where the thanes and their ladies had their places in
due order, above the franklins whose cross tables were next to
those of the house-carles. And then, right over against the south
wall and across the fire on the hearth, was the longest table of
all, and in the midst of that was the high place for the king and
queen and a few others.
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