Everywhere else these
were dependent upon hospitality, and no door was ever closed in
their faces. It was seldom that less than five or six travellers
rested for the night at Steyning, and often that number was largely
exceeded. Besides the wayfarers there were the professional wanderers,
the minstrels, the story-tellers, and occasionally a troupe of
buffoons.
All these were welcome, for they brought the news from without; the
last rumours in London concerning the quarrels of the earls; the
movements of the Danish ships that were harrying the coast, and
those of the vessels Earl Harold despatched to cope with them; the
prices of wool and hides in the chief markets; and even reports of
what was happening beyond the seas. Leaving the dais, Wulf would
go down and listen to the talk of the travellers, or, when they
were of a degree above the common, have them up beside him, and
question them as to their journeyings, the places they had visited,
and the personages they had seen. Thus his hours were fully occupied
from morning until night. He found far less time than he had expected
for sport, and although he occasionally went out with his falcons
or hunted the stag in the forest, which covered a wide extent of
country beyond the hills, it was but seldom that he could find
leisure for these amusements.
"It seems to me that you are always doing something, Wulf," Osgod
said one day. "It is not at all the sort of life I should have
thought a young thane would live.
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