The luxury of a carpet was unknown; some straw, scattered in the room, supplied its place.

There were no chimneys; the smoke of the ill-fed, cheerless fire escaped through a hole in the roof.
In such habitations there was scarcely any protection from the weather.
No attempt was made at drainage, but the putrefying garbage and rubbish were simply thrown out of the door.

Men, women, and children, slept in the same apartment; not unfrequently, domestic animals were their companions; in such a confusion of the family, it was impossible that modesty or morality could be maintained.

The bed was usually a bag of straw, a wooden log served as a pillow.

Personal cleanliness was utterly unknown; great officers of state, even dignitaries so high as the Archbishop of Canterbury, swarmed with vermin; such, it is related, was the condition of Thomas a Becket, the antagonist of an English king.