Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Chivalry

THE TRAINING OF A KNIGHT.

The preparatory education of candidates for knighthood was long
and arduous. At seven years of age the noble children were usually
removed from their father's house to the court or castle of their
future patron, and placed under the care of a governor, who taught
them the first articles of religion, and respect and reverence for
their lords and superiors, and initiated them in the ceremonies of a
court, They were called pages, valets or varlets, and their office was
to carve, to wait at table, and to perform other menial services which
were not then considered humiliating. In their leisure hours they
learned to dance and play on the harp, were instructed in the
mysteries of woods and rivers, that is, in hunting, falconry, and
fishing, and in wrestling, tilting with spears, and performing other
military exercises on horseback. At fourteen the page became an
esquire, and began a course of severer and more laborious exercises.
To vault on a horse in heavy armor; to run, to scale walls, and spring
over ditches, under the same encumbrance; to wrestle, to wield the
battle-axe for a length of time, without raising the visor or taking
breath; to perform with grace all the evolutions of horsemanship,-