The bear still lurked in the remotest thickets; packs of wolves still issued forth at night to ravage the herdsman's folds; wild boars wallowed in the fens or munched acorns under the oakwoods; deer ranged over all the heathy tracts throughout the whole island; and the wild white cattle, now confined to Chillingham Park, roamed in many spots from north to south.
Hence hunting was the chief pastime of the princes and ealdormen when they were not engaged in war with one another or with the Welsh.

Game, boar-flesh, and venison formed an important portion of diet throughout the whole early English period, up to the Norman conquest, and long after.
The king was the recognised head of each community, though his position was hardly more than that of leader of the nobles in war.

He received an original lot in the conquered land, and remained a private possessor of estates, tilled by his Welsh slaves.

He was king of the people, not of the country, and is always so described in the early monuments.

Each king seems to have had a chief priest in his kingdom.
There was no distinct capital for the petty kingdoms, though a principal royal residence appears to have been usual.