In every shire of England there are great plenty of parks, whereof some here and there, to wit, well near to the number of two hundred, for her daily provision of that flesh, appertain to the prince, the rest to such of the nobility and gentlemen as have their lands and patrimonies lying in or near unto the same. I would gladly have set down the just number of these enclosures to be found in every county; but, sith I cannot so do, it shall suffice to say that in Kent and Essex only are to the number of an hundred, and twenty in the bishopric of Durham, wherein great plenty of fallow deer is cherished and kept. As for warrens of conies, I judge them almost innumerable, and daily like to increase, by reason that the black skins[195]of those beasts are thought to countervail the prices of their naked carcases, and this is the only cause why the grey are less esteemed. Near unto London their quickest merchandise is of the young rabbits, wherefore the older conies[196]are brought from further off, where there is no such speedy utterance of rabbits and sucklings[197]in their season, nor so great loss by their skins, sith they are suffered to grow up to their full greatness with their owners. Our parks are generally enclosed with strong pales made of oak, of which kind of wood there is great store cherished in the woodland countries from time to time in eachof them only for the maintenance of the said defence and safe keeping of the fallow deer from ranging about the country. Howbeit in times past divers have been fenced in with stone walls, especially in the times of the Romans, who first brought fallow deer into this land (as some conjecture), albeit those enclosures were overthrown again by the Saxons and Danes, as Cavisham, Towner, and Woodstock, beside other in the west country, and one also at Bolton. Among other things also to be seen in that town there is one of the fairest clocks in Europe. Where no wood is they are also enclosed with piles of slate; and thereto it is doubted of many whether our buck or doe are to be reckoned in wild or tame beasts or not. Pliny deemeth them to be wild; Martial is also of the same opinion, where he saith, “Imbelles damæ quid nisi præda sumus?” And so in time past the like controversy was about bees, which the lawyers callferas(Tit de acquirendo rerum dominio, lib. 2 Instit.). But Pliny, attempting to decide the quarrel, calleth themmedias inter feras et placidas aves. But whither am I so suddenly digressed? In returning therefore unto our parks, I find also the circuit of these enclosures in like manner contain oftentimes a walk of four or five miles, and sometimes more or less. Whereby it is to be seen what store of ground is employed upon that vain commodity, which bringeth no manner of gain or profit to the owner, sith they commonly give away their flesh, never taking penny for the same, except the ordinary fee, and parts of the deer given unto the keeper by a custom, who beside three shillings four pence or five shillings in money, hath the skin, head, umbles, chine, and shoulders: whereby he that hath the warrant for a whole buck hath in the end little more than half, which in my judgment is scarcely equal dealing; for venison in England is neither bought nor sold, as in other countries, but maintained only for the pleasure of the owner and his friends. Albeit I heard of late of one ancient lady which maketh a great gain by selling yearly her husband’s venison[198]to the cooks (asanother of no less name will not stick to ride to the market to see her butter sold), but not performed without infinite scoffs and mocks, even of the poorest peasants of the country, who think them as odious matters in ladies and women of such countenance to sell their venison and their butter as for an earl to feel his oxen, sheep, and lambs, whether they be ready for the butcher or not, or to sell his wool unto the clothier, or to keep a tan-house, or deal with such like affairs as belong not to men of honour, but rather to farmers or graziers; for which such, if there be any, may well be noted (and not unjustly) to degenerate from true nobility, and betake themselves to husbandry.[199]And even the same enormity took place sometimes among the Romans, and entered as far as into the very senate, of whom some one had two or three ships going upon the sea, pretending provision for their houses, but in truth following the trades of merchandise, till a law was made which did inhibit and restrain them. Livy also telleth of another law which passed likewise against the senators by Claudius the tribune, and help only of C. Flaminius, that no senator, or he that had been father to any senator, should possess any ship or vessel above the capacity of three hundred amphoras, which was supposed sufficient for the carriage and recarriage of such necessities as should appertain unto his house, sith further trading with merchandises and commodities doth declare but a base and covetous mind (not altogether void of envy that any man should live but he: or that, if any gain were to be had, he only would have it himself), which is a wonderful dealing, and must needs prove in time the confusion of that country wherein such enormities are exercised. Where in times past many large and wealthy occupiers were dwelling within the compass of some one park, and thereby great plenty of corn and cattle seen and to be had among them, beside a more copious procreation of human issue, whereby the realm was always better furnished with able men to serve the prince in his affairs, now there is almost nothing kept but a sort of wild and savage beasts, cherished for pleasure and delight; and yet some owners, still desirous to enlargethose grounds, as either for the breed and feeding of cattle, do not let daily to take in more, not sparing the very commons whereupon many townships now and then do live, affirming that we have already too great store of people in England, and that youth by marrying too soon do nothing profit the country, but fill it full of beggars to the hurt and utter undoing (they say) of the commonwealth.
Certes if it be not a curse of the Lord to have our country converted in such sort, from the furniture of mankind into the walks and shrouds of wild beasts, I know not what is any.[200]How many families also these great and small game (for so most keepers call them) have eaten up and are likely hereafter to devour, some men may conjecture, but many more lament, sith there is no hope of restraint to be looked for in this behalf because the corruption is so general. But, if a man may presently give a guess at the universality of this evil by contemplation of the circumstance, he shall say at the last that the twentieth part of the realm is employed upon deer and conies already, which seemeth very much if it be duly considered of.
King Henry the Eighth, one of the noblest princes that ever reigned in this land, lamented oft that he was constrained to hire foreign aid, for want of competent store of soldiers here at home, perceiving (as it is indeed) that such supplies are oftentimes more hurtful than profitable unto those that entertain them, as may chiefly be seen in Valens the Emperor, our Vortiger, and no small number of others. He would oft marvel in private talk how that, when seven or eight princes ruled here at once, one of them could lead thirty or forty thousand men to the field against another, or two of them 100,000 against the third, and those taken out only of their own dominions. But as he found the want, so he saw not the cause of this decay, which grew beside this occasion now mentioned, also by laying house to house and land to land, whereby many men’s occupyings were converted into one, and the breed of people not a little thereby diminished. The avarice of landlords, byincreasing of rents and fines, also did so weary the people that they were ready to rebel with him that would arise, supposing a short end in the wars to be better than a long and miserable life in peace.
Privileges and faculties also are another great cause of the ruin of a commonwealth and diminution of mankind: for, whereas law and nature doth permit all men to live in their best manner, and whatsoever trade they are exercised in, there cometh some privilege or other in the way which cutteth them off from this or that trade, whereby they must needs shift soil and seek unto other countries. By these also the greatest commodities are brought into the hands of few, who imbase, corrupt, and yet raise the prices of things at their own pleasures. Example of this last I can give also in books, which, after the first impression of any one book, are for the most part very negligently handled:[201]whereas, if another might print it so well as the first, then would men strive which of them should do it best; and so it falleth out in all other trades. It is an easy matter to prove that England was never less furnished with people than at this present; for, if the old records of every manor be sought (and search made to find what tenements are fallen either down or into the lord’s hands, or brought and united together by other men), it will soon appear that, in some one manor, seventeen, eighteen, or twenty houses are shrunk. I know what I say, by mine own experience. Notwithstanding that some one cottage be here and there erected of late, which is to little purpose. Of cities and towns either utterly decayed or more than a quarter or half diminished, though some one be a little increased here and there, of towns pulled down for sheep-walks,[202]and no more but the lordships now standing in them, beside those that William Rufus pulled down in his time, I could say somewhat; but then I should swerve yet further from my purpose, whereunto I now return.
We had no parks left in England at the coming of the Normans, who added this calamity also to the servitude of our nation, making men of the best sort furthermore to become keepers of their game, whilst they lived in the meantime upon the spoil of their revenues, and daily overthrew towns, villages, and an infinite sort of families, for the maintenance of their venery. Neither was any park supposed in these times to be stately enough that contained not at the least eight or ten hidelands, that is, so many hundred acres or families (or, as they have been always called in some places of the realm, carrucats or cartwares), of which one was sufficient in old time to maintain an honest yeoman.
King John, travelling on a time northwards, to wit, 1209, to war upon the King of Scots, because he had married his daughter to the Earl of Bullen without his consent, in his return overthrew a great number of parks and warrens, of which some belonged to his barons, but the greatest part to the abbots and prelates of the clergy. For hearing (as he travelled), by complaint of the country, how these enclosures were the chief decay of men, and of tillage in the land, he sware with an oath that he would not suffer wild beasts to feed upon the fat of his soil, and see the people perish for want of ability to procure and buy them food that should defend the realm. Howbeit, this act of his was so ill taken by the religious and their adherents, that they inverted his intent herein to another end, affirming, and most slanderously, how he did it rather of purpose to spoil the corn and grass of the commons and catholics that held against him of both estates, and by so doing to impoverish and bring the north part of the realm to destruction because they refused to go with him into Scotland. If the said prince were alive in these days (wherein Andrew Boord saith there are more parks in England than in all Europe, over which he travelled in his own person), and saw how much ground they consume, I think he would either double his oaths, or lay most of them open, that tillage might be better looked unto. But this I hope shall not need in time, for the owners of a great sort of them begin now to smell out that such parcels might beemployed to their more gain, and therefore some of them do grow to be disparked.
Next of all, we have the frank chase, which taketh something both of park and forest, and is given either by the king’s grant or prescription. Certes it differeth not much from a park; nay, it is in manner the selfsame thing that a park is, saving that a park is environed with pale, wall, or such like, the chase always open and nothing at all enclosed, as we see in Enfield and Malvern chases. And, as it is the cause of the seizure of the franchise of a park not to keep the same enclosed, so it is the like in a chase if at any time it be imparked. It is trespass, and against the law also, for any man to have or make a chase, park, or free warren, without good warranty of the king by his charter or perfect title of prescription; for it is not lawful for any subject either to carnilate, that is, build stone houses, embattle, have the querk of the sea, or keep the assize of bread, ale, or wine, or set up furels, tumbrel, thew, or pillory, or enclose any ground to the aforesaid purposes within his own soil, without his warrant and grant. The beasts of the chase were commonly the buck, the roe, the fox, and the martern. But those of venery in old time were the hart, the hare, the boar, and the wolf; but as this held not in the time of Canutus, so instead of the wolf the bear has now crept in, which is a beast commonly hunted in the east countries, and fed upon as excellent venison, although with us I know not any that feed thereon or care for it at all. Certes it should seem that forests and frank chases have always been had, and religiously preserved in this island, for the solace of the prince and the recreation of his nobility: howbeit I read not that ever they were enclosed more than at this present, or otherwise fenced than by usual notes of limitation, whereby their bounds were remembered from time to time for the better preservation of such venery and vert of all sorts as were nourished in the same. Neither are any of the ancient laws prescribed for their maintenance before the days of Canutus now to be had, sith time hath so dealt with them that they are perished and lost. Canutus therefore, seeing thedaily spoil that was made almost in all places of his game, did at the last make sundry sanctions and decrees, whereby from thenceforth the red and fallow deer were better looked to throughout his whole dominions. We have in these days divers forests in England and Wales, of which some belong to the king, and some to his subjects, as Waltham Forest, Windsor, Pickering, Fecknam, Delamore, Gillingham, Kingswood, Wencedale, Clun, Rath, Bredon, Weir, Charlie, Leicester, Lee, Rockingham, Selwood, New Forest, Wichwood, Hatfield, Savernake, Westbury, Blacamore Peak, Dean, Penrise, and many others now clean out of my remembrance; and which, although they are far greater in circuit than many parks and warrens, yet are they in this our time less devourers of the people than these latter, sith, beside, much tillage and many towns are found in each of them, whereas in parks and warrens we have nothing else than either the keeper’s and warrener’s lodge, or, at least, the manor place of the chief lord and owner of the soil. I find also, by good record, that all Essex hath in time past wholly been forest ground, except one cantred or hundred; but how long it is since it lost the said denomination, in good sooth I do not read. This nevertheless remaineth yet in memory, that the town of Walden in Essex, standing in the limits of the aforesaid county, doth take her name thereof. For in the Keltic tongue, wherewith the Saxon or Scythian speech doth not a little participate, huge woods and forests were calledwalds, and likewise their Druids were namedwalieorwaldie, because they frequented the woods, and there made sacrifice among the oaks and thickets. So that, if my conjecture in this behalf be anything at all, the aforesaid town taketh denomination ofWaldandend, as if I should say, “The end of the woody soil;” for, being once out of that parish, the champaign is at hand. Or it may be that it is so called ofWaldanddene: for I have read it written in old evidences Waldæne, with a diphthong. And to say truth,deneis the old Saxon word for a vale or low bottom, asduneordonis for a hill or hilly soil. Certes, if it be so, then Walden taketh her name of the woody vale, in which it sometime stood. But thefirst derivation liketh me better; and the highest part of the town is called also Chipping-Walden, of the Saxon wordZipping, which signifies “Leaning or hanging,” and may very well be applied thereunto, sith the whole town hangeth as it were upon the sides of two hills, whereof the lesser runneth quite through the midst of the same. I might here, for further confirmation of these things, bring in mention of the Wald of Kent; but this may suffice for the use of the wordwald, which now differeth much fromwold. For as that signifieth a woody soil, so this betokeneth a soil without wood, or plain champaign country, without any store of trees, as may be seen in Cotswold, Porkwold, etc. Beside this I could say more of our forests, and the aforesaid enclosures also, and therein to prove by the book of forest law that the whole county of Lancaster hath likewise been forest heretofore. Also how William the Bastard made a law that whosoever did take any wild beast within the forest should lose an ear (as Henry the First did punish them either by life or limb, which ordinance was confirmed by Henry the Second and his peers at Woodstock, whereupon great trouble rose under King John and Henry the Third, as appeareth by the chronicles); but it shall suffice to have said so much as is set down already.[203]
It lieth not in me to set down exactly the number and names of the palaces belonging to the prince, nor to make any description of her grace’s court, sith my calling is, and hath been such, as that I have scarcely presumed to peep in at her gates; much less then have I adventured to search out and know the estate of those houses, and what magnificent behaviour is to be seen within them. Yet thus much will I say generally of all the houses and honours pertaining to her majesty, that they are builded either of square stone or brick, or else of both. And thereunto, although their capacity and hugeness be not so monstrous as the like of divers foreign princes are to be seen in the main and new found nations of the world, yet are they so curious, neat, and commodious as any of them, both for convenience of offices and lodgings and excellence of situation, which is not the least thing to be considered of in building. Those that were builded before the time of King Henry the Eighth retain to these days the shew and image of the ancient kind of workmanship used in this land; but such as he erected after his own device (for he was nothing inferior in this trade to Adrian the emperor and Justician the law-giver) do represent another manner of pattern, which, as they are supposed to excel all the rest that he found standing in this realm, so they are and shall be a perpetual precedent unto those that do come after to follow in their works and buildings of importance. Certes masonry did never better flourish in England than in his time. And albeit that in thesedays there be many goodly houses erected in the sundry quarters of this island, yet they are rather curious to the eye like paper work than substantial for continuance: whereas such as he did set up excels in both, and therefore may justly be preferred far above all the rest. The names of those which come now to my remembrance and are as yet reserved to her majesty’s only use at pleasure are these: for of such as are given away I speak not, neither of those that are utterly decayed (as Baynard’s castle in London, builded in the days of the Conqueror by a noble man called William Baynard, whose wife Inga builded the priory of little Dunmow in the days of Henry the First), neither of the tower royal there also, etc., sith I see no cause wherefore I should remember them and many of the like, of whose very ruins I have no certain knowledge. Of such (I say therefore) as I erst mentioned, we have, first of all, Whitehall, at the west end of London (which is taken for the most large and principal of all the rest), was first a lodging of the archbishops of York, then pulled down, begun by Cardinal Wolsey, and finally enlarged and finished by King Henry the Eighth. By east of this standeth Durham Place, sometime belonging to the bishops of Durham, but converted also by King Henry the Eighth into a palace royal and lodging for the prince. Of Somerset Place I speak not, yet if the first beginner thereof (I mean the Lord Edward, the learned and godly duke of Somerset) had lived, I doubt not but it should have been well finished and brought to a sumptuous end; but as untimely death took him from that house and from us all, so it proved the stay of such proceeding as was intended about it. Whereby it cometh to pass that it standeth as he left it. Neither will I remember the Tower of London, which is rather an armoury and house of munition, and thereunto a place for the safe keeping of offenders, than a palace royal for a king or queen to sojourn in. Yet in times past I find that Belliny held his abode there, and thereunto extended the site of his palace in such wise that it stretched over the Broken Wharf, and came further into the city, insomuch that it approached near to Billingsgate; and, as it is thought, some of the ruins of his houseare yet extant, howbeit patched up and made warehouses in that tract of ground in our times. St. James’s, sometime a nunnery, was builded also by the same prince. Her grace hath also Oteland, Ashridge, Hatfield, Havering, Enfield, Eltham, Langley, Richmond (builded by Henry the First), Hampton Court (begun sometime by Cardinal Wolsey, and finished by her father), and thereunto Woodstock, erected by King Henry the First, in which the queen’s majesty delighteth greatly to sojourn, notwithstanding that in time past it was the place of a parcel of her captivity, when it pleased God to try her by affliction and calamity.
For strength, Windlesor or Windsor is supposed to be the chief, a castle builded in time past by King Arthur, or before him by Arviragus, as it is thought, and repaired by Edward the Third, who erected also a notable college there. After him, divers of his successors have bestowed exceeding charges upon the same, which notwithstanding are far surmounted by the queen’s majesty now living, who hath appointed huge sums of money to be employed upon the ornature and alteration of the mould, according to the form of building used in our days, which is more for pleasure than for either profit or safeguard. Such also hath been the estimation of this place that divers kings have not only been interred there, but also made it the chief house of assembly and creation of the knights of the honourable Order of the Garter, than the which there is nothing in this land more magnificent and stately.
Greenwich was first builded by Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, upon the Thames side, four miles east from London, in the time of Henry the Sixth, and called Pleasance. Afterwards it was greatly enlarged by King Edward IV., garnished by King Henry VII., and finally made perfect by King Henry VIII., the only Phœnix of his time for fine and curious masonry.
Not far from this is Dartford, and not much distant also from the south side of the said stream, sometime a nunnery builded by Edward the Third, but now a very commodious palace, whereunto it was also converted by King Henry the Eighth.Eltham (as I take it) was builded by King Henry the Third, if not before. There are besides these, moreover, divers others. But what shall I need to take upon me to repeat all, and tell what houses the queen’s majesty hath? Sith all is hers: and, when it pleaseth her in the summer season to recreate herself abroad, and view the estate of the country, and hear the complaints of her poor commons injured by her unjust officers or their substitutes, every noble man’s house is her palace, where she continueth during pleasure, and till she return again to some of her own, in which she remaineth so long as pleaseth her.
The Court of England, which necessarily is holden always where the prince lieth, is in these days one of the most renowned and magnificent courts[204]that are to be found in Europe. For, whether you regard the rich and infinite furniture of household, order of officers, or the entertainment of such strangers as daily resort unto the same, you shall not find many equal thereunto, much less one excelling it in any manner of wise. I might here (if I would, or had sufficient disposition of matter conceived of the same) make a large discourse of such honourable ports, of such grave councillors, and noble personages, as give their daily attendance upon the queen’s majesty there. I could in like sort set forth a singular commendation of the virtuous beauty or beautiful virtues of such ladies and gentlewomen as wait upon her person, between whose amiable countenances and costliness of attire there seemeth to be such a daily conflict and contention as that it is very difficult for me to guess whether of the twain shall bear away the pre-eminence. This further is not to be omitted, to the singular commendation of both sorts and sexes of our courtiers here in England, that there are very few of them which have not the use and skill of sundry speeches, besides an excellent vein of writing beforetime not regarded. Would to God the rest of their lives and conversations were correspondent to these gifts! For as our commoncourtiers (for the most part) are the best learned and endued with excellent gifts, so are many of them the worst men when they come abroad that any man shall either hear or read of. Truly it is a rare thing with us now to hear of a courtier which hath but his own language. And to say how many gentlewomen and ladies there are that besides sound knowledge of the Greek and Latin tongues are thereto no less skilful in the Spanish, Italian, and French, or in some one of them, it resteth not in me, sith I am persuaded that, as the noblemen and gentlemen do surmount in this behalf, so these come very little or nothing at all behind them for their parts: which industry God continue, and accomplish that which otherwise is wanting!
Besides these things, I could in like sort set down the ways and means whereby our ancient ladies of the court do shun and avoid idleness, some of them exercising their fingers with the needle, others in caulwork, divers in spinning of silk, some in continual reading either of the Holy Scriptures, or histories of our own or foreign nations about us, and divers in writing volumes of their own, or translating of other men’s into our English and Latin tongue,[205]whilst the youngest sort in the meantime apply their lutes, citherns, pricksong, and all kind of music, which they use only for recreation’s sake when they have leisure, and are free from attendance upon the queen’s majesty or such as they belong unto. How many of the eldest sort also are skilful in surgery and distillation of waters, besides sundry other artificial practices pertaining to the ornature and commendations of their bodies, I might (if I listed to deal further in this behalf) easily declare; but I pass over such manner of dealing, lest I should seem to glaver and curry favour with some of them. Nevertheless this I will generally say of them all, that as each of them are cunning insomething whereby they keep themselves occupied in the court, so there is in manner none of them but when they be at home can help to supply the ordinary want of the kitchen with a number of delicate dishes of their own devising, wherein the Portuguese is their chief counsellor, as some of them are most commonly with the clerk of the kitchen, who useth (by a trick taken up of late) to give in a brief rehearsal of such and so many dishes as are to come in at every course throughout the whole service in the dinner or supper while, which bill some do call a memorial, others a billet, but some a fillet, because such are commonly hanged on the file and kept by the lady or gentlewoman unto some other purpose. But whither am I digressed?
I might finally describe the large allowances in offices and yearly liveries, and thereunto the great plenty of gold and silver plate, the several pieces whereof are commonly so great and massive, and the quantity thereof so abundantly serving all the household, that (as I suppose) Cinyras, Crœsus, and Crassus had not the like furniture; nay, if Midas were now living and once again put to his choice, I think he could ask no more, or rather not half so much as is there to be seen and used. But I pass over to make such needless discourses, resolving myself that even in this also, as in all the rest, the exceeding mercy and loving kindness of God doth wonderfully appear towards us, in that he hath so largely endued us with these his so ample benefits.
In some great princes’ courts beyond the seas, and which even for that cause are likened unto hell by divers learned writers that have spent a great part of their time in them, as Henricus Cornelius Agrippa, one (for example) who in his epistleAd aulicum quendam, saith thus—
“An non in inferno es amice, qui es in aula, ubi dæmonum habitatio est, qui illic suis artibus humana licet effigie regnant, atque ubi scelerum schola est, et animarum jactura ingens, ac quicquid uspiam est perfidæ ac doli, quicquid crudelitatis et inclementiæ quicquid effrænatæ superbiæ et rapacis avariciæ quicquid obscenæ libidinis, fædissimæ impudicitiæ, quicquid nefandæ impietatis et norum pessimorum, totum illic acervaturcumulatissime ubi strupra, raptus, incestus, adulteria, principum et nobilium ludi sunt ubi fastus et tumor, ira, livor, fœdaque cupido cum sociis suis imperavit, ubi, criminum omnium procellæ virtutumque omnium inenarrabile naufragium,” etc.
“An non in inferno es amice, qui es in aula, ubi dæmonum habitatio est, qui illic suis artibus humana licet effigie regnant, atque ubi scelerum schola est, et animarum jactura ingens, ac quicquid uspiam est perfidæ ac doli, quicquid crudelitatis et inclementiæ quicquid effrænatæ superbiæ et rapacis avariciæ quicquid obscenæ libidinis, fædissimæ impudicitiæ, quicquid nefandæ impietatis et norum pessimorum, totum illic acervaturcumulatissime ubi strupra, raptus, incestus, adulteria, principum et nobilium ludi sunt ubi fastus et tumor, ira, livor, fœdaque cupido cum sociis suis imperavit, ubi, criminum omnium procellæ virtutumque omnium inenarrabile naufragium,” etc.
In such great princes’ courts (I say) it is a world to see what lewd behaviour is used among divers of those that resort unto the same, and what whoredom, swearing, ribaldry, atheism, dicing, carding, carousing, drunkenness, gluttony, quarrelling, and such like inconveniences do daily take hold, and sometimes even among those in whose estates the like behaviour is least convenient (whereby their talk is verified, which say that the thing increaseth and groweth in the courts of princes, saving virtue, which in such places doth languish and daily fade away), all which enormities are either utterly expelled out of the court of England or else so qualified by the diligent endeavour of the chief officers of her grace’s household that seldom are any of these things apparently seen there without due reprehension and such severe correction as belongeth to those trespassers. Finally, to avoid idleness, and prevent sundry transgressions otherwise likely to be committed and done, such order is taken that every office hath either a Bible, or the books of the Acts and Monuments of the Church of England, or both, besides some histories and chronicles lying therein, for the exercise of such as come into the same: whereby the stranger that entereth into the court of England upon the sudden shall rather imagine himself to come into some public school of the universities, where many give ear to one that readeth, than into a princes’ palace, if you confer the same with those of other nations. Would to God all honourable personages would take example of her grace’s godly dealing in this behalf, and shew their conformity unto these her so good beginnings! Which, if they would, then should many grievous offences (wherewith God is highly displeased) be cut off and restrained, which now do reign exceedingly, in most noble and gentlemen’s houses, whereof they see no pattern within her grace’s gates.
I might speak here of the great trains and troops of serving men also which attend upon the nobility of England in theirseveral liveries and with differences of cognisances on their sleeves, whereby it is known to whom they appertain. I could also set down what a goodly sight it is to see them muster in the court, which, being filled with them, doth yield the contemplation of a noble variety unto the beholder, much like to the shew of the peacock’s tail in the full beauty, or of some meadow garnished with infinite kinds and diversities of pleasant flowers.[206]But I pass over the rehearsal hereof to other men, who more delight in vain amplification than I, and seek to be more curious in these points than I profess to be.[207]
How well or how strongly our country hath been furnished in times past with armour and artillery it lieth not in me as of myself to make rehearsal. Yet that it lacketh both in the late time of Queen Mary, not only the experience of mine elders, but also the talk of certain Spaniards not yet forgotten, did leave some manifest notice. Upon the first I need not stand, for few will deny it. For the second, I have heard that when one of the greatest peers of Spain espied our nakedness in this behalf, and did solemnly utter in no obscure place that “it should be an easy matter in short time to conquer England, because it wanted armour,” his words were then not so rashly uttered as they were politically noted. For, albeit that for the present time their efficacy was dissembled and semblance made as though he spake but merrily, yet at the very entrance of this our gracious queen unto the possession of the crown they were so providently called to remembrance, and such speedy reformation sought of all hands for the redress of this inconvenience, that our country was sooner furnished with armour and munition, from divers parts of the main (beside great plenty that was forged here at home), than our enemies could get understanding of any such provision to be made. By this policy also was the no small hope conceived by Spaniards utterly cut off, who, of open friends being now become our secret enemies, and thereto watching a time wherein to achieve some heavy exploit against us and our country, did thereupon change their purposes, whereby England obtainedrest, that otherwise might have been sure of sharp and cruel wars. Thus a Spanish word uttered by one man at one time overthrew, or at the leastwise hindered, sundry privy practices of many at another. In times past the chief force of England consisted in their long bows.[208]But now we have in manner generally given over that kind of artillery, and for long bows indeed do practise to shoot compass for our pastime: which kind of shooting can never yield any smart stroke, nor beat down our enemies, as our countrymen were wont to do at every time of need. Certes the Frenchmen and Rutters, deriding our new archery in respect of their corslets, will not let, in open skirmish, if any leisure serve, to turn up their tails and cry: “Shoot, English!” and all because our strong shooting is decayed and laid in bed. But, if some of our Englishmen now lived that served King Edward the Third in his wars with France, the breech of such a varlet should have been nailed to his bum with one arrow, and another feathered in his bowels before he should have turned about to see who shot the first. But, as our shooting is thus in manner utterly decayed among us one way, so our countrymen wax skilful in sundry other points, as in shooting in small pieces, the caliver, the handling of the pike, in the several uses whereof they are become very expert.
Our armour differeth not from that of other nations, and therefore consisteth of corslets, almaine rivets, shirts of mail, jacks quilted and covered over with leather, fustian, or canvas, over thick plates of iron that are sewed in the same, and of which there is no town or village that hath not her convenient furniture. The said armour and munition likewise is kept in one several place of every town, appointed by the consent of the whole parish, where it is always ready to be had and worn within an hour’s warning. Sometimes also it is occupied whenit pleaseth the magistrate either to view the able men, and take note of the well-keeping of the same, or finally to see those that are enrolled to exercise each one his several weapon, at the charge of the townsmen of each parish, according to his appointment. Certes there is almost no village so poor in England (be it never so small) that hath not sufficient furniture in a readiness to set forth three or four soldiers, as one archer, one gunner, one pike, and a billman at the least. No, there is not so much wanting as their very liveries and caps, which are least to be accounted of, if any haste required: so that, if this good order may continue, it shall be impossible for the sudden enemy to find us unprovided. As for able men for service, thanked be God! we are not without good store; for, by the musters taken 1574 and 1575, our number amounted to 1,172,674, and yet were they not so narrowly taken but that a third part of this like multitude was left unbilled and uncalled. What store of munition and armour the queen’s majesty had in her storehouses it lieth not in me to yield account, sith I suppose the same to be infinite. And whereas it was commonly said after the loss of Calais that England should never recover the store of ordinance there left and lost, that same is at this time proved false, sith even some of the same persons do now confess that this land was never better furnished with these things in any king’s days that reigned since the Conquest.
The names of our greatest ordnance are commonly these:Brobonet, whose weight is two hundred pounds, and it hath one inch and a quarter within the mouth;Falconet, weigheth five hundred pounds, and his wideness is two inches within the mouth;Falcon, hath eight hundred pounds, and two inches and a half within the mouth;Minion, poiseth eleven hundred pounds, and hath three inches and a quarter within the mouth;Sacre, hath fifteen hundred pounds, and is three inches and a half wide in the mouth;Demi-Culverin, weigheth three thousand pounds, and hath four inches and a half within the mouth;Culverin, hath four thousand pounds, and five inches and a half within the mouth;Demi-Cannon, six thousand pounds, and six inches and a half within the mouth;Cannon,seven thousand pounds, and seven inches within the mouth;E. Cannon, eight thousand pounds, and seven inches within the mouth;Basilisk, nine thousand pounds, eight inches and three-quarters within the mouth. By which proportions also it is easy to come by the weight of every shot, how many scores it doth flee at point-blank, and how much powder is to be had to the same, and finally how many inches in height each bullet ought to carry:
I might here take just occasion to speak of the prince’s armories. But what shall it need? sith the whole realm is her armory, and therefore her furniture infinite. The Turk had one gun made by one Orban, a Dane, the caster of his ordnance, which could not be drawn to the siege of Constantinople but by seventy yoke of oxen and two thousand men; he had two other there also whose shot poised above two talents in weight, made by the same Orban. But to proceed. As for the armories of some of the nobility (whereof I also have seen a part), they are so well furnished that within some one baron’s custody I have seen three score or a hundred corslets at once, besides calivers, hand-guns, bows, sheaves of arrows, pikes, bills, poleaxes, flasks, touchboxes, targets, etc., the very sight whereof appalled my courage. What would the wearing of some of them do then (trow you) if I should be enforced to use one of them in the field? But thanked be God! our peaceable days are such as no man hath any great cause tooccupy them at all, but only taketh good leisure to have them in a readiness, and therefore both high and low in England.[209]
“Cymbala pro galeis pro scutis tympana pulsant.”
I would write here also of our manner of going to the wars, but what hath the long black gown to do with glittering armour? what sound acquaintance can there be betwixt Mars and the Muses? or how should a man write anything to the purpose of that wherewith he is nothing acquainted? This nevertheless will I add of things at home, that seldom shall you see any of my countrymen above eighteen or twenty years old to go without a dagger at the least at his back or by his side, although they be aged burgesses or magistrates of any city who in appearance are most exempt from brabling and contention. Our nobility wear commonly swords or rapiers with their daggers, as doth every common serving-man also that followeth his lord and master. Some desperate cutters we have in like sort, which carry two daggers or two rapiers in a sheath always about them, wherewith in every drunken fray they are known to work much mischief. Their swords and daggers also are of a great length, and longer than the like used in any other country, whereby each one pretendeth to have the more advantage of his enemy. But as many orders have been taken for the intolerable length of these weapons, so I see as yet small redress; but where the cause thereof doth rest, in sooth for my part, I wot not. I might here speak of the excessive staves which divers that travel by the way do carry upon their shoulders, whereof some are twelve or thirteen foot long, beside the pike of twelve inches; but, as they are commonly suspected of honest men to be thieves and robbers, or at the leastwise scarce true men which bear them, so by reason of this and the like suspicious weapons the honest traveller is now forced to ride with a case of dags at his saddlebow,or with some pretty short snapper, whereby he may deal with them further off in his own self-defence before he come within the danger of these weapons. Finally, no man travelleth by the way without his sword, or some such weapon, with us, except the minister, who commonly weareth none at all, unless it be a dagger or hanger at his side. Seldom also are they or any other wayfaring men robbed, without the consent of the chamberlain, tapster, or ostler where they bait and lie, who feeling at their alighting whether their capcases or budgets be of any weight or not, by taking them down from their saddles, or otherwise see their store in drawing of their purses, do by-and-by give intimation to some one or other attendant daily in the yard or house, or dwelling hard by, upon such matches, whether the prey be worth the following or no. If it be for their turn, then the gentleman peradventure is asked which way he travelleth, and whether it please him to have another guest to bear him company at supper, who rideth the same way in the morning that he doth, or not. And thus if he admit him, or be glad of his acquaintance, the cheat is half wrought. And often it is seen that the new guest shall be robbed with the old, only to colour out the matter and keep him from suspicion. Sometimes, when they know which way the passenger travelleth, they will either go before and lie in wait for him, or else come galloping apace after, whereby they will be sure, if he ride not the stronger, to be fingering with his purse. And these are some of the policies of such shrews or close-booted gentlemen as lie in wait for fat booties by the highways, and which are most commonly practised in the winter season, about the feast of Christmas, when serving-men and unthrifty gentlemen want money to play at the dice and cards, lewdly spending in such wise whatsoever they have wickedly gotten, till some of them sharply set upon their chevisances, be trussed up in a Tyburn tippet, which happeneth unto them commonly before they come to middle age. Whereby it appeareth that some sort of youth will oft have his swing, although it be in a halter.[210]
There is nothing that hath brought me into more admiration of the power and force of antiquity than their diligence and care had of their navies: wherein, whether I consider their speedy building, or great number of ships which some one kingdom or region possessed at one instant, it giveth me still occasion either to suspect the history, or to think that in our times we come very far behind them.[211]
I must needs confess therefore that the ancient vessels far exceeded ours for capacity, nevertheless if you regard the form, and the assurance from peril of the sea, and therewithal the strength and nimbleness of such as are made in our time, you shall easily find that ours are of more value than theirs: for as the greatest vessel is not always the fastest, so that of most huge capacity is not always the aptest to shift and brook the seas: as might be seen by theGreat Henry,[212]the hugest vessel that ever England framed in our times. Neither were the ships of old like unto ours in mould and manner of building above the water (for of low galleys in our seas wemake small account) nor so full of ease within, since time hath engendered more skill in the wrights, and brought all things to more perfection than they had in the beginning. And now to come unto our purpose at the first intended.
The navy of England may be divided into three sorts, of which the one serveth for the wars, the other for burden, and the third for fishermen which get their living by fishing on the sea. How many of the first order are maintained within the realm it passeth my cunning to express; yet, since it may be parted into the navy royal and common fleet, I think good to speak of those that belong unto the prince, and so much the rather, for that their number is certain and well known to very many. Certainly there is no prince in Europe that hath a more beautiful or gallant sort of ships than the queen’s majesty of England at this present, and those generally are of such exceeding force that two of them, being well appointed and furnished as they ought, will not let to encounter with three or four of those of other countries, and either bowge them or put them to flight, if they may not bring them home.[213]
Neither are the moulds of any foreign barks so conveniently made, to brook so well one sea as another lying upon the shore of any part of the continent, as those of England. And therefore the common report that strangers make of our ships amongst themselves is daily confirmed to be true, which is, that for strength, assurance, nimbleness, and swiftness of sailing, there are no vessels in the world to be compared with ours. And all these are committed to the regiment and safe custody of the admiral, who is so called (as some imagine) of the Greek wordalmiras, a captain on the sea; for so saith Zonaras inBasilio MacedoneandBasilio Porphyriogenito, though others fetch it fromad mare, the Latin words, another sort fromAmyras, the Saracen magistrate, or from some French derivation: but these things are not for this place, and therefore I pass them over. The queen’s highness hath at this present (which is thefour-and-twentieth of her reign) already made and furnished, to the number of four or five-and-twenty great ships, which lie for the most part in Gillingham Road, beside three galleys, of whose particular names and furniture (so far forth as I can come by them) it shall not be amiss to make report at this time.[214]
The names of so many ships belonging to her majesty as I could come by at this present.
It is said that as kings and princes have in the young days of the world, and long since, framed themselves to erect every year a city in some one place or other of their kingdom (and no small wonder that Sardanapalus should begin and finish two, to wit, Anchialus and Tarsus, in one day), so her grace doth yearly build one ship or other to the better defence of her frontiers from the enemy. But, as of this report I have no assured certainty, so it shall suffice to have said so much of these things; yet this I think worthy further to be added, that if they should all be driven to service at one instant (which God forbid) she should have a power by sea of about nine or ten thousand men, which were a notable company, beside the supply of other vessels appertaining to her subjects to furnish up her voyage.
Beside these, her grace hath other in hand also, of whom hereafter, as their turns do come about, I will not let to leave some further remembrance. She hath likewise three notable galleys: the Speedwell, the Try Right, and the Black Galley, with the sight whereof, and the rest of the navy royal, it is incredible to say how greatly her grace is delighted: and not without great cause (I say) since by their means her coasts are kept in quiet, and sundry foreign enemies put back, which otherwise would invade us.[218]The number of those that servefor burden with the other, whereof I have made mention already and whose use is daily seen, as occasion serveth in time of the wars, is to me utterly unknown. Yet if the report of one record be anything at all to be credited, there are one hundred and thirty-five ships that exceed five hundred ton; topmen, under one hundred and above forty, six hundred and fifty-six; hoys, one hundred; but of hulks, catches, fisherboats, and crayers, it lieth not in me to deliver the just account, since they are hard to come by. Of these also there are some ofthe queen’s majesty’s subjects that have two or three; some, four or six; and (as I heard of late) one man, whose name I suppress for modesty’s sake, hath been known not long since to have had sixteen or seventeen, and employed them wholly to the wafting in and out of our merchants, whereby he hath reaped no small commodity and gain. I might take occasion to tell of the notable and difficult voyages made into strange countries by Englishmen, and of their daily success there;[219]but as these things are nothing incident to my purpose, so I surcease to speak of them. Only this will I add, to the end all men shall understand somewhat of the great masses of treasure daily employed upon our navy, how there are few of those ships, of the first and second sort, that, being apparelled and made ready to sail, are not worth one thousand pounds, or three thousand ducats at the least, if they should presently be sold. What shall we think then of the greater, but especially of the navy royal, of which some one vessel is worth two of the other, as the shipwrights have often told me? It is possible that some covetous person, hearing this report, will either not credit it at all, or suppose money so employed to be nothing profitable to the queen’s coffers: as a good husband said once when he heard there should be a provision made for armour, wishing the queen’s money to be rather laid out to some speedier return of gain unto her grace, “because the realm (saith he) is in case good enough,” and so peradventure he thought. But if, as by store of armour for the defence of the country, he had likewise understanded that the good keeping of the sea is the safeguard of our land, he would have altered his censure, and soon given over his judgment. For in times past, when our nation made small account of navigation, how soon did the Romans, then the Saxons, and last of all the Danes, invade this island? whose cruelty in the end enforced our countrymen, as it were even against their wills, to provide for ships from other places, and build at home of their own, whereby their enemies were oftentimes distressed. But mostof all were the Normans therein to be commended. For, in a short process of time after the conquest of this island, and good consideration had for the well-keeping of the same, they supposed nothing more commodious for the defence of the country than the maintenance of a strong navy, which they speedily provided, maintained, and thereby reaped in the end their wished security, wherewith before their times this island was never acquainted. Before the coming of the Romans I do not read that we had any ships at all, except a few made of wicker and covered with buffalo hides, like unto which there are some to be seen at this present in Scotland (as I hear), although there be a little (I wot not well what) difference between them. Of the same also Solinus speaketh, so far as I remember: nevertheless it may be gathered from his words how the upper parts of them above the water only were framed of the said wickers, and that the Britons did use to fast all the whiles they went to the sea in them; but whether it were done for policy or superstition, as yet I do not read.
In the beginning of the Saxons’ regiment we had some ships also; but as their number and mould was little, and nothing to the purpose, so Egbert was the first prince that ever thoroughly began to know this necessity of a navy and use the service thereof in the defence of his country. After him also other princes, as Alfred, Edgar, Ethelred, etc., endeavoured more and more to store themselves at the full with ships of all quantities, but chiefly Edgar, for he provided a navy of 1600aliàs3600 sail, which he divided into four parts, and sent them to abide upon four sundry coasts of the land, to keep the same from pirates. Next unto him (and worthy to be remembered) is Etheldred, who made a law that every man that hold 310 hidelands should find a ship furnished to serve him in the wars. Howbeit, as I said before, when all their navy was at the greatest, it was not comparable for force and sure building to that which afterward the Normans provided, neither that of the Normans anything like to the same that is to be seen now in these our days. For the journeys also of our ships, you shall understand that a well-builded vessel will run or sail commonly three hundredleagues or nine hundred miles in a week, or peradventure some will go 2200 leagues in six weeks and a half. And surely, if their lading be ready against they come thither, there be of them that will be here, at the West Indies, and home again in twelve or thirteen weeks from Colchester, although the said Indies be eight hundred leagues from the cape or point of Cornwall, as I have been informed. This also I understand by report of some travellers, that, if any of our vessels happen to make a voyage to Hispaniola or New Spain (called in time past Quinquegia and Haiti), which lieth between the north tropic and the Equator, after they have once touched at the Canaries (which are eight days’ sailing or two hundred and fifty leagues from St. Lucas de Barameda, in Spain) they will be there in thirty or forty days, and home again in Cornwall in other eight weeks, which is a goodly matter, beside the safety and quietness in the passage, but more of this elsewhere.
In cases of felony, manslaughter, robbery, murder, rape, piracy, and such capital crimes as are not reputed for treason or hurt of the estate, our sentence pronounced upon the offender is, to hang till he be dead. For of other punishments used in other countries we have no knowledge or use; and yet so few grievous crimes committed with us as elsewhere in the world. To use torment also or question by pain and torture in these common cases with us is greatly abhorred, since we are found always to be such as despise death, and yet abhor to be tormented, choosing rather frankly to open our minds than to yield our bodies unto such servile haulings and tearings as are used in other countries. And this is one cause wherefore our condemned persons do go so cheerfully to their deaths; for our nation is free, stout, haughty, prodigal of life and blood, as Sir Thomas Smith saith, lib. 2, cap. 25,De Republica,[220]and thereforecannot in any wise digest to be used as villains and slaves, in suffering continually beating, servitude, and servile torments.[221]No, our gaolers are guilty of felony, by an old law of the land, if they torment any prisoner committed to their custody for the revealing of his accomplices.
The greatest and most grievous punishment used in England for such as offend against the State is drawing from the prison to the place of execution upon an hurdle or sled, where they are hanged till they be half dead, and then taken down, and quartered alive; after that, their members and bowels are cut from their bodies, and thrown into a fire,[222]provided near hand and within their own sight, even for the same purpose.
Sometimes, if the trespass be not the more heinous, they are suffered to hang till they be quite dead. And whensoever any of the nobility are convicted of high treason by their peers,that is to say, equals (for an inquest of yeomen passeth not upon them, but only of the lords of parliament), this manner of their death is converted into the loss of their heads only, notwithstanding that the sentence do run after the former order. In trial of cases concerning treason, felony, or any other grievous crime not confessed, the party accused doth yield, if he be a noble man, to be tried by an inquest (as I have said) and his peers; if a gentleman, by gentlemen; and an inferior, by God and by the country, to wit, the yeomanry (for combat or battle is not greatly in use), and, being condemned of felony, manslaughter, etc., he is eftsoons hanged by the neck till he be dead, and then cut down and buried. But if he be convicted of wilful murder, done either upon pretended malice or in any notable robbery, he is either hanged alive in chains near the place where the fact was committed (or else upon compassion taken, first strangled with a rope), and so continueth till his bones consume to nothing. We have use neither of the wheel nor of the bar, as in other countries; but, when wilful manslaughter is perpetrated, beside hanging, the offender hath his right hand commonly stricken off before or near unto the place where the act was done, after which he is led forth to the place of execution, and there put to death according to the law.
The word felon is derived of the Saxon wordsfellandone, that is to say, an evil and wicked one, a one of untameable nature and lewdness not to be suffered for fear of evil example and the corruption of others. In like sort in the wordfelonyare many grievous crimes contained, as breach of prison (Ann. 1 of Edward the Second), disfigurers of the prince’s liege people (Ann. 5 of Henry the Fourth), hunting by night with painted faces and visors (Ann. 1 of Henry the Seventh), rape, or stealing of women and maidens (Ann. 3 of Henry Eight), conspiracies against the person of the prince (Ann. 3 of Henry the Seventh), embezzling of goods committed by the master to the servant above the value of forty shillings (Ann. 17 of Henry the Eighth), carrying of horses or mares into Scotland (Ann. 23 of Henry Eight), sodomy andbuggery[223](Ann. 25 of Henry the Eighth), conjuring,[224]forgery, witchcraft, and digging up of crosses (Ann. 33 of Henry Eight),[225]prophesying upon arms, cognisances, names, and badges (Ann. 33 of Henry Eight), casting of slanderous bills (Ann. 37, Henry Eight), wilful killing by poison (Ann. 1 of Edward the Sixth), departure of a soldier from the field (Ann. 2 of Edward the Sixth), diminution of coin, all offences within case of premunire, embezzling of records, goods taken from dead men by their servants, stealing of whatsoever cattle, robbing by the high way, upon the sea, or of dwelling houses, letting out of ponds, cutting of purses,[226]stealing of deer by night,[227]counterfeits of coin,[228]evidences charters,and writings, and divers other needless to be remembered. If a woman poison her husband, she is burned alive;[229]if the servant kill his master, he is to be executed for petty treason; he that poisoneth a man is to be boiled to death in water or lead, although the party die not of the practice; in cases of murder, all the accessories are to suffer pains of death accordingly. Perjury is punished by the pillory, burning in the forehead with the letter P, the rewalting of the trees growing upon the grounds of the offenders, and loss of all his movables. Many trespasses also are punished by the cutting off of one or both ears from the head of the offender, as the utterance of seditious words against the magistrates, fraymakers, petty robbers, etc. Rogues are burned through the ears; carriers of sheep out of the land, by the loss of their hands; such as kill by poison are either boiled or scalded to death in lead or seething water. Heretics are burned quick;[230]harlots andtheir mates, by carting, ducking, and doing of open penance in sheets in churches and market steeds, are often put to rebuke. Howbeit, as this is counted with some either as no punishment at all to speak of, or but little regarded of the offenders, so I would with adultery and fornication to have some sharper law. For what great smart is it to be turned out of hot sheet into a cold, or after a little washing in the water to be let loose again unto their former trades? Howbeit the dragging of some of them over the Thames between Lambeth and Westminster at the tail of a boat is a punishment that most terrifieth them which are condemned thereto; but this is inflicted upon them by none other than the knight marshall, and that within the compass of his jurisdiction and limits only. Canutus was the first that gave authority to the clergy to punish whoredom, who at that time found fault with the former laws as being too severe in this behalf. For, before the time of the said Canutus, the adulterer forfeited all his goods to the king and his body to be at his pleasure; and the adulteress was to lose her eyes or nose, or both if the case were more than common: whereby it appears of what estimation marriage was amongst them, since the breakers of that holy estate were so grievously rewarded. But afterward the clergy dealt more favourably with them, shooting rather at the punishments of such priests and clerks as were married than the reformation of adultery and fornication, wherein you shall find no example that any severity was shewed except upon such lay men as had defiled their nuns. As in theft therefore, so in adultery and whoredom, I would wish the parties trespassing to be made bond or slaves unto those that received the injury, to sell and give where they listed, or to be condemned to the galleys: for that punishment would prove more bitter to them than half-an-hour’s hanging, or than standing in a sheet, though the weather be never so cold.
Manslaughter in time past was punished by the purse, wherein the quantity or quality of the punishment was ratedafter the state and calling of the party killed: so that one was valued sometime at 1200, another at 600, or 200 shillings. And by a statute made under Henry the First, a citizen of London at 100, whereof elsewhere I have spoken more at large. Such as kill themselves are buried in the field with a stake driven through their bodies.
Witches are hanged, or sometimes burned; but thieves are hanged (as I said before) generally on the gibbet or gallows, saving in Halifax, where they are beheaded after a strange manner, and whereof I find this report. There is and has been of ancient time a law, or rather a custom, at Halifax, that whosoever does commit any felony, and is taken with the same, or confesses the fact upon examination, if it be valued by four constables to amount to the sum of thirteenpence-halfpenny, he is forthwith beheaded upon one of the next market days (which fall usually upon the Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays), or else upon the same day that he is so convicted, if market be then holden. The engine wherewith the execution is done is a square block of wood of the length of four feet and a half, which does ride up and down in a slot, rabbet, or regall, between two pieces of timber, that are framed and set upright, of five yards in height. In the nether end of the sliding block is an axe, keyed or fastened with an iron into the wood, which being drawn up to the top of the frame is there fastened by a wooden pin (with a notch made into the same, after the manner of a Samson’s post), unto the midst of which pin also there is a long rope fastened that cometh down among the people, so that, when the offender hath made his confession and hath laid his neck over the nethermost block, every man there present doth either take hold of the rope (or putteth forth his arm so near to the same as he can get, in token that he is willing to see true justice executed), and, pulling out the pin in this manner, the head-block wherein the axe is fastened doth fall down with such a violence that, if the neck of the transgressor were as big as that of a bull, it should be cut in sunder at a stroke and roll from the body by a huge distance. If it be so that the offender be apprehended for an ox, oxen, sheep, kine, horse, orany such cattle, the self beast or other of the same kind shall have the end of the rope tied somewhere unto them, so that they, being driven, do draw out the pin, whereby the offender is executed. Thus much of Halifax law, which I set down only to shew the custom of that country in this behalf.