“Thus haue I finished the description of such riuers and streames as fall into the Ocean, according to my purpose, although not in so precise an order and manner of handling as I might, if information promised had been accordinglie performed; or others would, if they had taken the like in hand. But this will I saie of that which is here done, that from the Solueie by west, which parteth England & Scotland on that side, to the Twede which separateth the said kingdoms on the east, if you go backeward, contrarie to the course of my description, you shall find it so exact, as beside a verie few by-riuers, you shall not need to vse any further aduise for the finding and falles of the aforesaid streames.For such hath beene my help of maister Sackfords cardes, and conference with other men about these, that I dare pronounce them to be perfect and exact. Furthermore, this I have also to remember, that in the courses of our streames, I regard not so much to name the verie towne or church, as the limits of the paroch. And therefore if I saie it goeth by such a towne, I thinke my dutie discharged, if I hit vpon anie part or parcell of the paroch. This also hath not a little troubled me, I meane the euill writing of the names of manie townes and villages; of which I have noted some one man, in the description of a riuer, to write one towne two or three manner of waies, whereby I was inforced to choose one (at adventure most commonlie) that seemed the likeliest to be sound in mine opinion and iudgement.“Finallie, whereas I minded to set downe an especiall chapter of ports and creeks, lieng on ech coast of the English part of this Ile, and had provided the same in such wise as I iudged most convenient, it came to passe, thatthe greater part of my labour was taken from me by stealth, and therefore as discouraged to meddle with that argument, I would have giuen ouer to set downe anie thing thereof at all, and so much the rather, for that I see it may prooue a spurre vnto further mischeefe, as things come to passe in these daies. Neverthelesse because a title thereof is passed in the beginning of the booke, I will deliuer that parcell thereofwhich remaineth, leauing the supplie of the rest either to my selfe hereafter (if I may come by it), or to some other that can better performe the same.“Againe, vnderstanding of the great charges & notable enterprise of that worthie gentlemanmaister Thomas Sackford, in procuring the Charts of the seuerall prouinces of this realme to be set foorth, we are in hope that in time he will delineate this whole land so perfectlie,” etc.
“Thus haue I finished the description of such riuers and streames as fall into the Ocean, according to my purpose, although not in so precise an order and manner of handling as I might, if information promised had been accordinglie performed; or others would, if they had taken the like in hand. But this will I saie of that which is here done, that from the Solueie by west, which parteth England & Scotland on that side, to the Twede which separateth the said kingdoms on the east, if you go backeward, contrarie to the course of my description, you shall find it so exact, as beside a verie few by-riuers, you shall not need to vse any further aduise for the finding and falles of the aforesaid streames.For such hath beene my help of maister Sackfords cardes, and conference with other men about these, that I dare pronounce them to be perfect and exact. Furthermore, this I have also to remember, that in the courses of our streames, I regard not so much to name the verie towne or church, as the limits of the paroch. And therefore if I saie it goeth by such a towne, I thinke my dutie discharged, if I hit vpon anie part or parcell of the paroch. This also hath not a little troubled me, I meane the euill writing of the names of manie townes and villages; of which I have noted some one man, in the description of a riuer, to write one towne two or three manner of waies, whereby I was inforced to choose one (at adventure most commonlie) that seemed the likeliest to be sound in mine opinion and iudgement.
“Finallie, whereas I minded to set downe an especiall chapter of ports and creeks, lieng on ech coast of the English part of this Ile, and had provided the same in such wise as I iudged most convenient, it came to passe, thatthe greater part of my labour was taken from me by stealth, and therefore as discouraged to meddle with that argument, I would have giuen ouer to set downe anie thing thereof at all, and so much the rather, for that I see it may prooue a spurre vnto further mischeefe, as things come to passe in these daies. Neverthelesse because a title thereof is passed in the beginning of the booke, I will deliuer that parcell thereofwhich remaineth, leauing the supplie of the rest either to my selfe hereafter (if I may come by it), or to some other that can better performe the same.
“Againe, vnderstanding of the great charges & notable enterprise of that worthie gentlemanmaister Thomas Sackford, in procuring the Charts of the seuerall prouinces of this realme to be set foorth, we are in hope that in time he will delineate this whole land so perfectlie,” etc.
The last section refers to Harrison’s loss by somebody’s pilfering. Now comes another of the tribulations he had to endure. Somebody is in a huff about something, and refused the aid promised to describe all the towns in England. It must have been no ordinary topographer, and may possibly be young Camden, whose name seems never to be mentioned by Harrison, although in 1587 at least his initial labours must have been well known to every scholar in London, especially a man like Harrison who knew all that was going to happen in the world of letters as well as all that the public knew. His complaint is as follows, beginning the 11th chapter of Book I., the first of our series just referred to, the Thames having as natural the place of honour:—
“Having (as you [Lord Cobham] haue seene) attempted to set downe a full discourse of all the Ilands, that are situat upon the coast of Britaine, and finding the successe not correspondent to mine intent, it has caused me some what to restreine my purpose in this description also of our riuers. For whereas I intended at the first to haue written at large, of the number situation names quantities townes villages castles mounteines fresh waters plashes or lakes, salt waters, and other commodities of the aforesaid Iles,mine expectation of information from all parts of England was so deceiued in the end, that I was faine at last onelie to leane to that which I knew my selfe either by reading, or such other helpe as I had alreadie purchased and gotten of the same. And even so it happeneth in this my tractation of waters, of whose heads, courses, length, bredth, depth of chanell (for burden) ebs, flowings, and falles, I had thought to haue made a perfect description under the report also of an imagined course taken by them all.But now for want of instruction, which hath beene largelie promised, & slacklie perfourmed, and other sudden and iniurious deniall of helpe voluntarilie offered, without occasion giuen on my part, I must needs content my selfe with such observations as I haue either obteined by mine owne experience, or gathered from time to time out of other mens writings: whereby the full discourse of the whole is vtterlie cut off, and in steed of the same, a mangled rehearsall of the residue set downe and left in memorie.”
“Having (as you [Lord Cobham] haue seene) attempted to set downe a full discourse of all the Ilands, that are situat upon the coast of Britaine, and finding the successe not correspondent to mine intent, it has caused me some what to restreine my purpose in this description also of our riuers. For whereas I intended at the first to haue written at large, of the number situation names quantities townes villages castles mounteines fresh waters plashes or lakes, salt waters, and other commodities of the aforesaid Iles,mine expectation of information from all parts of England was so deceiued in the end, that I was faine at last onelie to leane to that which I knew my selfe either by reading, or such other helpe as I had alreadie purchased and gotten of the same. And even so it happeneth in this my tractation of waters, of whose heads, courses, length, bredth, depth of chanell (for burden) ebs, flowings, and falles, I had thought to haue made a perfect description under the report also of an imagined course taken by them all.But now for want of instruction, which hath beene largelie promised, & slacklie perfourmed, and other sudden and iniurious deniall of helpe voluntarilie offered, without occasion giuen on my part, I must needs content my selfe with such observations as I haue either obteined by mine owne experience, or gathered from time to time out of other mens writings: whereby the full discourse of the whole is vtterlie cut off, and in steed of the same, a mangled rehearsall of the residue set downe and left in memorie.”
Dr. Furnivall has told in a note to his “Forewords” that the manuscript of Harrison’s still unpublished “Chronology” was unearthed in the library of Derry diocese. How it came there is very evident.Harrison’s only son and heir, Edmund Harrison, was the first prebendary of the diocese, who is described in the Visitation as “a man very well qualified both for life and learning.” From the manuscript Dr. Furnivall extracted various entries relating to Harrison’s own time, which are of most picturesque quality if of rather meagre quantity. Those of especial bearing on the reign of Elizabeth, though beginning just before her advent, are as follows:—
Dearth and Sickness in England.
1556. Derth in England, wherein wheat is worthe liij sh: iiij d the quarter; malt, beanes, Rie, at 40 sh:; & peasen at 46 shillinges; but after harvest, wheate was sold for 5 shillinges the quarter, malt at a noble, Rie at 3 sh: 4 d. in London; & therefore the price was not so highe in the country....
Soche was the plenty of Saffron in this yere, that the murmuring Crokers envieng the store, said in blasphemous maner, in & aboute Waldon in Essex, that “God did now shite saffron”; but as some of them died afterward, starke beggars, so in 20 yeres after, there was so little of this Commodity, that it was almost lost & perished in England....
A generall sickenesse in England, where-of the third parte of the people of the land did tast; & many clergymen had their desire, who, suspecting an alteration in relligion to insue after the death of Quene Mary, & fearing to be called to accompt for their bloodshed made, & practize of the losse of Calais, craved of God in their daiely praiers, that they might die before her; & so they did; the Lord hearing their praiers, & intending therby to geue his churche a breathing time....
Harrison on Religious Hatred.
1560. The French Protestantes are exiled out of Frankeford, Aprillis 23, onely for that, in doctrine, they did not agree with Luther, the Augustane confession, pacification at Wittenberg, & reconciliation made at Frankeford: a slender cause, God wote! If it be well examined, you shall find it a thing onely diuised, thereby to put their brethren to incumbrauns. But when I consider what hatred the Lutheranes do here vnto the Calvinistes, & the Precisians to the Protestantes, I can liken the same to nothing better then that mallice which reigneth betwene the papistes & the gospellers....
The Spire of St. Paul’s struck by Lightning.
1560. The Rooffe, with the Spire & steple of Paules church in London, is consumed to ashes, Junij 4, by lightning. Certes the toppe of this Spire, where the wethercocke stode, was 520 foote from the ground, of which the spire was the one halfe. the bredth of the church also, saith Stow, is 130 foote, & the length 2690, or 836 yardes, 2 foote, at this present. Also an erthquake is felt in the kingdome.... (Stowe, p. 1095.—F.)
Queen Elizabeth at Oxford. “Falamon and Arcite.”
1565. The Queene of England beginneth hir progresse, & vpon the 31 of August cometh to Oxford, where she visiteth eche college after other, & making an oration vnto them in Latine, as she had done in Cambridge two yeres passed, to the gret comfort of all soche as are, or had bene, studentes there. During her being there also the Academicall exercises were holden as in their vsuall termes. Diuerse Commedies & plaies also were set forthe by the studentes of Christes Church, where her Majestie lodged; but of all the rest, onely that of “Arcite & Palemon”[239]had a tragicall successe; for, by the falle, of a walle & wooden gallery that leadeth from the staiers vnfinished to the hall, diuers persons were sore hurt, & 3 men killed out right, which came to behold the pastimes. [This paragraph takes up seven lines, and 1¼ inch of the height, of Harrison’s MS.; so close is the writing.—F.]....
Evils of Plays and Theatres.[240]
1572. Plaies are banished for a time out of London, lest the resort vnto them should ingender a plague, or rather disperse it, being alredy begonne. Would to god these comon plaies were exiled for altogether, as semenaries of impiety, & their theaters pulled downe, as no better then houses of baudrie. It is an euident token of a wicked time when plaiers wexe so riche that they can build[241]suche houses / As moche Iwish also to our comon beare baitinges vsed on the sabaothe daies.[243]
Tobacco.
1573. In these daies, the taking-in of the smoke of the Indian herbe called “Tabaco,” by an instrument formed like a litle ladell, wherby it passeth from the mouth into the hed & stomach, is gretlie taken-vp & vsed in England, against Rewmes & some other diseases ingendred in the longes & inward partes, & not without effect / This herbe as yet is not so common, but that for want thereof diuers do practize for the like purposes with the Nicetian, otherwise called in latine, “Hyosciamus Luteus,” or the yellow henbane, albeit, not without gret error; for, althoughe that herbe be a souerene healer of old vlcers & sores reputed incurable outwardly, yet is not the smoke or vapour thereof so profitable to be receaued inwardly. The herbe [Tobacco] is comonly of the height of a man,[244]garnished with great leaues like the paciens,[245]bering seede, colloured, & of quantity like vnto, or rather lesse then, the fine margeronie; the herbe it self yerely coming vp also of the shaking of the seede; the collour of the floure is carnation, resembling that of the lemmon in forme: the roote yellow, with many fillettes, & therto very small in comparison, if you respect the substauns of the herbe.[246]
A monstrous fish.
1573. A monstrous fish is taken in Thenet vpon the xjthof July, of 66 foote in length; one of whose eies was a full cart lode, & the diameter or thickenesse thereof, full two yardes, or 6 of our english feete....
London Bridge Tower.
1576. The towre on the drawe bridge vpon london bridge is taken downe in Aprill, being in great decaie; & sone after made a pleasaunt & beautiful dwelling house / & whereas the heddes of soche as were executed for treason were wont to be placed vpon this towre, they were now remoued, & fixed ouer the gate which leadeth from Southwarke into the citie by that bridge....
A great Snowstorm.
1578. A Cold winter, & ere long there falleth a great snow in England, whose driftes, in many places, by reason of a Northest winde, were so depe that the mere report of them maie seme incredible. It beganne in the 4 of feb: & held on vntil the 8 of the same moneth; during which time some men & women, beside cattell, were lost, & not heard of till the snow was melted & gone, notwithstanding that some shepe & catle lived vnder it, & fedd in the places where they laie, vpon soche grasse as they cold come by. Vpon the xjthalso of that moneth, the Thames did rise so highe, after the dissolution of this snow, that westminster hall was drowned, & moche fishe left there in the pallace yard when the water returned to her Channell, for who so list, to gather vp....
Plagues of Locusts or Grasshoppers, and Mice.
1583. Great harme done in England in diuerse shires, by locustes, or “grashoppers” as we call them, which deuoured the grasse, & consumed the pastures & medowes in very pitifull maner: soche great nombers of crowes also do come into those partes to fede vpon those creatures, that they tread downe & trample the rest, I meane, whatsoeuer the locust had left vntouched. Not long before, if not about this time, also some places of the hundredes in Essex were no lesse annoyed with mise, as report then went, which did gret hurt to corne & the fruites of the erth, till an infinite nomber of Owles were assembled into those partes, which consumed them all to nothing. Certes the report is true; but I am not sure whether it was in this, or the yere before or after this, for I did not enter the note when it was first sent vnto me, the lettre being cast aside, & not hard of after the receipt.
Stafford’s Conspiracy.[247]
1586. Another Conspiracy is detected vpon Newyeres daie, wherein the death of our Queene is ones againe intended, by Stafford & other, at the receipt of her Newyeres giftes; but, as God hath taken vpon him the defence of his owne cause, so hath he, in extraordinary maner, from time to time preserued her Majestie, his servant, from the treason & traiterous practizes of her aduersaries, & wonderfully bewraied their diuises./
A Star in the Moon. A wet Summer in Autumn.
1587. A Sterre is sene in the bodie of the mone vpon theof Marche, whereat many men merueiled, & not without cause, for it stode directly betwene the pointes of her hornes, the mone being chaunged, not passing 5 or 6 daies before; & in the later end of the Crabbe after this, also there insued a very moyst & wet somer, wherby moche haie was lost, & harvest in the begining grew to be very troublesome. There followed also a like Autumn; by meanes wherof, shepe & moche other cattell died in abundant maner in most places of our Iland,[248]wherby the residew grew to be very dere ... (“a reasonable good haruest for corne.”—Stowe, 1243.—F.)
The first skonses are made in England vpon the borders of the Thames, & in other places of the land, to kepe the Spanish powre from entrauns, whose chief purpose is, as most affirme, to invade Kent with one part of their navie, & to come by the River of Thames to sacke London with the other./....
The Spanish Armada. Leicester’s Death.
1588. The Spanish navie so long loked for, doth now at last show it self ouer against our coastes, vpon our 20 of July, where it is foughten withall vpon the morow, onely with 50 saile of our English shipps vnder the conduct of the lord Admirall[249]& Sir Fraunces Drake; afterward by our whole navie of 150 saile, for the space of 2 daies together: in thend whereof, they are put to flight before Calice, & driven to returne home about by Scotland, with great losse, so that, of 160 saile & more, which came out of Spaine, scasely 40 returned againe in safety vnto that king; God himself so fighting for vs, that we lost not 80 men, neither was there so moche as one vessell of oures sonke by the enemy, or taken, in all these skirmishes. In their returne also, & beside those 15 vesselles which they lost in our seas, 17 other of them did either perish vpon the coast of Ireland, or, coming thether for succour, were seized vpon also vnto her Majesties vse. The lieftenaunt of this great navie was the duke Medina of Cydonia, & with him were 210 noble men, among which, beside the kinges bastard sonne, were 2 marquesses, one prince, one duke, 4 erles, & 3 Lordes, which came to seeke aduentures, & winne honor vpon England, as they said; howbeit, as God would, they neuer touched the land, nor came nere vnto our shore by diuers miles. The duke of Parma should haue assisted them at this present with 80 or 100 saile prouided out of the Low Countries; but being kept in by wether, & a portion of our navie, & his mariners also forsaking him, he was inforced to staie & kepe vpon the land, where he abode in safety, & out of the roring gunshot / (Stowe’sAnnals, 1605, pp. 1243-1258.—F.)
Robert, Erle ofLeicester, dieth, who in his time became the man of grettest powre (being but a subiect) which in this land, or that euer had bene exalted vnder any prince sithens the times of Peers Gavestone & Robert Veer,[250]some time duke of Ireland. Nothing almost was done, wherein he had not, either a stroke or a commoditie; which, together with his scraping from the churche & comons, spoile of her maiesties thresure, & sodeine death of his first wife &c. procured him soche inward envie & hatred, that all men, so farre as they durst, reioysed no lesse outwardlie at his death, then for the victorie obteined of late against the Spanish nauie /.... (Stowe’sAnnals, 1605, p. 1259.—F.)
A generall thankesgeuing thorow out England in euery church, for the victory of the Allmightie geuen by thenglish ouer the Spanish navie; in which, the Queene her selfe, & her nobility, came to StPaules churche in London, November the 19, where, after she had hard the divine service, & in her owne person geuen solemne thankesto God, in the hering of soche as were present, she hard the sermon at the Crosse preached by the bishop of Sarum, & then dined with the bishop of London in his pallace thereunto annexed. The kinges of Scotland, Denmarke, Sueden, Navarra, with the churches of Geneva & diuers other cities of Germany, had done the like also, a litle while before, in their churches, as we are credibly informed. The Spanierdes also, indeuoring to hide their reprochefull voiage from the eies of their comon people, do triumphe for their victory obteined ouer the Englishe nation, & send to the pope for a seconde million of gold, which he bound himself to geue them at their landing in England, they having alredy receaved the first at their departure from the Groyne in Maie past; but his intelligencers informed him, so that he kept his crownes at home/... (Stowe, p. 1260.—F.)
The Mad Parliament.
1588. A parliament is holden in London, which some doe call “the greene meting,” other, “the madde parliament,” because it consisted, for the most part, of yong burgesses, picked out of purpose to serue some secrete turne against the state present of the clergy; of whome no tale was there left vntold, that might deface their condicion. In this assembly, billes were put vp, as it is said, which required that the ministery of England should be subiect to service in the warres, & called to appeare at musters, sizes, &c. as laie subiectes of the land; that they should prouide furniture of armour & munition, according to the seuerall valuation of their livinges; that eche of them should haue but one living, & be resident vpon the same; & that all impropriations in spirituall mens handes onely, should be restored to the churche, with other like diuises; but in thend, none of them all went forward; & right good cause; for hereby most churches should quickely haue bene without their pastor, the Collegiate & cathedrall houses (the chief marke whereat they shot) rellinquished, & some of the spiritualty more charged then vj of the greattest of the nobility in the land, whose livinges are not valued in soche strict maner as those are of the clergy, who also in this parliament are charged with a doble subsidie to be paid in 6 yeres. (Stowe’sAnnals, 1605, p. 1261.—F.)
The Parliament of Feb. 1592-3.
[Last entry, in a very tottery hand, 2 months before Harrison’s death or burial on 24 April 1593, six days after he’d ended his 59th year.—F.]
1592. A Parliament beginneth at London, feb. 19 [1592-3], being mondaie / many men looke for many thinges at the handes of the congregates, chiefly the precisiens for the ouerthrow of bishops & all ecclesiasticall regiment, and erection of soche discipline as thei themselues haue prescribed / the Clergy also feared some stoppage of former lawes provided for the wel [?] paiment of their tithes / but all men expect a generall graunt of money, the cheef end, in our time, of the aforesaid Assemblies; which being obserued, the rest will sone haue anende / In the very begining of this parliament, there were more then 100 of the lower house, returned for outlawes, I meane, so well of knightes as of burgesses, & more are daiely loked for to be found in like estate / but is it not, thinke you, a likely matter, that soche men can be authors of good lawes, who, for their own partes, will obey no law at all? How gret frendes the precisians in ther practizes are to these men, the possession of their desire wold esily declare, if thei might ones obteine it. [a later entry: the Parliament broke up on April 10, 1593,[251]a fortnight before Harrison’s death.—F.] neuerthelesse, in the vpshot of that meting, it was found, that notwithstanding the money graunted—which was well nigh yelded vnto, in respect of our generall necessitie—there were so many good profitable lawes ordeined in this parliament as in any other that haue passed in former times, the mallicious dealinges also of the precisians, papistes, & comeling [?] provokers[252]was not a litle restreigned in the same, to the gret benefite of the country.
[“The rest is silence.”]
Printed byWalter Scott,Felling, Newcastle-on-Tyne.
Footnotes:
[1]Condensed from the first part of the edition of 1876 for the “New Shakspere Society.”—W.
[2]This does not apply to a small portion of Book I. used by Dr. F., and also somewhat in this reprint.—W.
[3]Who’ll write a like one for Victorian England? (Mr. Fyffe has since done this.) Oh that we had one for Chaucer’s England!—F.
[4]The Elizabethan sweep in this, as in so many other plans of the day.—F.
[5]See Holinshed’s Dedication to Lord Burghley in vol. iii. of hisChronicle.—F. (See Appendix.—W.)
[6]William Harrison’sChronologieis mentioned on the last leaf of the Preface to vol. iii. ofHolinshed, p. 1, at foot—“For the computation of the yeares of the world, I had by Maister Wolfes aduise followedFunctius; but after his [Wolfe’s] deceasse, M. W[illiam] H[arrison] made me partaker of a Chronologie, which he had gathered and compiled with most exquisit diligence, followingGerardus Mercator, and other late chronologers, and his owne obseruations, according to the which I haue reformed the same.”—Holinshed, in the Preface to hisChronicles, vol. iii. sign A 4, ed. 1587,—and in hisDescription, “I haue reserued them vnto the publication of my greatChronologie, if (while I liue) it happen to come abroad.” It was never publisht. My search for the MS. of it results in my having just received (Aug. 28) its large folio vols. 2, 3, 4, from the Diocesan Library of Derry, in Ireland. The Rev. H. Cotton,Thurles, Ireland(Dec. 21, 1850), said where it was, in I.Notes and Queries, iii. 105, col. 2; and after two fruitless searches it was found, and lent me by the Bishop, through his Librarian, the Rev. B. Moffett of Foyle College, Londonderry, as well as a curious and terribly corrected MS. of an English work on Weights and Measures, Hebrew, Greek, English, etc., dated 1587, which must be Harrison’s too.
The 3 folio volumes of theChronologieare 8 inches deep as they lie, each being 10¾ inches broad, by 17½ high, with 73, and sometimes more, lines to a page. An enormous amount of work is in them, and all of them are in Harrison’s own hand, at different times of his life. Vol. 2, “The second part of the English Chronologye written by Wm. Harrison,” runs from the Creation to Christ’s birth. Vol. 3, “The third part of the Chronology conteining a just & perfite true &c. as followeth in the next Leafe, to thend of the title, & to be brought hether,” stretches from the birth of Christ to William the Norman’s Conquest of England. Vol. 4, “The iijthand Last part of the great English Chronology writtenBy Wm. H.,” [title in another hand?] goes from the beginning of William the Conqueror’s reign, Oct. 14, 1066, to the February of 1592-3, only two months before Harrison’s own death (or burial) on April 24, 1593. And each volume tells, in Chronicle fashion, what went on all over the world in each successive year, so far as Harrison knew. The contemporary part of vol. 4 is of course the most interesting: “A William Harrison wrote some Latin lines on the deaths of the Brandons, Dukes of Suffolk, printed with the collection published on that occasion, 4to, London, 1552.”—F.
[7]Holinshed, iii. 1499; extract in my edition of Thynne’sAnimadversions, 1875, p. lxxxv.—F.
[8]In his account of the rivers, etc., Harrison sometimes quotes other people in the first person, “I, we,” as if he had himself been to the places they describe.—F.
[9]Folio Harrison, p. 103, col. 2, ed. 1587.—F.
[10]Folio Harrison, p. 107, col. 2 (ed. 1587).—F. [See Appendix.—W.]
[11]He complains of help promist, and never given: see in the folio Harrison, p. 45, col. I (beginning of cap. II, Book I., about the Thames).—F. [See Appendix.—W.]
[12]Still you get his side-note—I suppose ’tis his—at p.254below, on the report of two old British books being found in a stone wall at Verolamium, “This soundeth like a lie.” Other bits of wholesome doubt turn up elsewhere.—F.
[13]The Thames “hieth to Sudlington, otherwise called Maidenhead, and so to Windleshore (or Windsore), Eaton, and then to Chertseie.... From Chertseie it hasteth directlie vnto Stanes, and receiuing an other streame by the waie, called the Cole (wherevpon Colbrooke standeth), it goeth by Kingstone, Shene, Sion, and Brentford or Bregentford.”... Bk. I. p. 46, col. 1, l. 30, vol. i., folio ed. 1587.—F.
[14]The extracts quoted by Dr. F. will be mostly found in the modernised text. Here they are printed in the old spelling, giving an idea of the original volume, saving the black letter type.—W.
[15]Still, I find it very hard that he spoke so harshly of Andrew Boorde.—F.
[16]Harrison doesn’t scold the women for painting their faces and wearing false hair, in the persistent way that Shakspere does. These two bits of falseness (in town women only?) evidently made a great impression on the country-bred Shakspere’s mind. Stubbes complaind bitterly of them too.
[17]“Before the earliest date of Parish Registers (1538). I have all the Marriage Licences issued by the Bishop of London, beginning as early as 1521; but they do not include that of Harrison’s father.”—J. L. Chester.
[18]As Harrison left by his will twenty shillings to the poor of St. Thomas the Apostle in London, Colonel Chester thinks he may have been born in that parish.——P.S. Aug. 31, 1876. I’ve just found in Harrison’s MS.Chronologie, under 1534, “The Author of this boke is borne, vpon ye18 of Aprill, hora 11 minut 4, Secunde 56, at London, in Cordwainer streete, otherwise called bowe lane in ye[crosst thro’: house next to yeholly lambe towards chepeside, & in ye] parish of St. Thomas the Apostle.”—F.
[19]Dr. Scott, the present Head-Master, tells me that the early registers are not. “My dear Sir,—I regret to say that no early records of Westminster School are known to be in existence anywhere, except the names of those admitted to the Foundation, and even these merely from an old “Buttery Book” in the earliest times, to which Noel belongs; only those who were elected to Ch. Ch. or Trinity are recorded. There is no trace of such a name as Harrison. I have done my best to hunt up old records, but with very small result.—Faithfully yours,Chas. B. Scott.” After Harrison’s days, Dean Goodman gave the School for a time a Sanatorium at Chiswick—“Cheswicke, H. 14, belonging to a prebend of Paules now in the handes of DoctorGoodman, Deane ofWestminster, where he hath a Faire house, whereunto (in the time of any common plague or sicknes, as also to take the aire) he withdraweth the schollers of the colledge ofWestminster.” 1596. Jn. Norden’sDescription of Middlesex, p. 17, ed. 1723.
[20]Alexander Nowell was one of the most famous divines of the Reformation. Born in Lancashire about 1507, he got a fellowship at Brasenose in 1540; in 1543 became second master of Westminster School; and in 1551 Prebendary of Westminster. He was elected M.P. for Looe in Cornwall, in the first Parliament of Queen Mary, but his election was voided because he was a Church dignitary. He then went to Strassburg; returnd on the accession of Elizabeth, and was made Dean of St. Paul’s in 1560. He publisht his celebrated Larger Catechism, and an abridgment of it, both in Latin, in 1570; and is supposed to have written the greater part of the Church of England Catechism. He was elected Master of Brasenose in 1595, and died 13 February, 1601-2. (Cooper.).—F.
[21]Cooper, in hisAthenæ Cantabrigienses, says of Harrison—“He was a member of this university [Cambridge] in 1551, and afterwards studied at Oxford. We are unable to ascertain his house at either university.” ? Merton, Oxf. see p. xvi. (There’s no Merton Admission book so early as Harrison’s time, the Bursar says.)
[22]He us’d his eyes too at both places, and at school; for he says of the buildings: “The common schooles of Cambridge also are farre more beautifull than those of Oxford, onelie the diuinitie schoole at Oxford excepted, which for fine and excellent workemanship, commeth next the moold of the kings chappell in Cambridge, than the which two, with the chappell that king Henrie the seauenth did build at Westminster, there are not (in mine opinion) made of lime & stone three more notable piles within the compasse of Europe.”—F.
[23]Mr. Luard of Trinity, the Registrar of the University, has kindly copied the grace for me:—“1569. Grace Book Δ, fol. 97b: Conceditur 10 Junii magistro Willelmo Harryson ut studium 7 annorum in Theologia postquam rexerit in artibus Oxoniæ cum oppositionibus etc. perficiendis etc. sub pœna x librarum ponendarum etc. sufficiat ei tam ad opponendum quam ad intrandum in sacra Theologia, præsentatus per D. Longeworth[24]et admissus 17 Junii.”—F.
[24]Master of St. John’s.
[25]Wood’sAth. Ox., ed. Bliss., i. col. 537; Cooper’sAth. Cant.ii. 164.
[26]The Manor and advowson ofGreat Radwinterhad been part of the property of the Cobham family since 1433, if not before. (See Wright’sHist. of Essex, II. 92; Morant’s do., II. 535.).—F.
[27]See his defence of pluralism. [In the chapter on “The Church of England.”—W.] It was vehemently condemnd by most of his contemporaries.—F.
[28]The Vicarage ofWimbishnot being a “competent maintenance,” and the adjoining vicarage ofThunderleybeing so small that no one would accept of it, Dr. Kemp, Bishop of London in 1425, united the two. The presentation to these incorporated vicarages was made alternate in the Rector of Wimbish (it is a sinecure rectory) and the Priory of Hatfield Regis (who had the great tithes and advowson of Thunderley). In 1547, Ed. VI. granted this Priory’s advowson or right of presenting alternately to Wimbish, to Ed. Waldgrave, Esq.; and it passed on in private hands, so that from 1567 to 1599 it belonged to Francis de la Wood, who thus, it would seem, must have been the patron who presented William Harrison. See Morant’sHist. of Essex, pp. 560, 561. By theValor Ecclesiasticusof Hen. VIII. the clear yearly value ofWimbish Vicaragewas £8; tithes 16s. That ofRadwinter Rectory£21 11s. 4d.; tithes £2 3s. 2½d. Some of the parson of Radwinter’s tithes were made up thus:—“to the parson of Radwynter forseid for the yerely tythes of the said maner [Bendish Hall, in the parish of Radwinter], one acre of whete in harvest price x s, one acre of otes price v s iiij d, a lambe price viij d, a pigg, price iiij d, and in money iij s iiij d.”—Valor Eccl., Vol. I. p. 85, col. 2.—F.
[29]I assume that Harrison had once more children, whom he floggd occasionally. When speaking of mastiffs in Bk. 3, chap. 7, p. 231, col. 1, l. 60, ed. 1587, he says, “I had one my selfe once, which would not suffer anie man to bring in his weapon further than my gate, neither those that were of my house, to be touched in his presence. Or if I had beatenanie of my children, he would gentlie haue assaied to catch the rod in his teeth, and take it out of my hand, or else pluck downe their clothes to saue them from the stripes: which in my opinion is not vnworthie to be noted. And thus much of our mastiffes, creatures of no lesse faith and loue towards their maisters than horses.” Still, girls were floggd in Elizabeth’s days, no doubt (compare Lady Jane Grey’s case, in Ascham), as well as a hundred years before. See how Agnes Paston beat her daughter Elizabeth in 1449,Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, vol. i., Introd., p. cxvi.—F. [See Chapter XVI., “Of our English Dogs and their Qualities.”—W.]
[30]Gerard had above a thousand—
“Gerard’s Catalogue of his Garden.—A reprint of ‘the first professedly complete catalogue of any one garden, either public or private, ever published’ certainly deserves putting on record here. Gerard’sHerballis by no means a rare book; but theCatalogus arborum fruticum ac plantarum tam indigenarum quam exoticarum in horto Johannis Gerardi civis et chirurgi Londinensis nascentiumis exceedingly rare. This reprint, therefore, which we owe to the liberality of Mr. B. Daydon Jackson, will be extremely welcome to all interested in the early introduction of exotic plants. The reprint consists of a limited number of copies for private circulation only. Without being an absolute fac-simile it is almost an exact reproduction of the original, the first edition of which was published in 1596. A second edition appeared in 1599, which Mr. Jackson also reprints, together with some of his own remarks and notes on theHerball, and a Life of Gerard. But what will be found especially useful is the list of modern names affixed to the old ones. Gerard’sphysicgarden was in Holborn, and included upwards of a thousand different kinds of plants.... There are several other lists of this kind we should be glad to see reprinted—Tradescant’s, among others, as the younger Tradescant made a voyage to Virginia and introduced many American trees.”—(Academy, July 1876.)—F.
[31](Note by the late Dr. Goodall): Erat quidem Gulielmus Harrison Socius Etonensis Mar. 3, 1592, Vice præpositus Collegii et Rector de Everdon in Comitatu Northampt. Ut ille mortuus est Etonæ, et ibidem Sepultus Dec. 27, 1611.—F.
[32]Mr. J. Higgs, of Sheet Street, Windsor, has kindly searcht the Parish Register of Burials, which dates from 1564, but he finds no entry of Canon Harrison’s burial.—F. [At Radwinter. See Appendix.—W.]
[33]See his defence of priests leaving “their substances to their wives and children,” in hisDescription.—F. [In “Church” chapter.—W.]
[34]Compare the smart red dress with blue hood and long blue liripipe from it, of the Nun’s Priest, in the colourd illumination of the Ellesmere MS. given in my Six-TextCanterbury Tales.—F.
[35]
Proude preestes coome with hym, Mo than a thousand,In paltokes andpyked shoes, And pisseris long knyves.
Vision of Piers Plowman, Pass. xx. l. 14,360, ii. 438, ed. Wright.—F.
[36]William Rede or Reade, made Bp. of Chichester 1369, died 1385, “is said to have been a native of Devonshire, and to have received his early education in Exeter Coll., Oxford, from whence he removed to Merton, having been elected a fellow. He soon discovered a singular genius for the sciences, as they were then known and practised, and excelled in geography, astronomy, and architecture. About the year 1349, he gave a design for a library at Merton College, and superintended the building, which is very spacious, if considered as a repository of MSS. only.... He contributed greatly to furnishing the library with valuable MSS., adding his own, which consisted of several scientific treatises, astronomical tables, and maps. He was a great encourager of learning, particularly by procuring many rare MSS. from the continent, which were transcribed at his expense.” He built Amberley Castle, an episcopal residence for Chichester.—Dallaway’sHistory of the Western Division of the County of Sussex, 1832, vol. i. pp. 54, 55.—F.
[37]Cambridge studies. 1516, Aug. 31. Er. Ep. II. 10. Erasmus to Bovill. Thirty years ago, nothing was taught at Cambridge except Alexander’sparva Logicalia, some scraps from Aristotle, and theQuæstionesof Duns Scotus. In process of time improved studies were added; mathematics, a new Aristotle, a knowledge of Greek letters. What has been the consequence? The University can now hold its head with the highest, and has excellent theologians. Of course they must now study the New Testament with greater attention, and not waste their time, as heretofore, in frivolous quibbles.—Brewer’sCalendar of Henry VIII.’s Time, vol. ii., pt. i., p. 716.—F.
[38]As a usually accurate friend of mine always calls this name “Asham,” I note that it’s often spelt “Askham” in old writers.—F.
[39]Harrison repeats his warning in stronger terms. [See Chapter I.—W.] “This neuerthelesse is generallie to be reprehended in all estates of gentilitie, and which in short time will turne to the great ruine of our countrie, and that is the vsuall sending of noblemens & meane gentlemens sonnes into Italie, from whence they bring home nothing but meere atheisme, infidelitie, vicious conuersation, & ambitious and proud behauiour, wherby it commeth to passe that they returne far worsse men than they went out.” See the sequel.—F.
[40]See Sir T. More’sUtopia, “a huge number of idle fellows, who never learned any art by which they may gain their living,” etc.—F.
[41]On the finest kind of bread,manchet, note that Queen Elizabeth’s was made from Heston wheat, Middlesex:—“Heston, H. 10, a most fertyle place of wheate, yet not so much to be commended for the quantitie, as for the qualitie, for the wheat is most pure, accompted the purest in manie shires. And therefore Queene Elizabeth hath the most part of her provision from that place formanchetfor her Highnes own diet, as is reported.” 1596. Jn. Norden,Description of Middlesex, p. 25, ed. 1723.—F.
[42]But he speaks, at p. 69, “of the common sort, whose mouthes are alwaies wide open vnto reprehension, and eies readie to espie anie thing that they may reprooue and carpe at.” Still, Harrison took more kindly to the common sort than Shakspere did in his plays.—F.
[43]Now Chapter VIII.—W.
[44]De Republica Anglorum.The maner of Gouernement or policie of the Realme of England, compiled by the Honorable Sir Thomas Smyth, Knight, Doctor of both the lawes, and one of the principal Secretaries vnto the two most worthy Princes, King Edward the sixt, and Queen Elizabeth ... London ... 1584 (some copies 1583). A posthumous publication.—Hazlitt.—F.
[45]Did Shakspere ever turn out and chevy a Stratford thief, I wonder? He must have been able to hit and hold hard.—F.
[46]Made of tree or wood.—F.
[47]See an instance in Burleigh House.
[48]Of hostlers, Harman says, “not one amongst twenty of them but haue well left their honesty, as I here a great sorte saye.”—Harman’sCaueat, p. 62, ed. Viles and Furnivall.—F.
[49]Harrison wasn’t the only man who felt thus. See Arthur Standish’s two tracts: “The Commons Complaint. Wherein is contained two speciall Grievances: The first, the generall destruction and waste of Woods in this Kingdome.... The Second Grievance is, The extreame dearth of Victvals. Fovre Remedies for the same, etc. London Printed by William Stansby, 1611.” 4o. F 2 in fours. “New Directions of Experience to the Commons Complaint by the incouragement of the Kings most excellent Maiesty, as may appeare, for the planting of Timber and Fire-wood. With a neere Estimation what Millions of Acres the Kingdome doth containe, what Acres is waste ground, whereon little profit for this purpose will arise.... Inuentid by Arthur Standish. Anno Domini. MDCXIII. 4o. A—D in fours; E, 4 leaves, and a leaf of F.”—Hazlitt’s Collections and Notes, p. 401-2. Also Massinger’sGuardian, II. iv—F.
[50]“If woods go so fast ... I have knowne a well burnished gentleman that hath borne threescore at once [weren’t they trees?] in one paire of galigascons, to shew his strength and brauerie.” Brick-burning also consumd much wood: compare Harrison, bk. 3, chap. 9, p. 234, col. 2, l. 46, ed. 1587:—“such is the curiositie of our countrimen, that notwithstanding almightie God hath so blessed our realme in most plentifull maner, with such and so manie quarries apt and meet for piles of longest continuance, yet we, as lothsome of this abundance, or not liking of the plentie, doo commonlie leaue these naturall gifts to mould and cinder in the ground, and take vp an artificiall bricke,in burning whereof a great part of the wood of this land dailie consumed and spent, to the no small decaie of that commoditie, and hinderance of the poore that perish off for cold.” See, too, chap. 10, p. 236, col. 2, l. 44, “Of colemines we have such plentie in the north and westerne parts of our Iland, as may suffice for all the realme of England: and so must they doo hereafter in deed, if wood be not better cherrished than it is at this present.”
[51]Of the 1876 reprint.—W.
[52]See Dr. Furnivall’s “Forewords.”—W.
[53]This apology for “faults escaped herein” was of course omitted in 1587.—W.
[54]See “The English Courtier” ... and “The Court and Country.” Both reprinted in Mr. W. C. Hazlitt’s “Roxburghe Library.”—F.
[55]Here follow etymologies of the terms “Duke,” “Marquess,” and “Baron.”—W.
[56]1 Sam. ii. 15; 1 Kings i. 7.—H.
[57]Here follows a long paragraph on the character of the clergy which is more appropriate to the chapter on “The Church.”—W.
[58]Every peer ceases to be a legislator the moment the Crown considers the advice and aid of such peer unnecessary. The historic meeting between Elizabeth Woodville and Edward Plantagenet (which incidentally has made the lady ancestress to nearly every royal house in Europe), when she declared herself
“too mean to be your queen,And yet too good to be your concubine,”
was occasioned by the mean estate left by her late husband, Sir John Grey, to his orphan children. Sir John was by right Lord Grey of Groby, but never sat at Westminster as such, being killed at Saint Albans. His children would have had small chance of writs of summons had not their beautiful mother ensnared the monarch who (much to his crook-backed brother’s disgust, at least in the play) would “use women honourably.” The heir of the Birminghams was not only evicted from the House of Peers, but from Dudley Castle, because he was poor. The heir of the Staffords had the old barony taken from him by Charles I. (simply because he, Roger Stafford, was poor), and saw it given to a court favourite, one of the honour-hooking Howards.—W.
[59]Here follows a learned disquisition upon “Valvasors.”—W.
[60]Here follows a discourse uponEquites Aurati.—W.
[61]Here is a description of dubbing a knight.—W.
[62]Long details are given of Garter history, very inaccurate, both here and in the last omitted passage.—W.
[63]Derivations of “Esquire” and “Gentleman” are given.—W.
[64]The proper spelling of what is now calledkersey. It is really “causeway cloth,” and causeway is still pronounced (as it should be)karseyby the homely people who are not tied to the tail of the dogmatic dictionary man, whose unnecessary ingenuity (in place of a small knowledge of “country matters”) has in this case set up a phantom phalanx of busy looms in the harmless little village of Kersey in Suffolk. The Scotch have the full phrase still. The Frenchcausieis nearer to carsie than to book-madecauseway.—W.
[65]This etymology of a much-disputed word is doubtless accurate. Thus Piers Plowman’s
“Thoruh ziftes havenzemento rennen and to ride.”
The peculiar “z” stood the Saxon “ge.” In fact Geo, old Mother Earth, stares us in the face. A yeoman is an “earth-man.” We may literally say our modern English sabremen of the shires, at a periodical muster on caracoling steeds, are “racy of the soil.”—W.
[66]Harrison was quick to catch a true idea of the authors he delights in, and his weakness for displaying his fund of classical lore is therefore generally a pleasure instead of a bore. The phrase from the distinguished Roman youth, Aulus Persius Flaccus, occurs in the Prologue to his poems:
“Heliconidas pallidamque PirenenIllis remitto quorum imagines lambuntHederæ sequaces: ipsesemipaganusAd sacra vatum carmen adfero nostrum;”
which may be thus Englished:
“Those Helicon-births and pallor-breeding PirenesMust remit I to them o’er whose countenance trailethThe ivy up-clinging: myself,half-breed of the soil,To the shrine of our prophets my song I deliver.”
Almost every annotator of Persius has handled this passage as though the poet simply prosaically alluded to his being half ofrusticbirth. As a fact, he was of the bluest blood of the Augustine age. Harrison makes a happy hit in understanding the passage as alluding to a semi-connection with the territory of the Muses, as I have treated it.—W.
[67]Capite censi, or Proletarii.—H.
[68]The Ceylonese. The Greek name for the island of Ceylon was Taprobane, which Harrison used merely as a classical scholar.—W.
[69]The wise and learned Secretary of State in the dangerous days of Edward VI., who under Elizabeth had the task of furnishing Burleigh with brains (thus heaping “coals of fire” on the man who had stolen his place when Reform was triumphant and danger past), was himself born within a gunshot of Harrison’s Radwinter rectory, at Saffron Walden. Though Sir Thomas Smith’s own seat was a dozen miles to the south, at Theydon, Harrison was evidently very intimate with the Secretary. Some of the foregoing chapter (and much more which has been omitted) are literal transcripts from Smith’sDe Republica Anglorum. This work was still in manuscript in 1577 (the year of the first “Holinshed”), and late in the summer of that year Sir Thomas himself committed suicide. In 1583, before the second “Holinshed,” the first edition ofDe Republicawas issued, probably edited by our Harrison. The very title breathed the spirit of Elizabethan politics. Secretaries of State do not now talk about the “English Republic.” The Hampdens were closely connected with Sir Thomas Smith, andDe Republicawas a text-book of John Hampden. In 1589 the title for Smith’s work was first Englished (without doubt Harrison’s own handiwork), and that title has been made immortal in English history by Hampden’s disciples:The Commonwealth of England.—W.
[70]If Harrison means to give us the impression that a city has any direct connection with episcopal affairs, he is quite in error. Cities are distinctly royal and imperial institutions. The accident of the number of cities and sees being the same comes from the natural tendency of the two institutions to drift together, though of distinct origin.—W.
[71]Here follows a long and learned disquisition upon the Roman and other early towns, especially about St. Albans, a portion of which will be found in the Appendix.—W.
[72]The regalia which denoted sovereign right within the city limits, even to excluding kings at the head of their armies as the “scroyles of Angiers” do inKing John, much to the Bastard’s disgust.—W.
[73]The cutters have not been heard from for the three centuries intervening. These would have been the most valuable set of Elizabethan maps ever known had they been executed as Harrison expected.—W.
[74]Here follows an allusion to the decay of Eastern cities.—W.
[75]See on this myBallads from MSS., i.; Mr. Cowper’s edition ofLife in Tudor England;Four Supplications; and Crowley’sSelect Worksfor the Early English Text Society; More’sUtopia, etc.—F.
[76]The old and proper form of the modern pumpkin.—W.
[77]The historic seat of the De Veres is thus a by-word even before the line had risen to its most glorious achievements and gone out in a blaze of military honour.—W.
[78]Harrison must have been given access to Leland’s manuscripts, as the “Commentarii” were not published until 1709, or one hundred and fifty-seven years after the author died in the madhouse.—W.
[79]The first is a variant on a Keltic, the second on a Saxon, word, both relating to matters sufficiently indicated in the text.—W.
[80]Harrison may refer to Camden, then a young man starting out on the life-mission which has made him immortal. The chief works of Abraham Ortelius were not as yet published, 1577; but Harrison seems to have had early information on various forthcoming publications.—W.
[81]This chapter (misnumbered 19) does not appear anywhere in the edition of 1577.—F.
[82]In a chapter on “Vineyards,” for an extract from which see Appendix.—W.
[83]No vegetables are mentioned by John Russell in his different bills of fare for dinners in his “Boke of Nurture,” ab. 1440A.D.,Babees Book, pp. 164-175.—F.
[84]Skirretis in my book, p. 214, 1. I,Sium Sisarum, an umbelliferous plant with a small root like a little carrot, no longer cultivated in England, or very rarely.—R. C. A. Prior.
[85]Navew, Brassica Napus, is probably only a variety of the turnip, from which it differs in the smaller and less orbicular root, and the leaves being glabrous and not rough. It is that which is cultivated for making Colza oil, and for sheep-feed. The differences betweenBrassica Napus,B. campestris, andB. Rapa(the turnip) are really very slight, as you will see in any botanical work on British plants.—R. C. A. Prior.
[86]See John Russell’s list of those for the bath of Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester, inThe Babees Book, pp. 183-185.—F.
[87]Harrison makes a distinction between “dunghill” and “laistowe” (or laystowe, laystall, etc.), again upsetting the theories of the dictionary men.—W.
[88]This was about the epoch when Captain Price, the “salt sea dog,” was smoking the first pipe ever seen on London streets. Harrison seems to know of tobacco only as a medicine.—W.
[89]“Corn-trees” are probablycornels, from one of which, theC. ras, L., the berries are commonly eaten in Italy, and sherbet made from them in the East. In Italy they are calledcorniaandcorniola.—R. C. A. Prior.
[90]Of these four examples, in four shires, surrounding London, west, south, north, and east, not one remains as Harrison had it in view. The famous grounds of Hampton Court are of William III., Wolsey work being effaced. Nonsuch in Surrey, near Epsom race-course, is a mere memory. In Harrison’s time it was a favourite resort of Elizabeth, being designed by her father as the child of his old age, but really built as a “labour of love” by the last of the Fitzalans, who saved it from destruction by Mary (who loved not her father’s works), making it the scene of many an act in the tragic drama of the royal sisters and their cousin of Scotland. Theobald’s, in Herts, known to all readers of Izaac Walton, was just before Harrison’s day the seat of the family of Burbage, the “original Hamlet,” being bought in 1564 by Cecil, made the favourite haunt of the Stuarts, and finally was destroyed by the Commonwealth people. Cobham, near Gravesend in Kent, was the seat of the Brookes, the ill-starred patrons of Harrison himself. It is still famous in horticultural annals, just as Nonsuch will be immortal from its luscious apples.—W.
[91]Harrison may be said to have made this word his own, and a classic in the language. Its meaning is sufficiently indicated in the text, but the published definition and etymologies are evidently incomplete. Abodgerwas probably a (tax) collector in his bodge or budget, before he was a buyer and seller.—W.
[92]What a pity the poor men couldn’tco-operate, imitate the rich buyer, and have their own bodger to buy for them!—F.
[93]Victorian writers can say this too. I recollect fresh butter at 8d. and 10d. a pound here at Egham, and now we pay 20d. The imported Italian butter that we get in London, from Ralli, Greek Street, Soho, is 19d.—F.
[94]An interesting anticipation of John Stuart Mill’s point of the evil of a large middleman class checked only by competition. Co-operation, with a few middlemen, the agents and servants of the co-operators, is what we want.—F.
[95]Elizabethan England was the transition period when the slavery of money rents was fastened upon an unsuspecting people, leading to the great famines and revolts of the Stuart period.—W.
[96]The ancient London counterpart of the more modern “Rag Fair” known to literary fame.—W.
[97]The Kermess, or literally, “Church mass,” so famous in “Faust.”—W.
[98]Here follows a long treatise on the “Law of Ordeal.” Habam was at the mouth of the Trent, where the Romans crossed the Humber; Wannetting is Wantage; Thundersley survives still in Essex; Excester is Exeter; Crecklade (misprinted Grecklade) is Cricklade. All are of historic foundation.—W.
[99]A good deal of this chapter and the following one is mere compilation; but there are interesting bits of Harrison’s own self in his “old cock of Canterbury,” thepropheciesorconferencesthen lately begun, and soon blessed, thetaxes on parsons, the Church being the “ass for every market man to ride on,” the then state of the churches, and abolition of feast andguild-days, the popish priest “dressed like a dancing peacock,” the contempt felt for the ministry and their poverty.—F. [Some of the merely historical recapitulation has been banished altogether, along with the next chapter referred to, that upon “Bishoprics.”—W.]
[100]The Welsh name for England, as distinct from their own Cambria, usually written “Lloegr,” and poetically derived from the eldest of the three sons of Brute, Locrine of Loegria, Camber of Cambria, and Alban of Albania (Albany, Alban, or Scotland), the adventures of this trio furnishing all the island with names, as King Humber of the Huns defeated and drowned in the Humber, his beautiful protegée Estreldis and her daughter Sabra (by Locrine) thrown into the Severn (from Sabrina) by the jealous and discarded Queen Gwendolen after she had settled accounts with Locrine himself by the banks of the Sture. See Spenser, Milton, the old play of “Locrine,” and the new one by Swinburne: “How Britain at the first grew to be divided into three portions.”—W.
[101]In his first book and in this chapter.—W.
[102]This “authority” was for ever chopped off in the next generation with the head of William Laud.—W.
[103]“There can be no reasonable doubt that there existed an episcopal see at Caerleon in early times. It is pretty certain that it disappeared about the sixth century, and that the bishoprics of St. David’s, Llandaff, and Llanbadarn were founded about the same time. Nor have we, with a single doubtful exception, any indication of sees in any part of South Wales, with the sole exception of Caerleon. We may therefore regard the change to a certain extent as a portion of the spiritual jurisdiction between the three chief principalities into which South Wales seems at this time to have been divided, and partly as an imitation of the policy of St. Martin, by transferring it from the city to the wilderness. Or, if we please, we may regard St. David’s and Llanbadarn as new sees, Llandaff being the legitimate representative of Caerleon. The question remains whether a metropolitan jurisdiction resided with any of these sees, and with which of them. It was claimed in after times by the bishops of Llandaff, as well as by those of St. David’s,” etc. (History and Antiquity of St. David’s, by W. B. Jones and E. A. Freeman.)—W.