EDITORIAL NOTE.

“three things ... are growen to be verie grieuous vnto them, to wit, the inhansing of rents, latelie mentioned; the dailieoppression of copiholders, whose lords seeke to bring their poore tenants almost into plaine seruitude and miserie, dailie deuising new meanes, and seeking vp all the old, how to cut them shorter and shorter, doubling, trebling, and now & then seuen times increasing their fines; driuing them also for euerie trifle to loose and forfeit their tenures (by whome the greatest part of the realme dooth stand and is mainteined), to the end they may fleece them yet more, which is a lamentable hering. The third thing they talke of is vsurie, a trade brought in by the Jewes, now perfectlie practised almost by euerie christain, and so commonlie, that he is accompted but for a foole that dooth lend his monie for nothing.”

Interest has run up to 12 per cent.; wherefore, “helpe I praie thee in lawfull maner to hang vp such as takeCentum pro cento, for they are no better worthie as I doo iudge in conscience.” The 4th grievance is that Gentlemen (!) have actually “themselves become grasiers, butchers, tanners, sheepmasters, woodmen, anddenique quod non!”

The chapter, “Of Cities and Townes in England,” is dull, but has a short account of the antiquities found in old Verulam, and Harrison’s visit there in the summer of 1586 or 1585; and his groan over the decay of houses, their destruction by greedy land-owners, and the hard fare of poor men. He evidently would have put a limit to the land that one man might hold. In “Of Castles and Holds,” he wants the East coast fortified (p. 265), notes the frequency of old camps “in the plaine fields of England,” and says:—

“I need not to make anie long discourse of castles, sith it is not the nature of a good Englishman to regard to be caged vp as in a coope, and hedged in with stone wals, but rather to meet with his enimie in the plaine field at handstrokes, where he may trauaise his ground, choose his plot, and vse thebenefit of sunne shine, wind and weather, to his best aduantage & commoditie.”

In the next chapter he describes the Queen’s palaces, but prefers the Henry VIII. buildings to the Elizabethan:

“Certes masonrie did neuer better flourish in England than in his time. And albeit that in these daies there be manie goodlie houses erected in the sundrie quarters of this Iland; yet they are rather curious to the eie, like paper worke,[47]than substantiall for continuance: whereas such as he did set vp, excell in both, and therefore may iustlie be preferred farre aboue all the rest.”

He then gives an interesting account of the virtues of the Queen’s Maids of Honour, the vices of the Courtiers; the studies of the young Ladies, and the medical powers of the old; all of them being able to cook admirably, and the Carte or Bill of Fare of the dinner having been just introduced. Lastly he notes the admirable order and absence of ill-doing in the Queen’s court. Her “Progresses” he approv’d of.

He treats “Of Armour and Munition;” but, says Harrison, “what hath the longe blacke gowne to doo with glistering armour?” Still, he echoes the universal lament of Ascham, the Statutes, etc., etc., over the decay of Long-Bow shooting in England:—

“Certes the Frenchmen and Rutters deriding our new archerie in respect of their corslets, will not let in open skirmish, if anie leisure serue, to turne vp their tailes and crie: ‘Shoote English,’ and all bicause our strong shooting is decaied and laid in bed. But if some of our Englishmen now liued that serued king Edward the third in his warres with France, the breech of such a varlet should haue beenenailed to his bum with one arrow, and an other fethered in his bowels, before he should haue turned about to see who shot the first.”

He then says that all the young fellows above eighteen or twenty wear a dagger; noblemen wear swords or rapiers too, while “desperate cutters” carry two daggers or two rapiers, “wherewith in euerie dronken fraie they are knowen to work much mischief.” And as trampers carry long staves, the honest traveller is obliged to carry pistols, “to ride with a case of dags at his saddlebow, or with some pretie short snapper,” while parsons have only a dagger or hanger, if they carry anything at all. The tapsters and ostlers at inns are in league with the highway robbers,[48]who rob chiefly at Christmas time, to get money to spend at dice and cards, till they “be trussed vp in a Tiburne tippet.”

Passing over the chapter on the “Navy,” Queen Elizabeth’s delight in it, and the fast sailing of our ships, we come on a characteristic and interesting chapter “Of Faires and Markets.” This subject is within Harrison’s home-life, as a buyer; and it’s on the buyer’s side, which includes the poor man’s, that he argues. Magistrates don’t see the proclamation price and goodness of bread kept to; bodgers are allowd to buy up corn and raise the price of it; to carry it home unsold, or to a distant market, if they want more money than the buyer likes to give; nay, they’ve leave to export it for the benefit of enemies and Papists abroad, so as to make more profit. Again, pestiferous purveyors buy up eggs, chickens, bacon, etc.;buttermen travel about and buy up butter at farmers’ houses, and have raisd its price from 18d. to 40d. a gallon. These things are ill for the buyer and the poor man, and should not be allowd:—

“I wish that God would once open their eies that deale thus, to see their owne errours: for as yet some of them little care how manie poore men suffer extremitie, so that they may fill their purses, and carie awaie the gaine.”

Good doctrine, no doubt; but “nous avons changé tout cela.” However in one thing the modern Political Economist can agree with Harrison:—

“I gather that the maintenance of a superfluous number of dealers in most trades, tillage alwaies excepted, is one of the greatest causes why the prices of things become excessiue.”

There’s a comical bit about the names for ale, “huffecap, mad dog, angels’ food,” etc., and the way

“our maltbugs lug at this liquor, euen as pigs should lie in a row, lugging at their dames teats, till they lie still againe, and be not able to wag ... and ... hale at hufcap, till they be red as cockes, & litle wiser than their combs.”

In his chapter “Of Parks and Warrens,” Harrison tells us how coney warrens have increast, from the value of the creatures’ black skins and the quick sale for young rabbits in London; and what a shocking thing it is that one Lady has sold her husband’s venison to the Cooks, and another Lady has ridden to market to see her butter sold! it’s as bad as an Earl feeling his own oxen to see whether they’re ready for the butcher! He then gives us a refreshing bit of his mind on owners of parks who enclose commons:

“And yet some owners, still desirous to inlarge those grounds, as either for the breed and feeding of cattell, doo notlet dailie to take in more, not sparing the verie commons whervpon manie towneships now and then doo liue, affirming that we haue alreadie too great store of people in England; and that youth by marrieng too soone doo nothing profit the countrie, but fill it full of beggars, to the hurt and vtter vndooing (they saie) of the common wealth.“Certes, if it be not one curse of the Lord, to haue our countrie conuerted in such sort, from the furniture of mankind, into the walks and shrowds of wild beasts, I know not what is anie. How manie families also these great and small games (for so most keepers call them) haue eaten vp, and are likelie hereafter to deuoure, some men may coniecture, but manie more lament, sith there is no hope of restraint to be looked for in this behalfe, because the corruption is so generall.”

“Certes, if it be not one curse of the Lord, to haue our countrie conuerted in such sort, from the furniture of mankind, into the walks and shrowds of wild beasts, I know not what is anie. How manie families also these great and small games (for so most keepers call them) haue eaten vp, and are likelie hereafter to deuoure, some men may coniecture, but manie more lament, sith there is no hope of restraint to be looked for in this behalfe, because the corruption is so generall.”

The chapter “Of Gardens and Orchards” is interesting, not only as containing the bit quoted above on Harrison’s own garden, but for its note of how vegetables, roots, and salad herbs, that had gone out of use since Henry IV.’s time, had in Henry VIII.’s and Elizabeth’s days come into daily consumption, so that men even eat dangerous fruits like mushrooms. Also, hops and madder were grown again, and rare medicinable herbs. Gardens were beautified, plants imported; orchards supplied with apricot, almond, peach, fig, and cornel trees; nay, capers, oranges, lemons, and wild olives. Grafting was practist with great skill and success; even dishwater was utilis’d for plants. And as to roses, there was one in Antwerp in 1585 that had 180 leaves on one button or flower, and Harrison could have had a slip of it for £10 (£60 now?) if he hadn’t thought it “but a tickle hazard.”

The chapter “Of Woods and Marshes” is interesting, from Harrison’s laments in it over the destruction of English woods, which he saw yearly disappearing aroundhim,[49]one man, as he says, having turnd sixty woods into one pair of breeches.[50]And then, mov’d by the thought of what will become of England without its oaks, the unselfish old parson utters the four dearest wishes of his heart:—

“I would wish that I might liue no longer than to see foure things in this land reformed, that is: (1) the want of disciplinein the church: (2) the couetous dealing of most of our merchants in the preferment of the commodities of other countries, and hinderance of their owne: (3) the holding of faires and markets vpon the sundaie to be abolished, and referred to the wednesdaies: (4) and that euerie man, in whatsoeuer part of the champaine soile enioieth fortie acres of land and vpwards, after that rate, either by free deed, copie hold, or fee farme, might plant one acre of wood, or sowe the same with oke mast, hasell, beech, and sufficient prouision be made that it may be cherished and kept. But I feare me that I should then liue too long, and so long, that I should either be wearie of the world, or the world of me; and yet they are not such things but they may easilie be brought to passe.”

This same chapter contains the capital bit about the oaken men and willow houses and their smoke-dried inhabiters, quoted above; and a strong protest against rascally tanners and wood-fellers who, for private gain, evade the laws; also some good advice about draining.

In his chapter on “Baths and Hot Wells,” Harrison says that he’s tasted the water of King’s Newnham well, near Coventry, and that it had “a tast much like to allume liquor, and yet nothing vnplesant nor vnsauorie in the drinking.” From his description of Bath it is clear that he had been there, unless he quotes an eye-witness’s words as his own. His chapter, “Of Antiquities found,” tells us of his own collection of Roman coins which he intended to get engrav’d in hisChronologie, though, he says, the cost of engraving,

“as it hath doone hitherto, so the charges to be emploied vpon these brasen or copper images will hereafter put by the impression of that treatise: whereby it maie come to passe, that long trauell shall soone proue to be spent in vaine, and much cost come to verie small successe.”

His words seem to imply that he’d visited Colchester (as no doubt he had) and York, in his search for coins. His account “Of the Coines of England,” Chapter XXV., ends his Book II., the first of hisDescription of England.

This section[51]is longer than I meant it to be; and it doesn’t bring out the religious side of Harrison’s character. But I hope it leaves the reader with a kindly impression of the straightforward racy Radwinter parson and Windsor canon. A business-like, God-fearing, truth-seeking, learned, kind-hearted, and humorous fellow, he seems to me; a good gardener, an antiquarian and numismatist, a true lover of his country, a hater of shams, lazy lubbers, and evil-doers; a man that one likes to shake hands with, across the rift of 200 years that separates us.

F. J. FURNIVALL.

3 St. George’s Square, Primrose Hill,London, N.W., 13th July, 1876.

No book is more quoted and less read thanHolinshed’s Chronicles. Since the original editions of 1577 and 1587 (the latter an expansion of the former), the work has been but once republished. Early in this century a syndicate of the great London booksellers issued an expensive reprint, far more inaccessible to the general reader than are the folios of the time of Elizabeth. Even morsels of the work have never been attempted until the issue by the “New Shakspere Society,” a dozen years ago, of Dr. Furnivall’s careful condensed edition of Harrison’s introduction toHolinshed. Now Harrison is the genius of the whole performance.Holinshedis a hodge-podge of many men’s endeavours. Remarkable as may be the portions contributed by other men, that of Harrison can be said to be unique. William Harrison is the only man who has ever given a detailed description of England and the English. He had the assistance doubtless of many special informants, directly and indirectly, some of which assistance overloads his ancient utterances with superfluous matter. His own views however are a running rill of delight. When it was only an amputation of interjected details, my task was easy; and Dr. Furnivall (to whom is due all credit of initiative in the publication of the work, and who haskindly accorded valuable suggestions during the rather anxious and difficult process) had already cut off the greater portion of dead issue and dead tissue. The work of disjointing and then rejointing Harrison’s own discourse is not so agreeable. Even Harrison’s interlarding of his own book-learning in his own inimitable fashion is a rare frolic for the mirthful mind. Badly as I may have finally wriggled through the task, seamy as may be the patchwork, the solace remains that no scrap of Harrison’s text lacks its own individual interest. Not without reason may an extract fromHolinshedbe entitled a

“Morsel of dead royalty.”

Holinshedis one of the monarchs and monuments of literature. It filled the channels of thought, and moulded the character of history. Harrison’s contribution toHolinshedis not only the most important but the most perfect portion of the work, and it evidently derives its perfect character from being a labour of love, and not written to order. John Harrison the printer doubtless got his country relative the parson to help out the heavy enterprise which tasked such an alliance of master-printers even to partially perfect. Not that William Harrison was a countryman by birth. He was a Cockney of the Cockneys, born right beneath Bow Bells themselves; but when you come to gather the threads of his connections, you seem indeed to

“Take all England up,”

jumping at once to the heart of Westmoreland fells, and traversing every shire in England and Wales for his cousinry. It was a stirring age, and great human upheavals made sudden shiftings and scatterings of kindred. It was this very factor which made such works asHolinshedpossible. The completeHolinshedwas issued one year before the Armada year, two years before Shakspere’s first play was printed. Harrison was old enough to have stood on Tower Hill and seen with infant eyes the author ofUtopia(the “most perfect of Englishmen,” as Harrison himself allows) lay down his life for truth. Harrison’s own life just spans that stormy period which settled the destiny of the English race, and left the race the masters of the earth. The part played in this mighty struggle by the printer boys of Aldersgate is something beyond all exaggeration. They made and unmade men and measures, and uprooted empires as well as recorded their histories. Above all else, these printers kept their own secrets; for life and death were in every utterance. They furnished of their own ranks the pioneers of daring brain and varied knowledge who led the English race far to east and far to west. We can well imagine that these Aldersgate printers took delight in clubbing together to produce such a work asHolinshed, giving the story of the England they loved so well.Holinshedwas eminently a printer’s book, produced out of the fulness of their hearts. Harrison himself belonged to a family of printers. Yet it is a remarkable fact that this present volume is the first attempt ever made to use any portion ofHolinshedas a popular text-book, and to bring its text into familiar relations with modern eyes as regards orthography and typography. As to the diction, it would be impertinence to modify the work of such masters of our mother-tongue as William Harrison. The writers of his day make rules for us, not we for them. Their English is the only English which future ages will know, and their successors will be measured by their standard. In compiling this work, the end sought by me has been as much variety and as much ElizabethanEngland as possible, throwing aside matter however instructive which was not especially allied to the days of Elizabeth, making of most of Harrison’s second, some of his third, and a bit of his first book one concise story. Harrison’s Description of England is in three books, the second and third of which were reprinted by Dr. Furnivall, along with extracts from the first. An account of these books and their relation toHolinshedwill be found in the Doctor’s “Forewords.” Using Dr. Furnivall’s text, his excellent and generally exhaustive notes have been inserted. As for my own follies, sprinkled here and there, they are as occasional relief for frivolous readers from the classical height of Harrison and the scholarly depth of the Doctor. There was no particular sacrilege in rearranging Harrison’s fragments in a new and compact fashion; for he varied his two editions in evident indifference. It has had to be cut to measure, and the difficulty has been to make a new garment out of odd cuttings. Suffice to say, well or ill jointed, the story here told plucks the heart out of the mystery of the cradle of the English race at the exact period of Shakspere’s youthful manhood. But this story no more than Shakspere’s own work is the exclusive property of the residents of one particular spot. England is not merely a matter of political arrangement. Race after race have swept over the island home and left lasting impression upon the soil. England is not a matter of bounds and barriers; it is a human fabric like Rome and Greece, living in distant climes, an inheritance of all who speak the English tongue and inherit the boundless treasures of English thought, far surpassing the known accomplishment of any other people. By far the greater portion of these treasures of the mind were worked out in the England of Harrison. It was the outcome of a young giant’s strength. The full realisationof the earth’s existence, the full grasp of man’s true relation to the footstool beneath him, produced this startling activity of mind, and this sudden leap to perfection. Such another epoch will never occur until we poor crawling mites on this rolling ball discover the socket it rolls in and once again feel ourselves masters of all knowledge and devoid of all doubts.

L. W.

To the Right Honourable, and his singular good Lord and Master, Sir William Brooke, Knight, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and Baron of Cobham, all increase of the fear and knowledge of God, firm obedience towards his Prince, infallible love to the commonwealth, and commendable renown here in this world, and in the world to come life everlasting.

Having had just occasion, Right Honourable, to remain in London during the time of Trinity term last passed, and being earnestly required of divers my friends to set down some brief discourse of parcel of those things which I had observed in the reading of such manifold antiquities as I had perused towards the furniture of a Chronology[52]which I have yet in hand; I was at the first very loth to yield to their desires: first, for that I thought myself unable for want of skill and judgment so suddenly and with so hasty speed to take such a charge upon me; secondly, because the dealing therein might prove an hindrance and impeachment unto mine own Treatise; and, finally, for that I had given over all earnest study of histories, as judging the time spent about the same to be an hindrance unto my more necessary dealings in that vocation and function whereunto I am called in the ministry. But, when theywere so importunate with me that no reasonable excuse could serve to put by this travel, I condescended at the length unto their irksome suit, promising that I would spend such void time, as I had to spare, whilest I should be enforced to tarry in the city, upon some thing or other that should satisfy their request and stand in lieu of a description of my Country. For their parts also, they assured me of such helps as they could purchase: and thus with hope of good, although no gay success, I went in hand withal, then almost as one leaning altogether unto memory, since my books and I were parted by forty miles in sunder. In this order also I spent a part of Michaelmas and Hilary terms insuing, being enforced thereto, I say, by other businesses which compelled me to keep in the city, and absent myself from my charge, though in the mean season I had some repair unto my poor library, but not so great as the dignity of the matter required, and yet far greater than the Printer’s haste would suffer. One help, and none of the smallest that I obtained herein, was by such commentaries as Leland had some time collected of the state of Britain, books utterly mangled, defaced with wet and weather, and finally imperfect through want of sundry volumes; secondly, I gat some knowledge of things by letters and pamphlets, from sundry places and shires of England, but so discordant now and then amongst themselves, especially in the names and courses of rivers and situation of towns, that I had oft greater trouble to reconcile them one with another than orderly to pen the whole discourse of such points as they contained; the third aid did grow by conference with divers, either at the table or secretly alone, wherein I marked in what things the talkers did agree, and wherein they impugned each other, choosing in the end the former, and rejecting the latter,as one desirous to set forth the truth absolutely, or such things indeed as were most likely to be true. The last comfort arose by mine own reading of such writers as have heretofore made mention of the condition of our country, in speaking whereof, if I should make account of the success and extraordinary coming by sundry treatises not supposed to be extant, I should but seem to pronounce more than may well be said with modesty, and say further of myself than this treatise can bear witness of. Howbeit, I refer not this success wholly unto my purpose about this Description, but rather give notice thereof to come to pass in the penning of my Chronology, whose crumbs as it were fell out very well in the framing of this pamphlet. In the process therefore of this book, if your Honour regard the substance of that which is here declared, I must needs confess that it is none of mine own; but, if your Lordship have consideration of the barbarous composition shewed herein, that I may boldly claim and challenge for mine own, since there is no man of any so slender skill that will defraud me of that reproach which is due unto me for the mere negligence, disorder, and evil disposition of matter comprehended in the same. Certes I protest before God and your Honour that I never made any choice of style, or words, neither regarded to handle this treatise in such precise order and method as many other would have done, thinking it sufficient, truly and plainly to set forth such things as I minded to intreat of, rather than with vain affectation of eloquence to paint out a rotten sepulchre, a thing neither commendable in a writer nor profitable to the reader. How other affairs troubled me in the writing hereof, many know, and peradventure the slackness shewed herein can better testify; but, howsoever it be done, and whatsoever Ihave done, I have had an especial eye unto the truth of things, and, for the rest, I hope that this foul frizzled treatise of mine will prove a spur to others better learned, more skilful in chorography, and of greater judgment in choice of matter to handle the selfsame argument. As for faults escaped herein, as there are divers I must needs confess both in the penning and printing, so I have to crave pardon of your Honour and of all the learned readers. For such was my shortness of time allowed in the writing, and so great the speed made in printing, that I could seldom with any deliberation peruse, or almost with any judgment deliberate exactly upon, such notes as were to be inserted. Sometimes indeed their leisure gave me liberty, but that I applied in following my vocation; many times their expedition abridged my perusal; and by this latter it came to pass that most of this book was no sooner penned than printed, neither well conveyed, before it came to writing. But it is now too late to excuse the manner of doing.[53]It is possible also that your Honour will mislike hereof for that I have not by mine own travel and eyesight viewed such things as I do here intreat of. Indeed I must needs confess that until now of late, except it were from the parish where I dwell unto your Honour in Kent, or out of London where I was born unto Oxford and Cambridge where I have been brought up, I never travelled forty miles forthright and at one journey in all my life; nevertheless in my report of these things I use their authorities who either have performed in their persons or left in writing upon sufficient ground (as I said before) whatsoever is wanting in mine. It may be in like sort that your Honour will take offence at my rash and retchlessbehaviour used in the composition of this volume, and much more than that, being scrambled up after this manner, I dare presume to make tender of the protection thereof unto your Lordship’s hands. But, when I consider the singular affection that your Honour doth bear to those that in anywise will travel to set forth such profitable things as lie hidden of their country without regard of fine and eloquent handling, and thereunto do weigh on my own behalf my bounden duty and grateful mind to such a one as hath so many and sundry ways benefited me that otherwise can make no recompense, I cannot but cut off all such occasion of doubt, and thereupon exhibit it, such as it is, and so penned as it is, unto your Lordship’s tuition, unto whom if it may seem in any wise acceptable I have my whole desire. And as I am the first that (notwithstanding the great repugnance to be seen among our writers) hath taken upon him so particularly to describe this Isle of Britain, so I hope the learned and godly will bear withal, and reform with charity where I do tread amiss. As for the curious, and such as can rather evil-favouredly espy than skilfully correct an error, and sooner carp at another man’s doings than publish anything of their own (keeping themselves close with an obscure admiration of learning and knowledge among the common sort), I force not what they say hereof; for, whether it do please or displease them, all is one to me, since I refer my whole travel in the gratification of your Honour, and such as are of experience to consider of my travel and the large scope of things purposed in this treatise, of whom my service in this behalf may be taken in good part: that I will repute for my full recompense and large guerdon of my labours. The Almighty God preserve your Lordship in continual health, wealth, and prosperity, withmy good Lady your wife, your Honour’s children (whom God hath indued with a singular towardness unto all virtue and learning) and the rest of your reformed family, unto whom I wish farder increase of his holy spirit, understanding of his word, augmentation of honour, and continuance of zeal to follow his commandments.

Your Lordship’s humble servantand household chaplain,W. H.

We, in England, divide our people commonly into four sorts, as gentlemen, citizens or burgesses, yeomen, and artificers or labourers. Of gentlemen the first and chief (next the king) be the prince, dukes, marquesses, earls, viscounts, and barons; and these are called gentlemen of the greater sort, or (as our common usage of speech is) lords and noblemen: and next unto them be knights, esquires, and, last of all, they that are simply called gentlemen. So that in effect our gentlemen are divided into their conditions, whereof in this chapter I will make particular rehearsal.

The title of prince doth peculiarly belong with us to the king’s eldest son, who is called Prince of Wales, and is the heir-apparent to the crown; as in France the king’s eldest son hath the title of Dauphin, and is named peculiarlyMonsieur. So that the prince is so termed of the Latin wordPrinceps, since he is (as I may call him) the chief or principal next the king. The king’s younger sons be but gentlemenby birth (till they have received creation or donation from their father of higher estate, as to be either viscounts, earls, or dukes) and called after their names, as Lord Henry, or Lord Edward, with the addition of the word Grace, properly assigned to the king and prince, and now also by custom conveyed to dukes, archbishops, and (as some say) to marquesses and their wives.[55]

Unto this place I also refer our bishops, who are accounted honourable, called lords, and hold the same room in the Parliament house with the barons, albeit for honour sake the right hand of the prince is given unto them, and whose countenances in time past were much more glorious than at this present it is, because those lusty prelates sought after earthly estimation and authority with far more diligence than after the lost sheep of Christ, of which they had small regard, as men being otherwise occupied and void of leisure to attend upon the same. Howbeit in these days their estate remaineth no less reverend than before, and the more virtuous they are that be of this calling the better are they esteemed with high and low. They retain also the ancient name (“lord”) still, although it be not a little impugned by such as love either to hear of change of all things or can abide no superiors. For notwithstanding it be true that in respect of function the office of the eldership[56]is equally distributed between the bishop and the minister, yet for civil government’s sake the first have more authority given unto them by kings and princes, to the end that the rest may thereby be with more ease retained within a limited compass of uniformity than otherwise they would be if each one were suffered to walk in his own course. This also is more to be marvelled at, that very many call for an alteration of their estate, crying to have the word “lord” abolished, their civil authority taken from them, and the present condition of the church in other things reformed; whereas, to say truly, few of them do agree upon form of discipline and government of thechurch succeedent, wherein they resemble the Capuans (of whom Livy doth speak) in the slaughter of their senate. Neither is it possible to frame a whole monarchy after the pattern of one town or city, or to stir up such an exquisite face of the church as we imagine or desire, sith our corruption is such that it will never yield to so great perfection; for that which is not able to be performed in a private house will be much less be brought to pass in a commonwealth and kingdom, before such a prince be found as Xenophon describeth, or such an orator as Tully hath devised.[57]

Dukes, marquesses, earls, viscounts, and barons either be created of the prince or come to that honour by being the eldest sons or highest in succession to their parents. For the eldest son of a duke during his father’s life is an earl, the eldest son of an earl is a baron, or sometimes a viscount, according as the creation is. The creation I call the original donation and condition of the honour given by the prince for good service done by the first ancestor, with some advancement, which, with the title of that honour, is always given to him and his heirs males only. The rest of the sons of the nobility by the rigour of the law be but esquires; yet in common speech all dukes’ and marquesses’ sons and earls’ eldest sons be called lords, the which name commonly doth agree to none of lower degree than barons, yet by law and use these be not esteemed barons.

The barony or degree of lords doth answer to the degree of senators of Rome (as I said) and the title of nobility (as we used to call it in England) to the RomanPatricii. Also in England no man is commonly created baron except he may dispend of yearly revenues a thousand pounds, or so much as may fully maintain and bear out his countenance and port. But viscounts, earls, marquesses, and dukes exceed them according to the proportion of their degree and honour. But though by chance he or his son have less, yet he keepeth thisdegree: but if the decay be excessive, and not able to maintain the honour (asSenatores Romaniwereamoti à senatu), so sometimes they are not admitted to the upper house in the parliament, although they keep the name of “lord” still, which cannot be taken from them upon any such occasion.[58]

The most of these names have descended from the French invention, in whose histories we shall read of them eight hundred years past.[59]

Knights be not born, neither is any man a knight by succession, no, not the king or prince: but they are made either before the battle, to encourage them the more to adventure and try their manhood; or after the battle ended, as an advancement for their courage and prowess already shewed, and then are they calledMilites; or out of the wars for some great service done, or for the singular virtues which do appear inthem, and then are they namedEquites Aurati, as common custom intendeth. They are made either by the king himself, or by his commission and royal authority given for the same purpose, or by his lieutenant in the wars.[60]

Sometime diverse ancient gentlemen, burgesses, and lawyers are called unto knighthood by the prince, and nevertheless refuse to take that state upon them, for which they are of custom punished by a fine, that redoundeth unto his coffers, and (to say truth) is oftentimes more profitable unto him than otherwise their service should be, if they did yield unto knighthood. And this also is a cause wherefore there be many in England able to dispend a knight’s living, which never come unto that countenance, and by their own consents. The number of the knights in Rome was also uncertain: and so is it of knights likewise, with us, as at the pleasure of the prince. And whereas theEquites RomanihadEquum Publicumof custom bestowed upon them, the knights of England have not so, but bear their own charges in that also, as in other kind of furniture, as armour meet for their defence and service. This nevertheless is certain, that whoso may dispend forty pounds by the year of free land, either at the coronation of the king, or marriage of his daughter, or time of his dubbing, may be informed unto the taking of that degree, or otherwise pay the revenues of his land for one year, which is only forty pounds by an old proportion, and so for a time be acquitted of that title.[61]

At the coronation of a king or queen, there be other knights made with longer and more curious ceremonies, called “knights of the bath.” But howsoever one be dubbed or made knight, his wife is by-and-by called “Madam,” or “Lady,” so well as the baron’s wife: he himself having added to his name in common appellation this syllable “Sir,” which is the title whereby we call our knights in England. His wife also of courtesy so long as she liveth is called “my lady,” althoughshe happen to marry with a gentleman or man of mean calling, albeit that by the common law she hath no such prerogative. If her first husband also be of better birth than her second, though this latter likewise be a knight, yet in that she pretendeth a privilege to lose no honour through courtesy yielded to her sex, she will be named after the most honourable or worshipful of both, which is not seen elsewhere.

The other order of knighthood in England, and the most honourable, is that of the garter, instituted by King Edward the Third, who, after he had gained many notable victories, taken King John of France, and King James of Scotland (and kept them both prisoners in the Tower of London at one time), expelled King Henry of Castille, the bastard, out of his realm, and restored Don Pedro unto it (by the help of the Prince of Wales and Duke of Aquitaine, his eldest son, called the Black Prince), he then invented this society of honour, and made a choice out of his own realm and dominions, and throughout all Christendom of the best, most excellent, and renowned persons in all virtues and honour, and adorned them with that title to be knights of his order, giving them a garter garnished with gold and precious stones, to wear daily on the left leg only; also a kirtle, gown, cloak, chaperon, collar, and other solemn and magnificent apparel, both of stuff and fashion exquisite and heroical to wear at high feasts, and as to so high and princely an order appertaineth.

The order of the garter therefore was devised in the time of King Edward the Third, and (as some write) upon this occasion. The queen’s majesty then living, being departed from his presence the next way toward her lodging, he following soon after happened to find her garter, which slacked by chance and so fell from her leg, unespied in the throng by such as attended upon her. His grooms and gentlemen also passed by it, as disdaining to stoop and take up such a trifle: but he, knowing the owner, commanded one of them to stay and reach it up to him. “Why, and like yourgrace,” saith a gentleman, “it is but some woman’s garter that hath fallen from her as she followed the queen’s majesty.” “Whatsoever it be,” quoth the king, “take it up and give it me.” So when he had received the garter, he said to such as stood about him: “You, my masters, do make small account of this blue garter here,” and therewith held it out, “but, if God lend me life for a few months, I will make the proudest of you all to reverence the like.” And even upon this slender occasion he gave himself to the devising of this order. Certes, I have not read of anything that having had so simple a beginning hath grown in the end to so great honour and estimation.[62]

There is yet another order of knights in England called knights bannerets, who are made in the field with the ceremony of cutting away the point of his pennant of arms, and making it as it were a banner, so that, being before but a bachelor knight, he is now of an higher degree, and allowed to display his arms in a banner, as barons do. Howbeit these knights are never made but in the wars, the king’s standard being unfolded.[63]

Moreover, as the king doth dub knights, and createth the barons and higher degrees, so gentlemen whose ancestors are not known to come in with William Duke of Normandy (for of the Saxon races yet remaining we now make none accounted, much less of the British issue) do take their beginning in England, after this manner in our times.

Whosoever studieth the laws of the realm, whoso abideth in the university (giving his mind to his book), or professeth physic and the liberal sciences, or beside his service in the room of a captain in the wars, or good counsel given at home, whereby his commonwealth is benefited, can live without manual labour, and thereto is able and will bear the port, charge, and countenance of a gentleman, he shall for moneyhave a coat and arms bestowed upon him by heralds (who in the charter of the same do of custom pretend antiquity and service, and many gay things), and thereunto, being made so good cheap, be called master (which is the title that men give to esquires and gentlemen), and reputed for a gentleman ever after, which is so much less to be disallowed of for that the prince doth lose nothing by it, the gentleman being so much subject to taxes and public payments as is the yeoman or husbandman, which he likewise doth bear the gladlier for the saving of his reputation. Being called also to the wars (for with the government of the commonwealth he meddleth little), whatsoever it cost him, he will both array and arm himself accordingly, and shew the more manly courage, and all the tokens of the person which he representeth. No man hath hurt by it but himself, who peradventure will go in wider buskins than his legs will bear, or, as our proverb saith, “now and then bear a bigger sail than his boat is able to sustain.”

Certes the making of new gentlemen bred great strife sometimes amongst the Romans, I mean when those which wereNovi homineswere more allowed of for their virtues newly seen and shewed than the old smell of ancient race, lately defaced by the cowardice and evil life of their nephews and descendants, could make the other to be. But as envy hath no affinity with justice and equity, so it forceth not what language the malicious do give out, against such as are exalted for their wisdoms. This nevertheless is generally to be reprehended in all estates of gentility, and which in short time will turn to the great ruin of our country, and that is, the usual sending of noblemen’s and mean gentlemen’s sons into Italy, from whence they bring home nothing but mere atheism, infidelity, vicious conversation, and ambitious and proud behaviour, whereby it cometh to pass that they return far worse men than they went out. A gentleman at this present is newly come out of Italy, who went thither an earnest Protestant; but coming home he could say after this manner: “Faith and truth is to be kept where no loss or hindrance of a future purpose is sustained byholding of the same; and forgiveness only to be shewed when full revenge is made.” Another no less forward than he, at his return from thence, could add thus much: “He is a fool that maketh account of any religion, but more fool that will lose any part of his wealth or will come in trouble for constant leaning to any; but if he yield to lose his life for his possession, he is stark mad, and worthy to be taken for most fool of all the rest.” This gay booty got these gentlemen by going into Italy; and hereby a man may see what fruit is afterward to be looked for where such blossoms do appear. “I care not,” saith a third, “what you talk to me of God, so as I may have the prince and the laws of the realm on my side.” Such men as this last are easily known; for they have learned in Italy to go up and down also in England with pages at their heels finely apparelled, whose face and countenance shall be such as sheweth the master not to be blind in his choice. But lest I should offend too much, I pass over to say any more of these Italianates and their demeanour, which, alas! is too open and manifest to the world, and yet not called into question.

Citizens and burgesses have next place to gentlemen, who be those that are free within the cities, and are of some likely substance to bear office in the same. But these citizens or burgesses are to serve the commonwealth in their cities and boroughs, or in corporate towns where they dwell, and in the common assembly of the realm wherein our laws are made (for in the counties they bear but little sway), which assembly is called the High Court of Parliament: the ancient cities appoint four and the borough two burgesses to have voices in it, and give their consent or dissent unto such things as pass, to stay there in the name of the city or borough for which they are appointed.

In this place also are our merchants to be installed as amongst the citizens (although they often change estate with gentlemen, as gentlemen do with them, by a mutual conversion of the one into the other), whose number is so increased in these our days that their only maintenance is the cause of the exceeding prices of foreign wares, which otherwise,when every nation was permitted to bring in her own commodities, were far better, cheaper, and more plentifully to be had. Of the want of our commodities here at home, by their great transportation of them into other countries, I speak not, sith the matter will easily betray itself. Certes among the Lacedæmonians it was found out that great numbers of merchants were nothing to the furtherance of the state of the commonwealth: wherefore it is to be wished that the huge heap of them were somewhat restrained, as also of our lawyers, so should the rest live more easily upon their own, and few honest chapmen be brought to decay by breaking of the bankrupt. I do not deny but that the navy of the land is in part maintained by their traffic, and so are the high prices of wares kept up, now they have gotten the only sale of things upon pretence of better furtherance of the commonwealth into their own hands: whereas in times past, when the strange bottoms were suffered to come in, we had sugar for fourpence the pound, that now at the writing of this Treatise is well worth half-a-crown; raisins or currants for a penny that now are holden at sixpence, and sometimes at eightpence and tenpence the pound; nutmegs at twopence halfpenny the ounce, ginger at a penny an ounce, prunes at halfpenny farthing, great raisins three pounds for a penny, cinnamon at fourpence the ounce, cloves at twopence, and pepper at twelve and sixteen pence the pound. Whereby we may see the sequel of things not always, but very seldom, to be such as is pretended in the beginning. The wares that they carry out of the realm are for the most part broad clothes and carsies[64]of all colours, likewise cottons, friezes, rugs, tin, wool,our best beer, baize, bustian, mockadoes (tufted and plain), rash, lead, fells, etc.: which, being shipped at sundry ports of our coasts, are borne from thence into all quarters of the world, and there either exchanged for other wares or ready money, to the great gain and commodity of our merchants. And whereas in times past their chief trade was into Spain, Portugal, France, Flanders, Danske [Denmark], Norway, Scotland, and Ireland only, now in these days, as men not contented with these journeys, they have sought out the East and West Indies, and made now and then suspicious voyages, not only unto the Canaries and New Spain, but likewise into Cathay, Muscovy, and Tartaria, and the regions thereabout, from whence (as they say) they bring home great commodities. But alas! I see not by all their travel that the prices of things are any whit abated. Certes this enormity (for so I do account of it) was sufficiently provided for (Ann. 9 Edward III.) by a noble statute made in that behalf, but upon what occasion the general execution thereof is stayed or not called on, in good sooth, I cannot tell. This only I know, that every function and several vocation striveth with other, which of them should have all the water of commodity run into her own cistern.

Yeomen are those which by our law are calledLegales homines, free men born English, and may dispend of their own free land in yearly revenue to the sum of forty shillings sterling, or six pounds as money goeth in our times. Some are of the opinion, by Cap. 2 Rich. 2 Ann. 20, that they are the same which the Frenchmen call varlets, but, as that phrase is used in my time, it is very unlikely to be so. The truth is that the word is derived from the Saxon termZeoman, orGeoman,[65]which signifieth (as I have read) a settled or staidman, such I mean as, being married and of some years, betaketh himself to stay in the place of his abode for the better maintenance of himself and his family, whereof the single sort have no regard, but are likely to be still fleeting now hither now thither, which argueth want of stability in determination and resolution of judgment, for the execution of things of any importance. This sort of people have a certain pre-eminence, and more estimation than labourers and the common sort of artificers, and these commonly live wealthily, keep good houses, and travel to get riches. They are also for the most part farmers to gentlemen (in old time calledPagani, et opponuntur militibus, and therefore Persius calleth himselfSemipaganus[66]), or at the leastwise artificers, and with grazing, frequenting of markets, and keeping of servants (not idle servants, as the gentlemen do, but such as get both their own and part of their masters’ living), do come to great wealth, insomuch that many of them are able and do buy the lands ofunthrifty gentlemen, and often setting their sons to the schools, to the universities, and to the Inns of the Court, or, otherwise leaving them sufficient lands whereupon they may live without labour, do make them by those means to become gentlemen. These were they that in times past made all France afraid. And albeit they be not called “Master,” as gentlemen are, or “Sir,” as to knights appertaineth, but only “John” and “Thomas,” etc., yet have they been found to have done very good service.

The kings of England in foughten battles were wont to remain among them (who were their footmen) as the French kings did amongst their horsemen, the prince thereby shewing where his chief strength did consist.

The fourth and last sort of people in England are day-labourers, poor husbandmen, and some retailers (which have no free land), copyholders, and all artificers, as tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, brickmakers, masons, etc.[67]

As for slaves and bondmen, we have none; nay, such is the privilege of our country by the especial grace of God and bounty of our princes, that if any come hither from other realms, so soon as they set foot on land they become so free of condition as their masters, whereby all note of servile bondage is utterly removed from them, wherein we resemble (not the Germans, who had slaves also, though such as in respect of the slaves of other countries might well be reputed free, but) the old Indians and the Taprobanes,[68]who supposed it a great injury to Nature to make or suffer them to be bond, whom she in her wonted course doth product and bring forth free. This fourth and last sort of people therefore have neither voice nor authority in the commonwealth, but are to be ruled and not to rule other: yet they are not altogether neglected, for in cities and corporate towns, for default of yeomen, they are fain to make up their inquests of such manner of people. And in villages they are commonlymade churchwardens, sidesmen, aleconners, now and then constables, and many times enjoy the name of head boroughs. Unto this sort also may our great swarms of idle serving-men be referred, of whom there runneth a proverb, “Young serving-men, old beggars,” because service is none heritage. These men are profitable to none; for, if their condition be well perused, they are enemies to their masters, to their friends, and to themselves: for by them oftentimes their masters are encouraged unto unlawful exactions of their tenants, their friends brought unto poverty by their rents enhanced, and they themselves brought to confusion by their own prodigality and errors, as men that, having not wherewith of their own to maintain their excesses, do search in highways, budgets, coffers, mails, and stables, which way to supply their wants. How divers of them also, coveting to bear an high sail, do insinuate themselves with young gentlemen and noblemen newly come to their lands, the case is too much apparent, whereby the good natures of the parties are not only a little impaired, but also their livelihoods and revenues so wasted and consumed that, if at all, yet not in many years, they shall be able to recover themselves. It were very good therefore that the superfluous heaps of them were in part diminished. And since necessity enforceth to have some, yet let wisdom moderate their numbers, so shall their masters be rid of unnecessary charge, and the commonwealth of many thieves. No nation cherisheth such store of them as we do here in England, in hope of which maintenance many give themselves to idleness that otherwise would be brought to labour, and live in order like subjects. Of their whoredoms I will not speak anything at all, more than of their swearing; yet is it found that some of them do make the first a chief pillar of their building, consuming not only the goods but also the health and welfare of many honest gentlemen, citizens, wealthy yeomen, etc., by such unlawful dealings. But how far have I waded in this point, or how far may I sail in such a large sea? I will therefore now stay to speak any more of those kind of men. In returning therefore to my matter, this furthermoreamong other things I have to say of our husbandmen and artificers, that they were never so excellent in their trades as at this present. But as the workmanship of the latter sort was newer, more fine, and curious to the eye, so was it never less strong and substantial for continuance and benefit of the buyers. Neither is there anything that hurteth the common sort of our artificers more than haste, and a barbarous or slavish desire to turn the penny, and, by ridding their work, to make speedy utterance of their wares: which enforceth them to bungle up and despatch many things they care not how so they be out of their hands, whereby the buyer is often sore defrauded, and findeth to his cost that haste maketh waste, according to the proverb.

Oh, how many trades and handicrafts are now in England whereof the commonwealth hath no need! How many needful commodities have we which are perfected with great cost, etc., and yet may with far more ease and less cost be provided from other countries if we could use the means! I will not speak of iron, glass, and such like, which spoil much wood, and yet are brought from other countries better cheap than we can make them here at home; I could exemplify also in many other. But to leave these things and proceed with our purpose, and herein (as occasion serveth) generally, by way of conclusion, to speak of the commonwealth of England, I find that it is governed and maintained by three sorts of persons—

1. The prince, monarch, and head governor, which is called the king, or (if the crown fall to a woman) the queen: in whose name and by whose authority all things are administered.

2. The gentlemen, which be divided into two sorts, as the barony or estate of lords (which containeth barons and all above that degree), and also those that be no lords, as knights, esquires, and simple gentlemen, as I have noted already. Out of these also are the great deputies and high presidents chosen, of which one serveth in Ireland, as another did some time in Calais, and the captain now at Berwick, as one lord president doth govern in Wales, and the other the north parts of this island, which later, with certain counsellors and judges, wereerected by King Henry the Eighth. But, for so much as I have touched their conditions elsewhere, it shall be enough to have remembered them at this time.

3. The third and last sort is named the yeomanry, of whom and their sequel, the labourers and artificers, I have said somewhat even now. Whereto I add that they may not be calledmastersandgentlemen, butgoodmen, as Goodman Smith, Goodman Coot, Goodman Cornell, Goodman Mascall, Goodman Cockswet, etc.: and in matters of law these and the like are called thus,Giles Jewd, yeoman;Edward Mountford, yeoman;James Cocke, yeoman;Harry Butcher, yeoman, etc.; by which addition they are exempt from the vulgar and common sorts. Cato calleth them “Aratores et optimos cives rei publicæ,” of whom also you may read more in the book of commonwealth which Sir Thomas Smith some time penned of this land.[69]

As in old time we read that there were eight-and-twenty flamines and archflamines in the south part of this isle, and so many great cities under their jurisdiction, so in these our days there is but one or two fewer, and each of them also under the ecclesiastical regiment of some one bishop or archbishop, who in spiritual cases have the charge and oversight of the same. So many cities therefore are there in England and Wales as there be bishoprics and archbishoprics.[70]For, notwithstanding that Lichfield and Coventry and Bath and Wells do seem to extend the aforesaid number unto nine-and-twenty, yet neither of these couples are to be accounted but as one entire city and see of the bishop, sith one bishopric can have relation but unto one see, and the said see be situate but in one place, after which the bishop doth take his name.[71]

Certes I would gladly set down, with the names and number of the cities, all the towns and villages in England and Wales,with their true longitudes and latitudes, but as yet I cannot come by them in such order as I would; howbeit the tale of our cities is soon found by the bishoprics, sith every see hath such prerogative given unto it as to bear the name of a city and to useRegaleius[72]within her own limits. Which privilege also is granted to sundry ancient towns in England, especially northward, where more plenty of them is to be found by a great deal than in the south. The names therefore of our cities are these: London, York, Canterbury, Winchester, Carlisle, Durham, Ely, Norwich, Lincoln, Worcester, Gloucester, Hereford, Salisbury, Exeter, Bath, Lichfield, Bristol, Rochester, Chester, Chichester, Oxford, Peterborough, Llandaff, St. Davids, Bangor, St. Asaph, whose particular plots and models, with their descriptions, shall ensue, if it may be brought to pass that the cutters can make despatch of them before this history be published.[73]

Of towns and villages likewise thus much will I say, that there were greater store in old time (I mean within three or four hundred year passed) than at this present. And this I note out of divers records, charters, and donations (made in times past unto sundry religious houses, as Glastonbury, Abingdon, Ramsey, Ely, and such like), and whereof in these days I find not so much as the ruins. Leland, in sundry places, complaineth likewise of the decay of parishes in great cities and towns, missing in some six or eight or twelve churches and more, of all which he giveth particular notice. For albeit that the Saxons builded many towns and villages, and the Normans well more at their first coming, yet since the first two hundred years after the latter conquest, they have gone so fast again to decay that the ancient number of them is very much abated. Ranulph, the monk of Chester, telleth of general survey made in the fourth, sixteenth, and nineteenth of the reign of WilliamConqueror, surnamed the Bastard, wherein it was found that (notwithstanding the Danes had overthrown a great many) there were to the number of 52,000 towns, 45,002 parish churches, and 75,000 knights’ fees, whereof the clergy held 28,015. He addeth moreover that there were divers other builded since that time, within the space of a hundred years after the coming of the Bastard, as it were in lieu or recompense of those that William Rufus pulled down for the erection of his New Forest. For by an old book which I have, and some time written as it seemeth by an under-sheriff of Nottingham, I find even in the time of Edward IV. 45,120 parish churches, and but 60,216 knights’ fees, whereof the clergy held as before 28,015, or at the least 28,000; for so small is the difference which he doth seem to use. Howbeit, if the assertions of such as write in our time concerning this matter either are or ought to be of any credit in this behalf, you shall not find above 17,000 towns and villages, and 9210 in the whole, which is little more than a fourth part of the aforesaid number, if it be thoroughly scanned.[74]

In time past in Lincoln (as the same goeth) there have been two-and-fifty parish churches, and good record appeareth for eight-and-thirty; but now, if there be four-and-twenty, it is all. This inconvenience hath grown altogether to the church by appropriations made unto monasteries and religious houses—a terrible canker and enemy to religion.

But to leave this lamentable discourse of so notable and grievous an inconvenience, growing as I said by encroaching and joining of house to house and laying land to land, whereby the inhabitants of many places of our country are devoured and eaten up, and their houses either altogether pulled down or suffered to decay little by little,[75]although some time a poor man peradventure doth dwell in one of them, who, not being able torepair it, suffereth it to fall down—and thereto thinketh himself very friendly dealt withal, if he may have an acre of ground assigned unto him, wherein to keep a cow, or wherein to set cabbages, radishes, parsnips, carrots, melons, pompons,[76]or such like stuff, by which he and his poor household liveth as by their principal food, sith they can do no better. And as for wheaten bread, they eat it when they can reach unto the price of it, contenting themselves in the meantime with bread made of oats or barley: a poor estate, God wot! Howbeit, what care our great encroachers? But in divers places where rich men dwelled some time in good tenements, there be now no houses at all, but hop-yards, and sheds for poles, or peradventure gardens, as we may see in Castle Hedingham,[77]and divers other places. But to proceed.

It is so that, our soil being divided into champaign ground and woodland, the houses of the first lie uniformly builded in every town together, with streets and lanes; whereas in the woodland countries (except here and there in great market towns) they stand scattered abroad, each one dwelling in the midst of his own occupying. And as in many and most great market towns, there are commonly three hundred or four hundred families or mansions, and two thousand communicants (or peradventure more), so in the other, whether they be woodland or champaign, we find not often above forty, fifty, or three score households, and two or three hundred communicants, whereof the greatest part nevertheless are very poor folks, oftentimes without all manner of occupying, sith the ground of the parish is gotten up into a few men’s hands, yea sometimes into the tenure of one or two or three, whereby the rest are compelled either to be hired servants unto the other or else to beg their bread in misery from door to door.

There are some (saith Leland) which are not so favourable, when they have gotten such lands, as to let the houses remainupon them to the use of the poor; but they will compound with the lord of the soil to pull them down for altogether, saying that “if they did let them stand, they should but toll beggars to the town, thereby to surcharge the rest of the parish, and lay more burden upon them.” But alas! these pitiful men see not that they themselves hereby do lay the greatest log upon their neighbours’ necks. For, sith the prince doth commonly loose nothing of his duties accustomable to be paid, the rest of the parishioners that remain must answer and bear them out: for they plead more charge other ways, saying: “I am charged already with a light horse; I am to answer in this sort, and after that matter.” And it is not yet altogether out of knowledge that, where the king had seven pounds thirteen shillings at a task gathered of fifty wealthy householders of a parish in England, now, a gentleman having three parts of the town in his own hands, four households do bear all the aforesaid payment, or else Leland is deceived in hisCommentaries, lib. 13, lately come to my hands,[78]which thing he especially noted in his travel over this isle. A common plague and enormity, both in the heart of the land and likewise upon the coasts. Certes a great number complain of the increase of poverty, laying the cause upon God, as though he were in fault for sending such increase of people, or want of wars that should consume them, affirming that the land was never so full, etc.; but few men do see the very root from whence it doth proceed. Yet the Romans found it out, when they flourished, and therefore prescribed limits to every man’s tenure and occupying. Homer commendeth Achilles for overthrowing of five-and-twenty cities: but in mine opinion Ganges is much better preferred by Suidas for building of three score in India, where he did plant himself. I could (if need required) set down in this place the number of religious houses and monasteries, with the names of their founders, that have been in this island: but, sith it is a thing of small importance, I pass it overas impertinent to my purpose. Yet herein I will commend sundry of the monastical votaries, especially monks, for that they were authors of many goodly borowes and endwares,[79]near unto their dwellings, although otherwise they pretended to be men separated from the world. But alas! their covetous minds, one way in enlarging their revenues, and carnal intent another, appeared herein too, too much. For, being bold from time to time to visit their tenants, they wrought oft great wickedness, and made those endwares little better than brothel-houses, especially where nunneries were far off, or else no safe access unto them. But what do I spend my time in the rehearsal of these filthinesses? Would to God the memory of them might perish with the malefactors! My purpose was also at the end of this chapter to have set down a table of the parish churches and market towns throughout all England and Wales; but, sith I cannot perform the same as I would, I am forced to give over my purpose; yet by these few that ensue you shall easily see what order I would have used according to the shires, if I might have brought it to pass.

Back to Index Next