country. Housing is now, for the first time, purely for dwelling
and not for defense. Houses were designed symmetrically with
decorative features instead of a haphazard addition of rooms.
Windows were large and put on the outer walls instead of just
inside the courtyard. A scarcity of timber caused proportionally
more stone to be used for dwelling houses and proportionately more
brick to be used for royal palaces and mansions. The rest of the
house was plaster painted white interspersed with vertical,
horizontal, and sloping timber, usually oak, painted black. There
were locks and bolts for protection from intruders. The hall was
still the main room, and usually extended up to the roof. Richly
carved screens separated the hall from the kitchen. The floors
were stone or wood, and sometimes tile. They were often covered
with rushes or plaited rush mats, on which incomers could remove
the mud from their boots. Some private rooms may have carpets on
the floor. Walls were smoothly plastered or had carved wood
paneling to control drafts. Painted cloths replaced tapestries on
walls. Iron stands with candles were hung from the ceiling and
used on tables. Plastered ceilings and a lavish use of glass made
rooms lighter and cozy. Broad and gracious open stairways with
carved wood banisters, which replaced the narrow winding stone
steps of a circular stairwell. Most houses had several ornamented
brick chimneys and clear, but uneven, glass in the windows. There
were fireplaces in living rooms, dining rooms, kitchen, and
bedrooms, as well as in the hall and great chamber. Parlors were
used for eating and sitting only, but not for sleeping. Closets
were rooms off bedrooms in which one could read and write on a
writing table, and store one's books, papers, maps, calendar,
medals, collections, rarities, and oddities. Sometimes there was a
study room or breakfast room as well. A gentleman used his study
not only to read and to write, but to hold collections of early
chronicles, charters, deeds, copied manuscripts, and coins that
reflected the budding interest in antiquarianism; and to study his
family genealogy, for which he had hired someone to make an
elaborate diagram. He was inclined to have a few classical,
religious, medical, legal, and political books there. Rooms were
more spacious than before and contained oak furniture such as
enclosed cupboards, cabinets, buffets from which food could be
served, tables, chairs and benches with backs and cushions,
sometimes with arms, lidded chests for storing clothes and linens,
and occasionally chests of drawers or wardrobes, either hanging or
with shelves, for clothes. Chests of drawers developed from a
drawer at the bottom of a wardrobe. Carpeting covered tables,
chests, and beds. Family portraits decorated some walls, usually
in the dining room. Great houses had a wardrobe chamber with a
fireplace in front of which the yeoman of the wardrobe and his
assistants could repair clothes and hangings. Separate bedchambers
replaced bed-sitting rooms. Bedrooms all led out of each other.
The lady's chamber was next to her lord's chamber, and her ladies'
chambers were close to her chamber. But curtains on the four
poster beds with tops provided privacy and warmth. Beds had
elaborately carved bedsteads, sheets, and a feather cover as well
as a feather mattress. Often family members, servants, and friends
shared the same bed for warmth or convenience. Each bedroom
typically had a cabinet with a mirror, e.g. of burnished metal or
crystal, and comb on top. One brushed his teeth with tooth soap
and a linen cloth, as physicians advised. Each bedroom had a
pitcher and water bowl, usually silver or pewter, for washing in
the morning, and a chamber pot or a stool with a hole over a
bucket for nighttime use, and also fragrant flowers to override
the unpleasant odors. The chamber pots and buckets were emptied
into cesspits. A large set of lodgings had attached to it latrines
consisting of a small cell in which a seat with a hole was placed
over a shaft which connected to a pit or a drain. The servants
slept in turrets or attics. Elizabeth had a room just for her
bath.
More than medieval castles and manor houses, mansions were
designed with privacy in mind. Breakfast was substantial, with
meat, and usually eaten in one's bedroom. The great hall, often
hung around with bows, pikes, swords, and guns, was not abandoned,
but the family took meals there only on rare occasions. Instead
they withdrew to a parlor, for domestic use, or the great chamber,
for entertaining. Parlors were situated on the ground floor: the
family lived and relaxed there, and had informal meals in a dining
parlor.
The formal or "state" rooms were on the first floor above the
ground floor, usually comprising a great chamber, a withdrawing
chamber, one or more bedchambers, and a long gallery. Each room
had carved chairs and cabinets. Taking a meal in the great chamber
involved the same ceremonial ritual as in the manorial great
chamber dating from the 1400s. The table was covered with a linen
cloth. Some sat above the fancy silver salt cellar and pepper, and
some sat below. Grace was said before the meal. Noon dinner and
supper were served by sewer, carver, cupbearer, and assistants.
The lady of the house sat in a chair at the upper end of the table
and was served first. Fine clear Italian glass drinking vessels
replaced even gold and silver goblets. They ate from silver dishes
with silver spoons. Some gentry used two-pronged forks. There was
great plenty and variety of meats to all but the poorer classes:
beef, mutton, veal, lamb, kid, pork, hare, capon, red deer, fish
and wild fowl as well as the traditional venison and brawn [boar].
Kitchen gardens and orchards supplied apricots, almonds,
gooseberries, raspberries, melons, currants, oranges, and lemons
as well as the traditional apples, pears, plums, mulberries,
quinces, pomegranates, figs, cherries, walnuts, chestnuts, hazel
nuts, filberts, almonds, strawberries, blackberries, dewberries,
blueberries, and peaches. Also grown were sweet potatoes,
artichokes, cabbages, turnips, broad beans, peas, pumpkins,
cucumbers, radishes, carrots, celery, parsnips, onions, garlic,
leeks, endive, capers, spinach, sorrel, lettuce, parsley, mustard,
cress, sage, tarragon, fennel, thyme, mint, savory, rhubarb, and
medicinal herbs. The well-to-do started to grow apricots, peaches,
and oranges under glass. Sugar was used to make sweet dishes.
Toothpicks made of brass or silver or merely a stiff quill were
used. After the meal, some men and women were invited for
conversation in a withdrawing or drawing chamber. Some might take
a walk in the gardens. After the upper table was served, the food
was sent to the great hall to the steward and high household
officers at the high table and other servants: serving men and
women, bakers, brewers, cooks, pot cleaners, laundresses,
shepherds, hogherds, dairy maids, falconers, huntsmen, and stable
men. What was left was given to the poor at the gates of the
house. Great chambers were used primarily for meals, but also for
music; dancing; plays; masques; playing cards, dice, backgammon,
or chess; and daily prayers if there was no chapel.
The idea of a long gallery was copied from Henry VII and was used
for exercise, recreation such as music and dancing, and private
conversations. Without the necessity of fortifications, the estate
of a noble or gentleman could spread out to include not only a
garden for the kitchen, but extensive orchards and beautiful
formal gardens of flowers and scrubs, sometimes with fountains and
maybe a maze of hedges. Trees were planted, pruned, and grafted
onto each other.
Householders had the responsibility to teach their family and
servants religion and morals, and often read from the Bible to
them. Many thought that the writers of the Bible wrote down the
exact words of God, so the passages of the Bible should be taken
literally. A noble lord made written rules with penalties for his
country household, which numbered about a hundred, including
family, retainers, and servants. He enforced them by fines,
flogging, and threats of dismissal. The lady of the house saw that
the household, held together as an economic and social unit. The
noble's family, retainers, guests, and the head servants, such as
chaplain and children's tutor, and possibly a musician, dined
together at one table. The family included step children and
married sons and daughters with their spouses. Young couples often
lived with the parents of one of them. Chandeliers of candles lit
rooms. There were sandglass clocks. Popular home activities
included reading, conversation, gardening, and music-making.
Smoking tobacco from a clay pipe and taking snuff became popular
with men. For amusement, one of the lord's household would take
his place in managing the estate for twelve days. He was called
the "lord of misrule", and mimicked his lord, and issued comic
orders. Clothes were washed in rivers and wells. At spring
cleanings, windows were opened, every washable surface washed, and
feather beds and pillows exposed to the sun.
Most dwellings were of brick and stone. Only a few were of wood or
mud and straw. The average house was now four rooms instead of
three. Yeomen might have six rooms. A weaver's house had a hall,
two bedrooms, and a kitchen besides the shop. Farmers might have
two instead of one room. A joiner had a one-room house with a
feather bed and bolster. Even craftsmen, artificers and simple
farmers slept on feather beds on bed frames with pillows, sheets,
blankets, and coverlets. Loom tapestry and painted cloth was hung
to keep out the cold in their single story homes. They also had
pewter spoons and plates, instead of just wood or earthenware
ones. Even the poorer class had glass drinking vessels, though of
a coarse grade. The poor still used wooden plates and spoons.
Laborers had canvas sheets. Richer farmers would build a chamber
above the hall, replacing the open hearth with a fireplace and
chimney at a wall. Poorer people favored ground floor extensions,
adding a kitchen or second bedchamber to their cottages. Kitchens
were often separate buildings to reduce the risk of fire. Roasting
was done on a spit and baking in irons boxes placed in the fire or
in a brick oven at the side of the fireplace. Sometimes dogs were
used to turn a spit by continual running in a treadmill. Some
people lived in hovels due to the custom in many places that a
person could live in a home he built on village waste land if he
could build it in one night.
Yeomen farmers still worked from dawn to dusk. Mixed farming
began. In this, some of the arable land produced food for man and
the rest produced food for sheep, cattle, pigs, and poultry. This
was made possible by the introduction of clover, artificial
grasses, and turnip and other root crops for the animals. Since
the sheep ate these crops in the field, they provided manure to
maintain the fertility of the soil. This meant that many animals
could be maintained throughout the winter instead of being
slaughtered and salted.
Farmers' wives used looms as well as spinning wheels with foot
treadles. Since animals could now be kept through the winter,
salted meat and salted fish were no longer the staple food of the
poorer people during the winter. Farm laborers ate soup, porridge,
milk, cheese, bacon, and beer or mead (depending on the district),
and dark barley or rye bread, which often served as his plate.
Gentlemen ate wheat bread. There was a scarcity of fruits and
vegetables that adversely affected the health of the affluent as
well as of the poor due to the overall decline in farming. During
winter, there were many red noses and coughing.
The value of grain and meat rose compared to wool. Grain became
six times its value in the previous reign. Wool fell from 20s.8d.
per tod to 16s. So sheep-farming, which had taken about 5% of the
arable land, was supplanted somewhat by crop-raising and the rural
population could be employed for agriculture. In some places, the
threefold system of rotation was replaced by alternating land used
for crops with that used for pasture. The necessity of manuring
and the rotation of crops and grasses such as clover for
enrichment of the soil were recognized. Wheat, rye, barley, peas,
and beans were raised. There was much appropriation of common land
by individual owners by sale or force. Many farms were enclosed by
fences or hedges so that each holder could be independent of his
neighbors. Red and black currants, rhubarb, apricots, and oranges
were now grown. These independent farmers could sell wool to
clothiers, and butter, cheese, and meat to the towns. They also
often did smithwork and ironwork, making nails, horseshoes, keys,
locks, and agricultural implements to sell. A laborer could earn
6d. a day in winter and 7d. a day in summer. Unfree villeinage
ceased on the royal estates. But most land was still farmed in
common and worked in strips without enclosure. Elizabeth made
several proclamations ordering the enclosure of certain enclosed
land to be destroyed and the land returned to tillage. Windmills
now had vanes replacing manual labor to change the position of the
sails when the wind direction changed. Prosperous traders and
farmers who owned their own land assumed local offices as
established members of the community.
The population of the nation was about five million. Population
expansion had allowed landlords to insist on shorter leases and
higher rents, instead of having to choose between accepting a long
lease and good rent or allowing their estates to pass out of
cultivation. Over 50% of the population were on the margin of
subsistence. 90% of the population lived in the countryside and 5%
in the London and 5% in the other towns. Life expectancy was about
40 years of age. Over 50% was under the age of 23, while only
about 9% were over 60. Fluctuations in rates of population growth
were traceable back to bad harvests and to epidemics and the two
were still closely related to each other: "first dirth and then
plague".
Most of London was confined within the city wall. There were
orchards and gardens both inside and outside the walls, and fields
outside. Flower gardens and nurseries came into existence. No part
of the city was more than a ten minute walk to the fields. Some
wealthy merchants had four story mansions or country houses
outside the city walls. The suburbs of the City of London grew in
a long line along the river; on the west side were noblemen's
houses on both sides of the Strand. East of the Tower was a
seafaring and industrial population. Goldsmiths' Row was replete
with four story houses. A few wealthy merchants became money-
lenders for interest, despite the law against usury. The mayor of
London was typically a rich merchant prince. Each trade occupied
its own section of the town and every shop had its own signboard,
for instance, hat and cap sellers, cloth sellers, grocers,
butchers, cooks, taverns, and book-sellers. Many of the London
wards were associated with a craft, such as Candlewick Ward, Bread
St. Ward, Vintry Ward, and Cordwainer Ward. Some wards were
associated with their location in the city, such as Bridge Ward,
Tower Ward, Aldgate Ward, Queenhithe Ward, and Billingsgate Ward.
People lived at the back or on the second floor of their shops. In
the back yard, they grew vegetables such as melons, carrots,
turnips, cabbages, pumpkins, parsnips, and cucumbers; herbs; and
kept a pig. The pigs could still wander through the streets. Hyde
Park was the Queen's hunting ground. London had a small zoo of ten
animals, including a lion, tiger, lynx, and wolf.
London was England's greatest manufacturing city. By 1600 the
greatest trading companies in London ceased to be associated only
with their traditional goods and were dominated by merchants whose
main interest was in the cloth trade. Ambitious merchants joined a
livery company to become freemen of the city and for the status
and social benefits of membership. The companies still made
charitable endowments, had funeral feasts, cared for the welfare
of guild members, and made lavish displays of pageantry. They were
intimately involved with the government of the city. They supplied
members for the Court of Aldermen, which relied on the companies
to maintain the City's emergency grain stores, to assess and
collect taxes, to provide loans to the Crown, to control prices
and markets, to provide armed men when trouble was expected, and
to raise armies for the Crown at times of rebellion, war, or
visits from foreign monarchs. From about 1540 to 1700, there were
23% involved in cloth or clothing industries such as weavers,
tailors, hosiers, haberdashers, and cappers. 9% were
leatherworkers such as skinners; tanners; those in the heavy
leather crafts such as shoemakers, saddlers, and cobblers; and
those in the light leather crafts such as glovers and pursers.
Another 9% worked in metals, such as the armorers, smiths,
cutlers, locksmiths, and coppersmiths. 8% worked in the building
trades. The victualling trades, such as bakers, brewers, butchers,
costermongers [sold fruit and vegetables from a cart or street
stand], millers, fishmongers, oystermen, and tapsters [bartender],
grew from 9% before 1600 to 16% by 1700. Of London's workforce,
60% were involved in production; 13% were merchants before 1600;
7% were merchants by 1700; 7% were transport workers such as
watermen, sailors, porters, coachmen, and shipwrights; and 5-9%
were professionals and officials (this number declining). Life in
London was lived in the open air in the streets. The merchant
transacted business agreements and the attorney saw his clients in
the street or at certain pillars at St. Paul's Church, where there
was a market for all kinds of goods and services, including
gentlemen's valets, groceries, spirits, books, and loans, which
continued even during the daily service. Some gentlemen had
offices distant from their dwelling houses such as attorneys, who
had a good income from trade disputes and claims to land, which
often changed hands. Plays and recreation also occurred in the
streets, such as performances by dancers, musicians, jugglers,
clowns, tumblers, magicians, and men who swallowed fire. The
churches were continuously open and used by trades and peddlers,
including tailors and letter-writers. Water carriers carried water
in wood vessels on a shoulder from the Thames River or its
conduits to the inhabitants three gallons at a time. A gentleman
concocted an engine to convey Thames water by lead pipes up into
men's houses in a certain section of the city. Soldiers,
adventurers, physicians, apprentices, prostitutes, and cooks were
all distinguishable by their appearances. An ordinance required
apprentices to wear long blue gowns and white breeches with
stockings, with no ornamentation of silk, lace, gold or silver and
no jewelry. They could wear a meat knife, but not a sword or
dagger. Apprentices lived with their masters and worked from 6 or
7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Some people knitted wool caps as they walked to
sell when finished. There were sections of town for booksellers,
butchers, brewers, hosiers, shoemakers, curriers, cooks, poulters,
bow makers, textwriters, pattenmakers, and horse and oxen sellers.
Large merchant companies had great halls for trade, such as the
mercers, grocers, drapers, fishmongers, and goldsmiths. The other
great guilds were the skinners, merchant tailers, haberdashers,
salters, ironmongers, vintners, and clothworkers. Smaller guilds
were those of the bakers, weavers, fruiterers, dyers, Thames
watermen and lightermen, carpenters, joiners, turners, and parish
clerks. The guilds insured quality by inspecting goods for a fee.
About 1571, mercer and Merchant Adventurer Thomas Gresham
established the Royal Exchange as a place for merchants and
brokers to meet for business purposes. It became the center of
London's business life. Its great bell rang at midday and at 6
p.m. Its courtyard was lined with shops that rented at 50s. yearly
and became a popular social and recreational area. Gresham
formulated his law that when two kinds of money of equal
denomination but unequal intrinsic value are in circulation at the
same time, the one of greater value will tend to be hoarded or
exported, i.e. bad money will drive good money out of circulation.
The work-saving knitting frame was invented in 1589 by minister
William Lee; it knit crosswise loops using one continuous yarn and
was operated by hand. The stocking knitters, who knitted by hand,
put up a bitter struggle against its use and chased Lee out of the
country. But it did come into use. Some frame-work stocking
knitters paid frame rent for the use of their knitting frames.
Frame knitting became a scattered industry.
By 1600 basement services were frequently found in town houses
built on restricted sites in London. Lastly, provision of water
supplies and improved sanitary arrangements reflected concern with
private and public health. There was virtually no drainage. In the
case of town houses, some owners would go to considerable effort
to solve drainage problems, often paying cash to the civic
authorities, but sometimes performing some service for the town at
Court or at Westminster, in return for unlimited water or some
drainage. Most affluent households, including the Queen's moved
from house to house, so their cesspits could be cleaned out and
the vacated buildings aired after use. A few cesspits were made
air tight. Otherwise, there was extensive burning of incense.
Refuse was emptied out of front doors and shoveled into heaps on
street corners. It was then dumped into the Thames or along the
highways leading out of town. People put on perfume to avoid the
stench. By 1600, the first toilet and water closet, where water
flushed away the waste, was built. This provided a clean toilet
area all year round. But these toilets were not much used because
of sewer smells coming from them. The sky above London was
darkened somewhat by the burning of coal in houses.
Taverns served meals as well as ale. They were popular meeting
places for both men and women of all backgrounds to met their
friends. Men went to taverns for camaraderie and to conduct
business. Women usually went to taverns with each other. Two
taverns in particular were popular with the intelligentsia. Music
was usually played in the background and games were sometimes
played. Beer made with hops and malt was introduced and soon there
were beer drinking contests. Drunkenness became a problem.
At night, the gates of the city were closed and citizens were
expected to hang out lanterns. The constable and his watchmen
carried lanterns and patrolled the streets asking anyone they saw
why they were out so late at night. Crime was rampant in the
streets and criminals were executed near to the crime scene.
There were a few horse-drawn coaches with leather flaps or
curtains in the unglazed windows to keep out the weather. The main
thoroughfare in London was still the Thames River. Nobles, peers,
and dignitaries living on the Thames had their own boats and
landings. Also at the banks, merchants of all nations had landing
places where ships unloaded, warehouses, and cellars for goods and
merchandise. Swans swam in the clear bright water. Watermen rowed
people across the Thames for a fee. In Southwark were theaters,
outlaws, cutpurses, prostitutes, and prisons. In 1550 Southwark
became the 26th and last ward of the city. In the summer, people
ate supper outside in public.
As of old times, brokers approved by the Mayor and aldermen made
contracts with merchants concerning their wares. Some contracts
included holding wares as security. Some craftsmen and manual
workers extended this idea to used garments and household
articles, which they took as pawns, or security for money loaned.
This began pawn brokerage, which was lucrative. The problem was
that many of the items pawned had been stolen.
Elizabeth had good judgment in selecting her ministers and
advisors for her Privy Council, which was organized like Henry
VIII's Privy Council. The Queen's Privy Council of about twelve
ministers handled foreign affairs, drafted official communiques,
issued proclamations, supervised the county offices: the 1500
justices of the peace, chief constables, sheriffs, lord
lieutenants, and the county militias. It fixed wages and prices in
London, advised Justices of the Peace on wages elsewhere, and
controlled exports of grain to keep prices down and supplies
ample. It banned the eating of meat two days a week so that the
fishing industry and port towns would prosper. When grain was
scarce in 1596, Elizabeth made a proclamation against those
ingrossers, forestallers, and ingraters of grain who increased its
price by spreading false rumors that it was scarce because much of
it was being exported, which was forbidden. There were labor
strikes in some towns for higher wages after periods of inflation.
In 1591, London authorities rounded up the sturdy vagabonds and
set them to work cleaning out the city ditches for 4d. per day.