_Education._
There were very few free-schools in England before the Reformation.
Youth were generally taught Latin in the monasteries, and young women
had their education not at Hackney, as now, scilicit, anno 1678, but at
nunneries, where they learnt needle-work, confectionary, surgery,
physic, (apothecaries and surgeons being at that time very rare,)
writing, drawing, &c. Old Jackquar, now living, has often seen from his
house the nuns of St. Mary Kingston, in Wilts, coming forth into the
Nymph Hay with their rocks and wheels to spin, sometimes to the number
of threescore and ten, all whom were not nuns, but young girls sent
there for their education.
_Chimneys._
Anciently, before the Reformation, ordinary men’s houses, as
copyholders, and the like, had no chimneys, but flues like louver-holes;
some of them were in being when I was a boy.
_Painted Cloths._
In the halls and parlours of great houses were wrote texts of Scripture
on the painted cloths.
_Libels._
The lawyers say, that, before the time of king Henry VIII., one shall
hardly find an action on the case as for slander, &c. once in a year,
quod nota.
_Christmas._
Before the last civil wars, in gentlemen’s houses at Christmas, the
first dish that was brought to the table was a boar’s head with a lemon
in his mouth. At Queen’s College in Oxford they still retain this
custom; the bearer of it brings it into the hall, singing to an old tune
an old Latin rhyme, “Caput apri defero,” &c. The first dish that was
brought up to the table on Easter-day was a red herring riding away on
horseback, i. e. a herring ordered by the cook something after the
likeness of a man on horseback, set in a corn salad.
_Easter._
The custom of eating a gammon of bacon at Easter, which is still kept up
in many parts of England, was founded on this, viz. to show their
abhorrence to Judaism at that solemn commemoration of our Lord’s
resurrection. In the Easter holydays was the clerk’s ale for his private
benefit, and the solace of the neighbourhood.
_Salutations._
The use of “Your humble servant” came first into England on the marriage
of queen Mary, daughter of Henry IV. of France, which is derived from
_Votre très humble serviteur_. The usual salutation before that time
was, “God keep you!” “God be with you!” and among the vulgar, “How dost
do?” with a thump on the shoulder.
_Court Rudeness._
Till this time the court itself was unpolished and unmannered. King
James’s court was so far from being civil to women, that the ladies, nay
the queen herself, could hardly pass by the king’s apartment without
receiving some affront.
_Travellers in France._
At the parish priests’ houses in France, especially in Languedoc, the
table-cloth is on the board all day long, and ready for what is in the
house to be put thereon for strangers, travellers, friars, and pilgrims;
so ’twas, I have heard my grandfather say, in his grandfather’s time.
_Private Heralds._
Heretofore noblemen and gentlemen of fair estates had their heralds, who
wore their coat of arms at Christmas, and at other solemn times, and
cried “Largesse” thrice.
At Tomarton, in Gloucestershire, anciently the seat of the Rivers, is a
dungeon thirteen or fourteen feet deep; about four feet high are iron
rings fastened to the wall, which was probably to tie offending villains
to, as all lords of manors had this power over their villains, (or
soccage tenants,) and had all of them no doubt such places for their
punishment. It is well known, all castles had dungeons, and so I believe
had monasteries, for they had often within themselves power of life and
death.
In days of yore, lords and gentlemen lived in the country like petty
kings; had jura regalia belonging to their seigniories, had their
castles and boroughs, had gallows within their liberties, where they
could try, condemn, and execute. Never went to London but in
parliament-time, or once a year to do their homage to the king. They
always ate in gothic halls, at the high table or _oreille_, (which is a
little room at the upper end of the hall, where stands a table,) with
the folks at the side-tables. The meat was served up by watchwords.
Jacks are but of late invention. The poor boys did turn the spits, and
licked the dripping for their pains. The beds of the men-servants and
retainers were in the hall, as now in the grand or privy chamber.
Here in the hall, the mumming and the loaf-stealing, and other Christmas
sports, were performed.
The hearth was commonly in the middle, whence the saying, “Round about
our coal-fire.”
A neat-built chapel, and a spacious hall, were all the rooms of note,
the rest more small.
_Private Armories._
Every baron and gentleman of estate kept great horses for men at arms.
Some had their armories sufficient to furnish out some hundreds of men.
_Justices’ Halls._
The halls of the justices of peace were dreadful to behold; the screen
was garnished with corselets and helmets gaping with open mouths, with
coats of mail, lances, pikes, halberds, brown bills, batterdastors, and
buckles.
_Inns._
Public inns were rare. Travellers were entertained at religious houses
for three days together, if occasion served.
_Gentry Meetings._
The meeting of the gentry were not at taverns, but in the fields or
forests, with hawks and hounds, and their bugle-horns, in silken
bawderies.
_Hawking._
In the last age every gentleman-like man kept a sparrow-hawk, and the
priest a hobby, as dame Julian Berners teaches us, (who wrote a treatise
on field-sports, temp. Henry VI.:) it was a divertisement for young
gentlewomen to manne sparrow-hawks and merlines.
_Church-houses--Poor-rates._
Before the Reformation there were no poor’s rates; the charitable doles
given at religious houses, and church-ale in every parish, did the
business. In every parish there was a church-house, to which belonged
spits, pots, crocks, &c. for dressing provision. Here the housekeepers
met and were merry, and gave their charity. The young people came there
too, and had dancing, bowling, shooting at butts, &c. Mr. A. Wood
assures me, there were few or no alms-houses before the time of king
Henry VIII.; that at Oxford, opposite to Christ church, is one of the
most ancient in England. In every church was a poor man’s box, and the
like at great inns.
In these times, besides the jollities above-mentioned, they had their
pilgrimages to several shrines, as to Walsingham, Canterbury,
Glastonbury, Bromholm, &c. Then the crusades to the holy wars were
magnificent and splendid, and gave rise to the adventures of the
knight-errant and romances; the solemnity attending processions in and
about churches, and the perambulations in the fields, were great
diversions also of those times.
_Glass Windows._
Glass windows, except in churches and gentlemen’s houses, were rare
before the time of Henry VIII. In my own remembrance, before the civil
wars, copyholders and poor people had none.
_Men’s Coats._
About ninety years ago, noblemen’s and gentlemen’s coats were of the
bedels and yeomen of the guards, i. e. gathered at the middle. The
benchers in the inns of court yet retain that fashion in the make of
their gowns.
_Church-building._
Captain Silas Taylor says, that in days of yore, when a church was to be
built, they watched and prayed on the vigil of the dedication, and took
that point of the horizon where the sun arose for the east, which makes
that variation, so that few stand true, except those built between the
two equinoxes. I have experimented some churches, and have found the
line to point to that part of the horizon where the sun rises on the day
of that saint to whom the church was dedicated.
Before the wake, or feast of the dedication of the church, they sat up
all night fasting and praying, (viz.) on the eve of the wake.
_New Moon._
In Scotland, especially among the Highlanders, the women make a courtesy
to the new moon; and our English women in this country have a touch of
this, some of them sitting astride on a gate or style the first evening
the new moon appears, and say, “A fine moon, God bless her!” The like I
observed in Herefordshire.
_Husbandry--Shepherds._
The Britons received the knowledge of husbandry from the Romans; the
foot and the acre, which we yet use, is the nearest to them. In our west
country, (and I believe so in the north,) they give no wages to the
shepherd, but he has the keeping so many sheep with his master’s flock.
Plautus hints at this in his Asinaria, act 3, scene 1, “etiam Opilio,”
&c.
_Architecture._
The Normans brought with them into England civility and building, which,
though it was gothic, was yet magnificent.
Mr. Dugdale told me, that, about the time of king Henry III., the pope
gave a bull, or patent, to a company of Italian architects, to travel up
and down Europe to build churches.
_Trumpets--Sheriffs’ Trumpets._
Upon occasion of bustling in those days, great lords sounded their
trumpets, and summoned those that held under them. Old sir Walter Long,
of Draycot, kept a trumpeter, rode with thirty servants and retainers.
Hence the sheriffs’ trumpets at this day.
_Younger Brothers._
No younger brothers were to betake themselves to trades, but were
churchmen or retainers to great men.
_Learning, and learned Men._
From the time of Erasmus till about twenty years last past, the learning
was downright pedantry. The conversation and habits of those times were
as starched as their bands and square beards, and gravity was then taken
for wisdom. The doctors in those days were but old boys, when quibbles
passed for wit, even in their sermons.
_Gentry and their Children._
The gentry and citizens had little learning of any kind, and their way
of breeding up their children was suitable to the rest. They were as
severe to their children as their schoolmasters, and their schoolmasters
as masters of the house of correction: the child perfectly loathed the
sight of his parents as the slave his torture.
Gentlemen of thirty and forty years old were to stand like mutes and
fools bare-headed before their parents; and the daughters (grown women)
were to stand at the cupboard-side during the whole time of her proud
mother’s visit, unless (as the fashion was) leave was desired forsooth
that a cushion should be given them to kneel upon, brought them by the
servingman, after they had done sufficient penance in standing.
The boys (I mean the young fellow) had their foreheads turned up and
stiffened with spittle: they were to stand mannerly forsooth thus, the
foretop ordered as before, with one hand at the bandstring, and the
other behind.
_Fans._
The gentlewomen had prodigious fans, as is to be seen in old pictures,
like that instrument which is used to drive feathers, and it had a
handle at least half a yard long; with these the daughters were
oftentimes corrected, (sir Edward Coke, lord chief justice, rode the
circuit with such a fan; sir William Dugdale told me he was an
eye-witness of it. The earl of Manchester also used such a fan,) but
fathers and mothers slashed their daughters in the time of their besom
discipline, when they were perfect women.
_University Flogging._
At Oxford (and I believe at Cambridge) the rod was frequently used by
the tutors and deans; and Dr. Potter, of Trinity college, I knew right
well, whipped his pupil with his sword by his side, when he came to take
his leave of him to go to the inns of court.
[Illustration: ~Young Lambs to sell.~]
Young lambs to sell! young lambs to sell
If I’d as much money as I could tell,
I’d not come here with lambs to sell!
Dolly and Molly, Richard and Nell,
Buy my young lambs, and I’ll use you well!
This is a “London cry” at the present time: the engraving represents the
crier, William Liston, from a drawing for which he purposely _stood_.
This “public character” was born in the Gallowgate in the city of
Glasgow. He became a soldier in the waggon-train, commanded by colonel
Hamilton, and served under the duke of York in Holland, where, on the
6th of October, 1799, he lost his right arm and left leg, and his place
in the army. His misfortunes thrust distinction upon him. From having
been a private in the ranks, where he would have remained a single
undistinguishable cipher 0, amongst a row of ciphers 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
he now makes a figure in the world; and is perhaps better known
throughout England than any other individual of his order in society,
for he has visited almost every town with “young lambs to sell.” He has
a wife and four children; the latter are constantly employed in making
the “young lambs,” with white cotton wool for fleeces, spangled with
Dutch gilt, the head of flour paste, red paint on the cheeks, two jet
black spots for eyes, horns of twisted shining tin, legs to correspond,
and pink tape tied round the neck for a graceful collar. A full basket
of these, and his song-like cry, attract the attention of the juvenile
population, and he contrives to pick up a living, notwithstanding the
“badness of the times.” The day after last Christmas-day, his cry in
Covent-garden allured the stage-manager to purchase four dozen of “young
lambs,” and at night they were “brought out” at that theatre, in the
basket of a performer who personated their old proprietor, and cried so
as to deceive the younger part of the audience into a belief that he was
their real favourite of the streets.
I remember the _first_ crier of “young lambs to sell!” He was a maimed
sailor; and with him originated the manufacture. If I am not mistaken,
this man, many years after I had ceased to be a purchaser of his ware,
was guilty of some delinquency, for which he forfeited his life: _his_
cry was
Young lambs to sell! young lambs to sell!
Two for a penny young lambs to sell!
Two for a penny young lambs to sell--
Two for a penny young lambs to sell!
If I’d as much money as I could tell,
I wouldn’t cry young lambs to sell!
Young lambs to sell--young lambs to sell--
Two for a penny young lambs to sell!
Young lambs to se--e--ll,
Young la--a--mbs to sell!
Though it is five and thirty years ago since I heard the sailor’s
musical “cry,” it still sings in my memory; it was a tenor of modulated
harmonious tune, till, in the last line but one, it became a thorough
bass, and rolled off at the close with a loud swell that filled urchin
listeners with awe and admiration. During this chant his head was
elevated, and he gave his full voice, and apparently his looks, to the
winds; but the moment he concluded, and when attention was yet rivetted,
his address became particular: his persuasive eye and jocular address
flashed round the circle of “my little masters and mistresses,” and his
hand presented a couple of his snow white “fleecy charge,” dabbled in
gold, “two for a penny!” nor did he resume his song till ones and twos
were in the possession of probably every child who had a halfpenny or
penny at command.
The old sailor’s “young lambs” were only half the cost of the poor
soldier’s. It may be doubted whether the materials of their composition
have doubled in price, but the demand for “young lambs” has certainly
lessened, while the present manufacturer has quite as many wants as the
old one, and luckily possessing a monopoly of the manufacture, he
therefore raises the price of his articles to the necessity of his
circumstances. It is not convenient to refer to the precise chapter in
the “Wealth of Nations,” or to verified tables of the increased value of
money, in order to show that the new lamb-seller has not exceeded “an
equitable adjustment” in the arrangement of his present prices; but it
is fair to state in his behalf, that he declares, notwithstanding all
the noise he makes, the carrying on of the lamb business is scarcely
better than pig-shaving; “Sir,” says he, “it’s great _cry_, and little
_wool_.” From a poor fellow, at his time of life, with only half his
limbs to support a large family this is no joke. Not having been at his
native place for two and twenty years, the desire to see it once more is
strong within him, and he purposes next Easter to turn his face
northwards, with his family, and “cry” all the way from London to
Glasgow. Let the little ones, therefore, in the towns of his route, keep
a penny or two by them to lay out in “young lambs,” and so help the poor
fellow along the road, in this stage of his struggle through life.
*
_March 19, 1827._
* * * * *