=Source.=--_The Holy State_, by Thomas Fuller, 1642. P. 116.
Is a gentleman in ore whom the next age may see refined, and is the
wax capable of a gentle impression, when the prince shall stamp it.
Wise Solon (who accounted Tellus the Athenian the most happy man for
living privately on his own lands) would surely have pronounced the
English yeomanry a fortunate condition, living in the temperate zone
betwixt greatness and want, an estate of people almost peculiar to
England. France and Italy are like a die which hath no points betwixt
six and ace, Nobility and Peasantry. Their walls though high must
needs be hollow, wanting filling stones. Indeed Germany hath her
Boors like our Yeomen, but by a tyrannical appropriation of Nobility
to some few ancient families, their yeomen are excluded from ever
rising higher to clarify their bloods. In England the Temple of
Honour is bolted against none who have passed through the Temple of
Virtue, nor is a capacity to be gentle denied to our Yeoman, who thus
behaves himself.
He wears Russet clothes but makes golden payment, having tin in his
buttons and silver in his pockets. If he chance to appear in clothes
above his rank, it is to grace some great man with his service, and
then he blusheth at his own bravery. Otherwise he is the surest
landmark where foreigners may take aim of the ancient English
customs; the Gentry more shooting after foreign fashions.
In his house he is bountiful both to strangers and poor people.
Some hold when hospitality died in England, she gave her last groan
amongst the yeomen of Kent. And still at our yeoman's table you shall
have as many joints as dishes. No meat disguised with strange sauces,
no straggling joint of a sheep in the midst of a pasture of grass,
beset with salads on every side, but solid substantial food, no
servitors, (more nimble with their hands than the guests with their
teeth) take away meat before stomachs [appetites] are taken away.
Here you have that which in itself is good, made better by the store
of it and best by the welcome to it.
He hath a great stroke in making a knight of the shire. Good reason,
for he makes a whole line in the subsidy book, where whatsoever he
is rated, he pays without any regret, not caring how much his purse
is let blood, so it be done by the advice of the physicians of the
State. He seldom goes far abroad, and his credit stretcheth farther
than his travel. He goes not to London, but _se defendo_ to save
himself of a fine being returned of a Jury, where seeing the King
once, he prays for him ever afterwards.
In his own country he is a main man in Juries. Where if the judge
please to open his eyes in matter of Law, he needs not to be led
by the nose in matters of fact. He is very observant of the Judges
_item_, where it followeth the truth _in primis_; otherwise (though
not mutinous in a Jury) he cares not whom he displeaseth, so he
pleaseth his own conscience. He improveth his land to a double value
by his good husbandry. Some grounds that wept with water, or frowned
with thorns, by draining the one and clearing the other, he makes
both to laugh and sing with corn. By marl and limestones burnt he
bettereth his ground, and his industry worketh miracles by turning
stones into bread....
In time of famine he is the Joseph of the country, and keeps the
poor from starving. Then he tameth his stacks of corn, which not his
covetousness, but providence hath reserved for time of need, and
to his poor neighbours abateth somewhat of the high price of the
market. The neighbour gentry court him for his acquaintance, which he
either modestly waiveth, or thankfully accepteth, but no way greedily
desireth. He insults not the ruins of a decayed gentleman, but pities
and relieves him; and as he is called Goodman, he desires to answer
to the name and to be so indeed.
In war, though he serveth on foot, he is ever mounted on a high
spirit; as being a slave to none and subject only to his own prince.
Innocence and independence make a brave spirit, whereas otherwise one
must ask his leave to be valiant, on whom he depends. Therefore if a
state run up all to noblemen and gentlemen, so that the husbandmen be
only mere labourers or cottagers (which one [Bacon] called but housed
beggars) it may have good cavalry, but never good bands of foot so
that their armies will be like those birds called Apodes, without
feet, always only flying on their wings of horse. Wherefore to make
good Infantry, it requireth men bred, not in a senile or indigent
fashion, but in some free and plentiful manner. Wisely therefore did
that knowing prince King Henry VII. provide laws for the increase
of his yeomanry, that his kingdom should not be like to coppice
woods, where the staddles being left too thick all runs to bushes and
briars, and there's little clean underwood. For, enacting that houses
used to husbandry should be kept up with a competent proportion of
land, he did secretly sow Hydra's teeth, whereby (according to the
poet's fiction) should rise up armed men for the service of this
kingdom.