CHAPTER I.

The Camelot Series.

EDITED BY ERNEST RHYS.

ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND.

ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND: FROM "A DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND," BY WILLIAM

HARRISON (IN "HOLINSHED'S CHRONICLES"). EDITED BY LOTHROP WITHINGTON,

WITH INTRODUCTION BY F. J. FURNIVALL, LL.D.

LONDON:

WALTER SCOTT, 24 WARWICK LANE,

PATERNOSTER ROW.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

CHAPTER I.

OF DEGREES OF PEOPLE IN THE COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND 1

CHAPTER II.

OF CITIES AND TOWNS IN ENGLAND 17

CHAPTER III.

OF GARDENS AND ORCHARDS 24

CHAPTER IV.

OF FAIRS AND MARKETS 34

CHAPTER V.

OF THE LAWS OF ENGLAND SINCE HER FIRST INHABITATION 43

CHAPTER VI.

OF THE ANCIENT AND PRESENT ESTATE OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND 56

CHAPTER VII.

OF THE FOOD AND DIET OF THE ENGLISH 84

CHAPTER VIII.

OF OUR APPAREL AND ATTIRE 107

CHAPTER IX.

OF THE MANNER OF BUILDING AND FURNITURE OF OUR HOUSES 113

CHAPTER X.

OF PROVISION MADE FOR THE POOR 122

CHAPTER XI.

OF THE AIR AND SOIL AND COMMODITIES OF THIS ISLAND 130

CHAPTER XII.

OF SUNDRY MINERALS AND METALS 143

CHAPTER XIII.

OF CATTLE KEPT FOR PROFIT 151

CHAPTER XIV.

OF WILD AND TAME FOWLS 161

CHAPTER XV.

OF SAVAGE BEASTS AND VERMIN 169

CHAPTER XVI.

OF OUR ENGLISH DOGS AND THEIR QUALITIES 179

CHAPTER XVII.

OF FISH USUALLY TAKEN UPON OUR COASTS 186

CHAPTER XVIII.

OF QUARRIES OF STONE FOR BUILDING 191

CHAPTER XIX.

OF WOODS AND MARSHES 196

CHAPTER XX.

OF PARKS AND WARRENS 206

CHAPTER XXI.

OF PALACES BELONGING TO THE PRINCE 215

CHAPTER XXII.

OF ARMOUR AND MUNITION 223

CHAPTER XXIII.

OF THE NAVY OF ENGLAND 229

CHAPTER XXIV.

OF SUNDRY KINDS OF PUNISHMENT APPOINTED FOR OFFENDERS 237

CHAPTER XXV.

OF UNIVERSITIES 248

APPENDIX--

A.--HOLINSHED'S DEDICATION 263

B.--AN ELIZABETHAN SURVEY OF ENGLAND 265

C.--SOMEBODY'S QUARREL WITH HARRISON 266

D.--HARRISON'S CHRONOLOGY 266

"FOREWORDS."[1]

I am unwilling to send out this _Harrison_, the friend of some twenty

years' standing, without a few words of introduction to those readers who

don't know it. The book is full of interest, not only to every Shakspere

student, but to every reader of English history, every man who has the

least care for his forefathers' lives. Though it does contain sheets of

padding now and then, yet the writer's racy phrases are continually

turning up, and giving flavour to his descriptions, while he sets before

us the very England of Shakspere's day. From its Parliament and

Universities, to its beggars and its rogues; from its castles to its huts,

its horses to its hens; from how the state was managd, to how Mrs. Wm.

Harrison (and no doubt Mrs. William Shakspere) brewd her beer; all is

there. The book is a deliberately drawn picture of Elizabethan England;

and nothing could have kept it from being often reprinted and a thousand

times more widely known than it is, except the long and dull historical

and topographical Book I.[2]--_The Description of Britaine_--set before

the interesting account in Books II. and III., of the England under

Harrison's eyes in 1577-87.

How Harrison came to write his book[3] was on this wise. Reginald Wolfe,

the Printer to Queen Elizabeth, meant to publish "a universall

Cosmographie of the whole world,[4] and therewith also certaine particular

histories of every knowne nation." For the Historical part of the work, he

engagd Raphael Holinshed, among other men; and when the work was nearly

done, Wolfe died, after twenty-five years' labour at his scheme. Then the

men who were to have borne the cost of printing the Universall

Cosmographie were afraid to face the expense of the whole work, and

resolvd to do only so much of it as related to England, Scotland, and

Ireland.[5]

Holinshed having the History of these countries in hand, application was

made to Harrison, who had long been compiling a Chronologie[6] of his own,

to furnish the Descriptions of Britain and England. He was then Household

Chaplain to the well-known Sir William Brooke, Lord Cobham (so praisd by

Francis Thynne[7]), and was staying in London, away from his rectory of

Radwinter in Essex, and his Library there. He had also travelld little

himself, only into Kent, to Oxford and Cambridge, etc., as he honestly

tells Lord Cobham.

Still, mainly by the help of Leland--"and hitherto Leland, whose words I

dare not alter"--as well as of "letters and pamphlets from sundrie places

& shires of England," and "by conference with diuers folk,"[8] and "by

mine owne reading,"[9] together with Master Sackford's charts or

Maps,"[10] Harrison--notwithstanding the failure of his correspondents[11]

and the loss of part of his material--"scambled up," what he

depreciatingly calls "this foule frizeled Treatise of mine," to "stand in

lieu of a description of my Countrie." But, he says, "howsoeuer it be

done, & whatsoeuer I haue done, I haue had an especiall eye vnto the truth

of things." And this merit, I think every reader will allow Harrison.

Though he swallowd too easily some of the stories told in old

chronicles,[12] etc., though (in his 2nd ed. only) he put Chertsey above,

instead of below, Staines, on the Thames,[13] etc., yet in all the

interesting home-life part, he evidently gives both sides of the case,

"speaks of it as it was; nothing extenuates, nor sets down aught in

malice" (_Oth._, V. ii. 341). When he tells with pride, on the one hand,

of the grand new buildings and the many chimnies put up in his day; on

the other hand, he brings in the grumble:

"And yet see the change, for when our houses were builded of willow,

then had we oken men; but now that our houses are come to be made of

oke, our men are not onlie become willow, but a great manie, through

Persian delicacie crept in among vs, altogither of straw, which is a

sore alteration.

"Now haue we manie chimnies; and yet our tenderlings complaine of

rheumes, catarhs, and poses. Then had we none but reredosses; and our

heads did neuer ake. For as the smoke in those daies was supposed to

be a sufficient hardning for the timber of the house, so it was

reputed a far better medicine to keepe the goodman and his familie

from the quacke or pose, wherewith, as then, verie few were oft

acquainted."[14]

--when he describes the beauty, virtue, learning, and housewifery, of

Queen Elizabeth's Maids of Honour, he yet acknowledges that as the men

"our common courtiers (for the most part) are the best lerned and

indued with excellent gifts, so are manie of them the worst men, when

they come abroad, that anie man shall either heare or read of."

Even the Papist Monks,[15] whom--as a marrid Protestant parson and

vicar--he hates, he praises for their buildings. And when he does abuse or

chaff heartily any absurdity, like Englishmen's dress,--"except it were a

dog in a doublet, you shall not see anie so disguised as are my countrie

men of England,"--we may be sure it was deservd; Shakspere does it

too[16] (_Merchant_, I. ii. 80; _Much Ado_, III. ii. 36, etc.).

Harrison's book will inform and amuse the reader.

Besides writing the _Descriptions of Britaine and England_ for Holinshed's

_Chronicle_, William Harrison also translated for it, from Scotch into

English, Archdeacon Bellenden's version of Hector Boetius's Latin

Description of Scotland. This work took him only "three or foure daies" he

says: "Indeed, the trauell taken heerein is not great, bicause I tie not

my translation vnto his [Bellenden's] letter." Harrison dedicated this

translation--the _Description of Scotland_--to the Maister Sackford, or

Secford, whose "cards," charts, or Maps, had been of such use to him in

his account of the English rivers in his _Description of Britaine_.

Happily for us, William Harrison was not one of those dignified prigs who

are afraid of writing about themselves in their books. He tells us that he

was born in London[17]--"I will remember the fame of London my natiue

citie."[18] Also that he was first at St. Paul's school, and then at

"Westminster[19] school (in which I was sometime an vnprofitable

Grammarian vnder the reuerend father, master Nowell, now deane of

Paules)." And again of the Deans of the see of London (or St. Paul's), "I

will deliuer in like sort the names of the deanes, vntill I come to the

time of mine old master now liuing in this present yeare 1586, who is none

of the least ornaments[20] that haue beene in that seat." He was at both

universities.[21] When speaking of Cambridge and Oxford, he says--

"In all other things there is so great equalitie betweene these two

vniuersities, as no man can imagin how to set downe any greater; so

that they seeme to be the bodie of one well ordered common wealth,

onlie diuided by distance of place, and not in freendlie consent and

orders. In speaking therefore of the one, I can not but describe the

other; and in commendation of the first, I can not but extoll the

latter; and so much the rather, for that they are both so deere vnto

me, as that I can not readilie tell vnto whether of them I owe the

most good will. Would to God my knowledge were such, as that neither

of them might haue cause to be ashamed of their pupill; or my power

so great, that I might woorthilie requite them both for those

manifold kindnesses that I haue receiued of them."[22]

He must have graduated at Oxford first, for in 1569 he proceeded to the

degree of Bachelor of Divinity at Cambridge under a grace[23] which calls

him M.A. of Oxford of seven years' standing.[25] He was before this,

Household Chaplain to Sir Wm. Brooke, Lord Cobham, to whom he dedicated,

as we have seen, his _Description of England_, and who gave him the

Rectory of Radwinter in Essex,[26] to which he was inducted on February

16, 1558-9, and which he held till his death. On January 28, 1570-1, he

became a pluralist,[27] and obtaind the vicarage of Wimbish in Essex,[28]

but resignd it in 1581, his successor being appointed on the 16th of

November in that year. Between 1559 and 1571 he must have marrid Marion

Isebrande, "daughter to William Isebrande and Ann his wife, sometyme of

Anderne, neere vnto Guisnes in Picardie, and whome" (he says in his Will,

referring no doubt to the sometime suppos'd unlawfulness of priests'

marriages) "by the lawes of god I take and repute in all respectes for my

true and lawfull wife." By her he left issue,[29] one son Edmund, and two

daughters,--one, Anne, unmarried, and another the wife of Robert Baker. He

tells us how his wife and her maid brewd him 200 gallons of beer for 20s.,

as he was "scarse a good malster" himself, and a poor man on £40 a year

(Goldsmith's sum too). And no doubt his kindly "Eve will be Eve, tho' Adam

would saie naie," tho' said of widows, shewd that he understood the sex,

was "to their faults a little blind, and to their virtues very kind"--or

however the old saw runs. At Radwinter he must have workt away at his

_Chronologie_, collected his Roman coins, got savage with the rascally

Essex lawyers, attended to his garden:

"For mine owne part, good reader, let me boast a little of my garden,

which is but small, and the whole _Area_ thereof little aboue 300

foot of ground, and yet, such hath beene my good lucke in purchase of

the varietie of simples, that notwithstanding my small abilitie,

there are verie neere three hundred[30] of one sort and other

conteined therein, no one of them being common or vsuallie to bee

had,"

kept his eyes open to everything going on round him, and lookt after his

parishioners, when he wasn't writing his _Description of England_ in

London, or visiting at Lord Cobham's house in Kent.

On April 23, 1586, William Harrison was appointed Canon of Windsor, and

was installd the day after. The Dean has kindly sent me the following

extract from the Chapter Book, St. George's Chapel, Windsor--

Anni Canonici. Anni

Install. obitus.

Gulielmus Harrison 24{to} Aprilis, loco Ryley,

1586. Theologiæ Baccalaureus. Obijt, et Sepultus est 1593.

Windsoriæ, et White Successit.--Rector fuit de

Radwinter,[31]

but says there is no grave-stone or other notice of where Harrison was

buried.[32] (I can't get a line from the now rector of Radwinter.)

For the following abstract of Harrison's Will, I am indebted to Colonel

Chester--

(81 Nevell.) "William Harrison, Clerk, parson of Radwinter and

Prebendary of Windsor--dated at Radwinter 27 July 1591--to be buried

at Radwinter or Windsor, as I may die at either place. My goods to be

divided into 4 equal parts 'of which one parte and an halfe shall

remaine vnto Marion Harrison al_ia_s Marion Isebrande and the

daughter of William Isebrande sometyme of Anderne, whome by the lawe

of god, I take for my true and lawfull wife;'[33] another part and a

half equally to my son Edmund and my daughter Anne--my son in law

Robert Baker and his wife I remember not in this my will, as I have

already given them their portion; to the quire in Windsor 40s.; to

the poor of Radwinter 40s.; to the poor children of the hospital at

London 20s.; to the poor of St. Thomas Apostle in London 20s.; to

each child of my son Baker 10s.; to each child of my cousin

Morecroft, Clerk 5s.--'I make & ordayne the sayed Marion Isebrande

al_ia_s Marion Harrison, daughter to William Isebrande and Ann his

wife, sometyme of Anderne neere vnto Guisnes in Picardie, and whome

by the lawes of god I take and repute in all respectes for my true

and lawfull wife,' and my son Edmund Harrison, my

Executors.--Witnesses, Mr. Wm. Birde, Esq., Thos. Smith, yeoman;

Lancelott Ellis, vicar of Wimbishe; & Thos. Hartlie the writer

hereof."

His Will was proved on November 22, 1593, by the said Edmund Harrison, son

and executor named therein, the relict and executrix Marion, being dead.

Letters of administration to the goods, etc., of Marion Harrison, late of

New Windsor, in the county of Berks, were granted on December 12, 1593, to

her son Edmund Harrison.

William Harrison had opinions of his own about public and social matters

in his day, and also had often racy ways of expressing those opinions.

I'll extract some. He calls Becket "the old cocke of Canturburie;" notes

how the Conferences of clergy and laity stirrd the parsons "to applie

their books ... which otherwise ... would giue themselues to hawking,

hunting, tables, cards, dice, tipling at the alehouse, shooting of

matches, and other like vanities;" he complains of the subsidies and taxes

that the clergy are made to pay, "as if the church were now become the

asse whereon euerie market man is to ride and cast his wallet;" also of

"the couetousnesse of the patrones, of whom some doo bestow aduousons of

benefices vpon their bakers, butlers, cookes, good archers, falconers, and

horsekeepers," while others "doo scrape the wool from our clokes;" he

notes how Popish "images ... and monuments of idolatrie are remooued" from

the churches, "onelie the stories in glasse windowes excepted," which are

let stay for a while, from the scarcity and cost of white glass; he'd like

to get rid of Saints' Days; he commends the decent apparel of the

Protestant parsons, as contrasted with that of the Popish blind sir-Johns,

who went "either in diuerse colors like plaiers, or in garments of light

hew, as yellow, red,[34] greene, etc., with their shooes piked,[35] ... so

that to meet a priest in those daies was to behold a peacocke that

spreadeth his taile when he danseth before the henne;" and then he

denounces the cheating at elections for College fellowships, scholarships.

Harrison also tells us that he had for a time the "collection" (of MSS.,

maps, etc.) of "William Read,[36] sometime fellow of Merteine college in

Oxford, doctor of diuinitie, and the most profound astronomer that liued

in his time." He has a cut at the Popes' nephews--"for nephues might say

in those daies: Father, shall I call you vncle?"--says that he knew one

of the Norwich-diocese churches turnd "into a barne, whilest the people

heare seruice further off vpon a greene: their bell also, when I heard a

sermon there preached in the greene, hanged in an oke for want of a

steeple. But now I vnderstand that the oke likewise is gone." After saying

what England in old time paid the Pope, he asks, "and therevpon tell me

whether our Iland was one of the best paire of bellowes or not, that blue

the fire in his kitchen, wherewith to make his pot seeth, beside all other

commodities."

In describing the Universities, Harrison dwells again on the packing and

bribing practist at elections for fellowships and scholarships, and how

"poore mens children are commonlie shut out by the rich," whose sons

"ruffle and roist it out, exceeding in apparell, and hanting riotous

companie which draweth them from their bookes[37] vnto an other trade." He

also complains of the late-nam'd "idle fellowships" that are still a

disgrace to our Universities, tho' now their holders don't work for

"eighteene or peraduenture twenty yeeres,"

"For after this time, & 40 yeeres of age, the most part of students

doo commonlie giue ouer their woonted diligence, & liue like drone

bees on the fat of colleges, withholding better wits from the

possession of their places, & yet dooing litle good in their own

vocation & calling."

And he repeats, in milder words, Ascham's[38] caution against sending

young men to Italy, for "an Italianate Englishman is a devil incarnate,"

as the Italians themselves said.[39] "And thus much at this time of our

two vniuersities, in each of which I haue receiued such degree as they

have vouchsafed, rather of their fauour than my desert, to yeeld and

bestow vpon me."

Of his chapter on "Degrees of the People of England" the most interesting

parts to me are those on the evil of sending young Englishmen to Italy;

the anticipation of the modern J. S. Mill & Coöperative doctrine of the

evil of too many middlemen in trade (the argument will cover distributors

as well as importers), and lawyers in business; the improvement in the

condition of yeomen; the often complaind-of evil[40] of "our great swarmes

of idle seruing men;" and our husbandmen and artificers never being better

tradesmen, tho' they sometimes scamp their work.

Harrison's chapter "Of the Food and Diet of the English" is very

interesting, with its accounts of the dinners of the nobility "whose

cookes are, for the most part, musicall-headed Frenchmen and strangers,"

and who eat "delicates wherein the sweette hand of the seafaring

Portingale is not wanting." Then it notices the rage for Venice glass

among all classes--as Falstaff says, A.D. 1598, in _2 Hen. IV._, II. i.

154, "Glasses, glasses, is the only drinking." This is followd by capital

accounts of the diet of the gentlemen and merchants, and the artificers;

the bread[41] and drink of all classes; and how Mrs. Wm. Harrison brewd

the family beer, "and hereof we make three hoggesheads of good beere, such

(I meane) as is meet for poore men as I am, to liue withall, whose small

maintenance (for what great thing is fortie pounds a yeare, _Computatis

computandis_, able to performe?) may indure no deeper cut;" with touches

like _Theologicum_ being the best wine of old, because "the merchant would

haue thought that his soule should have gone streightwaie to the diuell,

if he should haue serued them [the monks] with other than the best;" and

this kindly opinion of working-men, for which one can't help liking the

old parson[42]:--

"To conclude, both the artificer and the husbandman are sufficientlie

liberall, & verie freendlie at their tables; and when they meet, they

are so merie without malice, and plaine without inward Italian or

French craft and subtiltie, that it would doo a man good to be in

companie among them.... This is moreouer to be added in these

meetings, that if they happen to stumble vpon a peece of venison, and

a cup of wine or verie strong beere or ale ... they thinke their

cheere so great, and themselues to haue fared so well, as the lord

Maior of London, with whome, when their bellies be full, they will

not often sticke to make comparison, because that of a subject there

is no publike officer of anie citie in Europe, that may compare in

port and countenance with him during the time of his office."

Chapter VII.[43] is the amusing one on the "Apparell and Atire" of English

folk already referrd to (p. xiii. above); and though it's not so bitter as

Stubbes's or Crowley's, yet it's fun, with its "dog in a doublet," and its

beard bit, if a man "be wesell becked [beakt], then much heare left on the

cheekes will make the owner looke big like a bowdled hen, and so grim as a

goose, if Cornelis of Chelmeresford saie true."

In the chapter on the Parliament the only personal bit is Harrison's

saying that he copies from Sir Thomas Smith,[44] "requiting him with the

like borrowage as he hath vsed toward me in his discourse of the sundrie

degrees of estates in the commonwealth of England." But in the next

chapter, "Of the Laws of England," after a dull account of the Trial by

Ordeal, etc., we get Harrison breaking out again against the Lawyers,

their prosperity and rascality, and taking fees (as barristers often do

still) and doing nothing for 'em, with a good bit about Welshmen's love of

law-suits. We also find a pleasant notice of John Stow, the hard-working

chronicler so shamefully neglected in his own age: "my freend _Iohn Stow_,

whose studie is the onelie store house of antiquities in my time, and he

worthie therefore to be had in reputation and honour."

The chapter "Of Prouision made for the Poore," notes the weekly collection

made in every parish for the deserving poor, and gives Harrison's opinion

on the Malthusians of his day:--

"Some also doo grudge at the great increase of people in these daies,

thinking a necessarie brood of cattell farre better than a

superfluous augmentation of mankind. But I can liken such men best of

all vnto the pope and the diuell, who practise the hinderance of the

furniture of the number of the elect to their vttermost, to the end

the authoritie of the one upon earth, the deferring of the locking vp

of the other in euerlasting chaines, and the great gaines of the

first, may continue and indure the longer. But if it should come to

passe that any forren inuasion should be made, which the Lord God

forbid for his mercies sake!--then should these men find that a wall

of men is farre better than stackes of corne and bags of monie, and

complaine of the want when it is too late to seeke remedie."

The sham beggars, he says, "are all theeues and caterpillers in the

commonwealth, and by the word of God not permitted to eat." Then he makes

extracts from Harman about the rogues, among whom, by statute, are

"plaiers and minstrels," Shakspere and his fellows, etc.

In the chapter on the "Punishments appointed for Malefactors," our author

notes that "our condemned persons doo go ... cheerfullie to their deths,

for our nation is free, stout, hautie, prodigall of life and bloud;" that

the punishment for "robbing by the high waie" (like Sir John Falstaff's),

"cutting of purses," "stealing of deere by night" (like Shakspere's, if

he ever stole deer from Sir Thomas Lucy, who had no park in his time), was

death; and that the punishment for adultery and fornication was not sharp

enough:--

"As in theft therfore, so in adulterie and whoredome, I would wish

the parties trespassant, to be made bond or slaues vnto those that

receiued the iniurie, to sell and giue where they listed, or to be

condemned to the gallies: for that punishment would proue more bitter

to them than halfe an houres hanging, or than standing in a sheet,

though the weather be neuer so called."

He also complains of the robberies by unthrift young gentlemen, and

"seruing-men whose wages cannot suffice so much as to find them breeches;"

and that selfish men, and even constables, in the country, won't leave

their work to follow up thieves and take them to prison:[45] this "I haue

knowne by mine owne experience."

The chapter, "Of the manner of Building and Furniture of our Houses," is

perhaps the best, and the best-known, in the book. It describes how

English houses were built, and notes these new things, 1. that rich men

were beginning to use stoves for sweating baths; while, 2. all men were

using glass for windows; 3. that timber-houses were giving way to brick

and stone; and that though our workmen were excellent, their demands for

high wages often causd strangers to be employd in building; 4. the

increast richness of furniture, not only in rich men's houses, but in

those of "the inferiour artificers and manie farmers," who "now garnish

their cupbords with plate, their ioined beds with tapistrie and silke

hangings, and their tables with carpets & fine naperie, whereby the

wealth of our countrie ... dooth infinitelie appear;"

[5.] "the multitude of chimnies latelie erected;" [6.] "the great

(although not generall) amendment of lodging, for (said they) our

fathers (yea, and we our selues also) haue lien full oft vpon straw

pallets, on rough mats couered onelie with a sheet, vnder couerlets

made of dagswain or hopharlots (I vse their owne termes), and a good

round log vnder their heads in steed of a bolster or pillow....

Pillowes (said they) were thought meet onelie for women in childbed.

As for seruants, if they had anie sheet aboue them, it was well, for

seldome had they anie vnder their bodies, to keepe them from the

pricking straws that ran oft through the canuas of the pallet, and

rased their hardened hides."... [7.] "The exchange of vessell, as of

treene[46] platters into pewter, and woodden spoones into siluer or

tin. For so common were all sorts of treene stuffe in old time, that

a man should hardlie find four peeces of pewter (of which one was

peraduenture a salt) in a good farmers house, and yet for all this

frugalitie (if it may so be iustly called) they were scarse able to

liue and paie their rents at their daies without selling of a cow, or

an horsse, or more, although they paid but foure pounds at the

vttermost by the yeare."

The farmer was very poor too; and yet now, though his £4 rent is raised to

£40, he can not only buy plate, and featherbeds, etc., but can purchase a

renewal of his lease, 6 years before the expiration of the old one; and

the paying the money "shall neuer trouble him more than the haire of his

beard, when the barber hath washed and shaued it from his chin." Against

these signs of prosperity, these fat kine, are 3, nay 4, lean kine, which

eat up their plump brethren,

"three things ... are growen to be verie grieuous vnto them, to wit,

the inhansing of rents, latelie mentioned; the dailie oppression 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 take _Centum 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, and _denique 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 the benefit 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

beene nailed 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 not let 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."

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 around him,[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 discipline in 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 his _Chronologie_, 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 his _Description 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., 13_th July_, 1876.

EDITORIAL NOTE.

"How easy dost thou take all England up:

From forth this morsel of dead royalty----"

No book is more quoted and less read than _Holinshed'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 to

_Holinshed_. Now Harrison is the genius of the whole performance.

_Holinshed_ is 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 has

kindly 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 from _Holinshed_ be entitled a

"Morsel of dead royalty."

_Holinshed_ is one of the monarchs and monuments of literature. It filled

the channels of thought, and moulded the character of history. Harrison's

contribution to _Holinshed_ is 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 as _Holinshed_ possible. The

complete _Holinshed_ was 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 of _Utopia_ (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 as _Holinshed_, giving

the story of the England they loved so well. _Holinshed_ was 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 of

_Holinshed_ as 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 Elizabethan England 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 to _Holinshed_ will 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 realisation of 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.

HARRISON'S PREFACE.

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 they were 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 I have 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 retchless behaviour 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, with my 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 servant

and household chaplain,

W. H.

ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND.

CHAPTER I.

OF DEGREES OF PEOPLE IN THE COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND.[54]

[1577, Book III., Chapter 4; 1587, Book II., Chapter 5.]

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

peculiarly _Monsieur_. So that the prince is so termed of the Latin word

_Princeps_, since he is (as I may call him) the chief or principal next

the king. The king's younger sons be but gentlemen by 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 the church

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 Roman _Patricii_. 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 this degree: but if the decay be excessive, and

not able to maintain the honour (as _Senatores Romani_ were _amoti 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 called _Milites_; or out of the wars for some

great service done, or for the singular virtues which do appear in them,

and then are they named _Equites 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 the _Equites Romani_ had _Equum Publicum_ of

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," although she 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 your

grace," 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 money have 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 were _Novi homines_ were 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 by holding 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 called _Legales 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 term _Zeoman_, or _Geoman_,[65] which signifieth

(as I have read) a settled or staid man, 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 called _Pagani, et opponuntur

militibus_, and therefore Persius calleth himself _Semipaganus_[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 of

unthrifty 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 commonly made

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 furthermore among 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, were erected 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 called _masters_ and _gentlemen_, but

_goodmen_, 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]