CHAPTER XXV.

OF UNIVERSITIES.

[1577, Book II., Chapter 6; 1587, Book II., Chapter 3.]

There have been heretofore, and at sundry times, divers famous

universities in this island, and those even in my days not altogether

forgotten, as one at Bangor, erected by Lucius, and afterward converted

into a monastery, not by Congellus (as some write), but by Pelagius the

monk. The second at Caerleon-upon-Usk, near to the place where the river

doth fall into the Severn, founded by King Arthur. The third at Thetford,

wherein were six hundred students, in the time of one Rond, sometime king

of that region. The fourth at Stamford, suppressed by Augustine the monk.

And likewise other in other places, as Salisbury, Eridon or Cricklade,

Lachlade, Reading, and Northampton; albeit that the two last rehearsed

were not authorised, but only arose to that name by the departure of the

students from Oxford in time of civil dissension unto the said towns,

where also they continued but for a little season. When that of Salisbury

began I cannot tell; but that it flourished most under Henry the Third and

Edward the First I find good testimony by the writers, as also by the

discord which fell, 1278, between the chancellor for the scholars there on

the one part and William the archdeacon on the other, whereof you shall

see more in the chronology here following. In my time there are three

noble universities in England--to wit, one at Oxford, the second at

Cambridge, and the third in London; of which the first two are the most

famous, I mean Cambridge and Oxford, for that in them the use of the

tongues, philosophy, and the liberal sciences, besides the profound

studies of the civil law, physic, and theology, are daily taught and had:

whereas in the latter the laws of the realm are only read and learned by

such as give their minds unto the knowledge of the same. In the first

there are not only divers goodly houses builded four square for the most

part of hard freestone or brick, with great numbers of lodgings and

chambers in the same for students, after a sumptuous sort, through the

exceeding liberality of kings, queens, bishops, noblemen and ladies of the

land; but also large livings and great revenues bestowed upon them (the

like whereof is not to be seen in any other region, as Peter Martyr did

oft affirm) to the maintenance only of such convenient numbers of poor

men's sons as the several stipends bestowed upon the said houses are able

to support.[233]

* * * * *

Of these two, that of Oxford (which lieth west and by north from London)

standeth most pleasantly, being environed in manner round about with woods

on the hills aloft, and goodly rivers in the bottoms and valleys beneath,

whose courses would breed no small commodity to that city and country

about if such impediments were removed as greatly annoy the same and

hinder the carriage which might be made thither also from London. That of

Cambridge is distant from London about forty and six miles north and by

east, and standeth very well, saving that it is somewhat near unto the

fens, whereby the wholesomeness of the air is not a little corrupted. It

is excellently well served with all kinds of provisions, but especially of

fresh water fish and wild fowl, by reason of the river that passeth

thereby; and thereto the Isle of Ely, which is so near at hand. Only wood

is the chief want to such as study there, wherefore this kind of provision

is brought them either from Essex and other places thereabouts, as is also

their coal, or otherwise the necessity thereof is supplied with gall (a

bastard kind of mirtus as I take it) and seacoal, whereof they have great

plenty led thither by the Grant. Moreover it hath not such store of

meadow ground as may suffice for the ordinary expenses of the town and

university, wherefore the inhabitants are enforced in like sort to provide

their hay from other villages about, which minister the same unto them in

very great abundance.

Oxford is supposed to contain in longitude eighteen degrees and eight and

twenty minutes, and in latitude one and fifty degrees and fifty minutes:

whereas that of Cambridge standing more northerly, hath twenty degrees and

twenty minutes in longitude, and thereunto fifty and two degrees and

fifteen minutes in latitude, as by exact supputation is easy to be found.

The colleges of Oxford, for curious workmanship and private commodities,

are much more stately, magnificent, and commodious than those of

Cambridge: and thereunto the streets of the town for the most part are

more large and comely. But for uniformity of building, orderly compaction,

and politic regiment, the town of Cambridge, as the newer

workmanship,[234] exceeds that of Oxford (which otherwise is, and hath

been, the greater of the two) by many a fold (as I guess), although I know

divers that are of the contrary opinion. This also is certain, that

whatsoever the difference be in building of the town streets, the townsmen

of both are glad when they may match and annoy the students, by

encroaching upon their liberties, and keep them bare by extreme sale of

their wares, whereby many of them become rich for a time, but afterward

fall again into poverty, because that goods evil gotten do seldom long

endure.[235]

* * * * *

In each of these universities also is likewise a church dedicated to the

Virgin Mary, wherein once in the year--to wit, in July--the scholars are

holden, and in which such as have been called to any degree in the year

precedent do there receive the accomplishment of the same, in solemn and

sumptuous manner. In Oxford this solemnity is called an Act, but in

Cambridge they use the French word _Commencement_; and such resort is made

yearly unto the same from all parts of the land by the friends of those

who do proceed that all the town is hardly able to receive and lodge those

guests. When and by whom the churches aforesaid were built I have

elsewhere made relation. That of Oxford also was repaired in the time of

Edward the Fourth and Henry the Seventh, when Doctor Fitz James, a great

helper in that work, was warden of Merton College; but ere long, after it

was finished, one tempest in a night so defaced the same that it left few

pinnacles standing about the church and steeple, which since that time

have never been repaired. There were sometime four and twenty parish

churches in the town and suburbs; but now there are scarcely sixteen.

There have been also 1200 burgesses, of which 400 dwelt in the suburbs;

and so many students were there in the time of Henry the Third that he

allowed them twenty miles compass about the town for their provision of

victuals.

The common schools of Cambridge also are far more beautiful than those of

Oxford, only the Divinity School at Oxford excepted, which for fine and

excellent workmanship cometh next the mould of the King's Chapel in

Cambridge, than the which two, with the Chapel that King Henry the Seventh

did build at Westminster, there are not (in my opinion) made of lime and

stone three more notable piles within the compass of Europe.

In all other things there is so great equality between these two

universities as no man can imagine how to set down any greater, so that

they seem to be the body of one well-ordered commonwealth, only divided by

distance of place and not in friendly consent and orders. In speaking

therefore of the one I cannot but describe the other; and in commendation

of the first I cannot but extol the latter; and, so much the rather, for

that they are both so dear unto me as that I cannot readily tell unto

whether of them I owe the most good-will. Would to God my knowledge were

such as that neither of them might have cause to be ashamed of their

pupil, or my power so great that I might worthily requite them both for

those manifold kindnesses that I have received of them! But to leave these

things, and proceed with other more convenient to my purpose.

The manner to live in these universities is not as in some other of

foreign countries we see daily to happen, where the students are enforced

for want of such houses to dwell in common inns, and taverns, without all

order or discipline. But in these our colleges we live in such exact

order, and under so precise rules of government, as that the famous

learned man Erasmus of Rotterdam, being here among us fifty years passed,

did not let to compare the trades in living of students in these two

places, even with the very rules and orders of the ancient monks,

affirming moreover, in flat words, our orders to be such as not only came

near unto, but rather far exceeded, all the monastical institutions that

ever were devised.

In most of our colleges there are also great numbers of students, of which

many are found by the revenues of the houses and other by the purveyances

and help of their rich friends, whereby in some one college you shall have

two hundred scholars, in others an hundred and fifty, in divers a hundred

and forty, and in the rest less numbers, as the capacity of the said

houses is able to receive: so that at this present, of one sort and other,

there are about three thousand students nourished in them both (as by a

late survey it manifestly appeared). They were erected by their founders

at the first only for poor men's sons, whose parents were not able to

bring them up unto learning; but now they have the least benefit of them,

by reason the rich do so encroach upon them. And so far has this

inconvenience spread itself that it is in my time a hard matter for a poor

man's child to come by a fellowship (though he be never so good a scholar

and worthy of that room). Such packing also is used at elections that not

he which best deserveth, but he that has most friends, though he be the

worst scholar, is always surest to speed, which will turn in the end to

the overthrow of learning. That some gentlemen also whose friends have

been in times past benefactors to certain of those houses do intrude into

the disposition of their estates without all respect of order or statutes

devised by the founders, only thereby to place whom they think good (and

not without some hope of gain), the case is too evident: and their attempt

would soon take place if their superiors did not provide to bridle their

endeavours. In some grammar schools likewise which send scholars to these

universities, it is lamentable to see what bribery is used; for, ere the

scholar can be preferred, such bribage is made that poor men's children

are commonly shut out, and the richer sort received (who in time past

thought it dishonour to live as it were upon alms), and yet, being placed,

most of them study little other than histories, tables, dice, and trifles,

as men that make not the living by their study the end of their purposes,

which is a lamentable hearing. Beside this, being for the most part either

gentlemen or rich men's sons, they often bring the universities into much

slander. For, standing upon their reputation and liberty, they ruffle and

roist it out, exceeding in apparel, and banting riotous company (which

draweth them from their books unto another trade), and for excuse, when

they are charged with breach of all good order, think it sufficient to say

that they be gentlemen, which grieveth many not a little. But to proceed

with the rest.

Every one of these colleges have in like manner their professors or

readers of the tongues and several sciences, as they call them, which

daily trade up the youth there abiding privately in their halls, to the

end they may be able afterward (when their turn cometh about, which is

after twelve terms) to shew themselves abroad, by going from thence into

the common schools and public disputations (as it were "_In aream_") there

to try their skill, and declare how they have profited since their coming

thither.

Moreover, in the public schools of both the universities, there are found

at the prince's charge (and that very largely) fine professors and

readers, that is to say, of divinity, of the civil law, physic, the Hebrew

and the Greek tongues. And for the other lectures, as of philosophy,

logic, rhetoric, and the quadrivials (although the latter, I mean

arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy, and with them all skill in the

perspectives, are now smally regarded in either of them), the universities

themselves do allow competent stipends to such as read the same, whereby

they are sufficiently provided for, touching the maintenance of their

estates, and no less encouraged to be diligent in their functions.

These professors in like sort have all the rule of disputations and other

school exercises which are daily used in common schools severally assigned

to each of them, and such of their hearers as by their skill shewed in the

said disputations are thought to have attained to any convenient ripeness

of knowledge according to the custom of other universities (although not

in like order) are permitted solemnly to take their deserved degrees of

school in the same science and faculty wherein they have spent their

travel. From that time forward also they use such difference in apparel as

becometh their callings, tendeth unto gravity, and maketh them known to be

called to some countenance.

The first degree is that of the general sophisters, from whence, when they

have learned more sufficiently the rules of logic, rhetoric, and obtained

thereto competent skill in philosophy, and in the mathematicals, they

ascend higher unto the estate of bachelors of art, after four years of

their entrance into their sophistry. From thence also, giving their minds

to more perfect knowledge in some or all the other liberal sciences and

the tongues, they rise at the last (to wit, after other three or four

years) to be called masters of art, each of them being at that time

reputed for a doctor in his faculty, if he profess but one of the said

sciences (besides philosophy), or for his general skill, if he be

exercised in them all. After this they are permitted to choose what other

of the higher studies them liketh to follow, whether it be divinity, law,

or physic, so that, being once masters of art, the next degree, if they

follow physic, is the doctorship belonging to that profession; and

likewise in the study of the law, if they bend their minds to the

knowledge of the same. But, if they mean to go forward with divinity, this

is the order used in that profession. First, after they have necessarily

proceeded masters of art, they preach one sermon to the people in English,

and another to the university in Latin. They answer all comers also in

their own persons unto two several questions of divinity in the open

schools at one time for the space of two hours, and afterward reply twice

against some other man upon a like number and on two several dates in the

same place, which being done with commendation, he receiveth the fourth

degree, that is, bachelor of divinity, but not before he has been master

of arts by the space of seven years, according to their statutes.

The next, and last degree of all, is the doctorship, after other three

years, for the which he must once again perform all such exercises and

acts as are before remembered; and then is he reputed able to govern and

teach others, and likewise taken for a doctor. I have read that John of

Beverley was the first doctor that ever was in Oxford, as Beda was in

Cambridge. But I suppose herein that the word "doctor" is not so strictly

to be taken in this report as it is now used, since every teacher is in

Latin called by that name, as also such in the primitive church as kept

schools of catechists, wherein they were trained up in the rudiments and

principles of religion, either before they were admitted unto baptism or

any office in the Church.

Thus we see that from our entrance into the university unto the last

degree received is commonly eighteen or twenty years, in which time, if a

student has not obtained sufficient learning thereby to serve his own turn

and benefit his commonwealth, let him never look by tarrying longer to

come by any more. For after this time, and forty years of age, the most

part of students do commonly give over their wonted diligence, and live

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

possession of their places, and yet doing little good in their own

vocation and calling. I could rehearse a number (if I listed) of this

sort, as well in one university as the other. But this shall suffice

instead of a large report, that long continuance in those places is either

a sign of lack of friends, or of learning, or of good and upright life, as

Bishop Fox[236] sometime noted, who thought it sacrilege for a man to

tarry any longer at Oxford than he had a desire to profit.

A man may (if he will) begin his study with the law, or physic (of which

this giveth wealth, the other honour), so soon as he cometh to the

university, if his knowledge in the tongues and ripeness of judgment serve

therefor: which if he do, then his first degree is bachelor of law, or

physic; and for the same he must perform such acts in his own science as

the bachelors or doctors of divinity do for their parts, the only sermons

except, which belong not to his calling. Finally, this will I say, that

the professors of either of those faculties come to such perfection in

both universities as the best students beyond the sea do in their own or

elsewhere. One thing only I mislike in them, and that is their usual going

into Italy, from whence very few without special grace do return good men,

whatsoever they pretend of conference or practice, chiefly the

physicians[237] who under pretence of seeking of foreign simples do

oftentimes learn the framing of such compositions as were better unknown

than practised, as I have heard often alleged, and therefore it is most

true that Doctor Turner said: "Italy is not to be seen without a guide,

that is, without special grace given from God, because of the licentious

and corrupt behaviour of the people."

There is moreover in every house a master or provost, who has under him a

president and certain censors or deans, appointed to look to the behaviour

and manners of the students there, whom they punish very severely if they

make any default, according to the quantity and quality of their trespass.

And these are the usual names of governors in Cambridge. Howbeit in Oxford

the heads of houses are now and then called presidents in respect of such

bishops as are their visitors and founders. In each of these also they

have one or more treasurers, whom they call _bursarios_ or bursars, beside

other officers whose charge is to see unto the welfare and maintenance of

these houses. Over each university also there is a several chancellor,

whose offices are perpetual, howbeit their substitutes, whom we call

vice-chancellors, are changed every year, as are also the proctors,

taskers, masters of the streets, and other officers, for the better

maintenance of their policy and estate.

And thus much at this time of our two universities, in each of which I

have received such degree as they have vouchsafed--rather of their favour

than my desert--to yield and bestow upon me, and unto whose students I

wish one thing, the execution whereof cannot be prejudicial to any that

meaneth well, as I am resolutely persuaded, and the case now standeth in

these our days. When any benefice therefor becometh void it were good that

the patron did signify the vacation thereof to the bishop, and the bishop

the act of the patron to one of the universities, with request that the

vice-chancellor with his assistants might provide some such able man to

succeed in the place as should by their judgment be meet to take the

charge upon him. Certainly if this order were taken, then should the

church be provided of good pastors, by whom God should be glorified, the

universities better stored, the simoniacal practices of a number of

patrons utterly abolished, and the people better trained to live in

obedience toward God and their prince, which were a happier estate.

To these two also we may in like sort add the third, which is at London

(serving only for such as study the laws of the realm) where there are

sundry famous houses, of which three are called by the name of Inns of the

Court, the rest of the Chancery, and all built before time for the

furtherance and commodity of such as apply their minds to our common laws.

Out of these also come many scholars of great fame, whereof the most part

have heretofore been brought up in one of the aforesaid universities, and

prove such commonly as in process of time rise up (only through their

profound skill) to great honour in the commonwealth of England. They have

also degrees of learning among themselves, and rules of discipline, under

which they live most civilly in their houses, albeit that the younger of

them abroad in the streets are scarcely able to be bridled by any good

order at all. Certainly this error was wont also greatly to reign in

Cambridge and Oxford, between the students and the burgesses; but, as it

is well left in these two places, so in foreign countries it cannot yet be

suppressed.

Besides these universities, also there are great number of grammar schools

throughout the realm, and those very liberally endowed, for the better

relief of poor scholars, so that there are not many corporate towns now

under the Queen's dominion that have not one grammar school at the least,

with a sufficient living for a master and usher appointed to the same.

There are in like manner divers collegiate churches, as Windsor,

Winchester, Eton, Westminster (in which I was some time an unprofitable

grammarian under the reverend father Master Nowell, now dean of Paul's),

and in those a great number of poor scholars, daily maintained by the

liberality of the founders, with meat, books, and apparel, from whence,

after they have been well entered in the knowledge of the Latin and Greek

tongues, and rules of versifying (the trial whereof is made by certain

apposers yearly appointed to examine them), they are sent to certain

special houses in each university, where they are received and trained up

in the points of higher knowledge in their private halls, till they be

adjudged meet to shew their faces in the schools as I have said already.

And thus much have I thought good to note of our universities, and

likewise of colleges in the same, whose names I will also set down here,

with those of their founders, to the end the zeal which they bare unto

learning may appear, and their remembrance never perish from among the

wise and learned.

OF THE COLLEGES OF CAMBRIDGE WITH THEIR FOUNDERS.

Years of the

Foundation. Colleges. Founders.

1546 1 Trinity College King Henry 8.

1441 2 The King's College King Henry 6, Edward 4, Henry 7, and

Henry 8.

1511 3 St. John's Lady Margaret, grandmother to Henry 8.

1505 4 Christ's College King Henry 6 and the Lady Margaret

aforesaid.

1446 5 The Queen's College Lady Margaret, wife to King Henry 6.

1496 6 Jesus College John Alcock, bishop of Ely.

1342 7 Bennet College The brethren of a Popish guild called

_Corporis Christi_.

1343 8 Pembroke Hall Maria de Valentia, Countess of Pembroke.

1256 9 Peter College Hugh Balsham, bishop of Ely.

1348 10 Gundewill and Edmund Gundevill, parson of Terrington,

Caius College and John Caius, doctor of physic.

1557

1354 11 Trinity Hall William Bateman, bishop of Norwich.

1326 12 Clare Hall Richard Badow, chancellor of Cambridge.

1459 13 Catherine Hall Robert Woodlark, doctor of divinity.

1519 14 Magdalen College Edward, Duke of Buckingham, and Thomas,

lord Audley.

1585 15 Emanuel College Sir Walter Mildmay, etc.

OF THE COLLEGES AT OXFORD.

1539 1 Christ's Church King Henry 8.

1459 2 Magdalen College William Wainfleet, first fellow of

Merton College, then scholar at

Winchester, and afterwards bishop

there.[238]

1375 3 New College William Wickham, bishop of Winchester.

1276 4 Merton College Walter Merton, bishop of Rochester.

1437 5 All Souls' College Henry Chicheley, archbishop of

Canterbury.

1516 6 Corpus Christi College Richard Fox, bishop of Winchester.

1430 7 Lincoln College Richard Fleming, bishop of Lincoln.

1323 8 Auriel College Adam Broune, almoner to Edward 2.

1340 9 The Queen's College R. Eglesfeld, chaplain to Philip,

queen of England, wife to Edward 3.

1263 10 Balliol College John Balliol, king of Scotland.

1557 11 St. John's Sir Thomas White, knight.

1556 12 Trinity College Sir Thomas Pope, knight.

1316 13 Excester College Walter Stapleten, bishop of Excester.

1513 14 Brasen Nose William Smith, bishop of Lincoln.

1873 15 University College William, archdeacon of Duresine.

16 Gloucester College John Crifford, who made it a cell for

thirteen monks.

17 St. Mary's College

18 Jesus College, now Hugh ap Rice, doctor of the civil law.

in hand

There are also in Oxford certain hotels or halls which may right well be

called by the names of colleges, if it were not that there is more

liberty in them than is to be seen in the other. In my opinion the livers

in these are very like to those that are of the inns in the chancery,

their names also are these so far as I now remember:

Brodegates. St. Mary Hall.

Hart Hall. White Hall.

Magdalen Hall. New Inn.

Alburne Hall. Edmond Hall.

Postminster Hall.

The students also that remain in them are called hostlers or halliers.

Hereof it came of late to pass that the right Reverend Father in God,

Thomas late archbishop of Canterbury, being brought up in such an house at

Cambridge, was of the ignorant sort of Londoners called an "Hostler,"

supposing that he had served with some inn-holder in the stable, and

therefore, in despite, divers hung up bottles of hay at his gate when he

began to preach the gospel, whereas indeed he was a gentleman born of an

ancient house, and in the end a faithful witness of Jesus Christ, in whose

quarrel he refused not to shed his blood, and yield up his life, unto the

fury of his adversaries.

Besides these there is mention and record of divers other halls or hostels

that have been there in times past, as Beef Hall, Mutton Hall, etc., whose

ruins yet appear: so that if antiquity be to be judged by the shew of

ancient buildings which is very plentiful in Oxford to be seen, it should

be an easy matter to conclude that Oxford is the elder university. Therein

are also many dwelling-houses of stone yet standing that have been halls

for students, of very antique workmanship, besides the old walls of sundry

others, whose plots have been converted into gardens since colleges were

erected.

In London also the houses of students at the Common Law are these:

Sergeant's Inn. Furnival's Inn.

Gray's Inn. Clifford's Inn.

The Temple. Clement's Inn.

Lincoln's Inn. Lion's Inn.

David's Inn. Barnard's Inn.

Staple Inn. New Inn.

And thus much in general of our noble universities, whose lands some

greedy gripers do gape wide for, and of late have (as I hear) propounded

sundry reasons whereby they supposed to have prevailed in their purposes.

But who are those that have attempted this suit, other than such as either

hate learning, piety, and wisdom, or else have spent all their own, and

know not otherwise than by encroaching upon other men how to maintain

themselves? When such a motion was made by some unto King Henry the

Eighth, he could answer them in this manner: "Ah, sirra! I perceive the

Abbey lands have fleshed you, and set your teeth on edge, to ask also

those colleges. And, whereas we had a regard only to pull down sin by

defacing the monasteries, you have a desire also to overthrow all

goodness, by subversion of colleges. I tell you, sirs, that I judge no

land in England better bestowed than that which is given to our

universities; for by their maintenance our realm shall be well governed

when we be dead and rotten. As you love your welfares therefore, follow no

more this vein, but content yourselves with that you have already, or else

seek honest means whereby to increase your livelihoods; for I love not

learning so ill that I will impair the revenues of any one house by a

penny, whereby it may be upholden." In King Edward's days likewise the

same suit was once again attempted (as I have heard), but in vain; for,

saith the Duke of Somerset, among other speeches tending to that end--who

also made answer thereunto in the king's presence by his assignation: "If

learning decay, which of wild men maketh civil; of blockish and rash

persons, wise and goodly counsellors; of obstinate rebels, obedient

subjects; and of evil men, good and godly Christians; what shall we look

for else but barbarism and tumult? For when the lands of colleges be gone,

it shall be hard to say whose staff shall stand next the door; for then I

doubt not but the state of bishops, rich farmers, merchants, and the

nobility, shall be assailed, by such as live to spend all, and think that

whatsoever another man hath is more meet for them and to be at their

commandment than for the proper owner that has sweat and laboured for it."

In Queen Mary's days the weather was too warm for any such course to be

taken in hand; but in the time of our gracious Queen Elizabeth I hear that

it was after a sort in talk the third time, but without success, as moved

also out of season; and so I hope it shall continue for ever. For what

comfort should it be for any good man to see his country brought into the

estate of the old Goths and Vandals, who made laws against learning, and

would not suffer any skilful man to come into their council-house: by

means whereof those people became savage tyrants and merciless

hell-hounds, till they restored learning again and thereby fell to

civility.

APPENDIX.

A.--HOLINSHED'S DEDICATION.

Holinshed himself does not come on the scene in the work that goes by his

name until in the second volume, devoted to the History of Scotland, which

he dedicates to Dudley, whose star was about to set. The third volume was

much the larger of the three, being the History of England, which is

inscribed to Burghley in this fashion:--

TO THE

Right Honorable and his singular good Lord,

Sir William Cecill, Baron of Burghleygh, Knight of

_the most noble order of the Garter, Lord high Treasu-_

rer of England, Maister of the Courts of Wards and

_Liueries, and one of the Queenes Maiesties_

priuee Councell.

Considering with my selfe, right Honorable and my singular good Lord, how

redie (no doubt) manie will be to accuse me of vaine presumption, for

enterprising to deale in this so weightie a worke, and far aboue my reach

to accomplish: I haue thought good to aduertise your Honour, by what

occasion I was first induced to vndertake the same, although the cause

that moued me thereto hath (in part) yer this beene signified vnto your

good Lordship.

Whereas therefore, that worthie Citizen _Reginald Wolfe_, late Printer to

the Queenes Maiestie, a man well knowne and beholden to your Honour, meant

in his life time to publish an vniuersall Cosmographie of the whole world,

and therwith also certaine particular histories of euery knowne nation,

amongst other whom he purposed to vse for performance of his intent in

that behalfe, he procured me to take in hand the collection of those

histories; and hauing proceeded so far in the same, as little wanted to

the accomplishment of that long promised worke, it pleased God to call him

to his mercie, after fiue and twentie yeares trauell spent therein; so

that by his vntimelie deceasse, no hope remained to see that performed,

which we had so long trauelled about. Neuerthelesse, those whom he put in

trust to dispose his things after his departure hence, wishing to the

benefit of others, that some fruit might follow of that whereabout he had

imployed so long time, willed me to continue mine endeuour for their

furtherance in the same. Which, although I was redie to doo, so far as

mine abilitie would reach, and the rather to answere that trust which the

deceassed reposed in me, to see it brought to some perfection; yet when

the volume grew so great, as they that were to defraie the charges for the

impression, were not willing to go through with the whole, they resolued

first to publish the histories of England, Scotland, and Ireland, with

their descriptions; which descriptions, bicause they were not in such

readinesse as those of forren countries, they were inforced to vse the

helpe of other better able to doo it than my selfe.

Moreouer, the Charts wherein _Maister Wolfe_ spent a great part of his

time were not found so complet as we wished: and againe, vnderstanding of

the great charges and notable enterprise of that worthie Gentleman maister

_Thomas Sackford_, in procuring the Charts of the seuerall prouinces of

this realme to be set foorth, we are in hope that in time he will

delineate this whole land so perfectlie, as shall be comparable or beyond

anie delineation heretofore made of anie other region; and therefore leaue

that to his well deserued praise. If any well willer will imitate him in

so praiseworthie a work for the two other regions, we will be glad to

further his endeauour with all the helpes we may.

The histories I haue gathered according to my skill, and conferred the

greatest part with _Maister Wolfe_ in his life time, to his liking, who

procured me so manie helpes to the furtherance thereof, that I was loth to

omit anie thing that might increase the readers knowledge, which causeth

the book to grow so great. But receiuing them by parts, and at seuerall

times (as I might get them) it may be, that hauing had more regard to the

matter than the apt penning, I haue not so orderlie disposed them, as

otherwise I ought; choosing rather to want order, than to defraud the

reader of that which for his further understanding might seeme to satisfie

expectation.

I therefore most humbly beseech your Honour to accept these Chronicles of

England vnder your protection, and according to your wisedome and

accustomed benignitie to beare with my faults; the rather, bicause you

were euer so especiall good Lord to _Maister Wolfe_, to whom I was

singularlie beholden; and in whose name I

humblie present this rude worke vnto you, beseeching

God that as he hath made you an instrument

to aduance his truth, so it may please him

to increase his good gifts in you,

to his glorie, the furtherance of the

Queenes Maiesties seruice,

and the comfort of all her

faithful and louing

subiects.

Your Honours most humble to be commanded,

RAPHAEL HOLINSHED.

B.--AN ELIZABETHAN SURVEY OF ENGLAND.

Harrison closes Chapter 16 of his first book (which is the last of several

chapters describing all the English rivers) with a most interesting

complaint of a literary theft of which he was the victim. From his words

it is evident that a complete and minute survey of England may still be

possibly hidden away in some heap of manuscripts, and which was the work

of Thomas Seckford, who died three or four months after the _Holinshed_ of

1587 was issued, and who was evidently intimate with the group engaged on

the great folio. Seckford was a Londoner by residence and occupation, but

a Suffolk man by birth, and founder of the present Seckford Hospital at

Woodbridge, to which place he was taken for burial. He was a barrister of

Grey's Inn, master of requests, surveyor of the court of wards, and

steward of the Marshalsea. He weathered the storm under Catholic and

Protestant sway, and was a most industrious scholar, although any of his

published works are very rare. He apparently had more taste for helping

others to literary fame than for appearing himself in Athene's arena.

Harrison's interesting reference to Seckford (to whom Harrison dedicated

the Description of Scotland as well) is as follows:--

"Thus haue I finished the description of such riuers and streames as

fall into the Ocean, according to my purpose, although not in so

precise an order and manner of handling as I might, if information

promised had been accordinglie performed; or others would, if they

had taken the like in hand. But this will I saie of that which is

here done, that from the Solueie by west, which parteth England &

Scotland on that side, to the Twede which separateth the said

kingdoms on the east, if you go backeward, contrarie to the course of

my description, you shall find it so exact, as beside a verie few

by-riuers, you shall not need to vse any further aduise for the

finding and falles of the aforesaid streames. _For such hath beene my

help of maister Sackfords cardes, and conference with other men about

these_, that I dare pronounce them to be perfect and exact.

Furthermore, this I have also to remember, that in the courses of our

streames, I regard not so much to name the verie towne or church, as

the limits of the paroch. And therefore if I saie it goeth by such a

towne, I thinke my dutie discharged, if I hit vpon anie part or

parcell of the paroch. This also hath not a little troubled me, I

meane the euill writing of the names of manie townes and villages; of

which I have noted some one man, in the description of a riuer, to

write one towne two or three manner of waies, whereby I was inforced

to choose one (at adventure most commonlie) that seemed the likeliest

to be sound in mine opinion and iudgement.

"Finallie, whereas I minded to set downe an especiall chapter of

ports and creeks, lieng on ech coast of the English part of this Ile,

and had provided the same in such wise as I iudged most convenient,

it came to passe, that _the greater part of my labour was taken from

me by stealth_, and therefore as discouraged to meddle with that

argument, I would have giuen ouer to set downe anie thing thereof at

all, and so much the rather, for that I see it may prooue a spurre

vnto further mischeefe, as things come to passe in these daies.

Neverthelesse because a title thereof is passed in the beginning of

the booke, I will deliuer that parcell thereof which remaineth,

leauing the supplie of the rest either to my selfe hereafter (if I

may come by it), or to some other that can better performe the same.

"Againe, vnderstanding of the great charges & notable enterprise of

that worthie gentleman _maister Thomas Sackford, in procuring the

Charts of the seuerall prouinces of this realme to be set foorth, we

are in hope that in time he will delineate this whole land so

perfectlie_," etc.

C.--SOMEBODY'S QUARREL WITH HARRISON.

The last section refers to Harrison's loss by somebody's pilfering. Now

comes another of the tribulations he had to endure. Somebody is in a huff

about something, and refused the aid promised to describe all the towns in

England. It must have been no ordinary topographer, and may possibly be

young Camden, whose name seems never to be mentioned by Harrison, although

in 1587 at least his initial labours must have been well known to every

scholar in London, especially a man like Harrison who knew all that was

going to happen in the world of letters as well as all that the public

knew. His complaint is as follows, beginning the 11th chapter of Book I.,

the first of our series just referred to, the Thames having as natural the

place of honour:--

"Having (as you [Lord Cobham] haue seene) attempted to set downe a

full discourse of all the Ilands, that are situat upon the coast of

Britaine, and finding the successe not correspondent to mine intent,

it has caused me some what to restreine my purpose in this

description also of our riuers. For whereas I intended at the first

to haue written at large, of the number situation names quantities

townes villages castles mounteines fresh waters plashes or lakes,

salt waters, and other commodities of the aforesaid Iles, _mine

expectation of information from all parts of England was so deceiued

in the end, that I was faine at last onelie to leane to that which I

knew my selfe either by reading, or such other helpe as I had

alreadie purchased and gotten of the same_. And even so it happeneth

in this my tractation of waters, of whose heads, courses, length,

bredth, depth of chanell (for burden) ebs, flowings, and falles, I

had thought to haue made a perfect description under the report also

of an imagined course taken by them all. _But now for want of

instruction, which hath beene largelie promised, & slacklie

perfourmed, and other sudden and iniurious deniall of helpe

voluntarilie offered, without occasion giuen on my part_, I must

needs content my selfe with such observations as I haue either

obteined by mine owne experience, or gathered from time to time out

of other mens writings: whereby the full discourse of the whole is

vtterlie cut off, and in steed of the same, a mangled rehearsall of

the residue set downe and left in memorie."

D.--HARRISON'S CHRONOLOGY.

Dr. Furnivall has told in a note to his "Forewords" that the manuscript of

Harrison's still unpublished "Chronology" was unearthed in the library of

Derry diocese. How it came there is very evident. Harrison's only son and

heir, Edmund Harrison, was the first prebendary of the diocese, who is

described in the Visitation as "a man very well qualified both for life

and learning." From the manuscript Dr. Furnivall extracted various entries

relating to Harrison's own time, which are of most picturesque quality if

of rather meagre quantity. Those of especial bearing on the reign of

Elizabeth, though beginning just before her advent, are as follows:--

_Dearth and Sickness in England._

1556. Derth in England, wherein wheat is worthe liij sh: iiij d the

quarter; malt, beanes, Rie, at 40 sh:; & peasen at 46 shillinges; but

after harvest, wheate was sold for 5 shillinges the quarter, malt at a

noble, Rie at 3 sh: 4 d. in London; & therefore the price was not so highe

in the country....

Soche was the plenty of Saffron in this yere, that the murmuring Crokers

envieng the store, said in blasphemous maner, in & aboute Waldon in Essex,

that "God did now shite saffron"; but as some of them died afterward,

starke beggars, so in 20 yeres after, there was so little of this

Commodity, that it was almost lost & perished in England....

A generall sickenesse in England, where-of the third parte of the people

of the land did tast; & many clergymen had their desire, who, suspecting

an alteration in relligion to insue after the death of Quene Mary, &

fearing to be called to accompt for their bloodshed made, & practize of

the losse of Calais, craved of God in their daiely praiers, that they

might die before her; & so they did; the Lord hearing their praiers, &

intending therby to geue his churche a breathing time....

_Harrison on Religious Hatred._

1560. The French Protestantes are exiled out of Frankeford, Aprillis 23,

onely for that, in doctrine, they did not agree with Luther, the Augustane

confession, pacification at Wittenberg, & reconciliation made at

Frankeford: a slender cause, God wote! If it be well examined, you shall

find it a thing onely diuised, thereby to put their brethren to

incumbrauns. But when I consider what hatred the Lutheranes do here vnto

the Calvinistes, & the Precisians to the Protestantes, I can liken the

same to nothing better then that mallice which reigneth betwene the

papistes & the gospellers....

_The Spire of St. Paul's struck by Lightning._

1560. The Rooffe, with the Spire & steple of Paules church in London, is

consumed to ashes, Junij 4, by lightning. Certes the toppe of this Spire,

where the wethercocke stode, was 520 foote from the ground, of which the

spire was the one halfe. the bredth of the church also, saith Stow, is 130

foote, & the length 2690, or 836 yardes, 2 foote, at this present. Also an

erthquake is felt in the kingdome.... (_Stowe_, p. 1095.--F.)

_Queen Elizabeth at Oxford. "Falamon and Arcite."_

1565. The Queene of England beginneth hir progresse, & vpon the 31 of

August cometh to Oxford, where she visiteth eche college after other, &

making an oration vnto them in Latine, as she had done in Cambridge two

yeres passed, to the gret comfort of all soche as are, or had bene,

studentes there. During her being there also the Academicall exercises

were holden as in their vsuall termes. Diuerse Commedies & plaies also

were set forthe by the studentes of Christes Church, where her Majestie

lodged; but of all the rest, onely that of "Arcite & Palemon"[239] had a

tragicall successe; for, by the falle, of a walle & wooden gallery that

leadeth from the staiers vnfinished to the hall, diuers persons were sore

hurt, & 3 men killed out right, which came to behold the pastimes. [This

paragraph takes up seven lines, and 1-1/4 inch of the height, of

Harrison's MS.; so close is the writing.--F.]....

_Evils of Plays and Theatres._[240]

1572. Plaies are banished for a time out of London, lest the resort vnto

them should ingender a plague, or rather disperse it, being alredy

begonne. Would to god these comon plaies were exiled for altogether, as

semenaries of impiety, & their theaters pulled downe, as no better then

houses of baudrie. It is an euident token of a wicked time when plaiers

wexe so riche that they can build[241] suche houses / As moche I wish also

to our comon beare baitinges vsed on the sabaothe daies.[243]

_Tobacco._

1573. In these daies, the taking-in of the smoke of the Indian herbe

called "Tabaco," by an instrument formed like a litle ladell, wherby it

passeth from the mouth into the hed & stomach, is gretlie taken-vp & vsed

in England, against Rewmes & some other diseases ingendred in the longes &

inward partes, & not without effect / This herbe as yet is not so common,

but that for want thereof diuers do practize for the like purposes with

the Nicetian, otherwise called in latine, "Hyosciamus Luteus," or the

yellow henbane, albeit, not without gret error; for, althoughe that herbe

be a souerene healer of old vlcers & sores reputed incurable outwardly,

yet is not the smoke or vapour thereof so profitable to be receaued

inwardly. The herbe [Tobacco] is comonly of the height of a man,[244]

garnished with great leaues like the paciens,[245] bering seede,

colloured, & of quantity like vnto, or rather lesse then, the fine

margeronie; the herbe it self yerely coming vp also of the shaking of the

seede; the collour of the floure is carnation, resembling that of the

lemmon in forme: the roote yellow, with many fillettes, & therto very

small in comparison, if you respect the substauns of the herbe.[246]

_A monstrous fish._

1573. A monstrous fish is taken in Thenet vpon the xj{th} of July, of 66

foote in length; one of whose eies was a full cart lode, & the diameter or

thickenesse thereof, full two yardes, or 6 of our english feete....

_London Bridge Tower._

1576. The towre on the drawe bridge vpon london bridge is taken downe in

Aprill, being in great decaie; & sone after made a pleasaunt & beautiful

dwelling house / & whereas the heddes of soche as were executed for

treason were wont to be placed vpon this towre, they were now remoued, &

fixed ouer the gate which leadeth from Southwarke into the citie by that

bridge....

_A great Snowstorm._

1578. A Cold winter, & ere long there falleth a great snow in England,

whose driftes, in many places, by reason of a Northest winde, were so depe

that the mere report of them maie seme incredible. It beganne in the 4 of

feb: & held on vntil the 8 of the same moneth; during which time some men

& women, beside cattell, were lost, & not heard of till the snow was

melted & gone, notwithstanding that some shepe & catle lived vnder it, &

fedd in the places where they laie, vpon soche grasse as they cold come

by. Vpon the xj{th} also of that moneth, the Thames did rise so highe,

after the dissolution of this snow, that westminster hall was drowned, &

moche fishe left there in the pallace yard when the water returned to her

Channell, for who so list, to gather vp....

_Plagues of Locusts or Grasshoppers, and Mice._

1583. Great harme done in England in diuerse shires, by locustes, or

"grashoppers" as we call them, which deuoured the grasse, & consumed the

pastures & medowes in very pitifull maner: soche great nombers of crowes

also do come into those partes to fede vpon those creatures, that they

tread downe & trample the rest, I meane, whatsoeuer the locust had left

vntouched. Not long before, if not about this time, also some places of

the hundredes in Essex were no lesse annoyed with mise, as report then

went, which did gret hurt to corne & the fruites of the erth, till an

infinite nomber of Owles were assembled into those partes, which consumed

them all to nothing. Certes the report is true; but I am not sure whether

it was in this, or the yere before or after this, for I did not enter the

note when it was first sent vnto me, the lettre being cast aside, & not

hard of after the receipt.

_Stafford's Conspiracy._[247]

1586. Another Conspiracy is detected vpon Newyeres daie, wherein the death

of our Queene is ones againe intended, by Stafford & other, at the receipt

of her Newyeres giftes; but, as God hath taken vpon him the defence of his

owne cause, so hath he, in extraordinary maner, from time to time

preserued her Majestie, his servant, from the treason & traiterous

practizes of her aduersaries, & wonderfully bewraied their diuises./

_A Star in the Moon. A wet Summer in Autumn._

1587. A Sterre is sene in the bodie of the mone vpon the _____ of Marche,

whereat many men merueiled, & not without cause, for it stode directly

betwene the pointes of her hornes, the mone being chaunged, not passing 5

or 6 daies before; & in the later end of the Crabbe after this, also there

insued a very moyst & wet somer, wherby moche haie was lost, & harvest in

the begining grew to be very troublesome. There followed also a like

Autumn; by meanes wherof, shepe & moche other cattell died in abundant

maner in most places of our Iland,[248] wherby the residew grew to be very

dere ... ("a reasonable good haruest for corne."--_Stowe_, 1243.--F.)

The first skonses are made in England vpon the borders of the Thames, & in

other places of the land, to kepe the Spanish powre from entrauns, whose

chief purpose is, as most affirme, to invade Kent with one part of their

navie, & to come by the River of Thames to sacke London with the

other./....

_The Spanish Armada. Leicester's Death._

1588. The Spanish navie so long loked for, doth now at last show it self

ouer against our coastes, vpon our 20 of July, where it is foughten

withall vpon the morow, onely with 50 saile of our English shipps vnder

the conduct of the lord Admirall[249] & Sir Fraunces Drake; afterward by

our whole navie of 150 saile, for the space of 2 daies together: in thend

whereof, they are put to flight before Calice, & driven to returne home

about by Scotland, with great losse, so that, of 160 saile & more, which

came out of Spaine, scasely 40 returned againe in safety vnto that king;

God himself so fighting for vs, that we lost not 80 men, neither was there

so moche as one vessell of oures sonke by the enemy, or taken, in all

these skirmishes. In their returne also, & beside those 15 vesselles which

they lost in our seas, 17 other of them did either perish vpon the coast

of Ireland, or, coming thether for succour, were seized vpon also vnto her

Majesties vse. The lieftenaunt of this great navie was the duke Medina of

Cydonia, & with him were 210 noble men, among which, beside the kinges

bastard sonne, were 2 marquesses, one prince, one duke, 4 erles, & 3

Lordes, which came to seeke aduentures, & winne honor vpon England, as

they said; howbeit, as God would, they neuer touched the land, nor came

nere vnto our shore by diuers miles. The duke of Parma should haue

assisted them at this present with 80 or 100 saile prouided out of the Low

Countries; but being kept in by wether, & a portion of our navie, & his

mariners also forsaking him, he was inforced to staie & kepe vpon the

land, where he abode in safety, & out of the roring gunshot / (Stowe's

_Annals_, 1605, pp. 1243-1258.--F.)

Robert, Erle of Leicester, dieth, who in his time became the man of

grettest powre (being but a subiect) which in this land, or that euer had

bene exalted vnder any prince sithens the times of Peers Gavestone &

Robert Veer,[250] some time duke of Ireland. Nothing almost was done,

wherein he had not, either a stroke or a commoditie; which, together with

his scraping from the churche & comons, spoile of her maiesties thresure,

& sodeine death of his first wife &c. procured him soche inward envie &

hatred, that all men, so farre as they durst, reioysed no lesse outwardlie

at his death, then for the victorie obteined of late against the Spanish

nauie /.... (Stowe's _Annals_, 1605, p. 1259.--F.)

A generall thankesgeuing thorow out England in euery church, for the

victory of the Allmightie geuen by thenglish ouer the Spanish navie; in

which, the Queene her selfe, & her nobility, came to S{t} Paules churche

in London, November the 19, where, after she had hard the divine service,

& in her owne person geuen solemne thankes to God, in the hering of soche

as were present, she hard the sermon at the Crosse preached by the bishop

of Sarum, & then dined with the bishop of London in his pallace thereunto

annexed. The kinges of Scotland, Denmarke, Sueden, Navarra, with the

churches of Geneva & diuers other cities of Germany, had done the like

also, a litle while before, in their churches, as we are credibly

informed. The Spanierdes also, indeuoring to hide their reprochefull

voiage from the eies of their comon people, do triumphe for their victory

obteined ouer the Englishe nation, & send to the pope for a seconde

million of gold, which he bound himself to geue them at their landing in

England, they having alredy receaved the first at their departure from the

Groyne in Maie past; but his intelligencers informed him, so that he kept

his crownes at home/... (_Stowe_, p. 1260.--F.)

_The Mad Parliament._

1588. A parliament is holden in London, which some doe call "the greene

meting," other, "the madde parliament," because it consisted, for the most

part, of yong burgesses, picked out of purpose to serue some secrete turne

against the state present of the clergy; of whome no tale was there left

vntold, that might deface their condicion. In this assembly, billes were

put vp, as it is said, which required that the ministery of England should

be subiect to service in the warres, & called to appeare at musters,

sizes, &c. as laie subiectes of the land; that they should prouide

furniture of armour & munition, according to the seuerall valuation of

their livinges; that eche of them should haue but one living, & be

resident vpon the same; & that all impropriations in spirituall mens

handes onely, should be restored to the churche, with other like diuises;

but in thend, none of them all went forward; & right good cause; for

hereby most churches should quickely haue bene without their pastor, the

Collegiate & cathedrall houses (the chief marke whereat they shot)

rellinquished, & some of the spiritualty more charged then vj of the

greattest of the nobility in the land, whose livinges are not valued in

soche strict maner as those are of the clergy, who also in this parliament

are charged with a doble subsidie to be paid in 6 yeres. (Stowe's

_Annals_, 1605, p. 1261.--F.)

_The Parliament of Feb. 1592-3._

[_Last entry, in a very tottery hand, 2 months before Harrison's death or

burial on 24 April 1593, six days after he'd ended his 59th year._--F.]

1592. A Parliament beginneth at London, feb. 19 [1592-3], being mondaie /

many men looke for many thinges at the handes of the congregates, chiefly

the precisiens for the ouerthrow of bishops & all ecclesiasticall

regiment, and erection of soche discipline as thei themselues haue

prescribed / the Clergy also feared some stoppage of former lawes provided

for the wel [?] paiment of their tithes / but all men expect a generall

graunt of money, the cheef end, in our time, of the aforesaid Assemblies;

which being obserued, the rest will sone haue an ende / In the very

begining of this parliament, there were more then 100 of the lower house,

returned for outlawes, I meane, so well of knightes as of burgesses, &

more are daiely loked for to be found in like estate / but is it not,

thinke you, a likely matter, that soche men can be authors of good lawes,

who, for their own partes, will obey no law at all? How gret frendes the

precisians in ther practizes are to these men, the possession of their

desire wold esily declare, if thei might ones obteine it. [_a later entry:

the Parliament broke up on April 10, 1593,_[251] _a fortnight before

Harrison's death_.--F.] neuerthelesse, in the vpshot of that meting, it

was found, that notwithstanding the money graunted--which was well nigh

yelded vnto, in respect of our generall necessitie--there were so many

good profitable lawes ordeined in this parliament as in any other that

haue passed in former times, the mallicious dealinges also of the

precisians, papistes, & comeling [?] provokers[252] was not a litle

restreigned in the same, to the gret benefite of the country.

["The rest is silence."]

_Printed by_ WALTER SCOTT, _Felling, Newcastle-on-Tyne_.

Footnotes:

[1] Condensed from the first part of the edition of 1876 for the "New

Shakspere Society."--W.

[2] This does not apply to a small portion of Book I. used by Dr. F., and

also somewhat in this reprint.--W.

[3] Who'll write a like one for Victorian England? (Mr. Fyffe has since

done this.) Oh that we had one for Chaucer's England!--F.

[4] The Elizabethan sweep in this, as in so many other plans of the

day.--F.

[5] See Holinshed's Dedication to Lord Burghley in vol. iii. of his

_Chronicle_.--F. (See Appendix.--W.)

[6] William Harrison's _Chronologie_ is mentioned on the last leaf of the

Preface to vol. iii. of _Holinshed_, p. 1, at foot--"For the computation

of the yeares of the world, I had by Maister Wolfes aduise followed

_Functius_; but after his [Wolfe's] deceasse, M. W[illiam] H[arrison] made

me partaker of a Chronologie, which he had gathered and compiled with most

exquisit diligence, following _Gerardus Mercator_, and other late

chronologers, and his owne obseruations, according to the which I haue

reformed the same."--Holinshed, in the Preface to his _Chronicles_, vol.

iii. sign A 4, ed. 1587,--and in his _Description_, "I haue reserued them

vnto the publication of my great _Chronologie_, if (while I liue) it

happen to come abroad." It was never publisht. My search for the MS. of it

results in my having just received (Aug. 28) its large folio vols. 2, 3,

4, from the Diocesan Library of Derry, in Ireland. The Rev. H. Cotton,

_Thurles, Ireland_ (Dec. 21, 1850), said where it was, in I. _Notes and

Queries_, iii. 105, col. 2; and after two fruitless searches it was found,

and lent me by the Bishop, through his Librarian, the Rev. B. Moffett of

Foyle College, Londonderry, as well as a curious and terribly corrected

MS. of an English work on Weights and Measures, Hebrew, Greek, English,

etc., dated 1587, which must be Harrison's too.

The 3 folio volumes of the _Chronologie_ are 8 inches deep as they lie,

each being 10-3/4 inches broad, by 17-1/2 high, with 73, and sometimes

more, lines to a page. An enormous amount of work is in them, and all of

them are in Harrison's own hand, at different times of his life. Vol. 2,

"The second part of the English Chronologye written by Wm. Harrison," runs

from the Creation to Christ's birth. Vol. 3, "The third p_ar_t of the

Chronology conteining a just & perfite true &c. as followeth in the next

Leafe, to thend of the title, & to be brought hether," stretches from the

birth of Christ to William the Norman's Conquest of England. Vol. 4, "The

iij{th} and Last part of the great English Chronology writte_n_ By Wm.

H.," [title in another hand?] goes from the beginning of William the

Conqueror's reign, Oct. 14, 1066, to the February of 1592-3, only two

months before Harrison's own death (or burial) on April 24, 1593. And each

volume tells, in Chronicle fashion, what went on all over the world in

each successive year, so far as Harrison knew. The contemporary part of

vol. 4 is of course the most interesting: "A William Harrison wrote some

Latin lines on the deaths of the Brandons, Dukes of Suffolk, printed with

the collection published on that occasion, 4to, London, 1552."--F.

[7] Holinshed, iii. 1499; extract in my edition of Thynne's

_Animadversions_, 1875, p. lxxxv.--F.

[8] In his account of the rivers, etc., Harrison sometimes quotes other

people in the first person, "I, we," as if he had himself been to the

places they describe.--F.

[9] Folio Harrison, p. 103, col. 2, ed. 1587.--F.

[10] Folio Harrison, p. 107, col. 2 (ed. 1587).--F. [See Appendix.--W.]

[11] He complains of help promist, and never given: see in the folio

Harrison, p. 45, col. I (beginning of cap. II, Book I., about the

Thames).--F. [See Appendix.--W.]

[12] Still you get his side-note--I suppose 'tis his--at p. 254 below, on

the report of two old British books being found in a stone wall at

Verolamium, "_This soundeth like a lie_." Other bits of wholesome doubt

turn up elsewhere.--F.

[13] The Thames "hieth to Sudlington, otherwise called Maidenhead, and so

to Windleshore (or Windsore), Eaton, and then to Chertseie.... From

Chertseie it hasteth directlie vnto Stanes, and receiuing an other streame

by the waie, called the Cole (wherevpon Colbrooke standeth), it goeth by

Kingstone, Shene, Sion, and Brentford or Bregentford."... Bk. I. p. 46,

col. 1, l. 30, vol. i., folio ed. 1587.--F.

[14] The extracts quoted by Dr. F. will be mostly found in the modernised

text. Here they are printed in the old spelling, giving an idea of the

original volume, saving the black letter type.--W.

[15] Still, I find it very hard that he spoke so harshly of Andrew

Boorde.--F.

[16] Harrison doesn't scold the women for painting their faces and wearing

false hair, in the persistent way that Shakspere does. These two bits of

falseness (in town women only?) evidently made a great impression on the

country-bred Shakspere's mind. Stubbes complaind bitterly of them too.

[17] "Before the earliest date of Parish Registers (1538). I have all the

Marriage Licences issued by the Bishop of London, beginning as early as

1521; but they do not include that of Harrison's father."--J. L. CHESTER.

[18] As Harrison left by his will twenty shillings to the poor of St.

Thomas the Apostle in London, Colonel Chester thinks he may have been born

in that parish.----P.S. Aug. 31, 1876. I've just found in Harrison's MS.

_Chronologie_, under 1534, "The Author of this boke is borne, vpon y{e} 18

of Aprill, hora 11 minut 4, Secunde 56, at London, in Cordwainer streete,

otherwise called bowe lane in y{e} [_crosst thro'_: house next to y{e}

holly lambe towards chepeside, & in y{e}] p_ar_ish of St. Thomas the

Apostle."--F.

[19] Dr. Scott, the present Head-Master, tells me that the early registers

are not. "My dear Sir,--I regret to say that no early records of

Westminster School are known to be in existence anywhere, except the names

of those admitted to the Foundation, and even these merely from an old

"Buttery Book" in the earliest times, to which Noel belongs; only those

who were elected to Ch. Ch. or Trinity are recorded. There is no trace of

such a name as Harrison. I have done my best to hunt up old records, but

with very small result.--Faithfully yours, CHAS. B. SCOTT." After

Harrison's days, Dean Goodman gave the School for a time a Sanatorium at

Chiswick--"_Cheswicke_, H. 14, belonging to a prebend of Paules now in the

handes of Doctor _Goodman_, Deane of _Westminster_, where he hath a Faire

house, whereunto (in the time of any common plague or sicknes, as also to

take the aire) he withdraweth the schollers of the colledge of

_Westminster_." 1596. Jn. Norden's _Description of Middlesex_, p. 17, ed.

1723.

[20] Alexander Nowell was one of the most famous divines of the

Reformation. Born in Lancashire about 1507, he got a fellowship at

Brasenose in 1540; in 1543 became second master of Westminster School; and

in 1551 Prebendary of Westminster. He was elected M.P. for Looe in

Cornwall, in the first Parliament of Queen Mary, but his election was

voided because he was a Church dignitary. He then went to Strassburg;

returnd on the accession of Elizabeth, and was made Dean of St. Paul's in

1560. He publisht his celebrated Larger Catechism, and an abridgment of

it, both in Latin, in 1570; and is supposed to have written the greater

part of the Church of England Catechism. He was elected Master of

Brasenose in 1595, and died 13 February, 1601-2. (_Cooper._).--F.

[21] Cooper, in his _Athenæ Cantabrigienses_, says of Harrison--"He was a

member of this university [Cambridge] in 1551, and afterwards studied at

Oxford. We are unable to ascertain his house at either university." ?

Merton, Oxf. see p. xvi. (There's no Merton Admission book so early as

Harrison's time, the Bursar says.)

[22] He us'd his eyes too at both places, and at school; for he says of

the buildings: "The common schooles of Cambridge also are farre more

beautifull than those of Oxford, onelie the diuinitie schoole at Oxford

excepted, which for fine and excellent workemanship, commeth next the

moold of the kings chappell in Cambridge, than the which two, with the

chappell that king Henrie the seauenth did build at Westminster, there are

not (in mine opinion) made of lime & stone three more notable piles within

the compasse of Europe."--F.

[23] Mr. Luard of Trinity, the Registrar of the University, has kindly

copied the grace for me:--"1569. Grace Book [Greek: D], fol. 97 _b_:

Conceditur 10 Junii magistro Willelmo Harryson ut studium 7 annorum in

Theologia postquam rexerit in artibus Oxoniæ cum oppositionibus etc.

perficiendis etc. sub poena x librarum ponendarum etc. sufficiat ei tam

ad opponendum quam ad intrandum in sacra Theologia, præsentatus per D.

Longeworth[24] et admissus 17 Junii."--F.

[24] Master of St. John's.

[25] Wood's _Ath. Ox._, ed. Bliss., i. col. 537; Cooper's _Ath. Cant._ ii.

164.

[26] The Manor and advowson of _Great Radwinter_ had been part of the

property of the Cobham family since 1433, if not before. (See Wright's

_Hist. of Essex_, II. 92; Morant's do., II. 535.).--F.

[27] See his defence of pluralism. [In the chapter on "The Church of

England."--W.] It was vehemently condemnd by most of his

contemporaries.--F.

[28] The Vicarage of _Wimbish_ not being a "competent maintenance," and

the adjoining vicarage of _Thunderley_ being so small that no one would

accept of it, Dr. Kemp, Bishop of London in 1425, united the two. The

presentation to these incorporated vicarages was made alternate in the

Rector of Wimbish (it is a sinecure rectory) and the Priory of Hatfield

Regis (who had the great tithes and advowson of Thunderley). In 1547, Ed.

VI. granted this Priory's advowson or right of presenting alternately to

Wimbish, to Ed. Waldgrave, Esq.; and it passed on in private hands, so

that from 1567 to 1599 it belonged to Francis de la Wood, who thus, it

would seem, must have been the patron who presented William Harrison. See

Morant's _Hist. of Essex_, pp. 560, 561. By the _Valor Ecclesiasticus_ of

Hen. VIII. the clear yearly value of _Wimbish Vicarage_ was £8; tithes

16s. That of _Radwinter Rectory_ £21 11s. 4d.; tithes £2 3s. 2-1/2d. Some

of the parson of Radwinter's tithes were made up thus:--"to the parson of

Radwynter forseid for the yerely tythes of the said maner [Bendish Hall,

in the parish of Radwinter], one acre of whete in harvest p_ri_ce x s, one

acre of otes p_ri_ce v s iiij d, a lambe p_ri_ce viij d, a pigg, p_ri_ce

iiij d, and in money iij s iiij d."--_Valor Eccl._, Vol. I. p. 85, col.

2.--F.

[29] I assume that Harrison had once more children, whom he floggd

occasionally. When speaking of mastiffs in Bk. 3, chap. 7, p. 231, col. 1,

l. 60, ed. 1587, he says, "I had one my selfe once, which would not suffer

anie man to bring in his weapon further than my gate, neither those that

were of my house, to be touched in his presence. Or if I had beaten _anie

of my children_, he would gentlie haue assaied to catch the rod in his

teeth, and take it out of my hand, or else pluck downe their clothes to

saue them from the stripes: which in my opinion is not vnworthie to be

noted. And thus much of our mastiffes, creatures of no lesse faith and

loue towards their maisters than horses." Still, girls were floggd in

Elizabeth's days, no doubt (compare Lady Jane Grey's case, in Ascham), as

well as a hundred years before. See how Agnes Paston beat her daughter

Elizabeth in 1449, _Paston Letters_, ed. Gairdner, vol. i., Introd., p.

cxvi.--F. [See Chapter XVI., "Of our English Dogs and their

Qualities."--W.]

[30] Gerard had above a thousand--

"_Gerard's Catalogue of his Garden._--A reprint of 'the first professedly

complete catalogue of any one garden, either public or private, ever

published' certainly deserves putting on record here. Gerard's _Herball_

is by no means a rare book; but the _Catalogus arborum fruticum ac

plantarum tam indigenarum quam exoticarum in horto Johannis Gerardi civis

et chirurgi Londinensis nascentium_ is exceedingly rare. This reprint,

therefore, which we owe to the liberality of Mr. B. Daydon Jackson, will

be extremely welcome to all interested in the early introduction of exotic

plants. The reprint consists of a limited number of copies for private

circulation only. Without being an absolute fac-simile it is almost an

exact reproduction of the original, the first edition of which was

published in 1596. A second edition appeared in 1599, which Mr. Jackson

also reprints, together with some of his own remarks and notes on the

_Herball_, and a Life of Gerard. But what will be found especially useful

is the list of modern names affixed to the old ones. Gerard's _physic_

garden was in Holborn, and included upwards of a thousand different kinds

of plants.... There are several other lists of this kind we should be glad

to see reprinted--Tradescant's, among others, as the younger Tradescant

made a voyage to Virginia and introduced many American

trees."--(_Academy_, July 1876.)--F.

[31] (Note by the late Dr. Goodall): Erat quidem Gulielmus Harrison Socius

Etonensis Mar. 3, 1592, Vice præpositus Collegii et Rector de Everdon in

Comitatu Northampt. Ut ille mortuus est Etonæ, et ibidem Sepultus Dec. 27,

1611.--F.

[32] Mr. J. Higgs, of Sheet Street, Windsor, has kindly searcht the Parish

Register of Burials, which dates from 1564, but he finds no entry of Canon

Harrison's burial.--F. [At Radwinter. See Appendix.--W.]

[33] See his defence of priests leaving "their substances to their wives

and children," in his _Description_.--F. [In "Church" chapter.--W.]

[34] Compare the smart red dress with blue hood and long blue liripipe

from it, of the Nun's Priest, in the colourd illumination of the Ellesmere

MS. given in my Six-Text _Canterbury Tales_.--F.

[35]

Proude preestes coome with hym, Mo than a thousand,

In paltokes and _pyked shoes_, And pisseris long knyves.

_Vision of Piers Plowman_, Pass. xx. l. 14,360, ii. 438, ed. Wright.--F.

[36] William Rede or Reade, made Bp. of Chichester 1369, died 1385, "is

said to have been a native of Devonshire, and to have received his early

education in Exeter Coll., Oxford, from whence he removed to Merton,

having been elected a fellow. He soon discovered a singular genius for the

sciences, as they were then known and practised, and excelled in

geography, astronomy, and architecture. About the year 1349, he gave a

design for a library at Merton College, and superintended the building,

which is very spacious, if considered as a repository of MSS. only.... He

contributed greatly to furnishing the library with valuable MSS., adding

his own, which consisted of several scientific treatises, astronomical

tables, and maps. He was a great encourager of learning, particularly by

procuring many rare MSS. from the continent, which were transcribed at his

expense." He built Amberley Castle, an episcopal residence for

Chichester.--Dallaway's _History of the Western Division of the County of

Sussex_, 1832, vol. i. pp. 54, 55.--F.

[37] Cambridge studies. 1516, Aug. 31. Er. Ep. II. 10. Erasmus to Bovill.

Thirty years ago, nothing was taught at Cambridge except Alexander's

_parva Logicalia_, some scraps from Aristotle, and the _Quæstiones_ of

Duns Scotus. In process of time improved studies were added; mathematics,

a new Aristotle, a knowledge of Greek letters. What has been the

consequence? The University can now hold its head with the highest, and

has excellent theologians. Of course they must now study the New Testament

with greater attention, and not waste their time, as heretofore, in

frivolous quibbles.--Brewer's _Calendar of Henry VIII.'s Time_, vol. ii.,

pt. i., p. 716.--F.

[38] As a usually accurate friend of mine always calls this name "Asham,"

I note that it's often spelt "Askham" in old writers.--F.

[39] Harrison repeats his warning in stronger terms. [See Chapter I.--W.]

"This neuerthelesse is generallie to be reprehended in all estates of

gentilitie, and which in short time will turne to the great ruine of our

countrie, and that is the vsuall sending of noblemens & meane gentlemens

sonnes into Italie, from whence they bring home nothing but meere

atheisme, infidelitie, vicious conuersation, & ambitious and proud

behauiour, wherby it commeth to passe that they returne far worsse men

than they went out." See the sequel.--F.

[40] See Sir T. More's _Utopia_, "a huge number of idle fellows, who never

learned any art by which they may gain their living," etc.--F.

[41] On the finest kind of bread, _manchet_, note that Queen Elizabeth's

was made from Heston wheat, Middlesex:--"_Heston_, H. 10, a most fertyle

place of wheate, yet not so much to be commended for the quantitie, as for

the qualitie, for the wheat is most pure, accompted the purest in manie

shires. And therefore Queene Elizabeth hath the most part of her provision

from that place for _manchet_ for her Highnes own diet, as is reported."

1596. Jn. Norden, _Description of Middlesex_, p. 25, ed. 1723.--F.

[42] But he speaks, at p. 69, "of the common sort, whose mouthes are

alwaies wide open vnto reprehension, and eies readie to espie anie thing

that they may reprooue and carpe at." Still, Harrison took more kindly to

the common sort than Shakspere did in his plays.--F.

[43] Now Chapter VIII.--W.

[44] _De Republica Anglorum._ The maner of Gouernement or policie of the

Realme of England, compiled by the Honorable Sir Thomas Smyth, Knight,

Doctor of both the lawes, and one of the principal Secretaries vnto the

two most worthy Princes, King Edward the sixt, and Queen Elizabeth ...

London ... 1584 (some copies 1583). A posthumous

publication.--_Hazlitt._--F.

[45] Did Shakspere ever turn out and chevy a Stratford thief, I wonder? He

must have been able to hit and hold hard.--F.

[46] Made of tree or wood.--F.

[47] See an instance in Burleigh House.

[48] Of hostlers, Harman says, "not one amongst twenty of them but haue

well left their honesty, as I here a great sorte saye."--Harman's

_Caueat_, p. 62, ed. Viles and Furnivall.--F.

[49] Harrison wasn't the only man who felt thus. See Arthur Standish's two

tracts: "The Commons Complaint. Wherein is contained two speciall

Grievances: The first, the generall destruction and waste of Woods in this

Kingdome.... The Second Grievance is, The extreame dearth of Victvals.

Fovre Remedies for the same, etc. London Printed by William Stansby,

1611." 4{o}. F 2 in fours. "New Directions of Experience to the Commons

Complaint by the incouragement of the Kings most excellent Maiesty, as may

appeare, for the planting of Timber and Fire-wood. With a neere Estimation

what Millions of Acres the Kingdome doth containe, what Acres is waste

ground, whereon little profit for this purpose will arise.... Inuentid by

Arthur Standish. Anno Domini. MDCXIII. 4{o}. A--D in fours; E, 4 leaves,

and a leaf of F."--_Hazlitt's Collections and Notes_, p. 401-2. Also

Massinger's _Guardian_, II. iv--F.

[50] "If woods go so fast ... I have knowne a well burnished gentleman

that hath borne threescore at once [weren't they trees?] in one paire of

galigascons, to shew his strength and brauerie." Brick-burning also

consumd much wood: compare Harrison, bk. 3, chap. 9, p. 234, col. 2, l.

46, ed. 1587:--"such is the curiositie of our countrimen, that

notwithstanding almightie God hath so blessed our realme in most

plentifull maner, with such and so manie quarries apt and meet for piles

of longest continuance, yet we, as lothsome of this abundance, or not

liking of the plentie, doo commonlie leaue these naturall gifts to mould

and cinder in the ground, and take vp an artificiall bricke, _in burning

whereof a great part of the wood of this land dailie consumed and spent_,

to the no small decaie of that commoditie, and hinderance of the poore

that perish off for cold." See, too, chap. 10, p. 236, col. 2, l. 44, "Of

colemines we have such plentie in the north and westerne parts of our

Iland, as may suffice for all the realme of England: and so must they doo

hereafter in deed, if wood be not better cherrished than it is at this

present."

[51] Of the 1876 reprint.--W.

[52] See Dr. Furnivall's "Forewords."--W.

[53] This apology for "faults escaped herein" was of course omitted in

1587.--W.

[54] See "The English Courtier" ... and "The Court and Country." Both

reprinted in Mr. W. C. Hazlitt's "Roxburghe Library."--F.

[55] Here follow etymologies of the terms "Duke," "Marquess," and

"Baron."--W.

[56] 1 Sam. ii. 15; 1 Kings i. 7.--H.

[57] Here follows a long paragraph on the character of the clergy which is

more appropriate to the chapter on "The Church."--W.

[58] Every peer ceases to be a legislator the moment the Crown considers

the advice and aid of such peer unnecessary. The historic meeting between

Elizabeth Woodville and Edward Plantagenet (which incidentally has made

the lady ancestress to nearly every royal house in Europe), when she

declared herself

"too mean to be your queen,

And yet too good to be your concubine,"

was occasioned by the mean estate left by her late husband, Sir John Grey,

to his orphan children. Sir John was by right Lord Grey of Groby, but

never sat at Westminster as such, being killed at Saint Albans. His

children would have had small chance of writs of summons had not their

beautiful mother ensnared the monarch who (much to his crook-backed

brother's disgust, at least in the play) would "use women honourably." The

heir of the Birminghams was not only evicted from the House of Peers, but

from Dudley Castle, because he was poor. The heir of the Staffords had the

old barony taken from him by Charles I. (simply because he, Roger

Stafford, was poor), and saw it given to a court favourite, one of the

honour-hooking Howards.--W.

[59] Here follows a learned disquisition upon "Valvasors."--W.

[60] Here follows a discourse upon _Equites Aurati_.--W.

[61] Here is a description of dubbing a knight.--W.

[62] Long details are given of Garter history, very inaccurate, both here

and in the last omitted passage.--W.

[63] Derivations of "Esquire" and "Gentleman" are given.--W.

[64] The proper spelling of what is now called _kersey_. It is really

"causeway cloth," and causeway is still pronounced (as it should be)

_karsey_ by the homely people who are not tied to the tail of the dogmatic

dictionary man, whose unnecessary ingenuity (in place of a small knowledge

of "country matters") has in this case set up a phantom phalanx of busy

looms in the harmless little village of Kersey in Suffolk. The Scotch have

the full phrase still. The French _causie_ is nearer to carsie than to

book-made _causeway_.--W.

[65] This etymology of a much-disputed word is doubtless accurate. Thus

Piers Plowman's

"Thoruh ziftes haven _zemen_ to rennen and to ride."

The peculiar "z" stood the Saxon "ge." In fact Geo, old Mother Earth,

stares us in the face. A yeoman is an "earth-man." We may literally say

our modern English sabremen of the shires, at a periodical muster on

caracoling steeds, are "racy of the soil."--W.

[66] Harrison was quick to catch a true idea of the authors he delights

in, and his weakness for displaying his fund of classical lore is

therefore generally a pleasure instead of a bore. The phrase from the

distinguished Roman youth, Aulus Persius Flaccus, occurs in the Prologue

to his poems:

"Heliconidas pallidamque Pirenen

Illis remitto quorum imagines lambunt

Hederæ sequaces: ipse _semipaganus_

Ad sacra vatum carmen adfero nostrum;"

which may be thus Englished:

"Those Helicon-births and pallor-breeding Pirenes

Must remit I to them o'er whose countenance traileth

The ivy up-clinging: myself, _half-breed of the soil_,

To the shrine of our prophets my song I deliver."

Almost every annotator of Persius has handled this passage as though the

poet simply prosaically alluded to his being half of _rustic_ birth. As a

fact, he was of the bluest blood of the Augustine age. Harrison makes a

happy hit in understanding the passage as alluding to a semi-connection

with the territory of the Muses, as I have treated it.--W.

[67] Capite censi, or Proletarii.--H.

[68] The Ceylonese. The Greek name for the island of Ceylon was Taprobane,

which Harrison used merely as a classical scholar.--W.

[69] The wise and learned Secretary of State in the dangerous days of

Edward VI., who under Elizabeth had the task of furnishing Burleigh with

brains (thus heaping "coals of fire" on the man who had stolen his place

when Reform was triumphant and danger past), was himself born within a

gunshot of Harrison's Radwinter rectory, at Saffron Walden. Though Sir

Thomas Smith's own seat was a dozen miles to the south, at Theydon,

Harrison was evidently very intimate with the Secretary. Some of the

foregoing chapter (and much more which has been omitted) are literal

transcripts from Smith's _De Republica Anglorum_. This work was still in

manuscript in 1577 (the year of the first "Holinshed"), and late in the

summer of that year Sir Thomas himself committed suicide. In 1583, before

the second "Holinshed," the first edition of _De Republica_ was issued,

probably edited by our Harrison. The very title breathed the spirit of

Elizabethan politics. Secretaries of State do not now talk about the

"English Republic." The Hampdens were closely connected with Sir Thomas

Smith, and _De Republica_ was a text-book of John Hampden. In 1589 the

title for Smith's work was first Englished (without doubt Harrison's own

handiwork), and that title has been made immortal in English history by

Hampden's disciples: THE COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND.--W.

[70] If Harrison means to give us the impression that a city has any

direct connection with episcopal affairs, he is quite in error. Cities are

distinctly royal and imperial institutions. The accident of the number of

cities and sees being the same comes from the natural tendency of the two

institutions to drift together, though of distinct origin.--W.

[71] Here follows a long and learned disquisition upon the Roman and other

early towns, especially about St. Albans, a portion of which will be found

in the Appendix.--W.

[72] The regalia which denoted sovereign right within the city limits,

even to excluding kings at the head of their armies as the "scroyles of

Angiers" do in _King John_, much to the Bastard's disgust.--W.

[73] The cutters have not been heard from for the three centuries

intervening. These would have been the most valuable set of Elizabethan

maps ever known had they been executed as Harrison expected.--W.

[74] Here follows an allusion to the decay of Eastern cities.--W.

[75] See on this my _Ballads from MSS._, i.; Mr. Cowper's edition of _Life

in Tudor England_; _Four Supplications_; and Crowley's _Select Works_ for

the Early English Text Society; More's _Utopia_, etc.--F.

[76] The old and proper form of the modern pumpkin.--W.

[77] The historic seat of the De Veres is thus a by-word even before the

line had risen to its most glorious achievements and gone out in a blaze

of military honour.--W.

[78] Harrison must have been given access to Leland's manuscripts, as the

"Commentarii" were not published until 1709, or one hundred and

fifty-seven years after the author died in the madhouse.--W.

[79] The first is a variant on a Keltic, the second on a Saxon, word, both

relating to matters sufficiently indicated in the text.--W.

[80] Harrison may refer to Camden, then a young man starting out on the

life-mission which has made him immortal. The chief works of Abraham

Ortelius were not as yet published, 1577; but Harrison seems to have had

early information on various forthcoming publications.--W.

[81] This chapter (misnumbered 19) does not appear anywhere in the edition

of 1577.--F.

[82] In a chapter on "Vineyards," for an extract from which see

Appendix.--W.

[83] No vegetables are mentioned by John Russell in his different bills of

fare for dinners in his "Boke of Nurture," ab. 1440 A.D., _Babees Book_,

pp. 164-175.--F.

[84] _Skirret_ is in my book, p. 214, 1. I, _Sium Sisarum_, an

umbelliferous plant with a small root like a little carrot, no longer

cultivated in England, or very rarely.--R. C. A. PRIOR.

[85] _Navew_, Brassica Napus, is probably only a variety of the turnip,

from which it differs in the smaller and less orbicular root, and the

leaves being glabrous and not rough. It is that which is cultivated for

making Colza oil, and for sheep-feed. The differences between _Brassica

Napus_, _B. campestris_, and _B. Rapa_ (the turnip) are really very

slight, as you will see in any botanical work on British plants.--R. C. A.

PRIOR.

[86] See John Russell's list of those for the bath of Humfrey, Duke of

Gloucester, in _The Babees Book_, pp. 183-185.--F.

[87] Harrison makes a distinction between "dunghill" and "laistowe" (or

laystowe, laystall, etc.), again upsetting the theories of the dictionary

men.--W.

[88] This was about the epoch when Captain Price, the "salt sea dog," was

smoking the first pipe ever seen on London streets. Harrison seems to know

of tobacco only as a medicine.--W.

[89] "Corn-trees" are probably _cornels_, from one of which, the _C. ras_,

L., the berries are commonly eaten in Italy, and sherbet made from them in

the East. In Italy they are called _cornia_ and _corniola_.--R. C. A.

PRIOR.

[90] Of these four examples, in four shires, surrounding London, west,

south, north, and east, not one remains as Harrison had it in view. The

famous grounds of Hampton Court are of William III., Wolsey work being

effaced. Nonsuch in Surrey, near Epsom race-course, is a mere memory. In

Harrison's time it was a favourite resort of Elizabeth, being designed by

her father as the child of his old age, but really built as a "labour of

love" by the last of the Fitzalans, who saved it from destruction by Mary

(who loved not her father's works), making it the scene of many an act in

the tragic drama of the royal sisters and their cousin of Scotland.

Theobald's, in Herts, known to all readers of Izaac Walton, was just

before Harrison's day the seat of the family of Burbage, the "original

Hamlet," being bought in 1564 by Cecil, made the favourite haunt of the

Stuarts, and finally was destroyed by the Commonwealth people. Cobham,

near Gravesend in Kent, was the seat of the Brookes, the ill-starred

patrons of Harrison himself. It is still famous in horticultural annals,

just as Nonsuch will be immortal from its luscious apples.--W.

[91] Harrison may be said to have made this word his own, and a classic in

the language. Its meaning is sufficiently indicated in the text, but the

published definition and etymologies are evidently incomplete. A _bodger_

was probably a (tax) collector in his bodge or budget, before he was a

buyer and seller.--W.

[92] What a pity the poor men couldn't _co-operate_, imitate the rich

buyer, and have their own bodger to buy for them!--F.

[93] Victorian writers can say this too. I recollect fresh butter at 8d.

and 10d. a pound here at Egham, and now we pay 20d. The imported Italian

butter that we get in London, from Ralli, Greek Street, Soho, is 19d.--F.

[94] An interesting anticipation of John Stuart Mill's point of the evil

of a large middleman class checked only by competition. Co-operation, with

a few middlemen, the agents and servants of the co-operators, is what we

want.--F.

[95] Elizabethan England was the transition period when the slavery of

money rents was fastened upon an unsuspecting people, leading to the great

famines and revolts of the Stuart period.--W.

[96] The ancient London counterpart of the more modern "Rag Fair" known to

literary fame.--W.

[97] The Kermess, or literally, "Church mass," so famous in "Faust."--W.