Of foxes we have some, but no great store, and also badgers in our

sandy and light grounds, where woods, furze, broom, and plenty of

shrubs are to shroud them in when they be from their burrows, and

thereunto warrens of conies at hand to feed upon at will. Otherwise in

clay, which we call the cledgy mould, we seldom hear of any, because

the moisture and the toughness of the soil is such as will not suffer

them to draw and make their burrows deep. Certes, if I may freely say

what I think, I suppose that these two kinds (I mean foxes and

badgers) are rather preserved by gentlemen to hunt and have pastime

withal at their own pleasures than otherwise suffered to live as not

able to be destroyed because of their great numbers. For such is the

scarcity of them here in England, in comparison of the plenty that is

to be seen in other countries, and so earnestly are the inhabitants

bent to root them out, that, except it had been to bear thus with the

recreations of their superiors in this behalf, it could not otherwise

have been chosen but that they should have been utterly destroyed by

many years agone.

I might here intreat largely of other vermin, as the polecat, the

miniver, the weasel, stote, fulmart, squirrel, fitchew, and such like,

which Cardan includeth under the word _Mustela_: also of the otter,

and likewise of the beaver, whose hinder feet and tail only are

supposed to be fish. Certes the tail of this beast is like unto a thin

whetstone, as the body unto a monstrous rat: as the beast also itself

is of such force in the teeth that it will gnaw a hole through a thick

plank, or shere through a double billet in a night; it loveth also the

stillest rivers, and it is given to them by nature to go by flocks

unto the woods at hand, where they gather sticks wherewith to build

their nests, wherein their bodies lie dry above the water, although

they so provide most commonly that their tails may hang within the

same. It is also reported that their said tails are a delicate dish,

and their stones of such medicinal force that (as Vertomannus saith)

four men smelling unto them each after other did bleed at the nose

through their attractive force, proceeding from a vehement savour

wherewith they are endued. There is greatest plenty of them in Persia,

chiefly about Balascham, from whence they and their dried cods are

brought into all quarters of the world, though not without some

forgery by such as provide them. And of all these here remembered, as

the first sorts are plentiful in every wood and hedgerow, so these

latter, especially the otter (for, to say the truth, we have not many

beavers, but only in the Teisie in Wales) is not wanting or to seek in

many, but most, streams and rivers of this isle; but it shall suffice

in this sort to have named them, as I do finally the martern, a beast

of the chase, although for number I worthily doubt whether that of our

beavers or marterns may be thought to be the less.

Other pernicious beasts we have not, except you repute the great

plenty of red and fallow deer whose colours are oft garled white and

black, all white or all black, and store of conies amongst the hurtful

sort. Which although that of themselves they are not offensive at all,

yet their great numbers are thought to be very prejudicial, and

therefore justly reproved of many, as are in like sort our huge flocks

of sheep, whereon the greatest part of our soil is employed almost in

every place, and yet our mutton, wool, and felles never the better

cheap. The young males which our fallow deer do bring forth are

commonly named according to their several ages: for the first year it

is a fawn, the second a pricket, the third a sorel, the fourth a

soare, the fifth a buck of the first head, not bearing the name of a

buck till he be five years old: and from henceforth his age is

commonly known by his head or horns. Howbeit this notice of his years

is not so certain but that the best woodman may now and then be

deceived in that account: for in some grounds a buck of the first head

will be as well headed as another in a high rowtie soil will be in the

fourth. It is also much to be marvelled at that, whereas they do

yearly mew and cast their horns, yet in fighting they never break off

where they do grife or mew. Furthermore, in examining the condition of

our red deer, I find that the young male is called in the first year a

calf, in the second a broket, the third a spay, the fourth a staggon

or stag, the fifth a great stag, the sixth a hart, and so forth unto

his death. And with him in degree of venerie are accounted the hare,

boar, and wolf. The fallow deer, as bucks and does, are nourished in

parks, and conies in warrens and burrows. As for hares, they run at

their own adventure, except some gentleman or other (for his pleasure)

do make an enclosure for them. Of these also the stag is accounted for

the most noble game, the fallow deer is the next, then the roe,

whereof we have indifferent store, and last of all the hare, not the

least in estimation, because the hunting of that seely beast is mother

to all the terms, blasts, and artificial devices that hunters do use.

All which (notwithstanding our custom) are pastimes more meet for

ladies and gentlewomen to exercise (whatsoever Franciscus Patritius

saith to the contrary in his _Institution of a Prince_) than for men

of courage to follow, whose hunting should practise their arms in

tasting of their manhood, and dealing with such beasts as eftsoons

will turn again and offer them the hardest, rather than their horses'

feet which many times may carry them with dishonour from the

field.[2]...

[2] Here follows a discourse on ancient boar hunting, exalting

it above the degenerate sports of the day. This ends the

chapter on "savage beasts."--W.

If I should go about to make any long discourse of venomous beasts or

worms bred in England, I should attempt more than occasion itself

would readily offer, sith we have very few worms, but no beasts at

all, that are thought by their natural qualities to be either venomous

or hurtful. First of all, therefore, we have the adder (in our old

Saxon tongue called an atter), which some men do not rashly take to be

the viper. Certes, if it be so, then is not the viper author of the

death of her[3] parents, as some histories affirm, and thereto

Encelius, a late writer, in his _De re Metallica_, lib. 3, cap. 38,

where he maketh mention of a she adder which he saw in Sala, whose

womb (as he saith) was eaten out after a like fashion, her young ones

lying by her in the sunshine, as if they had been earthworms.

Nevertheless, as he nameth them _viperas_, so he calleth the male

_echis_. and the female _echidna_, concluding in the end that _echis_

is the same serpent which his countrymen to this day call _ein atter_,

as I have also noted before out of a Saxon dictionary. For my part I

am persuaded that the slaughter of their parents is either not true at

all, or not always (although I doubt not but that nature hath right

well provided to inhibit their superfluous increase by some means or

other), and so much the rather am I led hereunto for that I gather by

Nicander that of all venomous worms the viper only bringeth out her

young alive, and therefore is called in Latin _vipera quasivivipara_,

but of her own death he doth not (to my remembrance) say anything. It

is testified also by other in other words, and to the like sense, that

"_Echis id est vipera sola ex serpentibus non ova sed animalia

parit_."[4] And it may well be, for I remember that I have read in

Philostratus, _De vita Appollonii_, how he saw a viper licking her

young. I did see an adder once myself that lay (as I thought) sleeping

on a molehill, out of whose mouth came eleven young adders of twelve

or thirteen inches in length apiece, which played to and fro in the

grass one with another, till some of them espied me. So soon therefore

as they saw my face they ran again into the mouth of their dam, whom I

killed, and then found each of them shrouded in a distinct cell or

pannicle in her belly, much like unto a soft white jelly, which maketh

me to be of the opinion that our adder is the viper indeed. The colour

of their skin is for the most part like rusty iron or iron grey, but

such as be very old resemble a ruddy blue; and as once in the year (to

wit, in April or about the beginning of May) they cast their old skins

(whereby as it is thought their age reneweth), so their stinging

bringeth death without present remedy be at hand, the wounded never

ceasing to swell, neither the venom to work till the skin of the one

break, and the other ascend upward to the heart, where it finisheth

the natural effect, except the juice of dragons (in Latin called

_dracunculus minor_) be speedily ministered and drunk in strong ale,

or else some other medicine taken of like force that may countervail

and overcome the venom of the same. The length of them is most

commonly two feet, and somewhat more, but seldom doth it extend into

two feet six inches, except it be in some rare and monstrous one,

whereas our snakes are much longer, and seen sometimes to surmount a

yard, or three feet, although their poison be nothing so grievous and

deadly as the others. Our adders lie in winter under stones, as

Aristotle also saith of the viper (lib. 8, cap. 15), and in holes of

the earth, rotten stubs of trees, and amongst the dead leaves; but in

the heat of the summer they come abroad, and lie either round in heaps

or at length upon some hillock, or elsewhere in the grass. They are

found only in our woodland countries and highest grounds, where

sometimes (though seldom) a speckled stone called _echites_, in Dutch

_ein atter stein_, is gotten out of their dried carcases, which divers

report to be good against their poison.[5] As for our snakes, which in

Latin are properly named _angues_, they commonly are seen in moors,

fens, loam, walls, and low bottoms.

[3] Galenus, _De Theriaca ad Pisonem_; Pliny, lib. 10, cap.

62.--H.

[4] "The adder or viper alone among serpents brings forth not

eggs but living creatures."

[5] Sallust, cap. 40, Pliny, lib. 37, cap. 2.--H.

As we have great store of toads where adders commonly are found, so do

frogs abound where snakes do keep their residence. We have also the

slow-worm, which is black and greyish of colour, and somewhat shorter

than an adder. I was at the killing once of one of them, and thereby

perceived that she was not so called of any want of nimble motion, but

rather of the contrary. Nevertheless we have a blind-worm, to be found

under logs, in woods and timber that hath lain long in a place, which

some also do call (and upon better ground) by the name of slow-worms,

and they are known easily by their more or less variety of striped

colours, drawn long-ways from their heads, their whole bodies little

exceeding a foot in length, and yet is their venom deadly. This also

is not to be omitted; and now and then in our fenny countries other

kinds of serpents are found of greater quantity than either our adder

or our snake, but, as these are not ordinary and oft to be seen, so I

mean not to intreat of them among our common annoyances. Neither have

we the scorpion, a plague of God sent not long since into Italy, and

whose poison (as Apollodorus saith) is white, neither the tarantula or

Neapolitan spider, whose poison bringeth death, except music be at

hand. Wherefore I suppose our country to be the more happy (I mean in

part) for that it is void of these two grievous annoyances wherewith

other nations are plagued.

We have also efts both of the land and water, and likewise the noisome

swifts, whereof to say any more it would be but loss of time, sith

they are all well known, and no region to my knowledge found to be

void of many of them. As for flies (sith it shall not be amiss a

little to touch them also), we have none that can do hurt or hindrance

naturally unto any: for whether they be cut-waisted or whole-bodied,

they are void of poison and all venomous inclination. The cut or girt

waisted (for so I English the word _insecta_) are the hornets, wasps,

bees, and such like, whereof we have great store, and of which an

opinion is conceived that the first do breed of the corruption of dead

horses, the second of pears and apples corrupted, and the last of kine

and oxen: which may be true, especially the first and latter in some

parts of the beast, and not their whole substances, as also in the

second, sith we have never wasps but when our fruit beginneth to wax

ripe. Indeed Virgil and others speak of a generation of bees by

killing or smothering a bruised bullock or calf and laying his bowels

or his flesh wrapped up in his hide in a close house for a certain

season; but how true it is, hitherto I have not tried. Yet sure I am

of this, that no one living creature corrupteth without the production

of another, as we may see by ourselves, whose flesh doth alter into

lice, and also in sheep for excessive numbers of flesh flies, if they

be suffered to lie unburied or uneaten by the dogs and swine, who

often and happily present such needless generations.

As concerning bees, I think it good to remember that, whereas some

ancient writers affirm it to be a commodity wanting in our island, it

is now found to be nothing so. In old times peradventure we had none

indeed; but in my days there is such plenty of them in manner

everywhere that in some uplandish towns there are one hundred or two

hundred hives of them, although the said hives are not so huge as

those of the east country, but far less, and not able to contain above

one bushel of corn or five pecks at the most. Pliny (a man that of set

purpose delighteth to write of wonders), speaking of honey, noteth

that in the north regions the hives in his time were of such quantity

that some one comb contained eight foot in length, and yet (as it

should seem) he speaketh not of the greatest. For in Podolia, which is

now subject to the King of Poland, their hives are so great, and combs

so abundant, that huge boars, overturning and falling into them, are

drowned in the honey before they can recover and find the means to

come out.

Our honey also is taken and reputed to be the best, because it is

harder, better wrought, and cleanlier vesselled up, than that which

cometh from beyond the sea, where they stamp and strain their combs,

bees, and young blowings altogether into the stuff, as I have been

informed. In use also of medicine our physicians and apothecaries

eschew the foreign, especially that of Spain and Pontus, by reason of

a venomous quality naturally planted in the same, as some write, and

choose the home-made: not only by reason of our soil (which hath no

less plenty of wild thyme growing therein than in Sicilia and about

Athens, and maketh the best stuff) as also for that it breedeth (being

gotten in harvest time) less choler, and which is oftentimes (as I

have seen by experience) so white as sugar, and corned as if it were

salt. Our hives are made commonly of rye straw and wattled about with

bramble quarters; but some make the same of wicker, and cast them over

with clay. We cherish none in trees, but set our hives somewhere on

the warmest side of the house, providing that they may stand dry and

without danger both of the mouse and the moth. This furthermore is to

be noted, that whereas in vessels of oil that which is nearest the top

is counted the finest and of wine that in the middest, so of honey the

best which is heaviest and moistest is always next the bottom, and

evermore casteth and driveth his dregs upward toward the very top,

contrary to the nature of other liquid substances, whose grounds and

leeze do generally settle downwards. And thus much as by the way of

our bees and English honey.

As for the whole-bodied, as the _cantharides_, and such venomous

creatures of the same kind, to be abundantly found in other countries,

we hear not of them: yet have we beetles, horseflies, turdbugs or dors

(called in Latin _scarabei_), the locust or the grasshopper (which to

me do seem to be one thing, as I will anon declare), and such like,

whereof let other intreat that make an exercise in catching of flies,

but a far greater sport in offering them to spiders, as did Domitian

sometime, and another prince yet living who delighted so much to see

the jolly combats betwixt a stout fly and an old spider that divers

men have had great rewards given them for their painful provision of

flies made only for this purpose. Some parasites also, in the time of

the aforesaid emperor (when they were disposed to laugh at his folly,

and yet would seem in appearance to gratify his fantastical head with

some shew of dutiful demeanour), could devise to set their lord on

work by letting a flesh fly privily into his chamber, which he

forthwith would eagerly have hunted (all other business set apart) and

never ceased till he had caught her into his fingers, wherewith arose

the proverb, "_Ne musca quidem_" uttered first by Vibius Priscus, who

being asked whether anybody was with Domitian, answered "_Ne musca

quidem_" whereby he noted his folly. There are some cockscombs here

and there in England, learning it abroad as men transregionate, which

make account also of this pastime, as of a notable matter, telling

what a sight is seen between them, if either of them be lusty and

courageous in his kind. One also hath made a book of the spider and

the fly, wherein he dealeth so profoundly, and beyond all measure of

skill that neither he himself that made it nor any one that readeth it

can reach unto the meaning thereof. But if those jolly fellows,

instead of the straw that they must thrust into the fly's tail (a

great injury no doubt to such a noble champion), would bestow the cost

to set a fool's cap upon their own heads, then might they with more

security and less reprehension behold these notable battles.

Now, as concerning the locust, I am led by divers of my country, who

(as they say) were either in Germany, Italy, or Pannonia, 1542, when

those nations were greatly annoyed with that kind of fly, and affirm

very constantly that they saw none other creature than the grasshopper

during the time of that annoyance, which was said to come to them from

the Meotides. In most of our translations also of the Bible the word

_locusta_ is Englished a grasshopper, and thereunto (Leviticus xi.) it

is reputed among the clean food, otherwise John the Baptist would

never have lived with them in the wilderness. In Barbary, Numidia, and

sundry other places of Africa, as they have been,[6] so are they eaten

to this day powdered in barrels, and therefore the people of those

parts are called _Acedophagi_: nevertheless they shorten the life of

the eaters, by the production at the last of an irksome and filthy

disease. In India they are three foot long, in Ethiopia much shorter,

but in England seldom above an inch. As for the cricket, called in

Latin _cicada_, he hath some likelihood, but not very great, with the

grasshopper, and therefore he is not to be brought in as an umpire in

this case. Finally, Matthiolus and so many as describe the locust do

set down none other form than that of our grasshopper, which maketh me

so much the more to rest upon my former imagination, which is that the

locust and the grasshopper are one.

[6] See Diodorus Siculus.--H.

CHAPTER XV

OF OUR ENGLISH DOGS AND THEIR QUALITIES

[1577, Book III., Chapter 13; 1587, Book III., Chapter 7.]

There is no country that may (as I take it) compare with ours in

number, excellency, and diversity of dogs.

The first sort therefore he divideth either into such as rouse the

beast, and continue the chase, or springeth the bird, and bewrayeth

her flight by pursuit. And as these are commonly called spaniels, so

the other are named hounds, whereof he maketh eight sorts, of which

the foremost excelleth in perfect smelling, the second in quick

espying, the third in swiftness and quickness, the fourth in smelling

and nimbleness, etc., and the last in subtlety and deceitfulness.

These (saith Strabo) are most apt for game, and called Sagaces by a

general name, not only because of their skill in hunting, but also for

that they know their own and the names of their fellows most exactly.

For if the hunter see any one to follow skilfully, and with likelihood

of good success, he biddeth the rest to hark and follow such a dog,

and they eftsoones obey so soon as they hear his name. The first kind

of these are often called harriers, whose game is the fox, the hare,

the wolf (if we had any), hart, buck, badger, otter, polecat,

lopstart, weasel, conie, etc.: the second height a terrier and it

hunteth the badger and grey only: the third a bloodhound, whose office

is to follow the fierce, and now and then to pursue a thief or beast

by his dry foot: the fourth height a gazehound, who hunteth by the

eye: the fifth a greyhound, cherished for his strength and swiftness

and stature, commended by Bratius in his _De Venatione_, and not

unremembered by Hercules Stroza in a like treatise, and above all

other those of Britain, where he saith: "Magna spectandi mole

Britanni;" also by Nemesianus, libro Cynegeticón, where he saith:

"Divisa Britannia mittit Veloces nostrique orbis venatibus aptos," of

which sort also some be smooth, of sundry colours, and some

shake-haired: the sixth a liemer, that excelleth in smelling and

swift-running: the seventh a tumbler: and the eighth a thief whose

offices (I mean of the latter two) incline only to deceit, wherein

they are oft so skilful that few men would think so mischievous a wit

to remain in such silly creatures. Having made this enumeration of

dogs which are apt for the chase and hunting, he cometh next to such

as serve the falcons in their time, whereof he maketh also two sorts.

One that findeth his game on the land, another that putteth up such

fowl as keepeth in the water: and of these this is commonly most usual

for the net or train, the other for the hawk, as he doth shew at

large. Of the first he saith that they have no peculiar names assigned

to them severally, but each of them is called after the bird which by

natural appointment he is alloted to hunt or serve, for which

consideration some be named dogs for the pheasant, some for the

falcon, and some for the partridge. Howbeit the common name for all is

spaniel (saith he), and thereupon alluded as if these kinds of dogs

had been brought hither out of Spain. In like sort we have of water

spaniels in their kind. The third sort of dogs of the gentle kind is

the spaniel gentle, or comforter, or (as the common term is) the

fistinghound, and those are called Melitei, of the Island Malta, from

whence they were brought hither. These are little and pretty, proper

and fine, and sought out far and near to falsify the nice delicacy of

dainty dames, and wanton women's wills, instruments of folly to play

and dally withal, in trifling away the treasure of time, to withdraw

their minds from more commendable exercises, and to content their

corrupt concupiscences with vain disport--a silly poor shift to shun

their irksome idleness. The Sybaritical puppies the smaller they be

(and thereto if they have a hole in the fore parts of their heads) the

better they are accepted, the more pleasure also they provoke, as meet

playfellows for mincing mistresses to bear in their bosoms, to keep

company withal in their chambers, to succour with sleep in bed, and

nourish with meat at board, to lie in their laps, and lick their lips

as they lie (like young Dianas) in their waggons and coaches. And good

reason it should be so, for coarseness with fineness hath no

fellowship, but featness with neatness hath neighbourhood enough. That

plausible proverb therefore versified sometime upon a tyrant--namely,

that he loved his sow better than his son--may well be applied to some

of this kind of people, who delight more in their dogs, that are

deprived of all possibility of reason, than they do in children that

are capable of wisdom and judgment. Yea, they oft feed them of the

best where the poor man's child at their doors can hardly come by the

worst. But the former abuse peradventure reigneth where there hath

been long want of issue, else where barrenness is the best blossom of

beauty: or, finally, where poor men's children for want of their own

issue are not ready to be had. It is thought of some that it is very

wholesome for a weak stomach to bear such a dog in the bosom, as it is

for him that hath the palsy to feel the daily smell and savour of a

fox. But how truly this is affirmed let the learned judge: only it

shall suffice for Doctor Caius to have said thus much of spaniels and

dogs of the gentle kind.

Dogs of the homely kind are either shepherd's curs or mastiffs. The

first are so common that it needeth me not to speak of them. Their use

also is so well known in keeping the herd together (either when they

grass or go before the shepherd) that it should be but in vain to

spend any time about them. Wherefore I will leave this cur unto his

own kind, and go in hand with the mastiff, tie dog, or band dog, so

called because many of them are tied up in chains and strong bonds in

the daytime, for doing hurt abroad, which is a huge dog, stubborn,

ugly, eager, burthenous of body (and therefore of but little

swiftness), terrible and fearful to behold, and oftentimes more fierce

and fell than any Archadian or Corsican cur. Our Englishmen, to the

extent that these dogs may be more cruel and fierce, assist nature

with some art, use, and custom. For although this kind of dog be

capable of courage, violent, valiant, stout, and bold: yet will they

increase these their stomachs by teaching them to bait the bear, the

bull, the lion, and other such like cruel and bloody beasts (either

brought over or kept up at home for the same purpose), without any

collar to defend their throats, and oftentimes there too they train

them up in fighting and wrestling with a man (having for the safeguard

of his life either a pikestaff, club, sword, privy coat), whereby they

become the more fierce and cruel unto strangers. The Caspians make so

much account sometimes of such great dogs that every able man would

nourish sundry of them in his house of set purpose, to the end they

should devour their carcases after their deaths thinking the dog's

bellies to be the most honourable sepulchres. The common people also

followed the same rate, and therefore there were tie dogs kept up by

public ordinance, to devour them after their deaths: by means whereof

these beasts became the more eager, and with great difficulty after a

while restrained from falling upon the living. But whither am I

digressed? In returning therefore to our own, I say that of mastiffs,

some bark only with fierce and open mouth but will not bite; but the

cruelest do either not bark at all or bite before they bark, and

therefore are more to be feared than any of the other. They take also

their name of the word "mase" and "thief" (or "master-thief" if you

will), because they often stound and put such persons to their shifts

in towns and villages, and are the principal causes of their

apprehension and taking. The force which is in them surmounteth all

belief, and the fast hold which they take with their teeth exceedeth

all credit: for three of them against a bear, four against a lion, are

sufficient to try mastries with them. King Henry the Seventh, as the

report goeth, commanded all such curs to be hanged, because they durst

presume to fight against the lion, who is their king and sovereign.

The like he did with an excellent falcon, as some say, because he

feared not hand-to-hand match with an eagle, willing his falconers in

his own presence to pluck off his head after he was taken down, saying

that it was not meet for any subject to offer such wrong unto his lord

and superior, wherein he had a further meaning. But if King Henry the

Seventh had lived in our time what would he have done to our English

mastiff, which alone and without any help at all pulled down first a

huge bear, then a pard, and last of all a lion, each after other

before the French king in one day, when the Lord Buckhurst was

ambassador unto him, and whereof if I should write the circumstances,

that is, how he took his advantage being let loose unto them, and

finally drave them into such exceeding fear, that they were all glad

to run away when he was taken from them, I should take much pains, and

yet reap but small credit: wherefore it shall suffice to have said

thus much thereof. Some of our mastiffs will rage only in the night,

some are to be tied up both day and night. Such also as are suffered

to go loose about the house and yard are so gentle in the daytime that

children may ride on their backs and play with them at their

pleasures. Divers of them likewise are of such jealousy over their

master and whosoever of his household, that if a stranger do embrace

or touch any of them, they will fall fiercely upon them, unto their

extreme mischief if their fury be not prevented. Such a one was the

dog of Nichomedes, king sometime of Bithynia, who seeing Consigne the

queen to embrace and kiss her husband as they walked together in a

garden, did tear her all to pieces, maugre his resistance and the

present aid of such as attended on them. Some of them moreover will

suffer a stranger to come in and walk about the house or yard where he

listeth, without giving over to follow him: but if he put forth his

hand to touch anything, then will they fly upon them and kill them if

they may. I had one myself once, which would not suffer any 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 any of my

children, he would gently have essayed to catch the rod in his teeth

and take it out of my hand or else pluck down their clothes to save

them from the stripes: which in my opinion is not unworthy to be

noted.

The last sort of dogs consisteth of the currish kind meet for many

toys, of which the whappet or prick-eared cur is one. Some men call

them warners, because they are good for nothing else but to bark and

give warning when anybody doth stir or lie in wait about the house in

the night season. Certes it is impossible to describe these curs in

any order, because they have no one kind proper unto themselves, but

are a confused company mixed of all the rest. The second sort of them

are called turnspits, whose office is not unknown to any. And as these

are only reserved for this purpose, so in many places our mastiffs

(beside the use which tinkers have of them in carrying their heavy

budgets) are made to draw water in great wheels out of deep wells,

going much like unto those which are framed for our turnspits, as is

to be seen at Roiston, where this feat is often practised. Besides

these also we have sholts or curs daily brought out of Ireland, and

made much of among us, because of their sauciness and quarrelling.

Moreover they bite very sore, and love candles exceedingly, as do the

men and women of their country; but I may say no more of them, because

they are not bred with us. Yet this will I make report of by the way,

for pastime's sake, that when a great man of those parts came of late

into one of our ships which went thither for fish, to see the form and

fashion of the same, his wife apparelled in fine sables, abiding on

the deck whilst her husband was under the hatches with the mariners,

espied a pound or two of candles hanging on the mast, and being loath

to stand there idle alone, she fell to and eat them up every one,

supposing herself to have been at a jolly banquet, and shewing very

pleasant gesture when her husband came up again unto her.

The last kind of toyish curs are named dancers, and those being of a

mongrel sort also, are taught and exercised to dance in measure at the

musical sound of an instrument, as at the just stroke of a drum, sweet

accent of the citharne, and pleasant harmony of the harp, shewing many

tricks by the gesture of their bodies: as to stand bolt upright, to

lie flat on the ground, to turn round as a ring holding their tails in

their teeth, to saw and beg for meat, to take a man's cap from his

head, and sundry such properties, which they learn of their idle

roguish masters, whose instruments they are to gather gain, as old

apes clothed in motley and coloured short-waisted jackets are for the

like vagabonds, who seek no better living than that which they may get

by fond pastime and idleness. I might here intreat of other dogs, as

of those which are bred between a bitch and a wolf, also between a

bitch and a fox, or a bear and a mastiff. But as we utterly want the

first sort, except they be brought unto us: so it happeneth sometimes

that the other two are engendered and seen at home amongst us. But all

the rest heretofore remembered in this chapter there is none more ugly

and odious in sight, cruel and fierce in deed, nor untractable in

hand, than that which is begotten between the bear and the bandog. For

whatsoever he catcheth hold of he taketh it so fast that a man may

sooner tear and rend his body in sunder than get open his mouth to

separate his chaps. Certes he regardeth neither wolf, bear, nor lion,

and therefore may well be compared with those two dogs which were sent

to Alexander out of India (and procreated as it is thought between a

mastiff and a male tiger, as be those also of Hircania), or to them

that are bred in Archadia, where copulation is oft seen between lions

and bitches, as the lion is in France (as I said) between she wolves

and dogs, whereof let this suffice, sith the further tractation of

them doth not concern my purpose, more than the confutation of

Cardan's talk, _De subt._, lib. 10, who saith that after many

generations dogs do become wolves, and contrariwise, which if it were

true, then could not England be without many wolves: but nature hath

set a difference between them, not only in outward form, but also

inward disposition of their bones, whereof it is impossible that his

assertion can be sound.

CHAPTER XVI

OF THE NAVY OF ENGLAND

[1577, Book II., Chapter 13; 1587, Book II., Chapter 17.]

There is nothing that hath brought me into more admiration of the

power and force of antiquity than their diligence and care had of

their navies: wherein, whether I consider their speedy building, or

great number of ships which some one kingdom or region possessed at

one instant, it giveth me still occasion either to suspect the

history, or to think that in our times we come very far behind

them.[1]...

[1] Here follows an account of Roman and Carthaginian galleys

which "did not only match, but far exceed" in capacity our ships

and galleys of 1587.--W.

I must needs confess therefore that the ancient vessels far exceeded

ours for capacity, nevertheless if you regard the form, and the

assurance from peril of the sea, and therewithal the strength and

nimbleness of such as are made in our time, you shall easily find that

ours are of more value than theirs: for as the greatest vessel is not

always the fastest, so that of most huge capacity is not always the

aptest to shift and brook the seas: as might be seen by the _Great

Henry_, the hugest vessel that ever England framed in our times.

Neither were the ships of old like unto ours in mould and manner of

building above the water (for of low galleys in our seas we make small

account) nor so full of ease within, since time hath engendered more

skill in the wrights, and brought all things to more perfection than

they had in the beginning. And now to come unto our purpose at the

first intended.

The navy of England may be divided into three sorts, of which the one

serveth for the wars, the other for burden, and the third for

fishermen which get their living by fishing on the sea. How many of

the first order are maintained within the realm it passeth my cunning

to express; yet, since it may be parted into the navy royal and common

fleet, I think good to speak of those that belong unto the prince, and

so much the rather, for that their number is certain and well known to

very many. Certainly there is no prince in Europe that hath a more

beautiful or gallant sort of ships than the queen's majesty of England

at this present, and those generally are of such exceeding force that

two of them, being well appointed and furnished as they ought, will

not let to encounter with three or four of those of other countries,

and either bowge them or put them to flight, if they may not bring

them home.

Neither are the moulds of any foreign barks so conveniently made, to

brook so well one sea as another lying upon the shore of any part of

the continent, as those of England. And therefore the common report

that strangers make of our ships amongst themselves is daily confirmed

to be true, which is, that for strength, assurance, nimbleness, and

swiftness of sailing, there are no vessels in the world to be compared

with ours. And all these are committed to the regiment and safe

custody of the admiral, who is so called (as some imagine) of the

Greek word _almiros_, a captain on the sea; for so saith Zonaras in

_Basilio Macedone_ and _Basilio Porphyriogenito_, though others fetch

it from _ad mare_, the Latin words, another sort from _Amyras_, the

Saracen magistrate, or from some French derivation: but these things

are not for this place, and therefore I pass them over. The queen's

highness hath at this present (which is the four-and-twentieth of her

reign) already made and furnished, to the number of four or

five-and-twenty great ships, which lie for the most part in Gillingham

Road, beside three galleys, of whose particular names and furniture

(so far forth as I can come by them) it shall not be amiss to make

report at this time.

_The names of so many ships belonging to her majesty as I could come

by at this present_.

The Bonadventure. White Bear.

Elizabeth Jonas.[2] Philip and Mary.

Triumph. Aid.

Bull. Handmaid.

Tiger.[3] Dreadnought.

Antelope. Swallow.

Hope. Genet.

Lion. Bark of Bullen.

Victory. Achates.

Mary Rose. Falcon.

Foresight. George.

Swiftsure. Revenge.

[2] A name devised by her grace in remembrance of her own

deliverance from the fury of her enemies, from which in one

respect she was no less miraculously preserved than was the

prophet Jonas from the belly of the whale.--H.

[3] So called of her exceeding nimbleness in sailing and

swiftness of course.--H.

It is said that as kings and princes have in the young days of the

world, and long since, framed themselves to erect every year a city in

some one place or other of their kingdom (and no small wonder that

Sardanapalus should begin and finish two, to wit, Anchialus and

Tarsus, in one day), so her grace doth yearly build one ship or other

to the better defence of her frontiers from the enemy. But, as of this

report I have no assured certainty, so it shall suffice to have said

so much of these things; yet this I think worthy further to be added,

that if they should all be driven to service at one instance (which

God forbid) she should have a power by sea of about nine or ten

thousand men, which were a notable company, beside the supply of other

vessels appertaining to her subjects to furnish up her voyage.

Beside these, her grace hath other in hand also, of whom hereafter, as

their turns do come about, I will not let to leave some further

remembrance. She hath likewise three notable galleys: the Speedwell,

the Try Right, and the Black Galley, with the sight whereof, and the

rest of the navy royal, it is incredible to say how greatly her grace

is delighted: and not without great cause (I say) since by their means

her coasts are kept in quiet, and sundry foreign enemies put back,

which otherwise would invade us. The number of those that serve for

burden with the other, whereof I have made mention already and whose

use is daily seen, as occasion serveth in time of the wars, is to me

utterly unknown. Yet if the report of one record be anything at all to

be credited, there are one hundred and thirty-five ships that exceed

five hundred ton; topmen, under one hundred and above forty, six

hundred and fifty-six; hoys, one hundred; but of hulks, catches,

fisherboats, and crayers, it lieth not in me to deliver the just

account, since they are hard to come by. Of these also there are some

of the queen's majesty's subjects that have two or three; some, four

or six; and (as I heard of late) one man, whose name I suppress for

modesty's sake, hath been known not long since to have had sixteen or

seventeen, and employed them wholly to the wafting in and out of our

merchants, whereby he hath reaped no small commodity and gain. I might

take occasion to tell of the notable and difficult voyages made into

strange countries by Englishmen, and of their daily success there; but

as these things are nothing incident to my purpose, so I surcease to

speak of them. Only this will I add, to the end all men shall

understand somewhat of the great masses of treasure daily employed

upon our navy, how there are few of those ships, of the first and

second sort, that, being apparelled and made ready to sail, are not

worth one thousand pounds, or three thousand ducats at the least, if

they should presently be sold. What shall we think then of the

greater, but especially of the navy royal, of which some one vessel is

worth two of the other, as the shipwrights have often told me? It is

possible that some covetous person, hearing this report, will either

not credit it at all, or suppose money so employed to be nothing

profitable to the queen's coffers: as a good husband said once when he

heard there should be a provision made for armour, wishing the queen's

money to be rather laid out to some speedier return of gain unto her

grace, "because the realm (saith he) is in case good enough," and so

peradventure he thought. But if, as by store of armour for the defence

of the country, he had likewise understanded that the good keeping of

the sea is the safeguard of our land, he would have altered his

censure, and soon given over his judgment. For in times past, when our

nation made small account of navigation, how soon did the Romans, then

the Saxons, and last of all the Danes, invade this island? whose

cruelty in the end enforced our countrymen, as it were even against

their wills, to provide for ships from other places, and build at home

of their own whereby their enemies were oftentimes distressed. But

most of all were the Normans therein to be commended. For, in a short

process of time after the conquest of this island, and good

consideration had for the well-keeping of the same, they supposed

nothing more commodious for the defence of the country than the

maintenance of a strong navy, which they speedily provided,

maintained, and thereby reaped in the end their wished security,

wherewith before their times this island was never acquainted. Before

the coming of the Romans I do not read that we had any ships at all,

except a few made of wicker and covered with buffalo hides, like unto

which there are some to be seen at this present in Scotland (as I

hear), although there be a little (I wot not well what) difference

between them. Of the same also Solinus speaketh, so far as I remember:

nevertheless it may be gathered from his words how the upper parts of

them above the water only were framed of the said wickers, and that

the Britons did use to fast all the whiles they went to the sea in

them; but whether it were done for policy or superstition, as yet I do

not read.

In the beginning of the Saxons' regiment we had some ships also; but

as their number and mould was little, and nothing to the purpose, so

Egbert was the first prince that ever thoroughly began to know this

necessity of a navy and use the service thereof in the defence of his

country. After him also other princes, as Alfred, Edgar, Ethelred,

etc., endeavoured more and more to store themselves at the full with

ships of all quantities, but chiefly Edgar, for he provided a navy of

1600 _aliàs_ 3600 sail, which he divided into four parts, and sent

them to abide upon four sundry coasts of the land, to keep the same

from pirates. Next unto him (and worthy to be remembered) is Ethelred,

who made a law that every man that hold 310 hidelands should find a

ship furnished to serve him in the wars. Howbeit, as I said before,

when all their navy was at the greatest, it was not comparable for

force and sure building to that which afterward the Normans provided,

neither that of the Normans anything like to the same that is to be

seen now in these our days. For the journeys also of our ships, you

shall understand that a well-builded vessel will run or sail commonly

three hundred leagues or nine hundred miles in a week, or peradventure

some will go 2200 leagues in six weeks and a half. And surely, if

their lading be ready against they come thither, there be of them that

will be here, at the West Indies, and home again in twelve or thirteen

weeks from Colchester, although the said Indies be eight hundred

leagues from the cape or point of Cornwall, as I have been informed.

This also I understand by report of some travellers, that, if any of

our vessels happen to make a voyage to Hispaniola or New Spain (called

in time past Quinquegia and Haiti), which lieth between the north

tropic and the Equator, after they have once touched at the Canaries

(which are eight days' sailing or two hundred and fifty leagues from

St. Lucas de Barameda, in Spain) they will be there in thirty or forty

days, and home again in Cornwall in other eight weeks, which is a

goodly matter, beside the safety and quietness in the passage, but

more of this elsewhere.

CHAPTER XVII

OF SUNDRY KINDS OF PUNISHMENT APPOINTED FOR OFFENDERS

[1577, Book III., Chapter 6; 1587, Book II., Chapter 11.]

In cases of felony, manslaughter, robbery, murder, rape, piracy, and

such capital crimes as are not reputed for treason or hurt of the

estate, our sentence pronounced upon the offender is, to hang till he

be dead. For of other punishments used in other countries we have no

knowledge or use; and yet so few grievous crimes committed with us as

elsewhere in the world. To use torment also or question by pain and

torture in these common cases with us is greatly abhorred, since we

are found always to be such as despise death, and yet abhor to be

tormented, choosing rather frankly to open our minds than to yield our

bodies unto such servile haulings and tearings as are used in other

countries. And this is one cause wherefore our condemned persons do go

so cheerfully to their deaths; for our nation is free, stout, haughty,

prodigal of life and blood, as Sir Thomas Smith saith, lib. 2, cap.

25, _De Republica_, and therefore cannot in any wise digest to be used

as villains and slaves, in suffering continually beating, servitude,

and servile torments. No, our gaolers are guilty of felony, by an old

law of the land, if they torment any prisoner committed to their

custody for the revealing of his accomplices.

The greatest and most grievous punishment used in England for such as

offend against the State is drawing from the prison to the place of

execution upon an hurdle or sled, where they are hanged till they be

half dead, and then taken down, and quartered alive; after that, their

members and bowels are cut from their bodies, and thrown into a fire,

provided near hand and within their own sight, even for the same

purpose.

Sometimes, if the trespass be not the more heinous, they are suffered

to hang till they be quite dead. And whensoever any of the nobility

are convicted of high treason by their peers, that is to say, equals

(for an inquest of yeomen passeth not upon them, but only of the lords

of parliament), this manner of their death is converted into the loss

of their heads only, notwithstanding that the sentence do run after

the former order. In trial of cases concerning treason, felony, or any

other grievous crime not confessed, the party accused doth yield, if

he be a noble man, to be tried by an inquest (as I have said) and his

peers; if a gentleman, by gentlemen; and an inferior, by God and by

the country, to wit, the yeomanry (for combat or battle is not greatly

in use), and, being condemned of felony, manslaughter, etc., he is

eftsoons hanged by the neck till he be dead, and then cut down and

buried. But if he be convicted of wilful murder, done either upon

pretended malice or in any notable robbery, he is either hanged alive

in chains near the place where the fact was committed (or else upon

compassion taken, first strangled with a rope), and so continueth till

his bones consume to nothing. We have use neither of the wheel nor of

the bar, as in other countries; but, when wilful manslaughter is

perpetrated, beside hanging, the offender hath his right hand commonly

stricken off before or near unto the place where the act was done,

after which he is led forth to the place of execution, and there put

to death according to the law.

The word felon is derived of the Saxon words _fell_ and _one_, that is

to say, an evil and wicked one, a one of untameable nature and

lewdness not to be suffered for fear of evil example and the

corruption of others. In like sort in the word _felony_ are many

grievous crimes contained, as breach of prison (Ann. I of Edward the

Second), disfigurers of the prince's liege people (Ann. 5 of Henry the

Fourth), hunting by night with painted faces and visors (Ann. I of

Henry the Seventh), rape, or stealing of women and maidens (Ann. 3 of

Henry Eight), conspiracies against the person of the prince (Ann. 3 of

Henry the Seventh), embezzling of goods committed by the master to the

servant above the value of forty shillings (Ann. 17 of Henry the

Eighth), carrying of horses or mares into Scotland (Ann. 23 of Henry

Eight), sodomy and buggery (Ann. 25 of Henry the Eighth), conjuring,

forgery, witchcraft, and digging up of crosses (Ann. 33 of Henry

Eight), prophesying upon arms, cognisances, names, and badges (Ann. 33

of Henry Eight), casting of slanderous bills (Ann. 37, Henry Eight),

wilful killing by poison (Ann. 1 of Edward the Sixth), departure of a

soldier from the field (Ann. 2 of Edward the Sixth), diminution of

coin, all offences within case of premunire, embezzling of records,

goods taken from dead men by their servants, stealing of whatsoever

cattle, robbing by the high way, upon the sea, or of dwelling houses,

letting out of ponds, cutting of purses, stealing of deer by night,

counterfeits of coin, evidences charters, and writings, and divers

other needless to be remembered. If a woman poison her husband, she is

burned alive; if the servant kill his master, he is to be executed for

petty treason; he that poisoneth a man is to be boiled to death in

water or lead, although the party die not of the practice; in cases of

murder, all the accessories are to suffer pains of death accordingly.

Perjury is punished by the pillory, burning in the forehead with the

letter P, the rewalting of the trees growing upon the grounds of the

offenders, and loss of all his movables. Many trespasses also are

punished by the cutting off of one or both ears from the head of the

offender, as the utterance of seditious words against the magistrates,

fraymakers, petty robbers, etc. Rogues are burned through the ears;

carriers of sheep out of the land, by the loss of their hands; such as

kill by poison are either boiled or scalded to death in lead or

seething water. Heretics are burned quick; harlots and their mates, by

carting, ducking, and doing of open penance in sheets in churches and

market steeds, are often put to rebuke. Howbeit, as this is counted

with some either as no punishment at all to speak of, or but little

regarded of the offenders, so I would with adultery and fornication to

have some sharper law. For what great smart is it to be turned out of

hot sheet into a cold, or after a little washing in the water to be

let loose again unto their former trades? Howbeit the dragging of some

of them over the Thames between Lambeth and Westminster at the tail of

a boat is a punishment that most terrifieth them which are condemned

thereto; but this is inflicted upon them by none other than the knight

marshall, and that within the compass of his jurisdiction and limits

only. Canutus was the first that gave authority to the clergy to

punish whoredom, who at that time found fault with the former laws as

being too severe in this behalf. For, before the time of the said

Canutus, the adulterer forfeited all his goods to the king and his

body to be at his pleasure; and the adulteress was to lose her eyes or

nose, or both if the case were more than common: whereby it appears of

what estimation marriage was amongst them, since the breakers of that

holy estate were so grievously rewarded. But afterward the clergy

dealt more favourably with them, shooting rather at the punishments of

such priests and clerks as were married than the reformation of

adultery and fornication, wherein you shall find no example that any

severity was shewed except upon such lay men as had defiled their

nuns. As in theft therefore, so in adultery and whoredom, I would wish

the parties trespassing to be made bond or slaves unto those that

received the injury, to sell and give where they listed, or to be

condemned to the galleys: for that punishment would prove more bitter

to them than half-an-hour's hanging, or than standing in a sheet,

though the weather be never so cold.

Manslaughter in time past was punished by the purse, wherein the

quantity or quality of the punishment was rated after the state and

calling of the party killed: so that one was valued sometime at 1200,

another at 600, or 200 shillings. And by a statute made under Henry

the First, a citizen of London at 100, whereof elsewhere I have spoken

more at large. Such as kill themselves are buried in the field with a

stake driven through their bodies.

Witches are hanged, or sometimes burned; but thieves are hanged (as I

said before) generally on the gibbet or gallows, saving in Halifax,

where they are beheaded after a strange manner, and whereof I find

this report. There is and has been of ancient time a law, or rather a

custom, at Halifax, that whosoever does commit any felony, and is taken

with the same, or confesses the fact upon examination, if it be valued

by four constables to amount to the sum of thirteenpence-halfpenny, he

is forthwith beheaded upon one of the next market days (which fall

usually upon the Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays), or else upon the

same day that he is so convicted, if market be then holden. The engine

wherewith the execution is done is a square block of wood of the

length of four feet and a half, which does ride up and down in a slot,

rabbet, or regall, between two pieces of timber, that are framed and

set upright, of five yards in height. In the nether end of the sliding

block is an axe, keyed or fastened with an iron into the wood, which

being drawn up to the top of the frame is there fastened by a wooden

pin (with a notch made into the same, after the manner of a Samson's

post), unto the midst of which pin also there is a long rope fastened

that cometh down among the people, so that, when the offender hath

made his confession and hath laid his neck over the nethermost block,

every man there present doth either take hold of the rope (or putteth

forth his arm so near to the same as he can get, in token that he is

willing to see true justice executed), and, pulling out the pin in

this manner, the head-block wherein the axe is fastened doth fall down

with such a violence that, if the neck of the transgressor were as big

as that of a bull, it should be cut in sunder at a stroke and roll

from the body by a huge distance. If it be so that the offender be

apprehended for an ox, oxen, sheep, kine, horse, or any such cattle,

the self beast or other of the same kind shall have the end of the

rope tied somewhere unto them, so that they, being driven, do draw out

the pin, whereby the offender is executed. Thus much of Halifax law,

which I set down only to shew the custom of that country in this

behalf.

Rogues and vagabonds are often stocked and whipped; scolds are ducked

upon cucking-stools in the water. Such felons as stand mute, and speak

not at their arraignment, are pressed to death by huge weights laid

upon a board, that lieth over their breast, and a sharp stone under

their backs; and these commonly held their peace, thereby to save

their goods unto their wives and children, which, if they were

condemned, should be confiscated to the prince. Thieves that are saved

by their books and clergy, for the first offence, if they have stolen

nothing else but oxen, sheep, money, or such like, which be no open

robberies, as by the highway side, or assailing of any man's house in

the night, without putting him in fear of his life, or breaking up his

walls or doors, are burned in the left hand, upon the brawn of the

thumb, with a hot iron, so that, if they be apprehended again, that

mark betrayeth them to have been arraigned of felony before, whereby

they are sure at that time to have no mercy. I do not read that this

custom of saving by the book is used anywhere else than in England;

neither do I find (after much diligent enquiry) what Saxon prince

ordained that law. Howbeit this I generally gather thereof, that it

was devised to train the inhabitants of this land to the love of

learning, which before contemned letters and all good knowledge, as

men only giving themselves to husbandry and the wars: the like whereof

I read to have been amongst the Goths and Vandals, who for a time

would not suffer even their princes to be learned, for weakening of

their courage, nor any learned men to remain in the council house, but

by open proclamation would command them to avoid whensoever anything

touching the state of the land was to be consulted upon. Pirates and

robbers by sea are condemned in the Court of the Admiralty, and hanged

on the shore at low-water mark, where they are left till three tides

have overwashed them. Finally, such as having walls and banks near

unto the sea, and do suffer the same to decay (after convenient

admonition), whereby the water entereth and drowneth up the country,

are by a certain ancient custom apprehended, condemned, and staked in

the breach, where they remain for ever as parcel of the foundation of

the new wall that is to be made upon them, as I have heard reported.

And thus much in part of the administration of justice used in our

country, wherein, notwithstanding that we do not often hear of

horrible, merciless, and wilful murders (such I mean as are not seldom

seen in the countries of the main), yet now and then some manslaughter

and bloody robberies are perpetrated and committed, contrary to the

laws, which be severely punished, and in such wise as I have before

reported. Certes there is no greater mischief done in England than by

robberies, the first by young shifting gentlemen, which oftentimes do

bear more port than they are able to maintain. Secondly by

serving-men, whose wages cannot suffice so much as to find them

breeches; wherefore they are now and then constrained either to keep

highways, and break into the wealthy men's houses with the first sort,

or else to walk up and down in gentlemen's and rich farmers' pastures,

there to see and view which horses feed best, whereby they many times

get something, although with hard adventure: it hath been known by

their confession at the gallows that some one such chapman hath had

forty, fifty, or sixty stolen horses at pasture here and there abroad

in the country at a time, which they have sold at fairs and markets

far off, they themselves in the mean season being taken about home for

honest yeomen, and very wealthy drovers, till their dealings have been

betrayed. It is not long since one of this company was apprehended,

who was before time reputed for a very honest and wealthy townsman; he

uttered also more horses than any of his trade, because he sold a

reasonable pennyworth and was a fairspoken man. It was his custom

likewise to say, if any man hucked hard with him about the price of a

gelding, "So God help me, gentlemen (or sir), either he did cost me so

much, or else, by Jesus, I stole him!" Which talk was plain enough;

and yet such was his estimation that each believed the first part of

his tale, and made no account of the latter, which was truer indeed.

Our third annoyers of the commonwealth are rogues, which do very great

mischief in all places where they become. For, whereas the rich only

suffer injury by the first two, these spare neither rich nor poor;

but, whether it be great gain or small, all is fish that cometh to net

with them. And yet, I say, both they and the rest are trussed up

apace. For there is not one year commonly wherein three hundred or

four hundred of them are not devoured and eaten up by the gallows in

one place and other. It appeareth by Cardan (who writeth it upon the

report of the bishop of Lexovia), in the geniture of King Edward the

Sixth, how Henry the Eighth, executing his laws very severely against

such idle persons, I mean great thieves, petty thieves, and rogues,

did hang up threescore and twelve thousand of them in his time. He

seemed for a while greatly to have terrified the rest; but since his

death the number of them is so increased, yea, although we have had no

wars, which are a great occasion of their breed (for it is the custom

of the more idle sort, having once served, or but seen the other side

of the sea under colour of service, to shake hand with labour for

ever, thinking it a disgrace for himself to return unto his former

trade), that, except some better order be taken, or the laws already

made be better executed, such as dwell in uplandish towns and little

villages shall live but in small safety and rest. For the better

apprehension also of thieves and mankillers, there is an old law in

England very well provided whereby it is ordered that, if he that is

robbed (or any man) complain and give warning of slaughter or murder

committed, the constable of the village whereunto he cometh and crieth

for succour is to raise the parish about him, and to search woods,

groves, and all suspected houses and places, where the trespasser may

be, or is supposed to lurk; and not finding him there, he is to give

warning unto the next constable, and so one constable, after search

made, to advertise another from parish to parish, till they come to

the same where the offender is harboured and found. It is also

provided that, if any parish in this business do not her duty, but

suffereth the thief (for the avoiding of trouble sake) in carrying him

to the gaol, if he should be apprehended, or other letting of their

work to escape, the same parish is not only to make fine to the king,

but also the same, with the whole hundred wherein it standeth, to

repay the party robbed his damages, and leave his estate harmless.

Certainly this is a good law; howbeit I have known by my own

experience felons being taken to have escaped out of the stocks, being

rescued by other for want of watch and guard, that thieves have been

let pass, because the covetous and greedy parishioners would neither

take the pains nor be at the charge, to carry them to prison, if it

were far off; that when hue and cry have been made even to the faces

of some constables, they have said: "God restore your loss! I have

other business at this time." And by such means the meaning of many a

good law is left unexecuted, malefactors emboldened, and many a poor

man turned out of that which he hath sweat and taken great pains

toward the maintenance of himself and his poor children and family.

CHAPTER XVIII

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.[1]...

[1] Here follows a paragraph about the legendary foundation

of the universities.--W.

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,[2] 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.[3]...

[2] Cambridge burned not long since.--H.

[3] Here follows an account of Oxford and Cambridge castles, and

the legend of the building of Osney Abbey by Robert and Edith

D'Oyley.--W.

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 of 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 the 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 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[4] sometime

noted, who thought it sacrilege for a man to tarry any longer at

Oxford than he had a desire to profit.

[4] This Fox builded Corpus Christi College, in Oxford.--H.

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[5] 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."

[5] So much also may be inferred of lawyers.--H.

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 face's 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 Caius Edmund Gundevill, parson of

1557 College Terrington, and John Caius,

doctor of physic.

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

Years of the

Foundation Colleges Founders

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.[6]

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

in hand law.

[6] He founded also a good part of Eton College, and a free

school at Wainfleet, where he was born.

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. Newmann.

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.

_Planned and Designed at The Collier Press

By William Patten_