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39arrigon’g 7Beg cription of 32ngland.
A.D. 1577–1587.
THE SECOND AND THIRD BOOKS.
- - - - he f * * [The original List is at the foot
theºlºº -- ~ -->s o, gº- § - ~%rchantaylors of the Map.]
º-rººm - z- N ~\s. § -- NY ~ º-º-º-º: -
Of one of the former NNW/ sº-ºº-º- | O IN D O IN ~s **$3). s:* 292– § - Of one of the former
12 Companies is the \#4% SS * -ečs ~ J §§ % --- * Q 12 Companies is the
Z SS \ --- S R *--- N te
Lo. Mayor of the %rº wº C ~~ § - 2–ºass É.º.º.º.
Cyte comenly chosen. t-cº Nº. - º *** ~s 22 – } ~ - SR yte comenly chosen.
-º-º- N ...,' gº * ſ; > M \ -*-
• * -ºš Vºsswº º w * Asºº § Öğ. § --> a. Buſhops gate ſtreete.
Cl. Buſhops gate ſtreete. Y. \\ SN &,”! & - *Jo __Tse- § sºvº. § § b #!/? gate ſt
b. Paple. N * N º gº N § i • -: - Sºss- --> º §§ ** ******ºvº. § } PTS e p g -
- ºw ****** N - * .." **** 2- * \ S
c. Alhallowes in the \}^ N | liſtſ'"º ! º #. ... ?" ----- .......~ * Jala ^ $5 c. Alhallowes in the
wall. wº & iſſil Hilº! ~is- -“” -- š +, - wall.
ths w | S ºth º -- * S §§
d. S. Taphyns. SN ~2%NFſº N § - gº Šia.º.º. ºv Nºw wºw w w wºwº wº N.NN\\\\\\\\v Nº, NNN wº d. S. Taphyns.
*NWN / S º h e - SSW MVA Nºw W vº Nº-Nº, Nºv - Nº v v^ º *ANN NN t is
e. Syluer ſtreete. tº SSSSSSJ% sº º § jºf R § § W. § 9 e. Syluer ſtreete.
- - ** T.SSN - º * wº *A § ºnvº. § § S. \ --~~~~ * > S R*** NYNNº. → ****,\vºws. Q *Tºw: * > *
f. Aldermanburye. =& i.N S w NN\w& i N \ } * § \\\\\ * § Sºº-J . Aldermanburye.
º ºs- \\\ \º Sw ºss § \\\\ N } Cſ. Barbican.
g. Barbican. - Q #ſº lº)\\ssssss SSSSSSSSSSS i Yºº "Nº S >~~~~~~~~ ©
h. Alderſgate ſtreete. lder Ş - ºw'ſ SNN usº \, : N h. Alderſgate ſtreete.
i. Charterhouſe. ޺ & b N N {{2\ i. Charterhouſe.
k. Holborne Conduit. k. Holborne Conduit.
l. Chauncery ſane.
1. Chauncery lane.
m. Temple barr.
m. Holbourn.
o. Grayes Inn lane.
p. S. Androwes.
q. Newgate.
r. S. Iones.
ſ: S. Nic ſhambels.
t. Cheap ſyde.
u. Bucklers burye.
w. Brodeſtreete.
a. The ſtockes.
y. The Erchannge.
3. Cornehill.
m. Temple larr.
m. Holbourn.
0. Grayes Inn lane.
S. Androwes.
7. Newgate.
r. S. Iones.
ſ. S. Nic ſhambels.
t. Cheap ſyde.
u. Bucklers turye.
w. Brodeſireete.
The ſtockes.
The Erchannge.
Cornehill.
º §§ º
§§§
Q NY. vºw P
NMºWs
º Öğ
N. WºRSS
N \cºſ\SN
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Q N&sº 2 \s
t
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2 tº a as ſh Q
glºw ºn."
**N****
*
*
- º
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[No 1 in Map.] [No 1 in Map.]
2. Colman ſtreete. Co/manſireete.
3. Baſſings hall. Baſſings hall.
Hounſditche.
§
R-
ºš.
4. Hounſditche.
5. Leaden hall.
6. Gratious ſtreete.
7. Heneage houſe.
8. Fanchurche.
º
º
sº
;
Leaden hall.
Gratious ſtreete.
Heneage houſe.
Fanchurche.
9. Marke lane. ~. Marke lane.
1o. Minchyn lane. CŞ Minchyn lane.
I 1. Paules. * ~ Paules.
12. Eaſt cheape. sº Eºſicheape.
13. Fleet ſtreete. ~~ Fleet ſireete.
I4. Fetter lane.
I 5. S. Dun/hous.
16. Themes ſtreete.
I 7. London ſtone.
18. Olde Baylye.
19. Clerkenwell.
14. Fetter lane.
I5. S. Dun/hous.
16. Themes ſtreete.
I 7. London ſtone.
18. Olde Baylye.
ºſºſ.
º effº
º º ‘LU
- S-7
gº º, ſº #2 Nſt
- - *
19. Clerkenwell. º
20. IVincheſter houſe. }- e. sº 2O. II incheſter houſe.
"t
. Battle bridge.
2 I. Battle bridge. I
22. Bermodſoy ſireete.
22. Bermodſoy ſtreete.
f
&
t
4! :
Ioannes Norden An- * . .". A : ºs-2 Ioannes Norden An-
º * : h_t – `A. : , ; ...it % • * * * * *
*crip/it anno ZºPºrer tºanden Kerrefertº ºf23:, . º : deſcrip/it anno
© * * - - * I 93.









































































































TJJºaº quarrison's f
Prºtription of 32ngland
IN
SHAKSPERES YOUTH,
a-º-º-
BEING
THE SE COND AND THIRD BOOKS
OF HIS
33 e5 criptiott of 13 tita itte attº Cºttº lattº.
EDITED FROM THE
FIRST Two EDITIONS OF HOLINSHED's CHRONICLE, A.D. 1577, 1537,
BY -
FREDERICK J. FURNIVALL,
FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR OF THE WEW SHAKSPERE SOCIETY, &c.
PART I. THE SECOND BOOK,
WITH
EXTRACTS FROM THE AUTOGRAPH MS OF HARRISON'S CHRONOLOGIE,
AND FROM FOREIGN WRITERS ON ENGLAND ;
ALSO WITH
NORDEN'S MAP OF LONDON, rs93, AND NOTES ON IT BY
HENRY B. WHEATLEY.
PUBLISHT FOR
(ſiſt flem $ffałggere $ociety
BY N. TRUBNER & CO., 57, 59, LUDGATE HILL,
LONDON, E.C., 1877.
§ tries VI.
§o. 1.
2)
John CHILDS AND
son, PRINTERS.
**-* * **—a. Yºº-º-º-º:
93----. . R. R., 2.
+&n-.
**)^***~~
| * * : * 4t.
ºr 47 (a
FO R. E. W. O. R D S T O PA R T I.
§ 1. Character of Harrison's book, p. iii The noble river of Thames, p. xxxiv.
§ 2. How he came to write it, p. iv Radwinter, of which Harrison was
Aïs qualifications for his work, rector, p. xxxviii
p. v. (His Chronology, p. v., xlvii)| : 7. The two editions of Harrison's De-
Aſis aim and fairness in it, p. vi scription, p. x1 (and xliv)
§ 3. His account of himself; his school, $8. Morden's Map of London in 1593,
zºniversities, wife, gardene, &c., p. xli
§ 9. Thanks to helpers, p. xliii
p. x
4. Abstract of his will, p. xiv. . . . -*-*s-sºme
5. Characteristic phrases and opinions Table of Chapters in Harrison, Book I,
6 Aft º 4. **. J. Harr; editions 1577, 1587, p. xliv
o *:::::::: ooz.4. *” Appendix I. Extracts from vol. iv. of
on Griants, p. xxvill Aarrison’s M.S. Chronology, p.
7%e English Language, p. xxix xlvii
Ryland = peninsula, p. xxx 3- º
%". ##."º, º Apºſºnº, ºne
and barnacles on shifts, p. xxxi. App. III.' 'Żºł. , B. Wheatley’s
A zwisit to the Shetland Zsles, p. xxxii Pp. Wºtes on Wºº,'s iſaºff of Ž.£-
And the shores of the Zhames, don, 1593, p. lxxxix
* 5 3. e
p. xxxiii
§ 1. As a general rule, till a book is complete, no Forewords to it
should appear. But, tho' only half of the present book is in this
Part I, I am unwilling to send out this Harrison, the friend of some
twenty years' standing, without a few words of introduction to those
readers who don't know it.
The book is full of interest, not only to every Shakspere student,
but to every reader of English history, every man who has the least
care for his forefathers' lives. And, though it does contain sheets
of padding now and then," yet the writer's racy phrases are continu-
ally turning up, and giving flavour to his descriptions, while he sets
before us the very England of Shakspere's day. From its Parlia-
ment and Universities, to its beggars and its rogues; from its castles
to its huts, its horses to its hens; from how the state was managd,
to how Mrs Wm Harrison (and no doubt Mrs William Shakspere?)
brewd her beer; all is there. The book is a deliberately drawn
picture of Elizabethan England; and nothing could have kept it
from being often reprinted and a thousand times more widely known
1 Perhaps the worst instance is Chapter 21, ‘Of Waters generallie,” p. 332.
* You are shown the foundations of the brew-house, at New Place, Stratford.
iy § 2. How HARRISON CAME To write HIs Book.
than it is, except the long and dull historical and topographical Book
I,-The Description of Britaine—set before the interesting account
in Books II* and III, of the England under Harrison's eyes in
1577-87. Because this Book I is so dull, I have left it out, though
I shall print from it, as a kind of Appendix to Bk III, Chapters 18,
19, 20, 24, ‘Of the aire, Soile, and commodities of this Iland; Of
the foure high waies sometime made in Britaine by the princes of
this Ilande ; Of the generall constitution of the bodies of the
Britons; Of the maruels of England;’ with a few other extracts,
in these Forewords and elsewhere.
§ 2. How Harrison came to write his book 2 was on this wise.
Reginald Wolfe, the Printer to Queen Elizabeth, meant to pub-
lish “a universall Cosmographie of the whole world,” and therewith
also certaine particular histories of every knowne nation.” For the .
Historical part of the work, he engagd Raphael Holinshed, among
other men; and when the work was nearly done, Wolfe died, after
twenty-five years' labour at his scheme. Then the men who were to
have borne the cost of printing the Universall Cosmographie, were
afraid to face the expense of the whole work, and resolvd to do
only so much of it as related to England, Scotland, and Ireland.*
1 Chapters 1, 2, 4, 8, 9, 2I of Book II are dullish.
2 Who'll write a like one for Victorian England? Oh that we had one for
Chaucer's England 1
3 The Elizabethan sweep in this, as in so many other plans of the day.
4 See Holinshed's Dedication to Lord Burghley in vol. iii. of his Chronicle:
“I haue thought good to aduertise your Honour, by what occasion I was first
induced to vndertake the same, although the cause that moued me thereto hath
(in part) yer this beene signified vnto your good Lordship. Whereas therefore,
that worthie Citizen Reginald Wolfe, late Printer to the Queenes Maiestie, a man
well known and beholden to your Honour, meant in his life time to publish an
wniuersall Cosmographie of the whole world, and therwith also certaine particular
histories of euery knowne nation, amongst other whom he purposed to vse for
performance of his intent in that behalfe, he procured me to take in hand the col-
lection of those histories; and hauing proceeded so far in the same, as little
wanted to the accomplishment of that long promised worke, it pleased God to
call him to his mercie, after fiue and twentie yeares trauell spent therein ; so that
by his vntimelie deceasse, no hope remained to see that performed, which we had
so long trauelled about. Neuerthelesse, those whom he put in trust to dispose
his things after his departure hence, wishing to the benefit of others, that some
fruit might follow of that whereabout he had imployed so long time, willed me
to continue mine endeuour for their furtherance in the same. Which, although
I was redie to doo, so far as mine abilitie would reach, and the rather to answere
that trust which the deceassed reposed in me, to see it brought to some perfec-
tion; yet when the volume grew so great, as they that were to defraie the charges
for the impression, were not willing to go through with the whole, they resolued
*~
§ 2. How HARRIson cAME To WRITE HIs Book. V
Holinshed having the History of these countries in hand, appli-
cation was made to Harrison, who had long been compiling a
Chronologie 1 of his own, to furnish the Descriptions of Britain and
first to publish the histories of England, Scotland, and Ireland, with their de-
scriptions; which descriptions, bicause they were not in such readinesse as those
of forren countries, they were inforced to vse the helpe of other better able to doo
it than my selfe.”
Wolfe also had Maps of the English counties; but as they were poor ones,
‘maister Thomas Sackford 'got, and drew or had drawn, new ‘Charts of the
seuerall prouinces of this realme; * but unluckily they were never publisht.
1 William Harrison's Chronologie is mentiond on the last leaf of the Preface
to vol. iii. of Holinshed, p. 1, at foot, -
“For the computation of the yeares of the world, I had by Maister Wolfes
aduise followed Functius; but after his [Wolfe's] deceasse, M. W[illiam] Hſar-
rison] made me partaker of a Chronologie, which he had gathered and compiled
with most exquisit diligence, following Gerardus Mercator, and other late
chronologers, and his owne obseruations, according to the which I haue re-
formed the same.”—Holinshed, in the Preface to his Chronicles, vol. iii. sign. A 4,
ed. I587,-
and in his Description, p. 70, 357 below, “I haue reserued them vnto the publi-
cation of my great Chronologie, if (while I liue) it happen to come abroad.” II.
ii. end, p. 70. It was never publisht. My search for the MS. of it results in
my having just received (Aug. 28) its large folio vols. 2, 3, 4, from the Diocesan
Library of Derry, in Ireland. The Rev. H. Cotton, Thurles, Ireland, (Dec. 21,
1850,) said where it was, in I Notes and Queries, iii. IoS, col. 2; and after two
fruitless searches it was found, and lent me by the Bishop, through his Librarian,
the Rev. B. Moffett of Foyle College, Londonderry, as well as a curious and
terribly-corrected MS. of an English work on Weights and Measures, Hebrew,
Greek, English, &c., dated 1587, which must be Harrison's too.
The 3 folio volumes of the Chronologie are 8 inches deep as they lie, each
being Ioš inches broad, by 17; high, with 73, and sometimes more, lines to a
page. An enormous amount of work is in them, and all of them are in Harrison's
own hand, at different times of his life. Vol. 2, “The second part of the
English Chronologye written by Wm Harrison,” runs from the Creation to
Christ’s birth. Vol. 3, “The third part of the Chronology conteining a just
& perfite true &c. as followeth in the next Leafe, to thend of the title, & to be
brought hether [see Appendix I.],” stretches from the birth of Christ to William
the Norman's Conquest of England. Vol. 4, “The iiijth and Last part of the
great English Chronology written. By Wm H.,” [title in another hand?] goes
from the beginning of William the Conqueror's reign, Oct. 14, IO66, to the Feb-
ruary of 1592-3, only two months before Harrison's own death (or burial) on
April 24, 1593. And each volume tells, in Chronicle fashion, what went on all
over the world in each successive year, so far as Harrison knew. The contem-
porary part of vol. 4 is of course the most interesting ; and from it I shall make a
few extracts in Appendix I. to these Forewords, as there's no room here, in the gap
left by the print of Mr Moffett's first letter saying the MSS. could not be found.
‘A William Harrison wrote some Latin lines on the deaths of the Brandons,
Dukes of Suffolk, printed with the collection published on that occasion, 4to,
London, 1552.’
V1 § 2. HARRISON'S GUALIFICATIONS For His WORK.
England. He was then Household Chaplain to the well-known Sir
William Brooke, Lord Cobham (so praisd by Francis Thynne i), and
was staying in London, away from his rectory of Radwinter in
Essex, and his Library there.” He had also travelld little himself.
As he honestly tells Lord Cobham,” *
“I must needs confesse, that vntill now of late, except it were from
the parish where I dwell, vnto your Honour in Kent; or out of
London where I was borne, vnto Oxford & Cambridge where I
haue bene brought vp, I neuer trauelled 40 miles forthright and at
one iourney in all my life; neuerthelesse, in my report of these
things, I vse their authorities, who either haue performed in their
persons, or left in writing vpon sufficient ground (as I said before)
whatsoeuer is wanting in mine.”
Still, mainly by the help of Leland”—“and hitherto Leland, whose
words I dare not alter,” p. 69, Col. i., l. 57, ed. 1587, of the Severn,--
as well as of ‘letters and pamphlets from sundrie places & shires of
England,’ and “by Conference with diuers folk?,’ and “by mine owne
reading”, together with Master Sackford's charts or Maps", Harri-
* Holinshed, iii. 1499; extract in my edition of Thynne's Animadversions,
1875, p. lxxxv.
* See his Dedication to Lord Cobham, below, p. cis
* In his account of the rivers, &c., Harrison sometimes quotes other people
in the first person, ‘I, we,’ as if he had himself been to the places they describe.
* Folio Harrison, p. Io9, col. 2, ed. I587. After he has described the course
of the Granta from its head, he goes on, “it runneth to Horningseie, & Water
Bech, and finallie here ioining with the Bulbecke water, it goeth by Dennie, and
so forth into the Ouze, fifteene miles from Cambridge, as Leland hath set downe.
And thus much of the third Isis or Ouze, out of the aforesaid author”; whereamto
A haue not onelie added somewhat of meine owne experience, but also of other mens
notes, whose diligent observation of the course of this riuer hath not a little helped
me in the description of the same.”
* Folio Harrison, p. IO7, col. 2. (ed. I587):
“Thus haue I finished the description of such riuers and streames as fall into
the Ocean, according to my purpose, although not in so precise an order and
manner of handling as I might, if information promised had been accordinglie
performed ; or others would, if they had taken the like in hand. But this will
I saie of that which is here done, that from the Solueie by west, which parteth
England & Scotland on that side, to the Twede which separateth the said king-
doms on the east, if you go backeward, contrarie to the course of my description,
you shall find it so exact, as beside a verie few by-riuers, you shall not need to
vse anie further aduise for the finding and falles of the aforesaid streames. For
such hath beene my helpe of maister Sackförds cardes, and conference zwith other men
about these, that I dare pronounce them to be perfect and exact. Furthermore,
this I have also to remember, that in the courses of our streames, I regard not so
much to name the verie towne or church, as the limits of the paroch. And
therefore if I saie it goeth by such a towne, I thinke my dutie discharged, if I hit
* i.e. Leland, who calls the Ouze the third Isis.
§ 2. HARRIson's au ALIFICATIONS FOR HIS Wos K. vii
son—notwithstanding the failure of his correspondents” and the loss
of part of his material—‘scambled up,' what he depreciatingly calls
“this foule frizeled Treatise of mine,' to ‘stand in lieu of a description
of my Countrie.” But, he says, “howsoeuer it be done, & whatsoeuer
I haue done, I haue had an especiall eye vnto the truth of things.’
And this faerit, I think every reader will allow Harrison. Though he
vpon anie part or parcell of the paroch. This also hath not a little troubled me,
I meane the euill writing of the names of manie townes and villages; of which I
have noted some one man, in the description of a riuer, to write one towne two
or three manner of waies, whereby I was inforced to choose one (at adventure
most commonlie) that seemed the likeliest to be sound in mine opinion and
iudgement.
“Finallie, whereas I minded to set downe an especiall chapter of ports and
creeks, lieng on ech coast of the English part of this Ile, and had provided the
same in such wise as I iudged most convenient, it came to passe, that the greater
part of my labour was taken from me by stealth, and therefore as discouraged to
meddle with that argument, I would have giuen ouer to set downe anie thing
thereof at all, and so much the rather, for that I see it may prootle a spurre
wnto further mischeefe, as things come to passe in these daies. Neverthelesse
because a title thereof is passed in the beginning of the booke, I will deliuer that
parcell thereof which remaineth, leauing the supplie of the rest either to my selfe
hereafter, (if I may come by it) or to some other that can better performe the same.
“Againe, vnderstanding of the great charges & notable enterprise of that
worthie gentleman maister Thomas Sackford, in procaring the Charts of the
seuerall prouinces of this realme to be set foorth, we are in hope that in time he will
delineate this whole land so perfectlie.” &c.—R. Holinshed's Epist. Dedicatory, p. 2.
* He complains of help promist, and never given : see in the folio Harrison,
p: 45, col. I (beginning of cap. II, Boek I. about the Thames):—
“Having (as you [Lord Cobham] haue seene) attempted to set downe a full
discourse of all the Ilands, that are situat upon the coast of Britaine, and finding
the successe not correspondent to mine intent, it has caused me some what to re-
streine my purpose in this description also of our riuers. For whereas I intended
at the first to haue written at large, of the number situation names quantities
townes villages castles mounteines fresh waters plashes or lakes, salt waters, and
other commodities of the aforesaid Iles, mine expectation of information from all
parts of England was so deceived in the end, that I was faine at last omelie to leane
to that which I knew my selfè either by reading, or such other helpe as I had alreadie
pierchased and gottent of the same. And even so it happeneth in this my tractation
of waters, of whose heads, courses, length, bredth, depth of chanell (for burden)
ebs, flowings, and falles, I had thought to haue made a perfect description under
the report also of an imagined course taken by them all. But now for zeant of
instruction, which hath beene largelie promised, & slacklie perfourmeed, and other
sudden and iniurious deniall of helpe voluntarille offered, without occasion gitten on
my part, I must needs content my selfe with such observations as I haue either
obteined by mine owne experience, or gathered from time to time out of other
mens writings: whereby the full discourse of the whole is vtterlie cut off, and
in steed of the same, a mangled rehearsall of the residue set downe and left in
memorie.”
viii § 2. HARRIS ON GIVES Both sipes.
swallowd too easily some of the stories told in old chronicles, &c.,
though (in his 2nd ed. Only) he put Chertsey above, instead of below,
Staines, on the Thames,” &c., yet in all the interesting home-life part,
he evidently gives both sides of the case, “speaks of it as it was ;
nothing extenuates, nor sets down aught in malice' (Oth., W. ii. 341).
When he tells with pride, on the one hand, of the grand new build-
ings and the many chimnies put up in his day; on the other hand,
he brings in the grumble, p. 337-8,
“And yet see the change, for when our houses were builded of
tº willow, then had we oken men; but now that our
Desize of match. J. 5
wealth and ease houses are come to be made of oke, our men are not
##"... onlie become willow, but a great manie, through
throweth a Persian delicacie crept in among vs, altogither of straw,
zmanlie coterage. º e - y)
which is a sore alteration.
“Now haue we manie chimnies; and yet our tenderlings com-
plaine of rheumes, catarhs and poses. Then had we none but rere-
dosses; and our heads did neuer ake. For as the smoke in those
daies was supposed to be a sufficient hardning for the timber of the
house, so it was reputed a far better medicine to keepe the good-
man and his familie from the quacke or pose, wherewith, as then,
verie few were oft acquainted.”
—when he describes the beauty, virtue, learning, and housewifery, of
Queen Elizabeth's Maids of Honour, p. 271, he yet acknowledges
that as the men
“our common courtiers (for the most part) are the best lerned
and indued with excellent gifts, so are manie of them the worst
men, when they come abroad, that anie man shall either heare or
read of.”
Even the Papist Monks,” whom—as a marrid Protestant parson
and vicar, he hates, he praises for their buildings, p. 261. And
when he does abuse or chaff heartily any absurdity, like Englishmen's
dress, “except it were a dog in a doublet, you shall not see anie
so disguised as are my countrie men of England,” p. 168,-we may
1 Still you get his side-note—I suppose ’tis his—at p. 254 below, on the re-
port of two old British books being found in a stone wall at Verolamium, “This
soundeth like a lie.” Other bits of wholesome doubt turn up elsewhere.
2 The Thames “hieth to Sudlington, otherwise called Maidenhead, and so to
Windleshore (or Windsore), Eaton, and then to Chertseie. . . From Chertseie it
hasteth directlie vnto Stanes, and receiuing an other streame by the waie, called
the Cole (wherevpon Colbrooke standeth) it goeth by Kingstone, Shene, Sion, and
Brentford or Bregentford” . . . Bk I, p. 46, col. 1, 1.30, vol. i., folio ed. I587.
3 Still, I find it very hard that he spoke so harshly of Andrew Boorde,
p. 168.
§ 2. HARRIson's DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. ix
be sure it was deservd; Shakspere does it too! (Merchant, I. ii. 8o;
Much Ado, III. ii. 36, &c.). #
Harrison's book will inform and amuse the reader, but the
padding from old histories, &c., may well be skipt.
Besides writing the Descriptions of Britaine and England for
Holinshed's Chronicle, William Harrison also translated for it, from
Scotch into English, Archdeacon Bellenden's version of Hector
Boetius's Latin Description of Scotland. This work took him only
‘three or foure daies’ he says: “Indeed, the trauell taken heerein
is not great, bicause I tie not my translation vnto his [Bellenden's]
letter.” Harrison dedicated this translation—the ZXescription of
Scotland—to the Maister Sackford or Secſord, whose “cards,’ charts,
or Maps, had been of such use to him in his account of the English
rivers in his Description of Britaine:—
To the Right worshipfull Maister Thomas Secſord Esquire and
Maister of the Requests, William Harison wisheth all know-
ledge of God, with dailie increase of his gifts at this present,
and in the world to come, life everlasting.
Having by your singular curtesie receiued great help in my de-
scription of the riuers & streames of Britaine, and by conference of
my trauell with the platforms of those few shires of England which
are, by your infinite charges, alreadie finished (as the rest shall be
in time by God's helpe, for the inestimable benefit of such as inhabit
this Iland) not a little polished those rough courses of diuers waters
not exactly before time described by Leland our countrieman, or
any ancient writer, I could not deuise any thing more agreeable with
mine abilitie and your good nature (which greatlie fauoureth any
thing that is doone for a commoditie vnto many), than to shew
some token of my thankefulnesse for these your manifold kind-
nesses, by the dedication of my simple translation of ‘the de-
scription of Scotland' at this time vnto your worship.
Indeed the trauell taken heerein is not great, bicause I tie not
my translation vnto his letter, neither the treatise of it selfe such, as
taketh vp any huge roome in the volume of this chronicle. But
such as it is, and whatsoeuer it is, I yeeld it wholie vnto you, as a
testimonie of my good will, which detesteth vtterlie to receiue any
benefit, though it be neuer so small, and not to be thankfull for it.
Certes my vocation is such, as calleth me to a farre other kind of
studie, so that I exercise these things onlie for recreation sake; &
to saie the truth, it is much vnfitting for him that professeth
1 Harrison doesn’t scold the women for painting their faces and wearing false
hair, in the persistent way that Shakspere does. These two bits of falseness (in
town women only?) evidently made a great impression on the country-bred Shak-
spere's mind. Stubbes complaind bitterly of them too.
X § 2. HARRIson's DESCRIPTION OF SCOTLAND. § 3.
Diuinitie, to applie his time any otherwise vnto contemplation of
ciuill histories. And this is the cause wherfore I haue chosen
rather, onlie with the losse of three or four daies, to translate
Aector out of the Scotish (a toong verie like vnto ours), than with
more expense of time to deuise a new, or follow the Latine copie,
which is far more large and copious. How excellentlie, if you con-
sider the art, Boetius hath penned it, and the rest of his historie ini
Latine, the skilfull are not ignorant: but how profitablie and com-
pendiouslie John Bellenden, archdeacon of Murrey, his interpreter,
hath turned him from the Latine into the Scotish toong, there are
verie few Englishmen that know, bicause we want the books.
Wherefore, sith the learned read him in his owne stile, and his
countrimen in their naturall language, why should not we borow his
description, and read the same in English likewise, sith the know-
ledge therof may redound to the great benefit of so manie as read
or hear the same? Accept therefore (right worshipfull) this my
simple offer, and although I assure my selfe, your naturall inclination
to be such, as that it will take nothing in ill part that is well meant
toward you, how rudelie soeuer it be handled in the doing, yet I
will not let to Craue pardon for my presumption, in that I dare
be so bold as to offer such a triffle to you, whom more weightie
affaires doo dailie Call from things of so small importance. Al-
mightie God keepe your worship from time to time in his feare, and
blesse you, and my good ladie your wife, with such increase of his
benefits, as may most redound to his glorie, & your own advantage.
The title is as follows:—
The Description of Scotland, written at the first by Hector
Boetius in Latine, and afterward translated into the Scotish speech
by John Bellenden Archdeacon of Murrey, and now finallie into Eng-
lish by R. H.”
§ 3. Happily for us, William Harrison was not one of those digni-
fied prigs who are afraid of writing about themselves in their books. He
tells us that he was born in London * (p. vi above, xxxiii below, &c.;
“I will remember the fame of London my natiue citie,” p. 65-6).4
1 in the : 1577 ed.
* A mistake for W. H. Raphael Holinshed compiled the History of Scotland.
* “Before the earliest date of Parish Registers (1538). I have all the Mar-
riage Licences issued by the Bishop of London, beginning as early as 1521 ; but
they do not include that of Harrison's father.”—J. L. CHESTER.
* As Harrison left by his will 20s. to the poor of St Thomas the Apostle in
London, Col. Chester thinks he may have been born in that parish.
P.S. Aug. 31. I've just found in Harrison’s MS. Chronologie, under I534,
“The Author of this boke is borne, vpon ye 18 of Aprill, hora II, minut 4,
Secunde 56, at London, in Cordwainer streete, otherwise called bowe lane in ye
ſcrosst thro’: house next to ye holly lambe towards chepeside, & in yºl parish of
St Thomas the Apostle.”
§ 3. HARRISON AT SCHOOL AND College. xi
Also (p. li.) that he was first at St Paul's school, and then (p. 83,)
at “Westminster' school (in which I was sometime an vnprofitable
Grammarian vnder the reuerend father, master Nowell, now deane
of Paules).” And again at p. 68, of the Deans of the see of
London (or St Paul’s), “I will deliuer in like sort the names of
the deanes, vntill I come to the time of mine old master now liuing
in this present yeare 1586, who is none of the least ornaments” that
haue beene in that seat.” He was at both universities.” When
Speaking of Cambridge and Oxford, he says, p. 75-6–
“In all other things there is so great equalitie betweene these
two vniuersities, as no man can imagin how to set downe any
greater; so that they seeme to be the bodie of one well ordered
common wealth, onlie diuided by distance of place, and not in
1 Dr Scott, the present Head-Master, tells me that the early registers are not.
“My dear Sir, –I regret to say that no early records of Westminster School are
known to be in existence anywhere, except the names of those admitted to the
Foundation, and even these merely from an old ‘Buttery Book” in the earliest
times, to which Noel belongs; only those who were elected to Ch. Ch. or
Trinity are recorded. There is no trace of such a name as Harrison. I have
done my best to hunt up old records, but with very small result.—Faithfully
yours, CHAs. B. Scott.” *
Aſter Harrison's days, Dean Goodman gave the School for a time a Sanatorium
at Chiswick:—“Cheswicke, H. 14, belonging to a prebend of Paules now in the
handes of Doctor Goodman, Deane of Westminster, where he hath a faire house,
whereunto (in the time of any common plague or sicknes, as also to take the
aire), he withdraweth the schollers of the colledge of Westminster.” 1596. Jn.
Norden's Discription of Middlesex, p. 17, ed. I723.
* Alexander Nowell was one of the most famous divines of the Reformation.
Born in Lancashire about 1507, he got a fellowship at Brasenose in 1540 ; in 1543
became second master of Westminster School ; and in 1551 Prebendary of West-
minster. He was elected M. P. for Looe in Cornwall, in the first Parliament of
Queen Mary, but his election was voided because he was a Church dignitary.
He then went to Strassburg; returnd on the accession of Elizabeth, and was
made Dean of St Paul’s in 1560. He publisht his celebrated Larger Catechism,
and an abridgment of it, both in Latin, in 1570 ; and is supposd to have written
the greater part of the Church-of-England Catechism. He was elected Master
of Brasenose in 1595, and died 13 Feb. 1601-2.—Cooper.
* Cooper, in his Athenae Cantabrigienses, says of Harrison, “He was a mem-
ber of this university [Cambridge] in 1551, and afterwards studied at Oxford. We
are unable to ascertain his house at either university.” P Merton, Oxf, see p. xvi.
(There's no Merton Admission book so early as Harrison's time, the Bursar says.)
Cooper's authorities for his article on Harrison in Ath. Cant, are, ‘Tanner's
Bibl. Brit. 381. Wood's Ath. Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 537. MS. Richardson [Cambr.
Registry], 39. Newcourt's Repert. ii. 479, 674. Churton's Nowell, 9. Nicol-
son's Engl. Hist. Lib, 3, 58. Nicolson's Scotch Hist. Lib. 4, 82. Restituta, ii.
242. Cooper's Annals of Cambr. ii. 349. Ashmole's Berks. iii. 263. Gough's
Brit. Topogr. i. 5, 24, 25; ii. 563.”
xii § 3. HARRIS ON AT college, AND A PARson.
freendlie consent and orders. In speaking therefore of the one, I
can not but describe the other; and in commendation of the first, I
can not but extoll the latter; and so much the rather, for that they
are both so deere vnto me, as that I can not readilie tell vnto
whether of them I owe the most good will. Would to God my
knowledge were such, as that neither of them might haue cause to be
ashamed of their pupill; or my power so great, that I might
woorthilie requite them both for those manifold kindnesses that I
haue receiued of them.”!
He must have graduated at Oxford first, for in 1569 he proceeded
to the degree of Bachelor of Divinity at Cambridge under a grace?
which calls him M.A. of Oxford of seven years' standing.” He was
before this, Household Chaplain to Sir Wm. Brooke, Lord Cobham,
to whom he dedicated, as we have seen, his Description of England,
and who gave him the Rectory of Radwinter in Essex,4 to which he
was inducted on Feb. 16, 1558-9, and which he held till his death.
On Jan. 28, 1570-1, he became a pluralist,” and obtaind the vicar-
age of Wimbish in Essex,” but resignd it in 1581, his successor
* He us’d his eyes too at both places, and at school; for he says of the build-
ings: “The common schooles of Cambridge also are farre more beautifull than
those of Oxford, onelie the diuinitie schoole at Oxford excepted, which for fine
and excellent workemanship, commeth next the moold of the kings chappell in
Cambridge, than the which two, with the chappell that king Henrie the seauenth
did build at Westminster, there are not (in mine opinion) made of lime & stone
three more notable piles within the compasse of Europe.”
* Mr Luard of Trinity, the Registrar of the University, has kindly copied the
grace for me —“I569. Grace Book A, fol. 97 & : Conceditur Io Junii magistro
Willelmo Harryson ut studium 7 annorum in Theologia postguam rexerit in
artibus Oxoniae cum oppositionibus etc. perficiendis etc. sub poena x librarum
ponendarum etc. sufficiat ei tam ad opponendum quam ad intrandum in sacra
Theologia, praesentatus per D. Longeworth” et admissus 17 Junii.”
* Wood's Ath. Ox., ed. Bliss., i. col. 537; Cooper's Ath. Cant. ii. 164.
* The Manor and advowson of Great Radwinter had been part of the property
of the Cobham family since 1433, if not before. (See Wright's Hist, of Essex, II.
92; Morant’s do., II, 535.)
* See his defence of pluralism, p. 21-2. It was vehemently condemnd by
most of his contemporaries.
° The Vicarage of Wimbish not being a “competent maintenance,” and the
adjoining vicarage of 7%underley being so small that no one would accept of it,
Dr Kemp, Bishop of London in 1425, united the two. The presentation to
these incorporated vicarages was made alternate in the Rector of Wimbish (it is
a sinecure rectory) and the Priory of Hatfield Regis (who had the great tithes
and advowson of Thunderley). In 1547, Ed. VI. granted this Priory's advowson
or right of presenting alternately to Wimbish, to Ed. Waldgrave, Esq.; and it
passed on in private hands, so that from 1567 to 1599 it belonged to Francis de
* Master of St John's.
§ 3. HARRIson's MARRIAGE, AND GARDEN. xiii
being appointed on the 16th of November in that year. Between
1559 and 1571 he must have marrid Marion Isebrande, “daughter to
William Isebrande and Ann his wife, sometyme of Anderne, neere
wnto Guisnes in Picardie, and whome” (he says in his Will, referring
no doubt to the sometimes suppos'd unlawfulness of priests' mar-
riages), “by the lawes of god I take and repute in all respectes for
my true and lawfull wife.” By her he left issue,” one son Edmund,
and two daughters, one, Anne, unmarried, and another the wife of
Robert Baker. He tells us on p. 158 how his wife and her maid
brewd him 200 gallons of beer for 20s., as he was ‘scarse a good
malster’ himself, p. 155, and a poor man on 24, 40 a year, p. 159.
And no doubt his kindly “Eve will be Eve, tho’ Adam would saie
naie,” p. 34, tho' said of widows, showd that he understood the
sex, was ‘to their faults a little blind, and to their virtues very kind'
—or however the old saw runs. At Radwinter he must have workt
away at his Chronologie, p. 357 ; collected his Roman coins (p. 356),
got savage with the rascally Essex lawyers (p. 206-7), attended to
his garden,
“For mine owne part, good reader, let me boast a little of my
garden, which is but small, and the whole Area thereof little aboue
3oo foot of ground, and yet, such hath beene my good lucke in
purchase of the varietie of simples, that notwithstanding my small
abilitie, there are verie neere three hundred” of one sort and other
la Wood, who thus, it would seem, must have been the patron who presented
William Harrison. See Morant's Hist. of Essex, pp. 560, 561.
By the Valor Ecclesiasticus of Hen. VIII. the clear yearly value of Wimbish
Vicarage was £8; tithes 16s. That of Radwinter Rectory 4, 2I I Is. 4d. ; tithes
42 3s. 2.Éd. Some of the parson of Radwinter's tithes were made up thus:
“to the parson of Radwynter forseid' for the yerely tythes of the said maner
[Bendish Hall, in the parish of Radwinter], one acre of whete in harvest price
x s, one acre of otes price v s iiijd, a lambe price viijd, a pigg, price iiijd, and
in money iijs iiijd.”—Valor Æccl. Vol. I. p. 85, col. 2. -
* I assume that Harrison had once, more children, whom he floggd occasion-
ally. When speaking of mastiffs in Bk. 3, chap. 7, p. 23.I, Col. I, l. 60, ed.
1587, he says, “I had one my selfe once, which would not suffer anie man to
bring in his weapon further than my gate, neither those that were of my house,
to be touched in his presence. Or if I had beaten anie of my children, he would
gentlie haue assaied to catch the rod in his teeth, and take it out of my hand, or
else pluck downe their clothes to saue them from the stripes : which in my opinion
is not vnworthie to be noted. And thus much of our mastiffes, creatures of no
lesse faith and loue towards their maisters than horses.” Still, girls were floggd
in Elizabeth's days, no doubt (compare Lady Jane Grey's case, in Ascham), as
well as a hundred years before. See how Agnes Paston beat her daughter
Elizabeth in 1449, Paston Zetters, ed. Gairdner, vol. i, Introd., p. cxvi.
* Gerard had above a thousand :--
xiv $ 3. HARRIson, CANON OF WINDSOR. § 4. HIS WILL.
conteined therein, no one of them being common or vsuallie to bee
had,” p. 33 I-2, dº
kept his eyes open to everything going on round him, and lookt
after his parishioners, when he wasn't writing his Description of Eng-
land in London, or visiting at Lord Cobham's house in Kent.
On April 23, 1586, William Harrison was appointed Canon of
Windsor, and was installd the day after. The Dean has kindly sent
me the following extract from the Chapter Book, St George's
Chapel, Windsor:—
Anni Canonici Anni
Install, obitus
1586. Gulielmus Harrison 24° Aprilis, loco Ryley, The- 1593.
ologiae Baccalaureus. Obijt, et Sepultus est Wind-
soriae, et White Successit.—Rector fuit de Radwinter.l.
but says there is no grave-stone or other notice of where Harrison
was buried.” (I can't get a line from the now rector of Radwinter.)
§ 4. For the following abstract of Harrison's Will, I am in-
debted to Colonel Chester:-
(81 Nevell.) “William Harrison, Clerk, parson of Radwinter and
Prebendary of Windsor—dated at Radwinter 27 July 1591—to be
buried at Radwinter or Windsor, as I may die at either place. My
goods to be divided into 4 equal parts ‘of which one parte and an
“Gerard’s Catalogue of his Garden.—A reprint of ‘the first professedly com-
plete catalogue of any one garden, either public or private, ever published” cer-
tainly deserves putting on record here. Gerard’s Herball is by no means a rare
book; but the Catalogus arborum fruticum ac plantarum tam indigenarum quam
exoticarum in horio Johannis Gerardi civis et chirurgi Zondimensis nascentium is
exceedingly rare. This reprint, therefore, which we owe to the liberality of Mr
B. Daydon Jackson, will be extremely welcome to all interested in the early
introduction of exotic plants. The reprint consists of a limited number of copies
for private circulation only. Without being an absolute fac-simile it is almost an
exact reproduction of the original, the first edition of which was published in
1596. A second edition appeared in 1599, which Mr Jackson also reprints, to-
gether with some of his own remarks and notes on the Herball, and a Life of
Gerard. But what will be found especially useful is the list of modern names
affixed to the old ones. Gerard’s physic garden was in Holborn, and included
upwards of a thousand different kinds of plants. . . . There are several other lists
of this kind we should be glad to see reprinted—Tradescant's, among others, as
the younger Tradescant made a voyage to Virginia and introduced many American
trees.”—Academy, July 1876.
1 (Note by the late Dr Goodall): Erat quidem Gulielmus Harrison Socius
Etonensis Mar. 3. 1592, Vice praepositus Collegii et Rector de Everdon in Co-
mitatu Northampt. Utille mortuus est Etonae, et ibidem Sepultus Dec. 27, 1611.
. . * Mr J. Higgs of Sheet Street, Windsor, has kindly searcht the parish
Register of Burials, which dates from 1564, but he finds no entry of Canon Har-
rison's burial.
§ 4. HARRIson's wiLL. § 5. HIS OPINIONS. XV
‘halfe shall remaine vnto Marion Harrison alias Marion Isebrande
‘and the daughter of William Isebrande sometyme of Anderne,
“whome by the lawe of god, I take for my true and lawfull wife;’”
another part and a half equally to my son Edmund and my daughter
Anne—my son in Haw Robert Baker and his wife I remember not in
this my will, as I have already given them their portion; to the
quire in Windsor 40s. ; to the poor of Radwinter 4os.; to the poor
children of the hospital at London 20s. ; to the poor of St Thomas
Apostle in London 20s. ; to each child of my son Baker Ios.; to
each child of my cousin Morecroft, Clerk 5s.-‘I make & ordayne
‘the sayed Marion Isebrande alias Marion Harrison, daughter to
‘William Isebrande and Ann his wife, sometyme of Anderne neere
‘vnto Guisnes in Picardie, and whome by the lawes of god I take and
“repute in all respectes for my true and lawfull wife,’ and my son
Edmund Harrison, my Executors.-Witnesses, Mr Wm. Birde, Esq.,
Thos. Smith, yeoman ; Lancelott Ellis, vicar of Wimbishe; & Thos.
Hartlie the writer hereof.”
The Will was proved on 22 Nov. 1593, by the said Edmund
Harrison, son and executor named therein, the relict and executrix .
Marion, being dead.
Letters of administration to the goods, &c., of Marion Harrison,
late of New Windsor, in the county of Berks, were granted on 12
Dec. 1593 to her son Edmund Harrison
§ 5. William Harrison had opinions of his own about public and
social matters in his day, and also had often racy ways of expressing
those opinions. I’ll extract some —In Chap. 1, he calls Becket “the
old cocke of Canturburie” (p. 9, 1.4 from foot); notes how the Con-
ferences of clergy and laity stirrd the parsons “to applie their books
. . . which otherwise . . would giue themselues to hawking, hunting,
tables, cards, dice, tipling at the alehouse, shooting of matches, and
other like vanities” (p. 18, at foot); he complains of the subsidies
and taxes that the clergy are made to pay, “as if the church were
now become the asse whereon euerie market man is to ride and cast
his wallet” (p. 25, at foot); also of “the couetousnesse of the
patrones, of whom some doo bestow aduousons of benefices vpon
their bakers, butlers, cookes, good archers, falconers, and horse-
keepers” (p. 26, at foot), while others “doo scrape the wool from
our clokes” (p. 34); he notes how Popish “images... and monuments
of idolatrie are remooued' from the churches, “onelie the stories in
glasse windowes excepted,” which are let stay for a while, from the
scarcity and cost of white glass (p. 31-2); he 'd like to get rid of
* See his defence of priests leaving “their substances to their wives and
children,” in his Description, p. 33-4 below.
xvi § 5. HARRISON's SAYINGS IN HIS ENGLAND.
Saints' Days (p. 32); he commends the decent apparel of the Pro-
testant parsons, as contrasted with that of the Popish blind sir-
Johns, who went “either in diuerse colors like plaiers, or in gar-
ments of light hew, as yellow, red,” greene, &c., with their shooes
piked,” . . . so that to meet a priest in those daies was to behold a
peacocke that spreadeth his taile when he danseth before the henne”
(p. 33); and then he denounces the cheating at elections for College
fellowships, scholarships (p. 35, 77).
Ch. 2. On p. 43 Harrison says that he had for a time the
“collection’ (of MSS., maps, &c.) of “William Read,” sometime fel-
low of Merteine college in Oxford, doctor of diuinitie, and the most
profound astronomer that liued in his time.” He has a cut, on p.
48, at the Popes' nephews—“for nephues might say in those daies :
Father, shall I call you vncle?”—says, on p. 55, that he knew one of
the Norwich-diocese churches turnd “into a barne, whilest the
people heare seruice further off vpon a greene: their bell also, when
I heard a sermon there preached in the greene, hanged in an oke
for want of a steeple. But now I vnderstand that the oke likewise
is gone.” On p. 63, after saying what England in old time paid the
Pope, he asks, “and therevpon tell me whether our Iland was one
of the best paire of bellowes or not, that blue the fire in his kitchen,
wherewith to make his pot seeth, beside all other commodities.”
In describing the Universities in Chapter 3 (see p. xi above),
Harrison dwells again (p. 77, and 35) on the packing and bribing
1 Compare the smart red dress with blue hood and long blue liripipe from it,
of the Nun’s Priest, in the colourd illumination of the Ellesmere MS. given in
my Six-Text Canterbury Tales.
2 Proude preestes coome with hym, Mo than a thousand,
In paltokes and Ayked shoes, And pisseris longe knyves,
Vision of Piers Plowman, Pass. xx. 1, 14360, ii. 438, ed. Wright.
3 William Rede or Reade, made Bp. of Chichester 1369, died 1385, “is said
to have been a native of Devonshire, and to have received his early education in
Exeter Coll. Oxford, from whence he removed to Merton, having been elected a
fellow. He soon discovered a singular genius for the sciences, as they were then
known and practised, and excelled in geography, astronomy, and architecture.
About the year 1349, he gave a design for a library at Merton College, and
superintended the building, which is very spacious, if considered as a repository
of MSS. only. . . . . He contributed greatly to furnishing the library with
valuable MSS., adding his own, which consisted of several scientific treatises,
astronomical tables, and maps.”
“He was a great encourager of learning, particularly by procuring many rare
MSS. from the continent, which were transcribed at his expense.” He built
Amberley Castle, an episcopal residence for Chichester.—Dallaway's History of
the Western Division of the County of Sussex, 1832, Vol I. pp. 54, 55.
$ 5. HARRIson on THE UNIVERSITIES, JURIES, &c. xvii
*
practist at elections for fellowships and scholarships, and how ‘poore
mens children are commonlie shut out by the rich,' whose sons
“ruffle and roist it out, exceeding in apparell, and hanting riotous
companie (which draweth them from their bookes' vnto an other
trade),” p. 77-8. He also complains of the late-nam'd “idle fellow-
ships” that are still a disgrace to our Universities, tho’ now their
holders don't work for “eighteene or peraduenture twenty yeeres,”
“For after this time, & 40 yeeres of age, the most part of students
doo commonlie giue ouer their woonted diligence, & liue like drone
bees on the fat of colleges, withholding better wits from the posses-
sion of their places, & yet dooing litle good in their own vocation
& calling,” p. 8o.
And he repeats, in milder words, Ascham’s” caution against
sending young men to Italy, for ‘an Italianate Englishman is a
devil incarnate,’ as the Italians themselves said.” “And thus much
at this time of our two vniuersities, in each of which I haue receiued
such degree as they have vouchsafed, rather of their fauour than my
desert, to yeeld and bestow vpon me.” (p. xii and vi above).
Chapter 4, of the Partition of England into Shires, is dull; but
there are interesting bits on Harrison's determination to say only
what he knows (p. 9o, 94, 95), and about the inquests or juries being
nearly starvd, thro’ the stronger side packing, or getting some parti-
sans into, the quest (p. IoI-2); about the nuisance of the great
increase of lawyers (p. Io2 : see too p. 131, 204-7); ‘the burning
of vagabounds through their eare’ (p. Io9), and the absurd custom
at the Court Baron of Raleigh * (p. Ioa). On p. 105 too we get
* Cambridge studies. I516, Aug. 31. Er. Ep. II. IO. Erasmus to Bovill.
Thirty years ago, nothing was taught at Cambridge except Alexander's Aarza Zogi-
calia, some scraps from Aristotle, and the Quastiones of Duns Scotus. In process
of time improved studies were added; mathematics, a new Aristotle, a knowledge
of Greek letters. What has been the consequence? The University can now
hold its head with the highest, and has excellent theologians. Of course they must
now study the New Testament with greater attention, and not waste their time,
as heretofore, in frivolous quibbles.—Brewer’s Calendar of Æen. PIZZ's Zime,
vol. II. pt. i. p. 716.
* As a usually accurate friend of mine always calls this name ‘Asham,” I note
that it's often spelt ‘Askham’ in old writers.
* On pages 129-30, Harrison repeats his warning in stronger terms, “This
neuerthelesse is generallie to be reprehended in all estates of gentilitie, and which
in short time will turne to the great ruine of our countrie, and that is the vsuall
sending of noblemens & meane gentlemens sonnes into Italie, from whence they
bring home nothing but meere atheisme, infidelitie, vicious conuersation, & am-
bitious and proud behauiour, wherby it commeth to passe that they returne far
worsse men than they went out.” See the sequel. * Not Rabeigh as in text.
HARRISON. b
xviii ş 5. HARRIs on on MIDDLEMEN, GLAss, BEER, win E, &c.
the welcome notice “of my freend W. Cambden" whose Britannia
was soon to be publisht, and appeard in 1586.
Of Chapter 5 the most interesting parts to me * are those on the
evil of sending young Englishmen to Italy (p. 129-3o: see note 3, p.
xvii overleaf); the anticipation of the modern J. S. Mill & Coöperative
doctrine of the evil of too many middlemen in trade (p. 131 : the
argument will cover distributors as well as importers, tho' it's made
clearer on p. 3oo), and lawyers in business; the improvement in the
condition of yeomen (p. 133); the often complaind-of evil” of “our
great swarmes of idle seruing men” (p. 134 and 230); and our
husbandmen and artificers never being better tradesmen, tho’ they
sometimes scamp their work (p. 136).
Chapter 6, ‘of the Food and Diet of the English,” is very
interesting, with its accounts of the dinners of the nobility “whose
cookes are, for the most part, musicall-headed Frenchmen and
strangers” (p. 144), and who eat “delicates wherein the sweette
hand of the seafaring Portingale is not wanting” (p. 145). Then
p. 147 notices the rage for Venice glass among all classes—as
Falstaff says, A.D. 1598, in 2 Hen. ZV., II. i. 154, “ Glasses,
glasses, is the only drinking.”—This is followd by capital accounts
of the diet of the gentlemen and merchants (p. 148), and the arti-
ficers (p. 150); the bread" (153), and drink (155), of all classes; and
how Mrs Wm. Harrison brewd the family beer (158-160), “and
hereof we make three hoggesheads of good beere, such (I meane)
as is meet for poore men as I am, to liue withall, whose small main-
tenance (for what great thing is fortie pounds a yeare, Computatis com-
fufandis, able to performe?) may indure no deeper cut,” p. 159 ;- .
with touches like Theologicum being the best wine of old, because
“ the merchant would haue thought that his soule should have
gone streightwaie to the diuell, if he should haue serued them
[the monks] with other than the best,” p. 149-15o ; and this kindly
* Note an addition while Harrison's book was going thro' the press: the top
sidenote on p. I 12. There’s a cut at Dissenters, ‘the lewd religious sort,” on p.
II 7. w
* See Sir T. More's Utopia, ‘a huge number of idle fellows, who never
learned any art by which they may gain their living,’ &c.
* On the finest kind of bread, manchet, note that Queen Elizabeth's was made
from Heston wheat, Middlesex :—
“Aeston, H. Io, a most fertyle place of wheate, yet not so much to be com-
mended for the quantitie, as for the qualitie, for the wheat is most pure, accompted
the purest in manie shires. And therefore Queene ELIZABETH hath the most
part of her provision from that place for manchet for her Highnes own diet, as is
reported.”—1596. Jn. Norden, Discription of Middlesex, p. 25, ed. I723.
§ 5. HARRison on workING-MEN, BEARDs, LAwYERs, &c. xix
opinion of working-men, for which one can't help liking the old
parson':-
“To conclude, both the artificer and the husbandman are suffi-
cientlie liberall, & verie freendlie at their tables; and when they
meet, they are so merie without malice, and plaine without inward
Italian or French craft and subtiltie, that it would doo a man
good to be in companie among them. . . This is moreouer to be
added in these meetings, that if they happen to stumble vpon a
peece of venison, and a cup of wine or verie strong beere or ale . . .
they thinke their cheere so great, and themselues to haue fared so
well, as the lord Maior of London, with whome, when their bellies
be full, they will not often sticke to make comparison, because
that of a subject there is no publike officer of anie citie in Europe,
that may compare in port and countenance with him during the time
of his office.” p. 151 (see 152-3 too).
Chapter 7 is the amusing one on the “Apparell and Atire’ of
English folk already referrd to (p. xvi above); and though it's not so
bitter as Stubbes's or Crowley's, yet it's fun, with its ‘dog in a
doublet,” p. 168, and its beard bit, p. 169, if a man “be wesell
becked [beakt], then much heare left on the cheekes will make the
owner looke big like a bowdled hen, and so grim as a goose, if Cor-
nelis of Chelmeresford saie true.”
In Chapter 8, on the Parliament, the only personal bit is Har-
rison's saying that he copies from Sir Thomas Smith,” “requiting
him with the like borrowage as he hath vsed toward me in his dis-
course of the sundrie degrees of estates in the common-wealth of
England” (p. 176). But in Chap. 9, ‘Of the Laws of England,' after
a dull account of the Trial by Ordeal, &c., we get Harrison breaking
out again against the Lawyers, their prosperity and rascality, and taking
fees (as barristers often do still) and doing nothing for 'em (p. 204-7,
with a good bit about Welshmen's love of law-suits on p. 206). On
p. 207 we find a pleasant notice of John Stow, the hard-working
chronicler so shamefully neglected in his own age : “my freend
John Stow, whose studie is the onelie store house of antiquities in
* But he speaks, at p. 69, “of the common sort, whose mouthes are alwaies
wide open vnto reprehension, and eies readie to espie anie thing that they may
reprooue and carpe at.” Still, Harrison took more kindly to the common sort
than Shakspere did in his plays. -
* De Republica Anglorum. The maner of Gouernement or policie of the
Realme of England, compiled by the Honorable Sir Thomas Smyth, Knight,
Doctor of both the lawes, and one of the principal Secretaries vnto the two
most worthy Princes, King Edward the sixt, and Queen Elizabeth . . . London . .
I584 (some copies 1583). A posthumous publication.—Hazlitt.
XX § 5. HARRIS ON ON MALTHUSIANS, BEGGARS, &c.
my time, and he worthie therefore to be had in reputation and
honour.” -
Chapter Io, ‘Of Prouision made for the Poore, notes the weekly
collection made in every parish for the deserving poor (p. 214), and
gives Harrison's opinion on the Malthusians of his day:-
“Some also doo grudge at the great increase of people in these
daies, thinking a necessarie brood of cattell farre better than a super-
fluous augmentation of mankind. But I can liken such men best of
all vinto the pope and the diuell, who practise the hinderance of the
furniture of the number of the elect to their vttermost, to the end
the authoritie of the one upon earth, the deferring of the locking vp
of the other in euerlasting chaines, and the great gaines of the first, may
continue and indure the longer. But if it should come to passe
that any forren inuasion should be made, which the Lord God forbid
for his mercies sake —then should these men find that a wall of
men is farre better than stackes of Corne and bags of monie, and
complaine of the want when it is too late to seeke remedie.”
p. 215-16. -
The sham beggars,” he says, “are all theeues and caterpillers in
the commonwealth, and by the word of God not permitted to eat”
(p. 217). Then he makes extracts from Hârman about the rogues
(p. 218), among whom, by statute, are ‘plaiers and minstrels'
(p. 220).
In Chapter 11, on the ‘Punishments appointed for Malefactors,'
our author notes that “our condemned persons doo go . . cheer-
fullie to their deths, for our nation is free, stout, hautie, prodigall of
1 Here are two of -
Mr Halliwell's rejected € ſinſ, softe
cuts of beggars, copi’d % gº)
from engravings of
about º: Ap." * -- *
Other earlier and jºº
rougher cuts of rogues
are in the edition of
Awdeley and Harman
on Vagabonds, by Mr
Wiles and myself for
the Early English Text
Society's Extra Series
in 1869. Harman livd
in Kent, and his book
is very curious.

§ 5. HARRison on for Nicators, BUILDINGs, CHIMNEYs, &c. xxi
life and bloud” (p. 221); that the punishment for ‘robbing by the
high waie’ (like Sir John Falstaff's), ‘cutting of purses,’ ‘stealing of
deere by night' (like Shakspere's, if he ever stole deer from Sir
Thos. Lucy, who had no park in his time), was death (p. 224); and
that the punishment for adultery and fornication was not sharp
enough :—
“As in theft therfore, so in adulterie and whoredome, I would
wish the parties trespassant, to be made bond or slaues vnto those
that receiued the iniurie, to sell and giue where they listed, or to
be condemned to the gallies : for that punishment would proue more
bitter to them than halfe an houres hanging, or than standing in a
sheet, though the weather be neuer so cold" (p. 226).
On p. 230 he complains of the robberies by unthrift young
gentlemen, and “seruing-men whose wages cannot suffice so much
as to find them breeches; ” and on p. 232 that selfish men, and
even constables, in the country, won't leave their work to follow up
thieves and take them to prison': this “I haue knowne by mine
owne experience.”
Chapter 12, ‘Of the manner of Building and Furniture of our
Houses,’ is perhaps the best, and the best-known, in the book. It
describes how English houses were built, and notes these new
things, 1. that rich men were beginning to use stoves for sweating
baths (p. 235); while, 2. all men were using glass for windows; 3.
that timber-houses were giving way to brick and stone; and that
though our workmen were excellent, their demands for high wages
often causd strangers to be employd in building (p. 238); 4. the
increast richness of furniture, not only in rich men's houses, but in
those of ‘the inferiour artificers and manie farmers,’ who “now gar-
nish their cupbords with plate, their ioined beds with tapistrie and
silke hangings, and their tables with Carpets & fine naperie, whereby
the wealth of our countrie . . . dooth infinitelie appeare’’ (p. 239);
[5] “the multitude of chimnies latelie erected;” [6.] “the great
(although not generall) amendment of lodging, for (said they) our
fathers (yea, and we our sellies also) haue lien full oft vpon
straw pallets, on rough mats Couered Onelie with a sheet, vnder
Couerlets made of dagswain or hopharlots (I vse their owne termes,)
and a good round log vnder their heads in steed of a bolster or
pillow. . . . Pillowes (said they) were thought meet onelie for
women in childbed. As for Seruants, if they had anie sheet aboue
them, it was well, for seldome had they anie vnder their bodies,
* Did Shakspere ever turn out and chevy a Stratford thief, I wonder? He
must have been able to hit and hold hard.
xxii $ 5. HARRISON ON THE CHANGES IN HIs DAY.
to keepe, them from the pricking straws that ran of through the
canuas of the pallet, and rased their hardened hides.” . . [7]. “The
exchange of vessell, as of treene' platters into pewter, and woodden
spoones into siluer or tin. For so common were all sorts of
treene stuffe in old time, that a man should hardlie find four
peeces of pewter (of which one was peraduenture a salt) in a good
farmers house, and yet for all this frugalitie, (if it may so be iustly
called) they were scarse able to Iiue and paie their rents at their
daies without selling of a cow, or an horsse, or more, although
they paid but foure pounds at the vttermost by the yeare.”
The farmer was very poor too; and yet now, though his #24 rent
is raised to sé40, he can not only buy plate, and featherbeds, &c.,
but can purchase a renewal of his lease, 6 years before the expir-
ation of the old one; and the paying the money “shall neuer trouble
him more than the haire of his beard, when the barber hath washed
and shaued it from his chim” (p. 24r). Against these signs of pros-
perity, these fat kine, are 3, nay 4, lean kine, which eat up their
plump brethren (p. 241-2),
“three things . . are growen to be verie grieuotis writo them,
to wit, the inhamsing of rents, latelie mentioned; the dailie oppres-
sion of copiholders, whose lords seeke to bring their poore
tenants almost into plaine seruitude and miserie, dailie deuising
new meanes, and seeking vp all the old, how to cut them shorter
and shorter, doubling, trebling, and now & then seuen times
increasing their fines; driuing them also for euerie trifle to
loose and forfeit their tenures, (by whome the greatest part of the
realme dooth stand and is mainteined,) to the end they may fleece
them yet more, which is a lamentable hering. The third thing they
talke of is vsurie, a trade brought in by the Jewes, now perfectlie
practised almost by euerie christian, and so commonlie, that he is
accompted but for a foole that dooth lend his monie for nothing.”
Interest has run up to 12 per cent. ; wherefore, “helpe I praie thee
in lawfull maner to hang vp such as take Centum pro cento, for they
are no better worthie as I doo iudge in conscience” (p. 242).
. The 4th grievance is that Gentlemen () have actually “themselves
become grasiers, butchers, tanners, sheepmasters, woodmen, and
denizue quod non /* (p. 243).
Chapter 13, “Of Cities and Townes in England,’ is dull, but has,
on p. 254-5, a short account of the antiquities found in old Verulam,
and Harrison's visit there in the summer of 1586 or 1585; and on
p. 258-60, his groan over the decay of houses, their destruction by
greedy land-owners, and the hard fare of poor men. On p. 261 he
* made of tree or wood.
§ 5. HARRIson on TUDon BUILDINGs, AND THE LoNG Bow. xxiii
evidently would put a limit to the land that one man might hold.
In Chapter 14, “Of Castles and Holds,’ he wants the East coast
fortified (p. 265), notes the frequency of old camps “in the plaine
fields of England’ (p. 266), and says:
“I need not to make anie long discourse of castles, sith it is
not the nature of a good Englishman to regard to be caged Vp as
in a coope, and hedged in with stone wals, but rather to meet
with his enimie in the plaine field at handstrokes, where he may
trauaise his ground, choose his plot, and vse the benefit of Sunne
shine, wind and weather, to his best aduantage & Commoditie,”
p. 265.
In Chap. 15 he describes the Queen's palaces, but prefers the
Henry VIII, buildings to the Elizabethan:
“Certes masonrie did neuer better flourish in England than in
his time. And albeit that in these daies there be manie goodlie
houses erected in the sundrie quarters of this Iland; yet they are
rather curious to the eie, like paper worke, than substantiall for
continuance: whereas such as he did set vp, excell in both, and
therefore may iustlie be preferred farre aboue all the rest,” p. 268.
He then gives an interesting account of the virtues of the Queen's
Maids of Honour, the vices of the Courtiers (see extract above, p.
viii); the studies of the young Ladies, and the medical powers of
the old; all of them being able to cook admirably, and the Carte or
Bill of Fare of the dinner having been just introduc't (p. 272).
Lastly he notes the admirable order and absence of ill-doing in the
Queen's court (p. 274). Her ‘Progresses’ he approv'd of on p.
27O.
Chap. 16 treats ‘Of Armour and Munition;' but, says Harrison,
“what hath the longe blacke gowne to doo with glistering armour?”
p. 282. Still, he echoes the universal lament of Ascham, the
Statutes, &c. &c., over the decay of Long-Bow shooting in England :
“Certes the Frenchmen and Rutters deriding our new archerie
in respect of their corslets, will not let in open skirmish, if anie
leisure serue, to turne vp their tailes and crie: ‘Shoote English,”
and all bicause our strong shooting is decaied and laid in bed. But
if some of our Englishmen now liued that serued king Edward the
third in his warres with France, the breech of such a varlet should
haue beene nailed to his bum with one arrow, and an other fethered
in his bowels, before he should haue turned about to see who shot
the first,” p. 279
He then says that all the young fellows above 18 or 20 wear a
dagger; noblemen wear Swords or rapiers too, while ‘ desperate
xxiv. § 5. HARR1son on THE RISE IN PRICEs.
cutters' carry 2 daggers or 2 rapiers, “wherewith in euerie dronken
fraie they are knowen to worke much mischief’ (p. 282-3). And as
trampers carry long staves, the honest traveller is obliged to carry
pistols, “to ride with a case of dags at his sadlebow, or with some
pretie short snapper,” while parsons have only a dagger or hanger,
if they carry anything at all (p. 283). The tapsters and ostlers at
inns are in league with the highway-robbers,” who rob chiefly at
Christmas time, to get money to spend at dice and cards, till they
“be trussed vp in a Tiburne tippet, p. 284.
Passing over Chap. 17, on the Navy, Queen Elizabeth's delight
in it (p. 290), and the fast sailing of our ships, we come on a
characteristic and interesting chapter in Chap. 18, ‘Of Faires and
Markets.' This subject is within Harrison's home life, as a buyer;
and it's on the buyer's side, which includes the poor man's, that he
argues. Magistrates don't see the proclamation price and goodness
of bread kept to (p. 294–5); bodgers are allowd to buy up corn and
raise the price of it (p. 296-9); to carry it home unsold, or to a
distant market, if they want more money than the buyer likes to
give (p. 30.1-2); nay, they've leave to export it for the benefit of
enemies and Papists abroad, so as to make more profit (p. 298).
Again, pestiferous purveyors buy up eggs, chickens, bacon, &c.;
buttermen travel about and buy up butter at farmers' houses, and
have raisd its price from 18d, to 4od, a gallon (p. 3oo). These
things are ill for the buyer and the poor man, and should not be
allowd *
“I wish that God would once open their eies that deale thus, to
see their owne errours : for as yet some of them little care how
manie poore men suffer extremitie, so that they may fill their purses,
and carie awaie the gaine.”
Good doctrine, no doubt; but “mous avons changé tout cela.”
However, in one thing the modern Political-Economist can agree
with Harrison :-
“I gather that the maintenance of a superfluous number of
dealers in most trades, tillage alwaies excepted, is one of the
greatest causes why the prices of things become excessiue,” p. 30.o.
There's a comical bit about the names for ale, “huffecap, mad
dog, angels food,” &c., on p. 295, and the way “our maltbugs lug
at this liquor, euen as pigs should lie in a row, lugging at their
* Of hostlers, Harman says, “not one amongst twenty of them but haue well
left their honesty, as I here a great sorte saye.”—Harman's Caueat, p. 62, ed.
Viles and Furnivall, *
§ 5. HARRIson on PARKS AND GARDENs. XXV
dames teats, till they lie still againe, and be not able to wag . . .
and . . hale at hufcap, till they be red as cockes, & litle wiser than
their combs.”
In Chap. 19, “Of Parkes and Warrens,” Harrison tells us how
coney warrens have increast, from the value of the creatures' black
skins and the quick sale for young rabbits in London (p. 304); and
what a shocking thing it is that one Lady has sold her husband's
venison to the Cooks, and another Lady has ridden to market to see
her butter sold it's as bad as an Earl feeling his own oxen to see
whether they're ready for the butcher I (p. 305). He then gives us a
refreshing bit of his mind on owners of parks who enclose commons:
“And yet some owners, still desirous to inlarge those grounds,
as either for the breed and feeding of cattell, doo not let dailie to
take in more, not sparing the verie commons whervpon manie
towneships now and then doo live, affirming that we haue alreadie
too great store of people in England; and that youth by marrieng
too soone doo nothing profit the countrie, but fill it full of beggars,
to the hurt and vtter vndooing (they saie) of the common wealth.
“Certes, if it be not one curse of the Lord, to haue zºº.º.º.ºe
e e ge Aeople is the de-
our countrie conuerted in such sort, from the furniture ºction of a
of mankind, into the walks and shrowds of wild beasts, #aw
I know not what is anie. How manie families also man borne to
Aossesse the earth
these great and small games (for so most keepers call ...
them) haue eaten vp, and are likelie hereafter to deuoure, some
men may coniecture, but manie more lament, sith there is no hope
of restraint to be looked for in this behalfe, because the corruption
is so generall,” p. 306-7.
Chapter 20, ‘Of Gardens and Orchards,’ is interesting, not only
as containing the bit quoted above, p. xiii, on Harrison's own gar-
den, but for its note of how vegetables, roots, and salad herbs, that
had gone out of use since Henry IV.'s time, had in Henry VIII.
and Elizabeth's days come into daily consumption (p. 324), so that
men even eat dangerous fruits like mushrooms. Also, hops and
madder were grown again, and rare medicinable herbs. Gardens
were beautified (p. 325), plants imported (p. 326); orchards sup-
plied with apricot, almond, peach, fig, and cornel trees; nay, Capers,
Oranges, lemons and wild olives (p. 329-3o: with a little bit of ser-
monising). Grafting was practist with great skill and success (p.
330); even dishwater was utiliz'd for plants. And as to roses, there
was one in Antwerp in 1585 that had 18o leaves on one button or
flower, and Harrison could have had a slip of it for 24, Io (4,60 now P)
if he hadn't thought it “but a tickle hazard.”
Chapter 22 is interesting, from Harrison's laments in it over the
xxvi § 5. HARRIson's Fou R DEAREST wish Es.
destruction of English woods, which he saw yearly disappearing
around him,” one man, as he says, having turnd 6o woods into one
pair of breeches,” p. 343, And then, mov’d by the thought of what
will become of England without its oaks, the unselfish old parson
utters the four dearest wishes of his heart :— -
“I would wish that I might liue no longer than to see foure
things in this land reformed, that is : (1) the want of discipline in
the church : (2) the couetous dealing of most of our merchants in
the preferment of the commodities of other countries, and hinder-
ance of their owne : (3) the holding of faires and markets vpon the
sundaie to be abolished, and referred to the wednesdaies: (4) and
that euerie man, in whatsoeuer part of the champaine soile en-
ioieth fortie acres of land and vpwards, after that rate, either by free
deed, copie hold, or fee farme, might plant one acre of wood, or
sowe the same with oke mast, hasell, beech; and sufficient pro-
uision be made that it may be cherished and kept. But I feare me
that I should then liue too long, and so long, that I should either
be wearie of the world, or the world of me ; and yet they are not
such things but they may easilie be brought to passe,” p. 343-4.
* Harrison wasn’t the only man who felt thus. See Arthur Standish's two
tracts : “‘The Commons Complaint. Wherein is contained two speciall Griev-
ances: The first, the generall destruction and waste of Woods in this Kingdome
. . . The Second Grievance is, The extreame dearth of Victvals, Fovre Remedies
for the same, &c. London Printed by William Stansby, 1611.” 40. F 2 in fours.
“‘New Directions of Experience to the Commons Complaint by the incourage-
ment of the Kings most excellent Maiesty, as may appeare, for the planting of
Timber and Fire-wood. With a neere Estimation what Millions of Acres the
Kingdome doth containe, what Acres is waste ground, whereon little profit for
this purpose will arise . . . Inuentid by Arthur Standish. Anno Domini,
MDCXIII.' 49. A–D in fours; E, 4 leaves, and a leaf of F.”—Hazlitt's Col-
Alections and AVotes, p. 401-2. Also Massinger's Guardiaze, II. iv.
* “If woods go so fast . . . . I have knowne a well burnished gentleman that
hath borne threescore at once [weren’t they trees 2} in one paire of galigascons, to
shew his strength and brauerie.” Brick-burning also consumd much wood :
Compare Harrison, bk. 3, chap. 9, p. 234, col. 2, 1.46, ed. I587 :– “such is the
curiositie of our countrimen, that notwithstanding almightie God hath so blessed
our realme in most plentifull maner, with such and so manie quarries apt and
meet for piles of longest continuance, yet we, as lothsome of this abundance, or
not liking of the plentie, doo commonlie leaue these naturall gifts to mould and
cinder in the ground, and take vp an artificiall bricke, in burning whereof a great
part of the wood of this land is dailie consumed and spent, to the no small decaie of
that commoditie, and hinderance of the poore that perish off for cold.” See, too,
chap, IO, p. 236, col. 2, l, 44, “Of colemines we haue such plentie in the north
and westerne parts of our Iland, as may suffice for all the realme of England :
and so must they doo hereafter in deed, if wood be not better cherrished than it
is at this present.” See too the extract from Bk I, under § 6, No. 9, p. xxxviii
below.
§ 5. HARRIs on on wells, coins, &c. § 6. HIs Book I. xxvii
This same chapter 22 contains the capital bit about the oaken
men and willow houses and their smoke-dried inhabiters, quoted
above, p. viii (p. 337-8 below); and a strong protest against
rascally tanners (p. 340) and wood-fellers who, for private gain,
evade the laws (p. 343); also some good advice about draining
(p. 346).
In his 23rd Chapter, on Baths and Hot Wells, Harrison says
that he's tasted the water of King's Newnham well, near Coventry,
and that it had “a tast much like to allume liquor, and yet nothing
wnplesant nor vnsauorie in the drinking” (p. 348). From his
description of Bath, it is clear that he had been there, p. 350-5,
unless he quotes an eyewitness's words as his own. His 24th
Chapter, ‘of Antiquities found,’ tells us of his own collection of
Roman coins (p. 356) which he intended to get engrav'd in his
Chronologie, though, he says, the cost of engraving,
“as it hath doone hitherto, so the charges to be emploied vpon
these brasen or copper images will hereafter put by the impression
of that treatise: whereby it maie come to passe, that long trauell
shall soone proue to be spent in vaine, and much cost come to verie
small successe,” p. 357. (See p. iv, note 4, above.)
His words on p. 358 seem to imply that he'd visited Colchester
(as no doubt he had) and York, in his search for coins. His
account ‘Of the Coines of England,’ chap. 25, ends his Book 2, the
first of his Description of England.
This Section is longer than I meant it to be ; and it doesn't
bring out the religious side of Harrison's character. But I hope it
leaves the reader with a kindly impression of the straightforward
racy Radwinter parson and Windsor Canon. A business-like, God-
fearing, truth-seeking, learned, kind-hearted and humorous fellow,
he seems to me; a good gardener, an antiquarian and numismatist,
a true lover of his country, a hater of shams, lazy lubbers and evil-
doers; a man that one likes to shake hands with, across the rift of
200 years that separates us.
§ 6. As Harrison, in his Description of the Rivers, &c., of Eng-
land in Book I. has, here and there, bits giving his own experiences
or opinions, I pick out those that were, in this regard, interesting to
me as I skimd over the book, in the hope that they will interest the
reader too. These bits comprise I. his opinion on giants, and his
seeing a 7-foot man; 2. his view of the English Language (p. xxix);
3. his English name ‘By-land’ for the Latin Peninsula (p. xxx); 4.
his report on the Isle of Man superstitions and sheep (p. xxxi);
xxviii § 6. HARRIson's Book I. on GIANTs.
5. and his opening some barnacles that he found on a ship's bottom
in the Thames (p. xxxii); 6. some one's (? not his) visit to the Shet-
land Isles and Scotland, and being very glad to rest his wearied bones
at home (p. xxxii); 7. his cruise up the mouth of the Thames (p.
xxxiii); 8. his praise and description of that “noble river,’ and the
salmon, &c., daily caught there (p. xxxiv); and 9. his account of his
own parish, Radwinter, of which he was rector (p. xxxviii). Any
reader whom these bits bore, can easily skip 'em. They end at p. xl.
I. HARRISON ON GIANTS.
- “[Of the giant of Spaine that died of late yeares by a fall vpon
the Alpes, as he either went or came fro Rome, about the purchase
of a dispensation to marrie with his kinswoman (a woman also of
much more than common stature) there be men yet liuing, and may
liue long for age, that can saie verie much euen by their owne
knowledge. Wherfore it appeareth by present experience, that all
is not absolutelie vntrue which is remembred of men of such giants.]
For this cause therfore I haue now taken vpon me to make this
breefe discourse insuing, [as indeuouring] therby to prooue, that the
opinion of giants is not altogither grounded vpon vaine and fabulous
narrations, inuented onelie to delight the eares of the hearers with
the report of maruellous things: but that there haue beene such
men in deed, as for their hugenesse of person haue resembled rather
* Esay. 36, *high towers than mortall men, although their posterities
verS. 25. are now consumed, and their monstruous races vtterlie
worne out of knowledge.”—p. 8, Col. I, l. 68, to col. 2, l. 13.
“[Now to say somwhat also of mine owne knowledge, there is
the thighbone of a man to be seene in the church of S. Laurence
neere Guildhall in London, which in time past was 26. inches in
length, but now it beginneth to decaie, so that it is shorter by foure
inches than it was in the time of king Edward. Another also is to
be seene in Aldermarie burie, of some called Aldermanburie, of 32.
inches and rather more, whereof the symmetrie hath beene taken by
some skilfull in that practise, and an image made according to that
proportion, which is fixt in the east end of the cloister of the same
church, not farre from the said bone, and sheweth the person of a
man full ten or eleuen foot high, which, as some say, was found in
the cloister of Poules, that was neere to the librarie, at such time as
the Duke of Somerset did pull it downe to the verie foundation, and
carried the stones thereof to the Strand, where he did build his
house. These two bones haue I seene, beside other, whereof at the
beholding I tooke no great heed, bicause I minded not as then to
haue had any such vse of their proportions, and therefore I will
speake no more of them : this is sufficient for my purpose that is
deliuered out of the christian authors].”—p. Io, col. 2, l. 69, to p. 11,
Col. I, l. I7.
§ 6. HARRIson's Book I. on GIANTs, AND ON ENGLISH. xxix
Pſarrison has seen a lame giant, 7 feet high.
12. i. 35. “I could rehearse manie mo examples of the bodies of
such men, out of Solimus, Sabellicus, [D] Cooper, and others. [As
of Oetas and Ephia/tes, who were said to be mine orgies or paces in
heigth, and foure in bredth, which are taken for so many cubits,
bicause there is small difference betweene a mans ordinarie pace
and his cubit, and finallie of our Richard the first, who is noted to
beare an axe in the wars, the iron of whose head onelie weighed
twentie pound after our greatest weight, and whereof an old writer
that I haue seene, saith thus:
This king Richard / zmderstand,
Yer he went out of England,
Let make an axe for the mones,
Therewith to cleade the Saracens bones,
77te head in sooth zeas wrought ful/ Ze'eeſe,
Thereon were twentie pound of steele,
And zwhen he came in Cyprus land,
That iſãon axe he tooke in hand, &c.
“I could speake also of Gerard's staffe or lance, yet to be seene
in Gerards hall at London in Basing lane, which is so great and
long that no man can beweld it, neither go to the top thereof with-
out a ladder, which of set purpose and for greater countenance of
the wonder is fixed by the same. I hatee seene a man my selfe of
seuen foot in heigh, but lame of his legs. The chronicles also of
Cogshall speake of one in Wales, who was halſe a foot higher, but
through infirmitie and wounds not able to beweld himselfe. I might
(if I thought good) speake also of another of no lesse heigth than
either of these and Jiuing of late yeares, but these here [remembred]
shall suffice to prooue my purpose withall. I might tell you in hike
sort of the [marke] stone which Turnus threw at Æneas, [and] was
such as that twelue chosen and picked men [(saith Virgil,
(Qualia nunc homeinzem producié corpora tellzas)
were not able to stur and remooue out of the place: º,
e - e - fortiorest eagerre
but I passe it ouer, and diuerse of the like, concluding º
that these huge blocks were ordeined and created by God: first for
a testimonie vnto vs of his power and might; [and] secondlie for a
confirmation, that hugenes of bodie is not to be accompted of as a
part of our felicitie, sith they which possessed the same, were not
onelie tyrants, doltish, & euill men, but also oftentimes ouercome
euen by the weake & feeble.”—p. 12, Col. 2, l. 4.
2. HARRISON'S VIEW OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
14, i. 2. “But in vaine, for in the time of king Edward the first,
to wit," toward the latter end of his reigne, the French it selfe ceased
to be spoken generallie, [but most of all, and by law, in the midst of
1 and for to wit, ed. 1577. “[ ]' mean, “added in the 2nd ed. 1587.’—F.
XXX § 6. HARRIson's Book I. ON ENGLISH, AND BYLAND.
Edward the third, and then began the English to recouer and grow
in more estimation than before ; notwithstanding that among our
artificers, the most part of their implements, tooles and [words of art]
reteine still their French denominations ſeuen] to these our daies, as
the language it selfe is vsed likewise in sundrie courts, bookes [of
record, and matters of law; whereof here is no place to make any par-
The help., of ticular rehearsall. Afterward also, by diligent trauell of
our English Geffray Chaucer, and John Gowre, in the time of Richard
toong. the second, and after them of Zohn Scogan, and John
Iydgate monke of Berrie, our [said] toong was brought to an excellent
passe, notwithstanding that it neuer came vnto the type of perfection,
wntill the time of Queene Elizabeth, wherein "John Jezerell, B. of
Sarum, John Fox, and sundrie learned &' excellent writers haue
fullie accomplished the ornature of the same, to their great praise
and immortall commendation; although not a few other doo greatlie
seeke to staine the same, by fond affectation of forren and strange
words, presuming that to be the best English, which is most cor-
rupted with externall termes of eloquence, and found of manie
syllables. But as this excellencie of the English toong is found in
one, and the south part of this Iland; so in Wales the greatest
number (as I said) retaine still their owne ancient language, that of
the north part of the said countrie being lesse corrupted than the
other, and therefore reputed for the better in their owne estimation
Englishmen apt * iudgement. [This also is proper to vs Englishmen,
to ſearne any that sith ours is a meane language, and neither too
** rough nor too smooth in vtterance, we may with much
facilitie learne any other language, beside Hebrue, Greeke & Latine,
and speake it naturallie, as if we were home-borne in those coun-
tries; & yet on the other side it falleth out, I wot not by what other
meanes, that few forren nations can rightlie pronounce ours, without
some and that great note of imperfection, especiallie the French
men, who also seldome write any thing that sauoreth of English
trulie. It is a pastime to read how Mała/is Comes in like maner,
speaking of our affaires, dooth clip the names of our English lords.
Aut this of all the rest dooth breed most admiration zwith me, that if
any stranger doo hit ºfton some likelie pronunţiation of our foong, yet
in age he swarueth so much from the same, that he is woorse therein
than euer he was, and thereto £eraduenture halteth not a lifle also in
his owne, as / haue seene by experience in Aeginald Wolfe, and other,
zwhereof I haue iustle maruelled].”—p. 14, Col. 1, 1. 2–53.
3. HARRISON's ENGLISH BPLAND FOR THE LATIN PENINSUL.A.
3o. i. 47. “In beginning therefore, with such as lie in the mouth
of the aforesaid riuer, I must needs passe by the How”, which is not an
Iland, ° and therefore not within the compasse of my description at
*— many, I577. * Hoo, 1577.
3–8 but (if I may giue such peeces a new name) a bylande, bycause we may
passe thyther from the maine Isle, by an Isthums or strictlande, that is to say, by
lande, without anye vessell, at the full sea, or any horse at the ebbe. I577.
§ 6. HARRIson's Bk I. on THE ISLE of MAN AND BARNAcLEs. xxxi
this time, but almost an Iland, which parcels the Latins call Penin-
sulas, and / doo english a Byland, vsing the word for such as a man
may go into drie-footed at the full sea, or on horssebacke at the low
water without anie boat or vessell: and such a one almost is Roch-
ford hundred in Essex also, yet not at this time to be spoken of,
bicause not the sea onelie, but the fresh water also doth in maner
enuiron it, and is the cheefe occasion wherfore it is called an Iland.
This How * lieth between Cliffe [(in old time called Clouesho, to wit,
Cliffe in How, or in the hundred of How)] & the Midwaie that goeth
along by Rochester, [of which hundred there goeth an old prouerbe
in rime after this maner:
JHe that rideth into the hundred of How,
Beside pilfering sea-men shall find durf ynow].”—3o. i. 65.
4. HARRISON ON THE ISLE OF MAN.
37. ii. 61. “Giraldus noteth al contention” betweene the kings of
England & Ireland for the right of this Iland, but in the end, when by
a comprimise the triall of the matter was referred to the liues or
deaths of such venemous wormes as should be brought into the same,
and it was found that they died not at all, as the like doo in Ire-
land, sentence passed with the king of England, & So he reteined the
Iland. But howsoeuer this matter standeth, and whether anie such
thing was done at all or not, sure it is that the people of the said
Ile were much giuen to witchcraft and sorcerie (which they learned
of the Scots, a nation greatlie bent to that horrible practise) in so-
much that their women would oftentimes sell wind to the mariners,
inclosed vnder certeine knots of thred, with this iniumction, that
they which bought the same, should for a great gale vndoo manie, and
for the lesse, a [fewer or smaller number. The stature
of the men and also fertilitie of this Iland are much
commended, and for the latter supposed verie neere to be equall
with that of Anglesei, in all commodities.”—p. 38, Col. i., l. 7.
Tałł men in Man.
38. i. 4o. “Moreouer the sheepe of this countrie Sheepe.
are exceeding huge, well woolled, and their tailes of such greatnesse
as is almost incredible. In like sort their hogs are in Hogs.
maner monstrous. They haue furthermore great store of Barnacles.
barnacles breeding vpon their coasts, but yet not so great store as in
Ireland, and those (as there also) of old ships, Ores, masts, ſpeeces of
rotten timber as they saie, and such putrified pitched stuffe, as by
wrecke hath happened to corrupt vpon that shore. Howbeit neither
the inhabitants of this Ile, nor yet of Ireland can readilie saie
whether they be fish or flesh, for although the religious Pºlaº,
neither fish mor
there vsed to eat them as fish, yet elsewhere, some flesh.
haue beene troubled, for eating of them in times prohibited, for *
heretikes and lollards.”
* how there was, 1577. ° sometyme between, 1577. * as, I577.
xxxii Ś 6. HARRISON's BK. I. on BARNACLES; SHETLAND ISLEs.
5. HARRISON'S INVESTIGATIONS INTO BARNACLEs.
38. i. 54. “[For my part, I haue beene verie desirous to vnder,
stand the vttermost of the breeding of barnacls, & questioned with
diuers persons about the same. I haue red also whatsoeuer is written
by forren authors touching the generation of that foule, & sought out
some places where I haue beene assured to see great numbers of
them : but in vaine. Wherefore / viterlie despaired to obteine my
purpose, till this present yeare of Grace 1584, and moneth of Maie,
wherein, going to the court at Greenezwich from Zondon by boſe, I sazy
sundrie ships lieng in the Thames newlie come home, either from Bar-
barie or the Canarie Iles (for Z doo not well remember now from which
of these places) on whose sides / perceiued an infinit sort of shels to
hang so thicke as could be one by another. Drawing meere also, I tooke
off ten or twelue of the greatest of them, & afterward hauing opened
them, I saw the proportion of a foule in one of them more perfect/ie than
in all the rest, sauing that the head was not yet formed, bicause the
fresh water had killed them all (as I take it) and thereby hindered
their perfection. Certeinelie the feathers of the taile hoong out of
the shell at least two inches, the wings (almost perfect touching
forme) were garded with two shels or sheeldes proportioned like the
selfe wings, and likewise the brestbone had hir couerture also of like
shellie substance, and altogither resembling the figure which Zobel/
and Pema doo giue foorth in their description of this foule: so that
I am now fullie persuaded that it is either the barnacle that is in-
gendred after one maner in these shels, or some other sea-foule to
vs as yet vnknowen. For by the feathers appearing, and forme so
apparant, it cannot be denied, but that some bird or other must
proceed of this substance, which by falling from the sides of the
ships in long voiages, may come to some perfection. But now it is
time for me to returne againe vnto my former purpose].”—38. ii. 16.
6. A VISIT (? NOT HARRISON's) TO THE SHETLAND ISLEs.
44. i. 6. “From 4 these Shetland Iles, and 1 vntill we come south-
wards to the Scarre, which lieth in Buquhamnesse, I find no mention
of anie Ile situat vpon that coast, neither greatlie from thence, vntill
we come at the Forth, that leadeth vp to Sterling, [neither thought we
it safetie for vs to search so farre as Thule, whence the most ex-
cellent brimstone commeth, & thereto what store of Ilands lie vnder
the more northerlie climats, whose secret situations though partlie
seene in my time, haue not yet bin perfectlie reueled or discouered
by anie, bicause of the great aboundance of huge Ilands of ice that
mooueth to and fro vpon their shores, and sundrie perilous gulfes
and indraughts of water; and for as much as their knowlege doth
not concerne our purpose, wherfore casting about, we came at the
last into the Firth or Forth, which some call the Scotish sea, where-
in we passe by seuen or eight [iles?] such as they be, of which the first
1–1 the Orchades, 1577. ? iles not in either edition.
§ 6. A cruise (? HARRIson's) UP THE THAMES To LoNDoN. xxxiii
called the Maie, the second Baas, and Garwie the third, doo seeme
to be inhabited. From these also holding on our course toward
England, we passe by another ſle, wherein Faux castell standeth,
and this (so far as my skill serueth) is the last Iland of the Scotish
side, in compassing whereof I am not able to discerne, whether their
flats and shallowes, number of Ilands without name, confusion of
situation, lacke of true description, or mine owne ignorance, hath
troubled me most. No meruell therefore that I haue beene so oft
on ground annong them. But most ioifull am I that am come home
againe: & although not by the Thames mouth into my natiue citie
(which taketh his name of Troie) yet into the English dominion,
where good interteinement is much more franke and copious, and
better harborough wherein to rest my wearie bones, and refresh at
ease our wetherbeaten carcasses.”—p. 44, Col. I, l. 4 I.
7. A CRUISE UP THE THAMES TO LONDON.
44. 2. 33. “Going forward from hence, by the Eston nesse (al-
most an Iland) I saw a small parcell cut from the maine in Orford
hauen, the Langerstone in Orwell mouth, [&] two peeces or Islets at
Cattiwade bridge; [and] then casting about vnto the Colne, we beheld
Merseie which is a pretie Iland, well furnished with Merseie.
wood. It was sometime a great receptacle for the Danes when
they inuaded England; howbeit at this present it hath beside two
decaied blockehouses, two parish churches, of which one is called
east Merseie, the other west Merseie, and both vnder the archdeacon
of Colchester, as parcell of his iurisdiction. Foulenesse Foulnesse.
is an Ile void of wood, and yet well-péplenished with verie good
grasse for neat and sheepe, whereof the inhabitants haue great
plentie: there is also a parish church ; and albeit that it stand some-
what distant from the shore, yet at a dead low water a man may [(as
they saie)] ride thereto if he be skilfull of the causie; [it is vnder the
iurisdiction of London. And at this present, master William Tabor,
bacheler of diuinitie and archdeacon of Essex, hath it under his
iurisdiction & regiment, by the surrender of maister John Walker
doctor also of diuinitie, who lived at such time as I first attempted
to commit this booke to the impression.]
“In Maldon water are in like sort three Ilands inuironed all
with salt streames, as saint Osithes, Northeie, and an- Osithe.
other (after a mersh) that beareth no name so far as I Northeie.
remember. On the right hand also as we went toward the sea
againe, we saw Ramseie Ile, or rather a Peninsula or Ramseie.
Biland, & likewise the Reie, in which is a chappell of Reie.
* my wetherbeaten carkase, 1577. He goes on (ed. 1587) with “The first
Iland therefore which commeth to our sight after we passed Berwike, is that
which was somtime called Lindesfarne, but now Holi Iland . . . Being ther-
fore past S. Edmunds point, we found a litle Ile . . . I saw a small parcel cut
from the maine in Orford hauen " . . .-F.
HARRISON. 6.
xxxiv. § 6. HARRIS ON ON THE Noble River THAMEs.
saint Peter. And then coasting vpon the mouth of the Bourne, we
saw the Wallot Ile and his mates, whereof two lie by east Wallot,
and the fourth is Foulnesse, except I be deceiued, for here my
memorie faileth me on the one side, and information on the other,
I meane concerning the placing of Foulenesse. But to proceed.
After this, and being entered into the Thames mouth, I find no
Iland of anie name, except you accompt Rochford hundred for one,
whereof I haue no mind to intreat, more than of Crowland, Mers-
land, Elie, [Andredeseie in Trent, so called of a church there dedi-
cated to saint Andrew, and the rest, that are framed by the Ouze, and
Auon (two noble riuers hereafter to be described) sith I touch onelié
those that are inuironed with the sea or salt water round about, as
Canwaie. we may see in the Canwaie Iles, which some [call
marshes onelie, and liken [them]* to an ipocras bag, some to a vice,
scrue, or wide sleeue, bicause they are verie Small at the east end,
and large at West. The salt rilles also that crosse the same doo so
separat the one of them from the other, that they resemble the slope
course of the cutting part of a scrue or gimlet, in verie perfect
maner, if a man doo imagine himselfe to looke downe from the top
of the mast vpon them. Betweene these, moreouer, and the Leigh
towne, lieth another litle Ile [or Holme, whose name is to me vn-
knowne. Certes I would haue gone to land and viewed these par-
cels as they laie, [or at the least haue sailed round about them by the
whole hauen, which may easilie be doone at an high water:] but for
as much as a perrie of wind (scarse comparable to the makerell gale,
whereof John Anele of Calis, one of the best seamen that England
euer bred for his skill in the narow seas, was woont to talke) caught
hold of our sailes, & caried vs forth the right waie toward London,
I could not tarie to see what things were hereabouts. Thus much
therefore of our Ilands, & so much may well suffice [where more
cannot be had].”—p. 45, Col. i. 1, 29.
8. HARRISON'S PRAISE OF THE NOBLE RIVER THAMES.
46. i. 52. “” Having in this maner breefelie touched this noble
riuer, and such brookes as fall into the same ; I will now adde a par-
ticular description of each of these last by themselues, whereby their
courses also shall be seuerallie described to the satisfaction of the
studious. But yer I take the same in hand, I will insert a word or
two of the commodities of the said riuer, which I will performe with
so much breuitie as is possible. Heereby also finding out his whole
tract and course from the head to the fall thereof into the sea.
It appeareth euidentlie” that the length thereof is at the least, one
hundreth and eightie miles, if it be measured by the iourneies of the
land. And as it is in course, the longest of the three famous riuers
of this Ile, so it is nothing inferiour vnto them in aboundance of all
! some doe liken, I577.
2–2 Thus we see the whole tract and course of y" Thames, by whose head
and fall it is euident—I577.
§ 6. HARRIson on THE Noble RIVER THAMEs. XXXV
kind of fish, whereof it is hard to saie, which of the three haue either
most plentie, or greatest varietie, if the circumstances be duelie
weighed. [What some other write of the riuers of their countries it
skilleth not, neither will I (as diuerse doo) inuent strange things of
this noble streame, therewith to nobilitate and make it more honor-
able : but this will I in plaine termes affirme, that it neither swal-
loweth vp bastards of the Celtish brood, or casteth vp the right
begotten that are throwne in without hurt into their mothers lap, as
Politian fableth of the Rhene, Epistolarum lib. 8. epi. 6. nor yeeldeth
clots of gold as the Tagus dooth : but an infinit plentie of excellent,
sweet and pleasant fish, wherewith such as inhabit neere vnto hir
bankes are fed and fullie nourished.]
“What should I speake of the fat and sweet sal- Salmons.
mons, dailie taken in this streame, and that in such plentie [(after
the time of the smelt be past)] as no riuer in Europa is able to ex-
ceed it. What” store also of barbels, trouts, cheuins, pearches, smelts,
breames, roches, daces, gudgings, flounders, shrimps,” &c.; are com-
monlie to be had therein, I refer me to them that know 4 by experi-
ence better than I, by reason of their dailie trade of fishing in the
same. And albeit it seemeth from time to time, to be as it were
defrauded in sundrie wise of these hir large commodities, by the in-
satiable auarice of the fishermen, yet this famous riuer complaineth
[commonlie] of no want; but the more it looseth at one time, the
more it yeeldeth at another. Onelie in carps it seemeth carps, a fish late
to be scant, sith it is not long since that kind of fish É.".
was brought ouer into England, and but of late to . .
speake of into this streame, by the violent rage of sun- Thames.
drie land-flouds, that brake open the heads and dams of diuers
gentlemens ponds, by which means it became [somewhat] partaker
also of this said commoditie, whereof earst it had no portion that I
could euer heare." [Oh that this riuer might be spared but euen one
yeare from nets, &c | But alas then should manie a poore man be
vndoone. In the meane time it is lamentable to see, how it is and
hath beene choked of late with sands and shelues, through the pen-
ning and wresting of the course of the water for commodities sake.
But as this is an inconuenience easilie remedied, if good order were
taken for the redresse thereof: so now, the fine or prise set vpon the
ballasse sometime freelie giuen to the merchants by patent, euen
wnto the lands end (Zusques au £oinct) will be another cause of
harme vnto this noble streame, and all through an aduantage taken
at the want of an i in the word fonct: which grew through an error
committed by an English notarie vnskilfull in the French toong,
wherein that patent was granted.]
* In 1809, Priscilla Wakefield says of the Thames at Putney Bridge: “In
the spring, smelts are caught here, in great abundance, and a few salmon ; besides
small flounders, shad, roach, dace, barbel, eels and gudgeons.”—Perambulations
in Zondon, p. 428. * but what, 1577.
* 1577 adds “Eles.’ * know the same, 1577. * heare of, 1577.
XXXVI § 6. HARRIs on on THE THAMES TIDE.
“Furthermore, the said riuer floweth and filleth all his chanels
twise in the daie and night, that is, in euerie twelue houres once;
and this ebbing & flowing, holdeth on for the space of seauentie
miles, within the maine land: the streame or tide being alwaies
highest at London, when the moone dooth exactlie touch the north-
east and south or west points of the heauens, of which one is visible,
the other vnder the earth, and not subiect to our sight. These tides
also differ in their times, each one comming latter than other, by so
manie minuts as passe yer the reuolution and naturall course of the
heauens doo reduce, and bring about, the said planet vnto those hir
former places: whereby the common difference betweene one tide
...; and another, is found to consist of twentie foure minuts,
etween one tide tº º
and another. which wanteth but twelue of an whole houre in foure
and twentie, as experience dooth confirme. [In like sort we see by
dailie triall, that each tide is not of equall heigth and greatnesse:
for at the full and change of the moone we haue the greatest flouds;
and such is their ordinarie course, that as they diminish from their
changes and fuls, vinto the first and last quarters; so afterwards they
increase againe, vntill they come to the full and change. Sometimes
also they rise so high (if the wind be at the north or northeast,
which bringeth in the water with more vehemencie, bicause the tide
which filleth the chanell, commeth from Scotland ward) that the
Thames ouerfloweth hir banks neere vnto London : which hapneth
especiallie in the fuls and changes of Ianuarie and Februarie,
wherein the lower grounds are of custome soonest drowned.] This
order of flowing in like sort" is perpetuall, [so that when the moone
is vpon the southwest and north of points, then is the water by
London at the highest : neither doo the tides alter, except "some
The streame oft rough winds out of the west or southwest doo keepe
...he backe and checke the streame in his entrance, as the
land. east and northeast doo hasten the comming in thereof.”
or else some other [extraordinarie] occasion, put by the ordinarie
course of the northerne seas, which fill the said riuer by their
naturall returne and flowing. And that both these doo happen eft?
among, I refer me to such as haue not sildome obserued it, as also
the sensible chopping in of three or foure tides in one naturall daie,
wherof the vnskilfull doo descant manie things.”—p. 47, col. i. 1. 18.
“[But how so euer these small matters doo fall out, and how often
soeuer this course of the streame doth happen to be disturbed ; yet
at two seuerall times of the age of the moone, the waters returne to
their naturall course and limits of time exactlie. Polydore saith
that this riuer is seldome increased, or rather neuer ouerfloweth hir
banks, by landflouds : but he is herein verie much deceiued, as it
shalbe more apparantlie seene hereafter. For the more that this
1 flowing likewise, 1577.
*—” rough winds doe happen to checke the streame in hir comming, 1577.
• ? oft, often (among = at intervals).-F.
§ 6. HARRIs on on THE THAMEs, ITs SWANs, BOATs, &c. xxxvii
riuer is put by of hir right course, the more the water must of neces-
sitie Swell with the white waters which run downe from the land :
bicause the passage cannot be so swift and readie in the winding as
in the streight course. These landflouds also doo greatlie straine
the finesse of the streame, in so much that after a great landfloud
you shall take haddocks with your hands beneath the bridge, as they
flote aloft vpon the water, whose eies are so blinded with the thick-
nesse of that element, that they cannot see where to become, and
make shift to saue themselues before death take hold of them.
Otherwise the water of it selfe is very cleere, and in comparison
next vnto that of the sea, which is most subtile and pure of all
other ; as that of great riuers is most excellent, in comparison of
smaller brookes : although Aristotle will haue the salt water to be
most grosse, bicause a ship will beare a greater burden on the sea
than on the fresh water ; and an eg sinke in this, that swimmeth on
the other. But he may easilie be answered by the quantitie of roome
and aboundance of waters in the sea ; whereby it becommeth of
more force to susteine such vessels as are committed to the same,
and whervnto the greatest riuers (God wot) are nothing comparable.]
I would here make mention of Sundrie bridges placed ouer this noble
streame, of which that of London" is most chieflie to be London &ridge.
commended, for it is [in] maner a continuall street, well replenished
with large and statelie houses on both sides, and situat vpon twentie
arches, whereof ech one is made of excellent free squared stone,
euerie of them being threescore foot in heigth, and full twentie in
distance one from another, [as I haue often viewed.]
“In like maner I could intreat of the infinit number of Swans
dailie to be seene vpon this riuer, the two thousand 2900 &gates”zºon
wherries and small boats, wherby three thousand *::::::::::
poore watermen are mainteined, through the cariage ºftainſteined ºy
g the same, whose
and recariage of Such persons as passe or repasse from ...".
time to time vpon the same: beside those huge tide- ſº
boats, tiltbotes, and barges, which either carrie pas- time.
* There was betweene Zondon and Southwarée long time passage by ferrie
wntill the Citizens caused a bridge of woode to be erected : after that, in the time
of RIC. 2, anno II 76, they beganne to build a bridge of stone, which in the time
of king JOHN they most artificially finished, anno 1209, contriuing it of 20 arches,
and in the midst a drawe bridge, and vppon the same bridge on either side, the
houses so artificially combined, that the whole bridge seemeth not onely a mayne
and faire streete, but men seeme to pass vnder a continuall roofe: the bridge is in
height 60 foote, in bredth 30 foote, the arches are in sunder 20 foote: there are,
vnder the north arch of this bridge, most artificially erected, certain wheeles or
tide myles, which rise and fall according to the ebs and flouds, and they raise
the water [brackish, partly salt 3] by pypes and counductes so high that it serueth
such citizens houses in all places of London, as will bestow charge towarde the
conducting thereof: The buildings vppon this bridge, on either side, were con-
sumed with fire anno 1208 [but rebuilt].—1596. Jn. Norden, Discription of
Z/iddlesex, p. 35, ed. I723. * wherries, 1577.
†
xxxviii Ś 6. HARRISON on HIS PARISH, RADw1NTER, Essex.
sengers, or bring necessarie prouision from all quarters of Oxford-
shire, Barkeshire, Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Herfordshire,
Midlesex, Essex, Surrie, and Kent, vnto the citie of London. But
for somuch as these things are to be repeated againe in the particular
description of London, annexed to his 1 card, I surceasse at this time
to speake anie more of them *here, as not lingering but hasting to
performe my promise made euen now, not yet forgotten, and in per-
formance whereof I thinke it best to resume the description of this
noble riuer againe into my hands, and in adding whatsoeuer is before
omitted, to deliuer a full and perfect demonstration of his course”.”—
p. 47, Col. i. 1, 19.
9. HARRISON ON HIS OWN PARISH, RADWINTER, ESSEx.
Ioé. i. 40. “There is a pretie water that beginneth
neere vnto Gwinbach or Winbeche church in Essex, *[a
towne of old, and yet belonging to the Fitzwaters, taking name of
Gwin, which is beautifull or faire, & Bache that signifieth a wood : and
not without cause, sith not onelie the hilles on ech side of the said
rillet, but all the whole paroch hath sometime abounded in woods;
but now in manner they are vtterlie decaied, as the like commoditie
is euerie where,” not onelie thorough excessiue building for pleasure
more than profit, which is contrarie to the ancient end of building;
but also for more increase of pasture & commoditie to the lords of
the soile, through their sales of that emolument, whereby the poore
tenants are inforced to buie their fewell, and yet haue their rents in
triple maner inhanced. This said brooke°] runneth directlie from
thence vnto Radwinter, [now] a parcell of your lordships" possessions
in those parts, 9 descended from the Chamberleins, who were some-
time cheefe owners of the same." By the waie also it is increased
with sundrie pretie springs, of which Pantwell is the cheeſe [(whereof
some thinke the whole brooke to be named Pant)] and [which] (to
saie the truth) hath manie a leasing fathered on the same. [Certes by
the report of common fame it hath beene a pretié water, and of such
quantitie, that botes haue come in time past from Bilie abbeie beside
Maldon vnto the moores in Radwinter for corne. I haue heard also
that an anchor was found there neere to a red willow, when the
water-courses by act of parlement were surueied and reformed
throughout England, which maketh not a little with the aforesaid
relation. But this is strangest of all, that a lord sometime of Win-
bech (surnamed the great eater, because he would breake his fast
with a whole calfe, and find no bones therein, as the fable goeth)
falling at contention with the lord John of Radwinter, could worke
him none other iniurie, but by stopping vp the head of Pantwell, to
1 Master Sackford's, I suppose.-F.
2–3 as also of the ryuer it self, wherefore let thys suffyse, I577.
3–8 (the very limits of Dunmow Deanery) which, I577.
* See p. xxvi, above.—F. 5 Lord Cobham's : see p. vi and xii.-F.
*—6 and within three quarters of a mile of the aforesaid church, 1577.
Gwin or Pant.
§ 6. HARRIson on RADw1NTER, ITs SPRINGS, MANor, &c. xxxix
put by the vse of a mill which stood by the church of Radwinter,
and was serued by that brooke abundantlie. Certes I know the
place where the mill stood, and some posts thereof do yet remaine.
But see the malice of mankind, whereby one becommeth a woolfe
wnto the other in their mischeeuous moodes. For when the lord
saw his mill to be so spoiled, he in reuenge of his losse, brake the
necke of his aduersarie, when he was going to horsebacke, as the
constant report affirmeth. For the lord of Radwinter holding a
parcell of his manour of Radwinter hall of the Fitzwaters, his sonne
was to hold his stirrop at certeine times when he should demand
the same. Shewing himselfe therefore prest on a time to doo his
said seruice, as the Fitzwater was readie to lift his leg ouer the
saddle, he by putting backe his foot, gaue him such a thrust that he
fell backward, and brake his necke: wherevpon insued great trouble,
till the matter was taken vp by publike authoritie; and that seruile
office conuerted into a pound of pepper, which is truelie paid to
this daie. But to leaue these in pertinent discourses, and returne
againe to the springs whereby our Pant or Gwin is increased.]
There is likewise another in a pasture belonging to the Grange, now
I in possession of William Bird esquier, who holdeth the same in the
right of his wife, but in time past belonging to Tilteie abbeie." The
third commeth out of the yard of one of your lordships manors
there, called Radwinter hall. The fourth from John Cockswets
house, named the Rotherwell, which running vnder Rothers bridge,
meeteth with the Gwin [or Pant] on the northwest end of Ferrants
meade, southeast of Radwinter church, whereof I haue the charge
by your honours fauourable preferment.
“[I might take occasion to speake of another rill which falleth
into the Rother from Bendish hall: but bicause it is for the most
part drie in summer, I passe it ouer. Yet I will not omit to speake
also of the manor which was the chiefe lordship sometime of a
parish or hamlet called Bendishes, now worne out of knowledge, and
vnited partlie to Radwinter, and partlie to Ashdon. It belonged
first to the Bendishes, gentlemen of a verie ancient house yet extant,
of which one laieng the said manour to morgage to the moonks of
Feuersham, at such time as K. Edward the third went to the siege
of Calis, thereby to furnish himselfe the better toward the seruice of
his prince, it came to passe that he staied longer beyond the sea
than he supposed. Wherevpon he came before his daie to confer
with his creditors, who commending his care to come out of debt,
willed him in friendlie maner not to suspect anie hard dealing on
their behalfes, considering his businesse in seruice of the king was
of it selfe cause sufficient, to excuse his delaie of painment vpon the
daie assigned. Herevpon he went ouer againe vnto the siege of
Calis. But when the day came, the moonks, for all this, made
seisure of the manour, and held it continuallie without anie further
"—" belonging to Henry Browne esquier, soiournyng therevpon, 1577. .
xl § 7. HARRIson's Two EDITIONs of 1577 AND 1587.
recompense, maugre all the friendship that the aforsaid Bendish
could make. The said gentleman also tooke this cousening part in
such choler, that he wrote a note yet to be seene among his eui-
dences, whereby he admonisheth his posteritie to beware how they
trust either knaue moonke or knaue frier, as one of the name, and
descended from him by lineall descent, hath more than once in-
formed me. Now to resume our springs that meet and ioine with
our Pant].”
§ 7. The first edition of Holinshed's Chronicle was a success,
and deservedly so. A second edition was calld for, and the pro-
prietors resolvd to enlarge and continue it. In doing so, they
Spoilt it; for, though they added a great deal of relevant matter by
Stowel, Hooker, &c., they let Francis Thynne especially pitchfork-
in a shoal of irrelevant bits of pedigrees, biographies, &c., which had
no right in such a book, except perhaps as appendixes. As I've said
in my Forewords to Thynne's Animadversions, p. lxv —
“When he came on a High Constable, Cardinal, Archbishop,
Duke, in Holinshed, or Stow's or Hooker's Continuation, he evi-
dently said, ‘Happy thought, let's have a list of all English Cardi-
mals, Archbishops, Dukes, &c.,’ and accordingly collected the lists,
and stuck them into the History, or narrative, over and over again,
whisking the reader off, at a moment's notice, from the middle of
Elizabeth's reign (say) to Edward the Confessor, or William the
Conqueror, and then running him gently down a list of Archbishops,
say, for sixty odd folio pages, till he landed him in Elizabeth again.”
Well, Harrison had to enlarge his Description of England, and he
did so.” His additions comprise many excellent and characteristic
bits—see, for instance, the tailor and beard passage on p. 169-70,-
yet one must own that a good deal of unnecessary padding was also
put in, as most of that unlucky chapter 21, “Of Waters generallie,”
p. 332-6, already notist. Still, in reprinting the book*, neither
Mr Viles nor I hesitated for a moment in the resolve to print the
second and revisd edition, and mark by Square brackets [ ] the
1 “The other seuen [traitors in Babington's conspiracy] were likewise
executed on the 21 of September [I586] . . . as I haue more at large set downe
in Reign Wolfs and Holinsheds chronicle [the 2nd ed. of 1587].”—J. Stowe,
Annales, ed. I605, p. I22O.
* See at the end of these Forewords (p. xliv) Mr Viles's Comparative Table
of the contents of Book I. in the two editions.
3. By an oversight, this Reprint was set in narrow lines like the Early Eng-
lish Text Society's books, instead of in the longer lines of the New Shakspere
Society’s prose Texts. Neither the printer nor I discoverd the mistake till too
late to set it right. It increases the cost of the book, but leaves a larger margin
to write notes on.
$ 8. No RDEN'S MAP of LonDoN, I 593. xli
parts added in it; and by footnotes the parts alterd or left out.
The reader will thus have before him in the present volume (when
completed by Part II.) the whole of both editions of Books II. and
III. The Description of England, as well as extracts from Book I.
The Description of Britaine.
§ 8. As my main object in reprinting this Harrison for the New
Shakspere Society, is, to enable our Members to realize to them-
selves the England of Shakspere's time, and as the book has very
little about London in it, I thought that a copy of Norden's Map
of London" in 1593, engravd by Van den Keere, would be a most
welcome addition to this volume. The original Map, in the old
surveyor John Norden’s “Speculum Britanniae. The first Parte.
An historicall & chorographicall discription of Middlesex,” . . .
1593,” is somewhat indistinct. I tried hard to persuade our member
Mr Halliwell to let me have, for the Society, a stereotype from his
lately-made cut of it; but as he, to my astonishment, very firmly
refus'd, I got Mr Stephen Thompson to photograph the British
Museum copy of the Map as large as his lens could do it; and
Mr W. H. Hooper has cut it on the wood it was photographt on to,
so that its accuracy is as great as can be attaind.” Our map is thus
bigger and more easy to work with, than Mr Halliwell's. By its
aid we can see how Shakspere rode into London through New
Gate by the Acton and Holborn road; how he walkt up, thro'
Bishops Gate, to Burbage's “The Theatre” (near the site of the
present Standard Theatre at Shoreditch), where no doubt he was
first employd (? I 586); how he got, across Iondon's one bridge,
* “Leur capitalle ville s'appelle Londres en Francoys, en Angloys Zondon, qui
est une fort belle ville, & excellente, & apres Paris Pune des plus belle, grande &
riche, de tout le monde. Et ne fault parler de Lisbonne, ville capitale & metro-
politaine de Portugal, ny d’Anvers, my de Pampelune, ville de Navarre, my de
Bourgues en Hespaigne, my Naples, ny autres, ny en grandeur my en richesses :
car premierement, la ville est riche en grosserie de mer, draps, laines, pescheries;
& il y a un des [plus] beau pont qu'il soyt au monde.”—1558. Estienne Perlin,
AXescription des Royaulmes d’Angleferre et d'Aºscosse, p. 6, repr. 1775.
* The author's original MS. of it, without the Map, is Harleian 570.
* As our page just takes in the height of the Map itself, I've had the list of
references to the Map-letters and numbers, shifted from the foot of the Map,
where they are in the original, to each side. The list is repeated on each side
for convenience' sake. As too it seemd a great pity that a Map so interesting to
Shakspere students, dwellers in London, and folk in general, should be confind
to our Members, I have got the proprietors of The Groft/lic to buy an electro-
type of our cut, in order that the Map may be printed in one of the sixpenny
numbers of that popular journal, and thus be within the reach of everybody who
cares to have it.
xlii § 8. MAPs' AND VIEws For NEXT PART.
to The Globe (built A.D. 1599)” on Bankside,” or later in his
career, past St Paul's (No. 11) to Blackfriars (after 1603), when he
was part-taker of the profits of both houses. Shakspere's London
What crowds of memories the phrase, the map, raises | But each of
us can make his picture for himself.” I need only say that I hope
to give in Part II, Norden's Map of Westminster and the Strand,
the street-view of either Edward VI's (1547), or Marie de Medicis's
(1638) procession*—wonderfully interesting they both are—and also
one or two Maps of Shakspere's probable routes to London", com-
1 Therefore not in a 1593 map. Unluckily too “The Theatre’ is outside the
limits of this map. But Lord Southampton's Chancery-Lane House must be
near 2, and Shakspere's publishers in St Paul's Churchyard, near No. II.
* On the light-taylde huswives who in 1600 “unto the Banke-sides round-
house [? the Globe] fling, in open sight, themselves to show and vaunt,” see John
Lane, in my Tell-Troth volume, p. 133, and the Notes on him.
3 Still, we sadly want a good book on it. The late Mr Thornbury's is too
talky, doesn’t give authorities enough, and is not comprehensive enough either.
We want a man of more research, knowledge, and accuracy, to write the book.
* This most interesting engraving of a bit of London near Shakspere's time
that I’ve seen, is in Nichols's reprint, 1775, of the Sieur de la Serre's account
of the entry into London of the Mother of Charles I's Queen in 1638. It gives a
large bit of Cheapside, from before Wood St to past Milk St, with the procession
in the foreground, and the Cross and Standard, and shows admirably the old
houses, with each story projecting over the lower, the windows filld with citizens,
their usually open shops below, boarded up and coverd with hangings, the shop-
signs sticking out on poles from the first floor. Nichols says, p. 31 n., that this
and the [engraving from the burnt] picture at Cowdry of the procession of Edw.
VI through the City on the day before his coronation, are the only views left of
old London before the fire (excepting Wyngrerde's, Smith's (Sloane MS. 2596),
and Braun's, with Aggas's map, &c.).
* Harrison gives the stages of only the Oxford-London part of one of Shak-
spere's two roads to London, p. 248, col. i., ed. I587 :—
“From London to Uxbridge or Colbrooke 15. mileſs]
From Uxbridge to Baccansfield* 7. miles
From Baccansfield to east Wickham f 5. miles
From Wickham to Stocking church 5. miles
From Stocking church to Thetisford í 5. miles
From Thetisford to Whatleie Š 6. miles
From Whatleie to Oxford 4. miles"
Ogilby gives the whole other road to Stratford, through Uxbridge, Chalfont, Amers-
ham, Great Missenden, Wendover, Aylesbury, East Claydon, Buckingham,
Shroughton, Banbury, Drayton (over Edge Hill), Nether Pillerton, and Upper
Eatington.
Mr Wheatley, who has lately walkt the Stratford-Oxford bit—over Clopton's
Bridge, thro' Shipston, Long Compton, and Woodstock,-says the road is very
* Beaconsfield. # East or High Wycombe (or Chipping (Market) Wycombe).
{ Tetsford. § Wheatley.
§ 9. THANKS To MY HELPERs. PostscripT. xliii
pil'd from Norden's maps, Ogilby's Roads, &c. Mr Halliwell
will, I hope, soon produce his monograph on these routes, for
which he says he has many very interesting details and draw-
ings. Meantime, our friend and member Mr Henry B. Wheatley,
long a student of London ancient and modern, has kindly drawn
up the “Notes on Norden's Map of London, 1593,” which form
the Third Appendix to these Forewords. The Second contains some
interesting extracts about English folk from Hentzner, Estienne
Perlin, and Mr Brenchley Rye's authorities in his England as seen
by Foreigners in the days of Queen Elizabeth, a book that all our
Members should buy.
§ 9. The pleasant duty remains of thanking my helpers in
this book: Mr Viles, who was to have edited it with me when
its publication was first resolvd on for the Early English Text
Society, who lent his copy of the first edition of 1577 for colla-
tion with my second of (1586 or) 1587, and who drew up the
Comparative Table of Book I., p. xliv; –Mr W. M. Gibbs for making
that collation, and Miss L. Toulmin Smith for verifying it; Dr R.
C. A. Prior (author of the admirable Popular Mames of British
Alants, 2nd ed. 1870), for his notes on the names of trees and
plants; Colonel Chester, for his will of Harrison, &c.; Mr Rye for
letting me quote his translations; the Dean of Windsor and Doctor
Scott; Mr Hooper, for the trouble he has taken about Norden's
map, and Mr H. B. Wheatley for his comment on it.
F. J. FURNIVALL.
3 St, George's Square, Primrose Hill,
Alondon, AW. W., 13 July, 1876.
P.S. If any readers can send me Notes and illustrative ex-
tracts for Harrison, I hope they will. When our Shakspere's-Eng-
land Series is complete, or has a fairly long set of books in it, I
hope some Members 'll volunteer to make an Index to the whole,
like that most useful one to all the Parker Society’s books. We
could have a volume of Notes to the whole too. Meantime each
book 'll be indext separately. te
pretty. So is all the Wycombe and Beaconsfield part, which I’ve known from
boyhood, my uncle having livd near Wycombe, and then at Finchers near Mis-
Senden and Amersham.
xliv
Comparative Table of the Chapters of Book I, in the two editions
of Harrison's Description of Britaine (by Ed. VILEs).
Ed. 1577. (Heads of Chapters.)
Ed. 1586 or 1587. (The Table.)
CHAP. LINES CHAP.
I. Of the diuison of the whole earth.
I. Of the Scituation and quan- 2. Of the position, circuit, forme,
titie of the Isle of Britayne. Ioo and quantitie of the Ile of
Britaine.
II. Of the auncient names of this 3. Of the ancient denominations
Islande. 228 of this Iland.
III. What sundry Nations haue 4. What sundrie nations haue
inhabited in this Islande. 2OO dweiled in Albion.
IV. Whether it be likely that there 5. Whether it be likelie that anie
were euer any Gyaunts in- giants were, and whether they
habiting in this Isle or not. 345 inhabited in this Ile or not.
V. Of the generall Language 6. Of the languages spoken in this
vsed from time to time in Iland.
Britaine. I8o
VI. Into how many Kingdomes 7. Into how manie kingdoms this
the Isle of Britaine hath Iland hath beene diuided.
bene deuided at once in
olde time. 34o
8. The names of such kings and
princes as haue reigned in
this Aland.
VII. Of the auncient Religion vsed 9. Of the ancient religion used in
in this Islande from the Albion.
comming of Samothes vnto
the conuersion of the same
wnto the faith of Christ. IOOO
VIII. Of the number and names of Io. Of such Ilands as are to be seene
such salt Islands as lye dis- upon the coasts of Britairie.
persed rounde about vppon
the coast of Brytaine. I7oo
II. Of riuers, and first of the
Thames and such reuers as
fall into it.
IX. Of the rysing and falles of 12. Of such streames as fall into the
such ryvers and streames, Sea, betweene the Thames and
as descende into the sea the mouth of Sauerne.
without alteration of their
names, and first of those
that lye betweene the
Thames and the Saverne. 1650
X. Of the Saverne streame, and 13. The description of the Sauerne
such falles of ryuers us go and such waters as discharge
into the Sea, betweene it themselves into the same.
and the Humber. I3OO
XI. Of such Riuers as fall into I4. Of such waters as fall into the
the Sea betweene Humber sea in compasse of the Iland,
to the Thames. [See chap. betweene the Sauerne and the
I6 opp.] I IOO Humber.
XII. Of the foure hyhe wayes
sometyme made in Bry-
taine, by the Princes of this
Lande. [See ch. 19, p.
xlv.]+ 26o
15. The description of the Humber
or Isis, and such zuater-colºrses
as doo increase hir chanell.
I6. Of such fals of waters as ioine
LINES
16o
I3o
3OO
44O.
675
3ra
450
3OO.
I5OO
with the sea betweene Humber
and the Thames.
2325
IISO
232S
S3O
3075
lo8o
I2OO
contents of HARRIson's DESCRIPTION OF BRITAINE, NOTE. xlv.
CHAP. Ed. 1577. LINEs CHAP. Ed. 1586 or 1587. LINEs
17. Of such ports and creeks as our
sea-faring men doo note for
their benefit w/om the coasts of
England. IOO
XIII. Of the ayre and soyle of 18. Of the aire soile, and commo-
Britaine. 360 dities of this Iland. 525
19.f. Of the foure high waies some-
time made in Britaine by the
princes of this Iland. 3OO
XIV. Of the generall constitution 20. Of the generall constitution of
of the bodyes of the Bry- the bodies of the Britons. 24O
taines. w I2O -
XV. How Britayne grew at the 2r. How Britaine at the first grew
first to be deuided into to be diuided into three por-
three portions. I2O tions. II5
XVI. That notwithstanding the 22. After what manner the soue-
former diuision made by reigntie of this Ile dooth re-
Brute vnto his children the maine to the princes of Lhoe-
souereigntie of the whole gres or kings of England. 26o
Islande remained still to
the prince of Lhoegres and
his posteritie after him. I8oo
XVII. Of the wall sometime buylded 23. Of the wall sometime builded
for a particion betweene for a partition betweene Eng-
Englande and the Pictes. I3O land and the Picts and Scots. 15o
24. Of the maruels of England (ch.
I8, bk. II. I577) 38o
Total lines Io,933 Total lines 18, oz2
In Ed. 1577, bk. I. comprises 17 chaps. or Io,933 lines.
, , , , 1586, , , , , , , 24 , I8,022 , ,
Aarrison, p. 3OO, 305, 343, 242. Massinger, in his Guardian, II. iv, gives
his list of enemies to the commonwealth in 1633. Severino's articles for the
Banditti are :-
The cormorant that lives in expectation
Of a long wisht-for dearth, and, smiling, grinds
• The faces of the poor, you may make spoil of ;
Even theft to such is justice . . . .
The grand encloser of the commons, for
His private profit or delight, with all
His herds that graze upon ’t, are lawful prize . . .
. . . . . . . . . . If a usurer,
Greedy, at his own price, to make a purchase,
Taking advantage upon bond or mortgage
From a prodigal, pass through our territories,
In the way of custom, or of tribute to us,
You may ease him of his burthen . . .
Builders of iron-mills, that grub up forests,
With timber trees for shipping . . .
The owners of dark shops, that vent their wares
With perjuries; cheating vintners, not contented
With half in half in their reckonings, yet cry out,
When they find their guests want coin, “’Tis late, and bed-time”:
These ransack at your pleasures.
On the other men, those to be left untoucht, he says:–
. . . . . . . . . . . . scholars,
Whose wealth lies in their heads, and not their pockets;
Soldiers that have bled in their country's service;
The rent-rackt farmer, needy market folks ;
The sweaty labourer, carriers that transport
The goods of other men, are privilegå . . .
gº
xlvi
APPENDIX I.
/
HARRISON'S CHRONOLOGY EXTRACTS.
APPENDIX II,
HENTZNER EXTRACTS, &c.
APPENDIX III.
MR WHEATLEY’s NOTES
ON NORD EN'S MAP OF LONDON, 1593.
xlvii
APPENDIX I.
EXTRACTS FROM HARRISON'S CHRONO/LOGIE.
tº g º º m
Vol. ii, or Part II : “The hexameron or worke done in those
sixe daies wherein the worlde was created & furnished, by the worde
of the Lorde vnto which I adde the first Sabaoth as the vij".”
Vol. iii or Part III: “The third part of this Chronologie Con-
teining a iust periode of time, bitwene the birth of Christ our saviour,
& manifest apparauns of the man of sinne, who beganne to showe him-
self about the conquest of England by the Normans, having thetherto
shrowded himself as a foxe, in secrete ; but from thensforth appearing in
his colours, he practizeth to bring all thinges vnder his subjection, not
onely by craft and crueltie, but now & then with more then Pharaonicall
tyrranny, as shalbe sene in the next volume | Of this coming of our
Saviour Christ, Seneca sometime said thus: ‘procrebuerat oriente toto
vetus & constans opinio esse in fatis, vteo tempore a Judea profecti rerunt
summa potierentur,’ wherein he yeldeth to the time, althoughe he halt in
the matter secured by the Jewes.”
The heading opposite the first leaf of vol. iv, or Part IV of Harrison's
Chronology, is, “The fourth and last part of the Chronology, Con-
teining the periode of time from the comming of the Normans vnto the
yere of expectation, which is of grace 1588. expired, wherin the age of
the world Ronnneth all by fire, And whereof I finde these verses written
in older times, & brought to light by Johannes Regiomontanus :
“Post mille expletos a partu virginis Annos,
Et post quingentos rursus ab Orbe datos,
Octuagesimus octavus, mirabilis annus
Ingruit; is secum tristia fata trahet,
Si non hoc anno totus malus occidit orbis,
Sinon in nihilum terra fretumque ruant,
Cuncta tamen mundi Sursum ibant atque deorsum
Imperia, et Luctus undique grandis erit.”
xlviii HARRIson’s CHRQNOLOGIE. CHAUCER. [APP. I.
Or thus out of Cip. Leovitius :
‘Mille Salutis agat quingentos mundus et annos
Octavus decies, bisque quaternus eat,
Et tibi vel mundi ruitura notabitur aetas,
Omnia vel miris cladibus acta cadent.’”
See the first set of lines in my note 2, p. 151, of The New Shakºffere
Society's Transactions, 1875-6, on this dangerous year, I 588, when most
terrible events were to happen, even if the world wasn't to come to an
end. But, as Gabriel Harvey said, “The wonder was, no wonder fell
that yere.”
From the Chronologie I take a few extracts" as to home matters,
leaving the larger ones of the world's history for the Camden Society to
print, if it will —
Glanville, Zangland.
1370. Diuers Lerned English men do flourish in these daies, as
Jhon Stafford . . . . . Bartholomew Glandevil also, of the race of the
dukes of Suffolke, writeth his boke ‘de proprietatibus rerum,’ ‘de rerum
accidentibus, de Sanctis de mundo et coelestibus,’ his “postelles’ & his
‘sermons; ” Robert Langland also, & William Rede the profound as-
tronomer & bishop of Chichester do also live & write ; & with them
Jhon Killingworth & Simon Bredon, very skilfull men in the mathemat- -
icalles, & sometime fellowes of Merton” College in Oxford with William
Rede, as were also Philip Repingdoune & Jhon Ashedon. . . .
Chaucer.
14OI. Geffray Chaucer esquire, & the most excellent poete of his
time, writeth his epistle of Cupide,3 & Sone after endeth his life. How
well he was beloued of king Richard, the gift of his pencion of 20" & a
tonne of wine to be chosen for him yerely during his life by the kinges
cheef butler, anno 22, onely in respect of his lerning and poesies, do
esily declare. King Henry the 4* added hereunto 40 markes in the first
of his reigne. Vnto Jhon Gower, the said Henry also gaue two pipes of
wine & 20" yerely during his life, not only in consideration of his lerned
trauaill in poetry, but also of his profound skill in musike; & euen so
had Jhon Harding the Chronicler, 20" yerely during [the] life of Henry
the 6 || & so moche also of his successor Ed. 4. . . . (Stowe's Annals,
1605, p. 527-8.)
1 I put capitals to the proper names, &c. of the MS.
2 See p. xi, note 3. This again looks as if Harrison was at Merton. Where else
could he have had Rede's ‘Collections' P
3 The poem extant with this title, isn't Chaucer's. I4or should be 14oo.
App. 1.] HARRIson's CHRONOLOGIE. HIs BIRTH. ANNE BoLEYN. xlix
Azeme Boleyn.
1531. King Henry marieth the Lady Anne Bollein vpon the 14 of
November, which Lady liued with him in a daungerous season, having
Quene Catherine & her frendes, her predecessor, her deadly enemies, the
clergy her extreme aduersaries, because of her relligion, for she was a
Lutherane, & finally the most parte of the nobility her foes, because
they could not digest of the diuorse of y" king from his first wife, & ther-
fore no merueill that she came to a violent end. he that penned the
act of her atteindure ware a shaven crowne, & therfore no merveill that
it was so odious & virulent, as was also her exemption, performed by a
butcherly miser. . . .
1532. Vpon the first of June, being sondaie (or whit sondaie) the king
of England causeth his wife quene Anne to be solemnely crowned at
London, to the great displeasure of the clergy, who feared the ouerthrow
of their whole relligion by her meanes, because she was altogether geuen
to the reading & stodie of the scriptures & soche treatizes as Luther,
Oecolampadius, Zwinglius had set furth. it is left in certaine & sound
record that her almes, within the space of 9 monethes, amounted to 15000"
sterling, so gretly was she bent to the succour & releef of the pore, &
soche as were in trouble for the Gospell . . . . (Słowe, ed. I605, p. 953-7.)
Pſarrison’s birth.
1534. The Author of this boke is borne, vpon the 18 of Aprill, hora
II, minut 4, Secunde 56, at London, in Cordwainer streete, otherwise
called “bowe lane” in the [crosst thro’: house next to the holly lambe
toward chepeside in the] parish of St Thomas the Apostle.
Ring Henry 8 polleth his hed; after whom, his household & nobility,
with the rest of his subiectes do the like, in this 9" Jubile which is holden
also at this season | . . . .
Anne Boleyn at the Tower.
I535. Anne, quene of England, is accused, condemned, & executed,
within the space of 14 daies, her execution being performed vpon the 19
of maie, & the king mourning for her in white | ere long also he mariethe
the Lady Jane, daughter to Sir Jhon Seymour knight, & one of her
maides, by whome he had issue, prince Edward that succeded him in the
kingdome. When Quene Anne came first prisoner to the towre, she was
brought thether by the duke of Norffolke, who delt very roughely with
her, in so moche that when she came out of her barge, to take the land,
& loked after her, who should take vp her traine (which service no body
HARRISON. d
l HARRIson's CHRONOLOGIE. ENGLISH BIBLE. [APP. I.
tendered) & therfore was moued to staie, that she might take it vp her
self, he called to her, & bad her come awaie, wishing that she had neuer
bene borne, with other speche vttered in the grosest maner, & then went
furth vnto the bridge, where she staied againe, & with sigheing teares said
thus vnto the duke : “hether I came ones, my Lord, to fetche a crowne
imperiall; but now, to receaue, I hope, a crowne immortall. The Lord
forgeue the causers of my ruine; for in truth it is my gaine, thoughe to
the world it maie seeme to be my hinderauns; & howsoeuer you Judge of
me, my Lord, yet shall I die your lawfull quene, & true spouse vnto the
king my husband.” . . . .
English Bible. Parish Registers.
1537. The great english bible is printed & finished in Paris, notwith-
standing that the frenche king did hinder it to his powre, confiscating
25oo of them, to the gret losse of Soche as bare the charges . . . .
Commaunderment is geuen thorow out the Land that euery parishe
churche shall haue a register booke wherin the names of soche as are
baptized, maried, & buried, shalbe registered. & some after the Abbay of
S’ Augustine in Cauntorbury is suppressed, & the priory of Christes-
churche there also, where the commissioners found his [St Augustine's]
bones & scull, which were burned by the commaundement of the Lord
Cromwell in the same Churche, & the monkes inforced to chaunge their
habites, or els to departe from thens [ . . . . &
The great Englishe Bible is presented to king Henry the 8, who
authorizeth the same to be redde of all his Subiectes. Sone after, another
translation is rendered vnto him by the Lerned Coverdale, with desire
also that it might be published; wherupon the king committed it to the
perusall of diuers bishops, who, making no hast withall, kept it so long
in their handes, till the king being put in minde thereof, called for the
booke, & then demaunding how they liked thereof, whether there were any
faultes escaped, or heresie conteined, therin, they answered that their were
many faultes escaped therin. ‘Yea,’ quoth the king, “I am informed
alredy that the printer hath not done his duety; but is there any heresie in
it?’ ‘No, & it maie like your grace,’ said they. “Then let it goe abroade
in Goddes name,” said the king, “for our people haue nede of many soche
bokes ; & one translation maie proue an helpe vnto another, where
cometeries be wanting.” thus the bishops justified that which they hated,
& were authors of the publication of that which they themselues mis-
liked ; but in mine opinion I am perswaded that they did neuer peruse
it. | . . . . . -
App. 1.] HARRison's CHRONOLOGIE. HARRIs on AT ST PAULs school. li
Pronunciation of Greek.
1541. Great trouble in the Vniuersities of England about the pro-
nunciation of the Greke tour.g. m. William Cecill, afterward Sir William
Cecill & lord highe Threasurer of England, mº Jhon Cheke, afterward
Sir Jhon Cheke, & mº Thomas Smithe, afterward Sir Thomas Smithe,
& other of the lerned sort, mainteining the new pronunciation vsed by
Erasmus, as the most auncient, easie, & familier, to attaine vnto the
true writing or orthographie of that language. against these, Doctor
Stephen Gardiner, then bishop of Winchester & chancellour of the vni-
uersity of Camebridge, opposeth himself-a mant not greatly seene in
that tounge,_&, vpon complaint made by the oldest sort of studentes,
in defence of the old pronunciacion, imprisoneth, expelleth, disgradeth,
& ponisheth the studentes there, very greuously, till order was taken
wherby, vnto our times, the new pronunciation was not onely permitted,
but in time so allowed of, that the old is not now so moche as scasely
knowen nor hard of in any of them bothe. Doctor Camus, the phisicien,
semeth not to like of this chaunge, in his description of Cambridge,
when, in reproche, he calleth Sir Jhon Cheke “Cecum ludimagistrum ',
& Sir Thomas Smithe ‘insanum consiliarum' &c. alas, a pore revenge
to procede from soche a clerke as he ; see I 550 for soche another brall
in Fraunce. . . . [I don't see any such entry.]
Płażrrisozz at St Paul’s School.
1544. Vpon the 18 of October, the Letany in thenglish tourg is, by
the kinges commaundement, song openly in Pawles at London ; & Com-
maundement geuen that it should be song in the same toung thorow out
all England. it was vsed in London, in some parish church, euen
sithens June in the yere expired ; & the children of Pawles schole,
whereof I was one at that time", inforced to buy those bookes, wherwith
we went in generall procession, as it was then appointed, before the king
went to Bullen [Boulogne]. (Stowe's Annals, 1605, p. 988.)
Brothels put down.
1545. The Stewes & publike bordell houses about London & in other
places of England, are abolished, & so continue vntill the time of Quene
Mary; in whose daies, some of the Clergy made labour to haue them
1 As Cordwainer St is so near St Paul's School, and Harrison in 1544 was only Io
or 11, he may well have been at this school before going to Westminster. But Mr
Lupton of St Paul's School warns me that Harrison may refer to the school of the
Cathedral, which was older than, and different from, the present ‘St Paul's School'
founded in 1512-18 (Carlisle).
lii HARRISON'S CHRONOLOGIE. PRIESTs’ children. [APP. 1.
restored againe; & were very likely to haue obteined their sute if she had
liued a while longer; soche trees, soche frute : ‘for the stewes,’ saith one
of them in a Sermon made at Paules crosss, “are so necessary in a comon
welth, as a iaxe in a mannes house :’ his name I spare, Sith it shall suf-
fice that it beginneth with the same letter that papa dothe / . . ."
Priests’ Children.
1550. Priestes Children are made legittimate by acte of parliament
in England, which were neuer found illegittimate by any the like
authority ; but this Act was repealed by generall wordes in the time of
Quene Mary, & is not as yeat revived; nether is it gretly necessary,
sithe we in our time do refuse to be anointed & shaven preestes, as these
were whose mariages onely are inhibited by the pope ; moreouer it,is no
necessary Sute in our daies that our children should be made legittimate
by mannes law, who, by the law of God, are so lawfull as those of other
men of any other vocation ; besides this, euen by the pontificall Canons
wee are reputed but for Laie men ; & why should we then sew as the
popes clerkes, to have our children no bastardes. [See Forewords, p. xiii.]
A Sacrilegious Sow. Protestami Oysterboards.
I552. Vpon the 23 of August, the highe altar of Christes churche in
Oxforde was trimly decked vp after the popish maner; & about the
middest of euensong, a sow cometh into the quire, & pulled all to the
ground ; for which heinous fact, it is said that she was afterward be-
hedded ; but to that I am not priuie. It is a world to see also, how redy
the Catholikes were to cast the communion tables out of their churches,
which in derision they called ‘ Oysterbordes,’ & to set vp altars wherem
to saie masse. & no lesse busie were our clergy & Iawyers, of their
owne motion, & without law, to blot the title of Supremacy out of her
majesties stile; whereat some of them in our time can take advauntage to
their owne benefite, as nothing that was done being of force wherin the
title was so altered, or before it was remoued by authority of the parlia-
ment &c. . . .
Sleidan. Harrison's opinion of Surius, &c.
1555. Ihon Sleidane, the lerned historiographer, made an end of his
1 Under 1545 Harrison says, “In this yere also good fridaie fell on St Georges
daie, & I do well remember it."
Under 1552, when entering the Three great Marriages, in June, of the Duke
of Suffolk's three daughters: Lady Jane Grey to Lord Guildford Dudley ; Lady
Catherine Grey, her sister, to Lord Herbert ; and Lady – Grey, the youngest sister,
to Lord Hastings, Harrison says, “1587, when I did write this note.” Under 1551
he puts “Leland ye noble antiquary dieth of a phrenesy.Vpon yº 18 of Aprill.”

App. 1.] HARRIson's CHRONOLOGIE, DEARTH, &c. IN ENGLAND. ltii
ºrrºs
daies vpon the 31 of October passed; whose history, Gropper & Billicus
haue offered to confute; but they must tarry till this generacion be con-
sumed, lest otherwise they maie happen to be taken for impudent liers.
Surius also barketh at many thinges in his booke, but as yet he hath not
absolutely condemned any one of error, notwithstanding that he braggeth
to haue found not one lesse then 12000 lies in the bodie of that historie;
but I suppose that Surius neuer nombred the periodes of his Chronicle.
as for his owne addition to Nauclerus, it is soche a Chaos, & so tempered
with phrenesy & Meloncholy, that whoso readeth it with indifferent
iudgement, shall sone find his humour, & conclude, that in all that sup-
plemext, he neither regardeth truth nor honesty. . .
Pearth and Sickness in England.
1556. Iłerth in England, wherin wheat is worthe lijsh: iiijd the
quarter; malt, beanes, Rie, at 40 sh: ; & peased at 46 shillinges; but
after harvest, wheate was sold for 5 shillinges the quarter, malt at a noble,
Rie at 3 sh: 4 d. in London; & therefore the price was not so highe in
the country. . .
Soche was the plenty of Saffrom in this yere, that the murmuring
Crokers envielag the store, said in blasphemous maner, in & aboute
Waldon in Essex,” that “God did now shite saffron’; but as Some of
them died afterward, starke beggers, so in 20 yeres after, there was so
litle of this Commodity, that it was almost lost & perished in England. . .
A generall sickenesse in England, where-of the third parte of the
people of the land did tast; & many clergymen had their desire, who,
suspecting an alteration in religion to insue after the death of Quene
Mary, & fearing to be called to accompt for their bloodshed made, &
practize of £he losse ef Calais, craved of God in their daiely praiers, thet
they might die before her; & so they did ; the Lord hearing their
praiers, & intending therby to geue his churche a breathing time. . . .
Pſarrison on Reſigious Hatred.
156c. The French Protestantes are exiled out of Frankeford, Aprilis
23, onely for that, in doctrine, they did not agree with Luther, the Augus-
tane confession, pacification at Wittenberg, & reconciliatioſt made at
Frankeford: a slender cause, God wote? If it be well examined, you shall
find it a thing omely diuised, thereby to put their brethren to incum-
brauns, But when I consider what hatred the Lutheranes do bere vnto
the Calvinistes, & the Precisians to the Protestantes, I tan-liken the
same to nothing better then that marlice which reigneth betwene the
papistes & the gospellers. . . .
* See as to this, Bk 3, my Pt 2, of the Description of England, & Grenville MS. LV.
liv HARRIson's CHRONOLOGIE. PLAYS AND THEATREs. [APF. I.
The Søire of St Paul’s struck by Lightning.
1560. The Rooffe, with the Spire & steple of Paules church in
London, is consumed to ashes, Junij 4, by lightning. Certes the toppe
of this Spire, where the wethercocke stode, was 520 foote from the
ground, of which the spire was the one halfe. the bredth of the church
also, Saith Stow, is 130 foote, & the length 2690, or 836 yardes, 2 foote, at
this present. Also an erthquake is felt in the kingdome... (Stowe, p. Io95.)
Queen Elizabeth at Oxford. “Palamon and Arcite.”
1565. The Queene of England beginneth hir progresse, & vpon the
31 of August cometh to Oxford, where she visiteth eche college after
other, & making an oration winto them in Latine, as she had done in
Cambridge two yeres passed, to the gret comfort of all soche as are, Oº
had bene, studentes there. During her being there also the Academicall
exercises were holden as in their vsuall termes. Diuerse Commedies &
plaies also were set forthe by the studentes of Christes Church, where
her Majestie lodged ; but of all the rest, onely that of “Arcite & Pale-
mon “” had a tragicall successe; for, by the fall, of a walle & wooden
gallery that leadeth from the staiers vnfinished to the hall, diuers persons
were sore hurt, & 3 men killed out right, which came to behold the pas-
times. [This paragraph takes up seven lines, and 1% inch of the height,
of Harrison’s MS.; so close is the writing.] . . . .
Evils of Plays and Z'heatres”.
1572. Plaies are banished for a time out of London, lest the resort
wnto them should ingender a plague, or rather disperse it, being alredy
begonne. Would to god these comon plaies were exiled for altogether,
as semenaries of impiety, & their theaters pulled downe, as no better
then houses of baudrie. It is an euident token of a wicked time when
plaiers were so riche that they can build 3 suche houses | As moche I
* Compare the later, and no doubt distinct, Two Woële Kinsmen by Shakspere and
Fletcher.
* See the notes on Theatres in Appendix II below; also the notes to John Lane
in my Tell-Trothe volume.
* Unless this can be shown to have been written later, it must modify Mr Halli-
well's argument and statement, in his Illustrations, p. 36, 42, against the early theatres
and houses—those before “The Theatre” (Burbage's) in 1576—being “built” for
play-acting. He says, p. 36, “In Northbrooke's Treatise, 1577-8, Youth asks,—
‘doe you speake against those places also whiche are made uppe and builded for such
playes and enterludes, as the Theatre and Curtaine is, and other Suche lyke places
besides P’ By ‘other suche lyke places,’ that is, similar places, the writer perhaps
alludes [or perhaps does not] to houses or taverns in which interludes were performed,
speaking of such buildings generally, the construction Qf the sentence not necessarily
APP. I.] HARRISGN's CHRONOLOGIE. To BACCO. - lv
wish also to our comox beare baitinges vsed on the sabaothe daies.’
2 obacco.
1573. In these daies, the taking-in of the smoke of the Indian herbe
called “ Tabaco,” by an instrument formed like a litle ladell, wherby it
passeth from the mouth into the hed & stomach, is grettie taken-vp
& vsed in England, against Rewmes & some other diseases ingendred in
the longes & inward partes, & not without effectſ. This herbe as yet is
not so comon, but that for want thereof diuers do practize for the like
purposes with the Nicetian, otherwise called in latine, “Hyosciamus
Luteus,” or the yellow henbane, albeit, not without gret error; for, al-
thoughe that herbe be a souerene healer of old vicers & sores reputed
incurable outwardly, yet is not the smoke or vapour thereof so profitable
to be receaued inwardly. The herbe [Tobacco] is commonly of the height
of a man, garnished with great long leaues like the paciens,” bering
seede, coloured, & of quantity like vnto, or rather lesse then, the fine
margeronie; the herbe it self yerely coming vp also of the shaking of
the seede, the collour of the floure is carnatioſt, resembling &kat of the
implying that he refers to other edifices &ailt especialty for dramatic representations.”
(Yet surely the fair and natural inference from the words is that the ‘other lyke places”
were built for the same purpose as ‘the Theatre and Curtaine.") Again, at p. 42,
“When Gosson, in his Playes Congfuted, c. 1589, speaks of “Cupid and Psyche plaid
at Paules, and a greate many comedies more at the Blackefriers and in every playe house
in London,’ he anquestionably refers to houses or taverns temporarily employed for the
performances alluded to.” And, after quoting Rawfidge's Monster Late Found oat,
R628,-‘‘some of the pious magistrates made humble suit to the late Queene Elizabeth
of ever-living memorie, and her Privy Counsaile, and obteined leave from her Majesty
to thrust those players out of the Citty, and to pull downe the dicing houses; which
accordingly was affected; and the play-houses in Gracious street, Bishopsgate street,
nigh Paules, that on Ludgate hill, the Whitefriars, were put downe, and other lewd
houses quite supprest within the liberties, by the care of those refigious senators"—
. Mr Halliwell says, “The ‘play-houses’ in Gracious or Gracechurch Street, Bishops-
gate Street, and on Ludgate Hill, were the yards respectively of the well-known
taverns called the Cross Keys, the Bull, and the Belle Savage.* There is no good
zeason for believing that the other ‘play-houses' mentioned, those near St. Paul's
and in the Whitefriars, were, at the period alluded to, other than buildings made
for the representation of plays, not edifices expressly constructed fºr the purpose.”
1 See Crowley's Epigrams on this, E. E. T. Soc. p. 17.
? Passions or Patience, a dock so called, apparently from the Italian name under
which it was introduced from the South, Lapagio, a corruption of L. lapathum, having
teen mistaken for la Passio, the Passion of Jesus Christ, Rumex Patientia, L. Dr
Trior, Popular Names of British Plants, p. 175.
* He quotes from Flecknoe's Short Discourse of the English Stage, 1664, “about
the beginning of queen Elizabeths reign they began here to assemble into companies
and set up theaters, first in the city, as in the inn-yards of the Cross-Keyes and Bull,
in Grace and Bishopsgate street, at this day is to be seen.”—Illustrations, p. 43.
:
hyi HARRISON's CHRONOLOGIE, LONE ON BRIDGE TOWER. [APP. 1.
lemmon in forme: the roote yellow, with nany fillettes, & therto very
Small in comparison, if you respect the substauns of the herbe."
A monstrous fish.
I 573. A monstrous fish is taken in Thenet vpon the xj" of July, of 66
foote in length ; one of whose eies was a full cart Iode, & the diameter
or thickenesse thereof, full two yardes, or 6 of our english feete. . . .
Alondon Bridge Tower.
I576. The towre on the drawe bridge vpon london bridge is taken
downe in Aprill, being in great decaie ; & some after made a pleasaunt
& beautifull dwelling house | & whereas the heddes of soche as were
executed for treason were wont to be placed vpon this towre, they were
now remoued, & fixed ouer the gate which feadeth from Southwarke”
into the citie by that bridge. . . . -
A great Snowstorm.
1578. A Cold winter, & ere long there falleth a great snow in Eng-
hand, whose driftes, in many places, by reason of a Northest winde, were
so depe that the mere report of them maie seeme incredible. It beganne
in the 4 of feb : & held on vntill the 8 of the same moneth ; during
which time some men & women, beside cattell, were lost, & not heard of
till the Snow was melted & gone, notwithstanding that some shepe &
1 The use of tobacco spread very fast in England, to the disgust of Barnaby Rich,
James I., and many others. Rich, in The Homestie of this Age, 1614, p. 25-6, com-
plains of the money wasted on it. He also contests the fact admitted by Harrison
above, of tobacco doing good ; says it's reported that 7000 houses live by the trade of
tobacco-selling, and that if each of these takes but 2s. 6d. a day,+and probably it
takes 5s.-the sum total amounts to A.399,375 a year, “all spent in Smoake.”
“They say it is good for a cold, for a pose, for rewms, for aches, for dropsies, and
for all manner of diseases proceeding of moyst humours: but I cannot see but that
those that do take it fastest, are as much (or more) subject to all these infirmities (yea,
and to the poxe itself) as those that have nothing at all to do with it. . . .
“There is not so base a groome that commes into an ale-house to call for his pot,
but he must have his pipe of tobacco ; for it is a commoditie that is nowe as vendible
in every taverne, inne, and ale-house, as eyther wine, ale, or beare ; and for apothi-
caries shops, grosers shops, chandlers shops, they are (almost) never without company
that, from morning till night, are still taking of tobacco. What a number are there
besides that doe keep houses, set open shoppes, that have no other trade to live by,
but by the selling of tobacco 1." See Sir John Davies's Epigram “Of Tobacco, XXXVI.'
(Marlowe's Works, ed. Cunningham, p. 268) singing its praises in 1598; and also that
‘In Syllam, XXVIII, p. 267, on the boldness of the man who horrified ‘society' then,
“that dares take tobacco on the stage,” “dance in Paul's,’ &c. (and contrast with him
the capital description of a Gull in Epigram II, p. 263). Also the Epigram 'In Cºpri-
um, XXII,' 1.7, p. 266, col. I.
* See heads stuck on the tops of spears on this bridge gate, in the modern copy of
Wyngrerde's map, the reproduced Aggas, Hondius (1610), in Faithorne, &c.
App. 1.] HARRIson's CHRONOLOGIE, STAFFoRD's consPIRACY. lvii
catle lived vnder it, & fedd in the places where they laie, vpon soche
grasse as they cold come by. Vpon the xj" also of that moneth, the
Thames did rise so highe, after the dissolution of this snow, that west-
minster hall was drowned", & moche fishe left there in the pallace yard
when the water returned to her Channell, for who so list, to gather vp. . .
Plagues of Locusts or Grasshoffers, and Mice.
1583. Great harme done in England in diuerse shires, by locustes, or
“grashoppers’ as we call them, which deuoured the grasse, & consumed
the pastures & medowes in very pitifull maner : soche great nombers
of Crowes also do come into those partes to fede vpon those creatures,
that they tread downe & trample the rest, I meane, whatsoeuer the locust
had left vntouched. Not long before, if not about this time, also some
places of the hundredes in Essex were no lesse annoyed with mise, as
report then went, which did gret hurt to corne & the fruites of the erth,
till an infinite nomber of Owles were assembled into those partes, which
consumed them all to nothing. Certes the report is true; but I am not
sure whether it was in this, or the yere before or after this, for I did not
enter the note when it was first sent vnto me, the lettre being cast aside,
& not hard of after the receipt.
* Stafford’s Conspiracy.
I586. Another Conspiracy is detected vpon Newyeres daie, wherein
the death of our Queene is ones againe intended, by Stafford & other, at
the receipt of her Newyeres giftes; but, as God hath taken vpon him
the defence of his owne cause, so hath he, in extraordinary maner, from
time to time preserued her Majestie, his servant, from the treason & trai-
terotés practizes of her aduersaries, & wonderfully bewraied their diuises.|
4 Star in the Moon. A wet Summer and Autumn.
1587. A Sterre is sene in the bodie of the mone vpon the of
Marche, whereat many men merueiled, & not without cause, for it stode
directly betwene the pointes of her hornes, the mone being chaunged, not
passing 5 or 6 daies before ; & in the later end of the Crabbe after this,
also there insued a very moyst & wet somer, wherby moche haie was lost,
& harvest in the begining grew to be very troublesome there followed
also a like Autume; by meanes wherof, shepe & moche other cattell died
1 flooded.
2 Lady Dorothy Stafford's son, and not the William Stafford who wrote the Com-
Aendious & briefe Examination, 1581. See my Forewords to the Society's edition.
lviii HARRIson's CHRONOLOGIE. SPANISH ARMADA. [APP. I.
in abundant maner in most places of our Iland, wherby the residew grew.
to be very dere . . . (‘a reasonable good haruest for corne.’—Stowe, 1243.)
The first skonses are made in England vpon the borders of the
Thames, & in other places of the land, to kepe the Spanish powre from
entrauns, whose chief purpose is, as most affirme, to invade Kent with
one part of their navie, & to come by the River of Thames to sacke
London with the other | . . .
The Søanish Armada. Leicester’s Death.
I588. The Spanish navie so long loked for, doth now at last show it
self ouer against our coastes, vpon our 20 of July, where it is foughten
withall vpon the morow, onely with 50 saile of our English shipps vnder
the conduct of the lord Admirall & Sir Fraunces Drake ; afterward by
our whole navie of 150 saile, for the space of 2 daies together : in thend
whereof, they are put to flight before Calice, & driven to returne home
about by Scotland, with great losse, so that, of 160 saile & more, which
came out of Spaine, Scasely 40 returned againe in Safety vnto that king ;
God himself so fighting for vs, that we lost not 80 men, neither was there
so moche as one vessell of oures sonke by the enemy, or taken, in all these
skirmishes. In their returne also, & beside those 15 vesselles which they
lost in our seas, 17 other of them did either perish vpon the coast of
Ireland, or, coming thether for succour, were seized vpon also vnto her
Majesties vse. The lieſtenaunt of this great navie was the duke Medina
of Cydonia, & with him were 2 Io noble men, among which, beside the
kinges bastard Sonne, were 2 marquesses, one prince, one duke, 4 erles,
& 3 Lordes, which came to seeke aduentures, & winne honor vpon Eng-
land, as they said ; howbeit, as God would, they neuer touched the land,
nor came nere vnto ozer shore by diuers miles. The duke of Parma
should haue assisted them at this present with 80 or Ioo saile prouided
out of the Low Countries; but being kept in by wether, & a portion of
our navie, & his mariners also forsaking him, he was inforced to staie &
kepe vpon the land, where he abode in Safety, & out of the roring gun-
shot | (Stowe's Aztºtals, 1605, p. 1243–1258.)
Robert, Erle of Leircester, dieth, who in his time became the man
of grettest powre (being but a subject) which in this land, or that euer
had bene exalted vnder any prince sithens the times of Peers Gavestone
& Robert Veer, some time duke of Ireland. Nothing almost was done,
wherein he had not, either a stroke or a commoditie; which, together
1 Will the memory of this do for the Midsummer Wight's Dream contagious fogs,
corn rotted (II. i. 88—Ioo), and empty fold? The rain-floods of 1594 suit better, no
doubt ; see the end of my Stafford Forewords.
APP. I.] HARRIson’s CHRONOLOGIE, THE MAD PARLIAMENT. lix
with his scraping from the churche & comons, spoile of her maiesties
thresure, & sodeine death of his first wife &c. procured him soche inward
envie & hatred, that all men, so farre as they durst, reioysed no lesse
outwardlie at his death, then for the victorie obteined of late against the
Spanish nauie | . . . . (Stowe's Annals, 1695, p. 1259.)
A generall thankesgeuing thorow out England in euery church, for
the victory of the Allmightie geuen by thenglish ouer the Spanish navie;
in which, the Queene her selfe, & her nobility, came to Sº Paules churche
in London, November the 19, where, after she had hard the divine service,
& in her owne person geuen solemne thankes to God, in the hering of
soche as were present, she hard the sermon at the Crosse preached by
the bishop of Sarum, & then dined with the bishop of London in his
pallace thereunto annexed. The kinges of Scotland, Denmarke, Sueden,
Navarra, with the churches of Geneva & diuers other cities of Germany,
had done the like also, a litle while before, in their churches, as we are
credibly informed. The Spanierdes also, indeuoring to hide their re-
prochefull voiage from the eies of their comore people, do triumphe for
their victory obteined ouer the Englishe nation, & send to the pope for a
seconde million of gold, which he bound himself to geue them at their
landing in England, they having alredy receaved the first at their de-
parture from the Groyne in Maie past ; but his intelligencers informed
him, so that he kept his crownes at home | . . . (Stowe, p. 1260.)
The Mad Parliament.
1588. A parliament is holden in London, which some doe call “the
greenemeting,” other, “the madde parliament,” because it consisted, for the
most part, of yong burgesses, picked out of purpose to seruesome secrete
turne against the state present of the clergy; of whome no tale was there
left vntold, that might deface their condicion. In this assembly, billes were
put vp, as it is said, which required that the ministery of England should
be subject to service in the warres, & called to appeare at musters, sizes,
&c. as laie subjectes of the land ; that they should prouide furniture of
armour & munition, according to the seuerall valuation of their livinges;
that eche of them should haue but one living, & be resident vpon the
same; & that all impropriations in Spirituall mens handes onely, should
be restored to the churche, with other like diuises ; but in thend, none
of them all went forward; & right good cause; for hereby most churches
should quickely haue bene without their pastor, the Collegiate & cathe-
drall houses (the chief marke whereat they shot) rellinquished, & some
of the spiritualty more charged then vi of the greattest of the nobility in
the land, whose livinges are not valued in Soche strict maner as those
lx HARRIson's CHRONOLOGIE, PARLIAMENT of FEB. I592-3. [APP. I.
are of the clergy, who also in this parliament are charged with a doble
subsidie to be paid in 6 yeres. (Stowe's Annals, 1605, p. 1261.)
The Parliament of Feb. 1592-3.
[Last entry, in a very tottery hand, 2 months before Harrison's death
or burial on 24 April 1593, six days after he'd ended his 59th year.]
1592. A Parliament beginneth at London, feb. 19 [I592-3], being.
mondaie / many ment looke for many thinges at the handes of the con-
gregates, chiefly the precisiens for the ouerthrow of bishops & all ecclesi-
asticall regiment, and erection of soche discipline as thei themselues
haue prescribed | the Clergy also feared some stoppage of former lawes
provided for the wel [?] painment of their tithes / but all men expect a
generall graunt of money, the cheef end, in our time, of the aforesaid
Assemblies; which being obserued, the rest will sone haue an ende | In
the very begining of this parliament, there were more then IOO of the
lower house, returned for outlawes, I meane, so well of knightes as of
burgesses, & more are daiely loked for to be found in like estate / but is
it not, thinke you, a likely matter, that soche men can be authors of
good lawes, who, for their own partes, will obey no law at all P How
gret frendes the precisiens in ther practizes are to these men, the pos-
session of their desire wold esily declare, if thei might ones obteine it.
[a later entry: the Parliament broke up on A/ri/ Io, 1593, a fortnight
before Harrison's death.] neuerthelesse, in the vpshot of that meting,
it was found, that notwithstanding the money graunted—which was
well nigh yelded vnto, in respect of our generall necessitie—there were
so many good profitable lawes ordeined in this parliament as in any other
that haue passed in former times, the mallicious dealinges also of the
precisians, papistes, & comeling [?] provokers” was not a litle restreigned
in the same, to the gret benefite of the country.
[“The rest is silence."]
1 “The Io. of Aprill the Parliament brake vp at Westminster, for the time, wherein
was granted three subsidies of 2.S. 8.d. the pound goods, and foures. lands, and 6.
fifteenes.”—Stowe's Annals, ed. I605, p. 1272. (A good ‘Oration of her maiesty to
the parliament men' follows.)
2 MS. corrected. I'm not sure of either word. ‘Comeling' is Harrison's word
for ‘foreigner’; ‘Aomeling' for “native.' Can't we revive 'em P They're a nice
palt.
Ixi
APPENDIX II.
**.
1. English Women and Men, p. lxii 4. Soil, Climate, & Productions, p.
2. Manners of the English, p. lxv lxxxi
(/nns, p. lxx; Oxford students' 5. London, p. lxxxiv
life, p. bºxiii.; Queen Elizabeth, and 6. Cambridge and Oxford, p. bºxxvi
her Dinner at Greenwich, p. lxxv) 7. Warwickshire, p. lxxxviii
3. Theatres, p. lxxviii
HERE are a few extracts from foreign travellers’ journals, and other
writers, that 'll help those who don't know 'em, to realize better, bits of
Elizabethan life in England. It’s pleasant to be told how “mighty
pretty’ our women were, and that they’d all kiss and wełcome Shak-
spere, as a stranger (p. lxii), when he was introduc’d to 'em, as they did
before, Erasmus, to his extreme delight." One seems to get nearer to the
Globe and Blackfriars too, when one knows that the apples, pears, nuts,”
of the theatres of one's boyhood, were sold in Shakspere's houses (p. lxxx),
—that is, those in whose profits he shard, much as their rudeness—as
picturd in Malone's interesting Historical Account of the English Stage
(Variorum Shakspere, ed. 1821, vol. iii.)—differd from the elaborately ap-
pointed buildings of our own day. One likes to be made a looker-on at
the Oxford students', and Queen Elizabeth's, dinners (p. lxxiii, bºxvii); the
Berkshire peasants' harvest home (p. lxxxiv); and to hear how the Lon-
doners liked feasting, and drank, saying iſºlai giu (I pledge you) to the
worthy Frenchman (p. lxxii), who when they put him out, calld 'em ces
vilains là, and declar'd they were of evil conscience, and unfaithful to
* “here are girls with angels' faces, so kind and obliging that you would far prefer
them to all your Muses. Besides, there is a custom here never to be sufficiently com-
mended. Wherever you come, you are received with a kiss by all ; when you take
your leave, you are dismissed with kisses; you return, kisses are repeated. They come
to visit you, kisses again; they leave you, you kiss them all round. Should they meet
you anywhere, kisses in abundance: in fine, wherever you move, there is nothing but
kisses.”—(Epistolae, fol. Basil, 1558, p. 223 ; Rye, p. 260-1.)
2 They've been turnd out of the West-end theatres since—the women with their
baskets pushing in front of the sitters in the pit, were such a nuisance,—but they still
survive at the East end, I am told. º
lxii ENGLISH WOMEN. KISSING STRANGERS. [APP. II.
their word (p. lxvi). One right thing these foreigners did, however, and
that was, to put Cambridge before Oxford (p. lxxxvi-vii). Our degenerate
folk put Oxford first. Well, froth goes to the top of the jug. And this
reminds me—35-years' teetotaller tho’ I am—how the foreigners liked our
beer, drunk (in 1558') out of silver-handled earthenware pots, and made
doubly good by eating with it thin cakes, Saffrond, and sprinkled with
raisins (p. lxxi-lxxii).
I. a. English Women.
1585. Kiechel says, “Item, the women there are charming, and by
nature so mighty pretty,” as I have scarcely ever beheld, for they do not
falsify (Áetzern) paint or bedaub themselves as in Italy or other places;
but they are somewhat awkward in their style of dress (in der Kleidung
was Plumfis gehem); for they dress in splendid stuffs, and many a one
wears three cloth gowns or petticoats, one over the other. Item, when a
foreigner or an inhabitant goes to a citizen’s house on business, or is in-
vited as a guest, and having entered therein, he is received by the master
of the house, the lady, or the daughter, and by them welcomed (will-
Æommen heisst), -as it is termed in their language;—he has even a right
to take them by the arm and to kiss them, which is the custom of the
country; and if any one does not do so, it is regarded and imputed as
ignorance and ill-breeding on his part : the same custom is also ob-
served in the Netherlands.”—Rye, p. 89-90, from the ‘Archiv für Geo-
graffhie, Historie, Staats- und Kriegs-Kunst' (4to, Wien, 1820), p. 267.
1592. Jacob Rathgeb, Warrative of Count Miimyºpelgart's Bathing
Excursion to England, pr. 1602. “The women have much more liberty
than perhaps in any other place; they also know well how to make use
of it, for they go dressed out in exceedingly fine clothes, and give all their
attention to their ruffs and stuffs, to such a degree indeed, that, as I am
informed, many a one does not hesitate to wear velvet in the streets,
which is common with them, whilst at home perhaps they have not a
piece of dry bread. All the English women are accustomed to wear hats
upon their heads, and gowns cut after the old German fashion—for
indeed their descent is from the Saxons.”—Rye, p. 7, 8.
1. 5. English Wizes.
1575. Van Meteren, Wederlandtsche Historie, edit. 1614, fo. 258.
Rye, p. 72, 73. “Wives in England are entirely in the power of their
husbands, their lives only excepted. Therefore, when they marry, they
* The English had taken to glass by Harrison's and Shakspere's time : see p. xviii
above, and I47 below.
2 mächtig Schön.
APP, II.] ENGLISH WIVES. THE FREEDOM GIVEN THEM. lxiii
give up the surname of their father and of the family from which they
are descended, and take the surname of their husbands, except in the case
of duchesses, countesses and baronesses, who, when they marry gentlemen
of inferior degree, retain their first name and title, which, for the ambition
of the said ladies, is rather allowed than commended. But although the
women there are entirely in the power of their husbands, except for their
lives, yet they are not kept so strictly as they are in Spain or elsewhere.
Nor are they shut up ; but they have the free management of the house
or housekeeping, after the fashion of those of the Netherlands, and others
their neighbours. They go to market to buy what they like best to eat.
They are well dressed, fond of taking it easy, and commonly leave the
care of household matters and drudgery to their servants. They sit be-
fore their doors, decked out in fine clothes, in order to see and be seen
by the passers-by.” In all banquets and feasts they are shown the great-
est honour; they are placed at the upper end of the table, where they are
the first served ; at the lower end they help the men. All the rest of their
time they employ in walking and riding, in playing at cards or otherwise,
in visiting their friends and keeping company, conversing with their
equals (whom they term gossińs) and their neighbours, and making
merry with them at child-births, christenings, churchings (Kerckgamgh-
em), and funerals; and all this with the permission and knowledge of
their husbands, as such is the custom. Although the husbands often
recommend to them the pains, industry, and care of the German or
Dutch women, who do what the men ought to do both in the house and
in the shops, for which services in England men are employed, never-
theless the women usually persist in retaining their customs. This is
why England is called the Paradise of married women.” The girls who
are not yet married are kept much more rigorously and strictly than in
the Low Countries.
“The women are beautiful, fair, well-dressed, and modest,” which is
seen there more than elsewhere, as they go about the Streets without
any covering either of huke or mantle (huycée), hood, veil, or the
like. Married women only wear a hat both in the street and in the
house; those unmarried go without a hat,” although ladies of distinction
have lately learnt to cover their faces with silken masks or vizards, and
I “Sy sitten werciert voor haer Deuren, om de voorbygaenders te besien, ofte
van die besien te worden.”
2 See p. lxx, below.
3 “Het Vrouwenvolck isser schoon, wit, ende verciert ende manierlijck.”
4. When describing Queen Elizabeth, then “in the sixty-fifth year of her Age,”
Hentzner notes two traits common to her and other English women : “fier Teeth
black, (a defect the English seem subject to, from their too great use of sugar). . .
lxiv THE CHARMING NESS OF ENGLISHMEN. [APP. II.
feathers, for indeed they change very easily, and that every year, to the
astonishment of many.” "
I. c. The charmingness of Englishmen and all their Belongings.
1560. Dr Levinus Lemmius, M.A. “For they be people very civil
and wel affected to men wel stricken in yeares, and to such as beare any
countenaunce and estimation of lerninge, which thing they that halfe
suspect, and have not had the full triall of the maners and fashions of
this countrey, will skarcely bee perswaded to beleeve.
“Therefore, franckely to utter what I thincke of the incredible curtesie
and frendlines of speache and affability used in this famous realme, I
muste needes confesse it doth surmount and carye away the pricke and
price of al others. And beside this, the neate cleanlines, the exquisite,
finenesse, the pleasaunte and delightfull furniture in every poynt for
household, wonderfully rejoysed mee; their chambers and parlours
strawed over with sweete herbes refreshed me ; their nosegayes finely
entermingled wyth sundry sortes of fragraunte floures in their bedcham-
bers and privy roomes, with comfortable smell cheered mee up and en-
tirelye delyghted all my sences. And this do I thinck to be the cause
that Englishmen, lyving by such holesome and exquisite meate, and in
so holesome and healthfull ayre, be so fresche and cleane coloured ; their
faces, eyes and countenaunce carying with it and representing a portly
grace and comelynes, geveth out evident tokens of an honest mind; in
language very smoth and allective, but yet seasoned and tempered within
the limits and bonds of moderation, not bumbasted with any unseemly
termes, or infarced with any clawing flatteries or allurementes. At their
tables, althoughe they be very Sumptuous, and love to have good fare,
yet neyther use they to overcharge themselves with excesse of drincke,
neyther thereto greatly provoke and urge others, but suffer every man to
drincke in such measure as best pleaseth hymselfe; whych drinck, being
eyther Ale or Beere, most pleasaunte in taste and holesomely relised,
they fetch not from foreine places, but have it amonge themselves brewed.
As touching theyr populous and great haunted cities, the fruitfulness of
their ground and Soile, their lively springs and mighty ryvers, their great
heards and flockes of cattell, their mysteries and art of weaving and
clothmaking, their skilfulnes in shooting, it is needlesse heere to dis-
course—seeing the multitude of marchaunts exercisinge the traffique and
Her Bosom was uncovered, as all the English ladies have it till they marry.” See p.
lxxvi, below.
* “Note II2. –Peacham (Compleat Gentleman, 1622, p. 204), speaking of the
French, our reputed pioneers of fashion, says: ‘Every two yeere their fashions [of
apparel] altereth.’”—Rye.
APP. II.] THE ENGLISH AND THEIR MANNERS. Ixw
arte of marchaundize among them, and ambassadoures also sente thyther
from forrayne Prynces, are able aboundantly to testifye that nothing
needful and expedient for mans use and commodity lacketh in that most
noble Ilande.”—(7%e Zouchstone of Complexions, fo. 47.) Rye, p. 78, 79.
(The Doctor gives Englishmen a somewhat worse character afterwards;
See it in Rye, p. 79, 80.)
I. d. English Men and Women.
1558. Perlin, p. II. “Les hommes sont beaulx, rousseaux, grands, &
adroict, & blancs ordinairement de charnvere; car il sont vers le Septen-
trion. Les femmes estimées sont les plus belles du monde, & blanches
comme albatre, & ne desplaise aux Italianes, Flammandes, & Almandes:
elles sont joyeuses, & courtoyses, & de bon raceuil.”—1558. Description
des Royazºlmes d'Azegleferre et d’Ecosse. Composé par Maistre Estienne
Perlin, repr. Bowyer and Nichols, 1775.
2. a. “Of the Manners of the English.”
1598. Hentzner, p. 88. “The English are serious like the Germans,
lovers of shew ; liking to be followed wherever they go by whole troops of
servants, who wear their masters arms in silver, fastened to their left
arms, a ridicule they deservedly lay under. They excell in dancing and
music, for they are active and lively, though of a thicker make than the
French ; they cut their hair close on the middle of the head, letting it
grow on either side ; they are good sailors, and better pyrates, cunning,
treacherous, and thievish ; above 300 are said to be hanged annually at
London. Beheading with them is less infamous than hanging. They
give the wall as the place of honour. Hawking is the general sport of
the gentry. They are more polite in eating than the French, devouring
less bread, but more meat, which they roast in perfection. They put a
great deal of sugar in their drink. Their beds are covered with tapestry,
even those of farmers. They are often molested with the scurvy, said to
have first crept into England with the Norman conquest. Their houses
* “L’Angleterre produit trois objets qui Serencontrent partout, mais qui, dans cette
fle, sont remarquables par leur merveilleuse beauté : les femmes, les arbres, les che-
vaux. . . . Qu’une jeune fille arrête son cheval Sous un grand arbre, et vous
contemplerez, groupés dans un Seul tableau, les trois merveilles de l'Angleterre."—
1857. Francis Wey, Les Anglais chez eux, p. 185-6. And yet a great friend of mine
in the United States, who had long admired our women as drawn in Punch by Du
Maurier, and came over to England to admire them more, went back after a month's
stay here on two occasions, vowing that he'd only seen one handsome woman all the
time, eagerly as he'd lookt for 'em ; whereas in the States, he says, you can hardly go
out of doors without seeing two or three. He hates Du Maurier in consequence, and
declares he's a base deceiver. I urge that an artist, like a poet, “is of imagination all
compact.'
HARRISON. 6
lxvi THE ENGLISH, A VERY BAD Lot. [APP. II.
are commonly of two stories, except in London, where they are of three
and four, though but seldom of four ; they are built of wood; those of
the richer sort with bricks; their roofs are low, and where the owner has
money, covered with lead.
“They are powerful in the field, successful against their enemies, im-
patient of any thing like slavery; vastly fond of great noises that fill the
ear, such as the firing of cannon, drums, and the ringing of bells, so that
it is common for a number of them, that have got a glass in their heads,
to go up into some belfry, and ring the bells for hours together, for the
sake of exercise. If they see a foreigner, very well made or particularly
handsome, they will say, It is a pity he is not an ENGLISHMAN.”
2. b. The English are a bad lot, and hate and abuse the French.
1558. Perlin, p. 12. “Le peuple fier & seditieux, & de mauvaise con.
science, & infidelle à leur parole, comme il est appert par experience."
Ces vilains lä hayent toutes sortes d’estrangeres; & jaçois qu'il soyent
en bonne terre & bonne contrée, comme desia j'ay allegué auparavant,
toutes fois dutout Sont mechans, & addonnes à tout vent *: car maintenant
if aymeront un Prince : tournez la main ; ille vouldront tuer & crucifier.
S’ilz veullent dire qu'ilz ont Subjugué les François, on les a chassés comme
chiens enragés : secondement, le Royaulme de France pourlors estoit pe-
tit, & depuis a esté augmenté Sept fois autant, voyre je diray vingt fois
autant, qu’en force, qu’en richesse ; tellement que le Royaulme vault au-
tant que le reste de la chrestienté. Il me desplait que ces vilains, estans
en leur pays, nous Crachent a la face”; & eulx, estans à la France, on les
honnore, & revère on comme petis dieux: en celes François se mon-
strent francs de coeur & noble d’esperit.”
- p. II. “Les gens de ceste nation hayent a mort les Francoys, comme
* On peult dire des Angloys, “my en la guerre ilz ne sont fors, my en la paix ilzne
sont fideles; &, comme dict l'Espagnol, “Angleterre, bonne terre, male gente.”—p.
Io. The latter saying is generally put down to the Italians.
2 Insolence to foreigners. “The inhabitants are magnificently apparelled, and are
extremely proud and overbearing ; and because the greater part, especially the trades-
people, seldom go into other countries, but always remain in their houses, in the city
attending to their business, they care little for foreigners, but scoff and laugh at them ;
and moreover, one dare not oppose them, else the street-boys and apprentices collect
together in immense crowds and strike to the right and left unmercifully, without re-
gard to person ; and because they are the strongest, one is obliged to put up with the
insult as well as the injury."—1592. Jacob Rathgeb, pr. 1602; Rye, p. 7.
The naturall 3 And as concernyng the nature, propertie, and disposition of the
disposition of people, thei bee desirous of newfangles, praisyng thynges paste, con-
Pnglishmen temnyng thinges present, and couetyng after thynges to come. Ambi-
cious, proude, light, and vnstable, ready to bee caried awaie with euery blaste of Winde.
—1583. P. Stubbes, Anatomie of Abuses, 2nd ed., p. 122, ed. F. J. F.
APP. II.1 ENGLIsH BELCHING. * NoBLEs ' HEADs cHoPT oFF. lxvii
leurs vielz ennemis, & du tout nous appellent * France chenesve [Amaz/el,
Rrance dogue,' qui est a dire, * maraultz François, chiens Francois ;' &
autrement nous appellent * or son ' [zvhoreson] * villains filz de putains.'"
ib. p. 24. * & fault noter qu'en ce Royaume tant excellent, il n'y a nul
ordre, comme j'ay dict. Les gens sont resprouvés, & du tout ennemis de
bonnes meurs & des bonnes lettres. Car il ne sçavent a qui il sont, où
a Dieu où au diable; ce que Sainct Paul a reprins en plusieurs gens,
disant, * ne sois transportés de plusieurs sortes de vens, mais soyes coº-
stans & demeurans a ce que vous aures creu.'"
2.c. English Way of living Wasty * belching.'
1558. Perlin, p. 26. * Quant a leurs maniere de vivre, ilz sont quelque
peu incivilz ; car iceux routent* à la table sans honte & ignominie, &
fussent ilz en la presence de plus grand seigneur qu'il fust."
2.d. Most Wobles get their Heads chopt off.
p. 27. * Aussi en ce pays là vous ne trouverez pas gueres de grands
seigneurs desquelz leurs parens n'ayent eu la teste tranchée. Certes
j'aymerois mieulx (reverence des lecteurs) estre porcher, & garder bien
ma teste. Car ceste doloire avenoit furieusement dessus la teste des
grands seigneurs. Car vous voires ces grandz seigneurs en grande
pompe & magnificence pour un temps : tournez la main ; vous les voyres
entre les mains des boureaux. Parquoy ladessus pouvons alleguer un
proverbe, qui dict : * Que le temps passé ont esté plusieurs, que si fussent
demourés humble, & en fortune basse & exile, ils eussent vécu seurement,
& sans contraincte ; estans faits sublimes, & grands seigneurs, sont
r Compare Chaucer's Trumpington Miller's wife and daughter :-
* His wyf bar him a burdoun, a ful strong,
Men might her rowtyng heeren a forlong,
The wenchè routeth eek par companye.'
Works, ed. Morris, ii. 13o, l. 245-7.
and see my Babees Book, p. 294, l. I3 ; II. 4l32, 7l35, I8/46, 26/2o, for injunctions
against the practice. Nichols adds this note in his reprint of Perlin :
" A l'exception de certaines gens qui n'ont pas toujours croupi en Angleterre dans
les pures & naturelles Englis fashions, dont les personnes de qualité qui ont voyagé
ont su se defaire, rotter à table & partout en compaignie, est une chose dont le peuple
Anglois ne fait pas plus de difficulté que de tousser ou d'eternuer. Autant que cela
leur est naturel & ordinaire, autant nous paroit il etrange à nous qui venons d'un pais
où la coustume a voulu que rotter soit un privilège reservé aux cochons. " C'est une
etrange chose que cette coutume ! ' (me disoit un jour un ami Anglois à qui j'avois
dit naivement ce que j'ecris ici.) * Elle bannit quelquefois les choses les plus raison-
ables : pourquoi s'empecher de roter plutot que de cracher, & de se moucher ?'—Me-
moires &° Observ. d'un Voyageur en Angleterre. Haye, 1698, p, 396, ascribed to Mis-
son." •s
lxviii ENGLISH PUNISHMENTs. USE oF ARMs AND TAPESTRY. [APP. II.
tumbés en perilz & en grande confusion’ : ce que nous voyons practiquer
principallement en ce Royaulme là, autant qu'en Royaulme de monde,
[them he contrasts zvith this the happier state of France, and says also]
sa Justice fort bien administrée, & non tyrannie, comme en Angleterre,
qui est la peste d'un pays, & ruine.'' 3
2. e. Mem hung for a trifle in England.
p. 28. * En Angleterre y a une fort cruelle justice, car pour un rien
foront mourir un homme : car, où en France on condamneroit un homme
d'avoir le fouet, là infalliblement seroit condamné a mort : vray est qu'ilz
n'ont que deux sortes de justice, c'est à sçavoir, d'estre perdu & d'estre
decapité ; & par ce moyen les malfaicteurs gaignent autant de faire
beaucoup de mal que peu ; ce qui ne se doibt pas faire ; & mieux est !
practiqué en France : car il y a plusieurs sortes de tourmens selon la
demerite. En ceste Isle n'ont poinct de Roue ny d'autre sorte de
tourmens sinon que ces deux que j'ay allegué. Font mourir les pauvres
criminelz & patiens, tousiours hors de la ville en des gibetz de bois, si
ce ne sont Milors barbarement en Françoys Milours, lesquelz ont faict
mourir à Londres, pour donner terreur au peuple. Et ont coustume de
faire les grands jours * de troys mois en trois mois.'—I558. Description
des Royavlmes d'Angleterre et d'Escosse. Composé par Maistre Estienne
Perlin, repr. Bowyer and Nichols, I775, p. 28.
2.f Servants and almost all men go armd.
I558. Perlin, p. 28. * & faut noter pareillement qu'au pays les servi-
teurs portent des blouquiers pointuz, mesmes les serviteurs des Evesques
, & prelatz ; & ordinairement les hommes jouent de l'arc. Les laboureux,
quand ilz labourent la terre, à un coin de la terre ilz laisseront leur blou-
quier & espée, ou aucunefoys un arc : tellement qu'en ce pays là, quasi
tout le monde porte armes.º
2.g. The English use much tapestry.
p. I I. * Les Anglois se servent fort des tapisseries, des toiIles pinctes,
qui sont bien faictes, ausquelles y a force de magnifiques roses couronnées,
ou il y a de fleurs-de-Liz & Lions* ; car en peu de maisons vous pouves
entrer que vous ne trouvies cest tapisseries.º
2. h. Behaviour of the people on Edzvard VI.'s death.
p. I3. * Il survint que le roy Edouart demourut malade au chasteau de
* He means the Quarter Sessions in the several counties.—Nichols.
* The arms of England.—Nichols.
APP. II.] ENGLISH LOVE OF CHANGE IN DRESS. lxix
Grenois [Greenwich] bien l'espace de trois mois, & depuis mourat. Vous
eussies veu ce peuple emeu, fremir & gemir de touter pars, battre leurs
poictrines: & alors tous les milors fort pertroublés, ne Sachantz dessus
quel pied damser.”
2. 2. English Dress, and love of change.
1575. Van Meteren, AWederlandtsche Historie, edn. of 1614, fo. 262.
“The English dress in elegant, light, and costly garments, but they are
very inconstant and desireus of novelties, changing their fashions every
year, both men and women. When they go abroad riding or travelling,
they don their best clothes, contrary to the practice of other nations.
Their garments are usually coloured and of a light stuff, and they have
not many of them, like as they have in the Low Countries, since they
change so easily : nor so much furniture or unnecessary house orna-
nients.”—Rye, p. 7 I.
2.7. Retainers. Horses, Carls.
1592. Rathgeb (written, 1602), Rye, p. 13. “The lords and pages of
the royal court have a stately, noble air, but dress more after the French
fashion, only that they wear short cloaks, and sometimes Spanish caps,
* See Harrison, ch. 7, p. 167 below ; and compare the following:—
But speake, I praie : who ist would gess or skana
Fantasmus to be borne an Englishman?
Hees hatted Spanyard-like, and bearded te,
'Ruft Italyon-like, pac'd like thema also :
PHis hose and doublets Frenche : his bootes and shoes
Are fashond Pole in heeles, but French in toes.
Oh I hees complete : what shall I descant on P
A compleate Foole? noe, compleate Englishe man.
1615. Wm. Goddard, A Weaste of Waspes. Collier's Bibl. Caz. i. 3rd. See also a
capital passage in Schoolmaster Averall's Merizalous Comčag of Contrarieties, 1588,
sign. B. i., which I shall quote in my notes to Stubbes's Anatomie of Aðases now in the
press for the Society.
Here is Sir John Davies' description of the London young man of fashion in rs98:
Fpigrams, in Marlowe's Works, ed. Cunningham, p. 266, cel. I :
HN CIPRIUM, XXII.
The fine youth Cyprius is more terse and neat
Than the new garden of the Old Temple is ;
And still the newest fashion he doth get,
And with the time doth change from that to this;
He wears a hat now of the flat-crown block,
The treble ruff, long cloak, and doublet French;
He takes tobacco, and doth wear a lock,
And wastes more time in dressing than a wench.
Yet this new-fangled youth, made for these times,
Doth, above all, praise old George Gascoigne's rhymes
}xx ENGLISH NOBLES’ RETAINERs. INNs. [APP. II.
and not such broad hats as the French; they keep many retainers, for
the most part portly and good-looking men who go without cloaks, but
have only jerkins of their lord's colour, and bearing his arms rolled up
and buckled behind; they likewise have the same arms upon their
sleeves, so that they may be distinguished. And they are kept very
strict, for if indeed they wish to run away they cannot, because no Eng-
lishman is allowed to go out of the kingdom without a passport; where-
fore other nations have a saying that “England is a paradise for women,
a prison for servants, and a hel} or purgatory for horses,’ for the females
have great liberty and are almost like masters, whilst the poor horses are
worked very hard. The country in the vicinity of the royal court is for
the most part flat and Sandy; and because few succeed in finding ac-
commodation at an inn, they erect tents under which they sojourn, thus
presenting the appearance of an encampment.
“When the Queen breaks up her court, with the intention of visiting
another place, there commonly follow more than 3CO carts (Kärch) laden
with bag and baggage ; for you must know that in England, besides
coaches, they use no waggons for the goods, but have only two-wheeled
carts, which however are so large that they carry quite as much as wag-
gons, and as many as five or six strong horses draw them.”—Rye, p. 13.
2. AE, English Inzes.
Fynes Moryson, the traveller, gives such a pleasant account of Eng-
lish inns in his Itinerary, 1617, Part 3, p. 151, that one likes to think
of Shakspere being receivd so well, and taking his ease in his inn, on his
journeys to London and back. Mr Rye of course has the passage, in
his Notes, p. 272-3 :—
“the World affoords not such Innes as England hath, either for
good and cheape entertainement after the Guests owne pleasure, or for
humble attendance on passengers; yea, even in very poore villages. . . .
For assone as a passenger comes to an Inne, the servants run to him,
and one takes his horse, and walkes him till he be cold, then rubs him
and gives him meate, yet I must say that they are not much to be trusted
in this last point, without the eye of the Master or his servant to oversee
them. Another servant gives the passenger his private chamber, and
kindles his fier; the third puls of his bootes, and makes them cleane.
Then the Host or Hostesse visit him; and if he will eate with the Host,
or at a common table with others, his meale will cost him sixe pence, or
in some places but foure pence (yet this course is lesse honourable, and
not used by Gentlemen"); but if he will eate in his chamber, he com-
* Did Shakspere ‘eat with the Host'—and Hostess—for 6d. at old Davenant's Inn at
Oxford, or have “the Hostess to accompany him ' in his chamber, I wonder.
APP. II.] one's EASE IN onE's INN. BREAD AND BEER. lxxi
&
mands what meate he will, according to his appetite, and as much as he
thinkes fit for him and his company, yea, the kitchin is open to him, to
command the meat to be dressed as he best likes ; and when he sits at
Table, the Host or Hostesse will accompany him, or, if they have many
Guests, will at least visit him, taking it for curtesie to be bid sit downe :
while he eates, if he have company especially, he shall be offred
musicke, which he may freely take or refuse ; and if he be solitary, the
musitians will give him the good day with musicke in the morning. It
is the custome, and no way disgracefull, to set up part of supper for his
hreakefast. In the evening or in the morning after breakefast, (for the
common sort use not to dine, but ride from breakefast to supper time, yet
comming early to the Inne for better resting of their Horses') he shall
have a reckoning in writing, and if it seeme unreasonable, the Host will
satisfie him either for the due price, or by abating part, especially if the
servant deceive him any way, which one of experience will soone find. . .
I will now onely adde, that a Gentleman and his Man shall spend as
much as if he were accompanied with another Gentleman and his Man;
and if Gentlemen will in such sort joyne together to eate at one Table,
the expences will be much diminished. Lastly, a Man cannot more
freely command at home in his owne House, then hee may doe in his
inne; and at parting, if he give some few pence to the Chamberlin and
£)stler, they wish him a happy journey.”
2. l. Ratze and Food.
Perlin, p. 29. “Au port de mer de ce pays la, souventesfois il pleut, a
cause des oraiges de la mer: & y faict fort bon vivre, selon ce que j'en
ay congneu de mon temps : & cela suffira de Angleterre.”
2. m. Bread and Beer. (See below, p. 153.)
p. 26. “Ilz usent du pain bien plus blanc queen la France, tellement
qu'il estoit de mons temps en aussi bon marché qu’en France; & avec
leurs bieres ont coustume de user les gasteaux fort tendres, qui sont asses
fermes ensafranés, dedazes lesquelz il y a des raysins; & cela vous faict
trouver la biere double bonne; & en ay bieu autresfois a la Rie, port de
mer, d’aussi bonne que jamais j'en beu en pays du monde. Les gens
de ce pays sont fort bien enmeublés en leurs maisons, aultant biea, que
gens de monde.”
2, n. Beer. (See below, p. 155—150.)
“Ilz usert fort de bierre double & simple; & la boyuent, non pas
dedans des voirres,” mais dedans des potz deterre, auSquelz les anses sont
* Cp. Chaucer's ride to Canterbury. 2 See Harrison, p. I47, on the change to glass.
Mxii ENGLrsH LovE oF GooD CHEER AND MUsIc. [APP. II.
d'argent, & le couvercle ; & cela ce faict aux maisons qu'il sont qurelque
peu riches. Car au pauvres les couvercles des potz de bierre ne sont que
d'estain ; & en d'aucuns lieux dessus les villages, les potz de bierre ne
sont que de boys.º -
2. o. Beer.
I592. Rathgeb, pr. I6o2. ... * the beer, which is of the coſour of an
old Alsace wine [hock], was so delicious that he [the Duke of Wirtem-
berg] relished it exceedingly.º-Rye, p. 9.
2.p. English love of good cheer.
I558, Perlin, p. 22. * Les gens d'iceluy lieu sont de grande chere, &
ayme fort a bancqueter ; & vous verries force riches tavernes, & les
taverniers, qui ont coustumierement grosses bourses, ou il y a trois ou
quatre bourserons plaine d'argent : par ce moyen pouvons considerir
que Ie pays est fort argenteux, & que Ies gens du mestier gaignent plus
en une sepmaine que ceulx d'AIIemaigne ou d'Espaigne en un mois.
Car vous verries des chappeliers & menusiers artisants jouer leur escu
à la paulme ordinairement ; ce que ne voyes pas en un autre lieu ordin-
mairement, & principallement à un jour ouvrier. Et en une taverne faire
grand chere plus souvent que tous les jours, avec conniſz, leveraux, & toute
sorte de viande. . .. (p. 23) Le poisson est à grand marché, & le beurre.
Car j'ay eu autresfois neuf playes [plaice] pour un denier; mais fault
entendre que le denier vault neuf tournois de France ou environ, & est
appellée un per3i.º .. .
2.g. English love of music and drinĂ.
Perlin, p. 23. * Les Angloys, Ies uns avec les autres, sont joyeux, &
ayment fort la musique ; car ne scauroit estre si petite eglise, en
laquelle on ne chante de Musique ; & sont fort grands yvrongnes : Car
si un Anglois vous veult traicter, vous dira en son langage, * vis dring a
guarta rim [sic], oim gasguin, oim hespaignol, oim malvoysi ' c'est a
dire * veulx tu venir boire une quarte de vin du Gascoigne, une autre
d'Espaigne, & une autre de Malvoisie.' En beuvant & en mengeant, vous
diront plus de cent fois * drind àou, c'est a dire, * je m'en vois boyre a
toy ;' & vous leur responderes en leur langage * àplaigiu, qui est à dire
* je vous plege.' Si vous les remercies, vous leurs dires en leurs langages
*god tangue artelay, c'est a dire, je vous remercie de bon cœur.'
Eulx estans yvre, vous jureront le sang & la mort, que vous beures tout
ce que vous tenes dedans vostre tace ; & vous diront ainsi, ' bigod, sol
drind iou agoud oin.' Or retenes (s'il vous plaist) qu'en ceste terre
ordinairement ont sert en veselle d'argent quand on boit du vin, &
APP. II.] OXFORD STUDENTS AT DINNER. lxxiii
vous diront ordinairement a la table ‘goud chere,' qui est a dire “bonne
chere." Les serviteurs servent leurs maistres, nudz teste, & laissent leur
bonnet dessus le buffet.” . . .
2. r. The Oxford Students' Life.
1598. Hentzner, p. 64. “These Students lead a life almost monastic;
for as the monks had nothing in the world to do, but when they had said
their prayers at stated hours, to employ themselves in instructive studies,
no more have these. They are divided into three Tables : the first is
called the Fellows Table, to which are admitted Earls, Barons, Gentle-
men, Doctors, and Masters of Arts, but very few of the latter; this is
more plentifully and expensively served than the others: The Second is
for Masters of Arts, Bachelors, some Gentlemen, and eminent Citizens :
The Third for people of low condition. While the rest are at dinner or
supper in a great Hall, where they are all assembled, one of the Students
reads aloud the Bible, which is placed on a desk in the middle of the
Hall, and this office every one of them takes upon himself in his turn ;
as soon as Grace is said after each meal, every one is at liberty, either to
retire to his own chambers, or to walk in the College garden, there
being none that has not a delightful one. Their habit is almost the
same as that of the Jesuits, their gowns reaching down to their ancles,
sometimes lined with furr ; they wear square caps; the Doctors, Masters
of Arts, and Professors, have another kind of gown that distinguishes
them : Every Student of any considerable standing has a key to the
College Library, for no College is without one.”
* Emperor. Trust me, Plantagenet, these Oxford schools
Are richly seated near the river-side :
The mountains full of fat and fallow deer,
The battling * pastures lade with kine and flocks,
The town gorgeous with high-built colleges,
And scholars seemly in their grave attire,
Learned in searching principles of art.—
What is thy judgment, Jaques Vandermast?
Van. That lordly are the buildings of the town,
Spacious the rooms, and full of pleasant walks ;
But for the doctors, how that they be learnéd,
It may be meanly, for aught I can hear.
R. Greene, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (acted 1591), p. 166, col. 2, Dyce's
2-col. ed.
2 Let us take from Mr Henry Bradshaw's copy of “An Inventory of the Stuff in the
College Chambers (King's College, Cambridge), 1598,” the furniture of the rooms of
two pairs of Fellows, and three fours of Scholars. (“Each room contained accom-
* Causing to increase, or to grow fat.—D. Cp. College battels. Battel, fertile, &c.
lxxiv. CAMBRIDGE FELLows' Rooms. LAw STUDENTs. [APP. II.
2, s. The Lazy Students.
1598. Hentzner, p. 44. “In these Colleges [the Temple, Gray's Inn,
and Lincoln's Inn, numbers of the young nobility, gentry, and others, are
educated, and chiefly in the study of physic, for very few apply them-
modation for two fellows or four scholars, and almost all the members of the college
were in constant residence."—Camb, Antig. Soc. Com. iii. 18.1.)
The seventh Middle Chamber
Inprimis a trundle beddsteade Mr Lysle *
Item a portall of waynscott with a presse ioyned to yt of bords with º h
locke & kay & 2 payre of fayre hangells [? hooks ellow, thc
Item a Courte Cubborde of Oke J ;XOIl
Item iiij double casements of Iron & one of woodd
Item 9 leaves for the windowes
Item a lead with a spoute for a lavor to washe
Item a gallary with a litle table
Item a frame of oke for books
Item ij casements of wood & ij leaves for wyndowes
Item a locke & ijbolts for ye dore
Item a studdye desked & shelved rounde
Item a locke & kay for the dore of the studdye
Item the ledges for the hangs in the Chamber
Item a Double Iron Casement with ij openings in the studdye bought of Mr
Item a round Drawing table in the Chamber Clark at his
Item a waynScott bedstead with a Tester . . . . º
#. for 26s.
The fyveth vpper Chamber
Inprimis a table of oke & a long settell to ye same covered with Mr Clarke
seeling, which seeling is not ye Colledges. Ds Slater
Item a trundle bed of oke corded of 4s price 1598
Item iiij doble casements of wood & iiij leaves for ye windowes
Item a lead with a spoute to wasshe with
Itém a forme, and a locke & kaye to the Chamber dore
Item a standing bed brought out of Mr Fosters Chamber 1585 . . . .
The Tolebothe
The third Scholers Chamber Ds Howgrave
Inprimis 4 bedsteads corded Pyºda
Item a table & 2 formes Iwºn senior
Item a studdy at xijs Slater]
Item an other studdye at xxiiijs
Item 4 leaves for the windowes
Item an old presse of bords converted into the raysing of 3 studdyes
Item a portall
Horskepers Inn
The fourthe Schollers Chamber M;
ontague
Inprimis 4 bedstedds whereof 2 corded Bradberye
Item a table a benche & a portall H#.
Item a studdye at vis viijd Kellett]
Item an other at xiiijs
Item ij leaves for the windowes
App. 11.] Law sruDENTs. auren ELIZABETH AT GREENWICH. lxxv
selves to that of law : They are allowed a very good table, and silver
cups to drink out of. Once a person of distinction, who could not help
being surprised at the great number of cups, said “He should have
thought it more suitable to the life of Students, if they had used rather
glass or earthen-ware than silver.’ The College answered, “They were
ready to make him a present of all their plate, provided he would under-
take to supply them with all the glass, and earthen-ware, they should
have a demand for; since it was very likely he would find the expence,
from constant breaking, exceed the value of the silver.’”
2. t. Queen Elizabeth, at Chapel at Greenwich ; her Dinner.
1598. Hentzner, p. 47. “We arrived next at the royal palace of Green-
wich, reported to have been originally built by Humphrey Duke of Glou-
cester, and to have received very magnificent additions from Henry VII.
It was here Elizabeth, the present queen, was born, and here she generally
resides; particularly in summer, for the delightfulness of it's situation. We
were admitted by an order Mr Rogers had procured from the Lord Cham-
berlain, into the Presence-chamber, hung with rich tapestry, and the floor,
after the English fashion, strewed with hay,” through which the Queen
commonly passes in her way to chapel : At the door stood a Gentleman
dressed in velvet, with a gold chain, whose office was to introduce to the
Queen any Person of Distinction, that came to wait on her : It was
Sunday, when there is usually the greatest attendance of Nobility. In
the same hall were the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London,
a great number of Counsellors of State, Officers of the Crown, and
Gentlemen, who waited the Queen's coming out; which she did from
her own apartment, when it was time to go to Prayers, attended in the
following manner :
“First went Gentlemen, Barons, Earls, Knights of the Garter, all
The 6th Schollers Chamber D Hynd
Barbers Inn Tºlº
Inprimis iiij bedsteads corded ſwähan
Item a ioyned table with a frame, a forme & a benche Smithson]
Item a presse
Item leaves to the wyndowes v
Item the studdye at ijs vid
Item in the same studdye a glasse wyndowe with a casment
* See in Sir John Davies's Epigrammes, 1598, (in Cunningham's Marlowe,
p. 269, col. 2,) that on Publius, the Student at the Common Law, who leaves his
books— old Plowden, Dyer, and Brooke—and goes into the bear-pit at Paris Garden
to see the fights between the bears ‘old Harry Hunkes and Sacarson’ (the latter,
Shakspere's in Merry Wives) and the dogs, and gets his satin doublet and velvet hose
coverd all over with spittle and filth.
* He probably means rushes.—H. Walpole.
lxxvi QUEEN ELIZABETH DESCRIB'D. [APP. II.
richly dressed and bare-headed ; next came the Chancellor, bearing the
Seals in a red silk Purse, between Two ; one of which carried the Royal
Scepter, the other the Sword of State, in a red scabbard, studded with
golden Fleurs de Lis, the point upwards : Next came the Queen, in the
Sixty-fifth year of her Age, as we were told, very majestic ; her Face
oblong, fair, but wrinkled ; her Eyes small, yet black and pleasant ; her
Nose a little hooked; her Lips narrow, and her Teeth black; (a defect
the English seem subject to, from their too great use of sugar) she
had in her Ears two pearls, with very rich drops; she wore false Hair,
and that red ; upon her Head she had a small Crown, reported to be
made of some of the gold of the celebrated Lunebourg table." Her
Bosom was uncovered, as all the English ladies have it, till they
marry; and she had on a Necklace of exceeding fine jewels; her Hands
were Small, her Fingers long, and her Stature neither tall nor low ; her
air was stately, her manner of speaking mild and obliging. That day
she was dressed in white Silk, bordered with pearls of the size of beans,
and over it a Mantle of black silk, shot with silver threads ; her Train
was very long, and the end of it born by a Marchioness ; instead of a
Chain she had an oblong Collar of gold and jewels. As she went along
in all this state and magnificence, she spoke very graciously, first to one,
then to another, whether foreign Ministers, or those who attended for
different reasons, in English, French, and Italian ; for besides being well
skilled in Greek, Latin, and the Languages I have mentioned, she is
mistress of Spanish, Scotch, and Dutch : Whoever speaks to her, it is
kneeling ; now and then she raises some with her Hand. While
we were there, W. Slawata, a Bohemian Baron, had letters to pre-
sent to her ; and she, after pulling off her glove, gave him her right
Hand to kiss, sparkling with rings and jewels, a mark of particular
Favour : Wherever she turned her Face, as she was going along, every
body fell down on their knees.” The Ladies of the Court followed next
to her, very handsome and well-shaped, and for the most part dressed in
white; she was guarded on each side by the Gentlemen Pensioners’, fifty
in number, with gilt battle-axes; in the Antichapel next the Hall where
we were, Petitions were presented to her, and she received them most
graciously, which occasioned the acclamation of LONG LIVE QUEEN
* At this distance of time, it is difficult to say what this was.—H. Walpole.
2 Her Father had been treated with the same deference. It is “emº” by Fox
in his Acts and Monuments, that when the Lord Chance!/or * * apprehend queen
Catherine Parr, he spoke to the King on his knees.-H. Walpole. * -
King James I. suffered his courtiers to omit it.—Bacon's Papers, v. ii. p. 516.
3 “The cowslips tall, her pensioners be.”—Mids. W.'s Dreame
•APP. II.] THE LAYING OF au EEN ELIZABETH's DINNER. lxxvii
ELIZABETH !” She answered it with, I THANK YOU, My GooD PEOPLE.
In the Chapel was excellent music ; as soon as it, and the Service was
over, which scarce exceeded half-an-hour, the Queen returned in the
same State and Order, and prepared to go to Dinner. But while she
was still at Prayers, we saw her Table set out with the folk)wing
Solemnity:
“A Gentleman entered the room bearing a rod, and along with him
another who had a table-cloth, which after they had both kneeled three
times, with the utmost veneration, he spread upon the table; and after
kneeling again, they both retired. Then came two others, one with the
rod again, the other with a salt-seller, a plate, and bread ; when they had
kneeled as the others had done, and placed what was brought upon the
table, they too retired with the same ceremonies performed by the first.
At last came an unmarried Lady, (we were told she was a Countess)
and along with her a married one, bearing a tasting-knife; the former
was dressed in white silk, who, when she had prostrated herself three
times, in the most graceful manner approached the table, and rubbed the
plates with bread and salt, with as much awe as if the Queen had been
present : When they had waited there a little while, the Yeomen of the
Guard entered, bare-headed, cloathed in scarlet, with a golden rose upon
their backs, bringing in at each turn a course of twenty-four dishes,
served in plate, most of it gilt ; these dishes were received by a Gentle-
man in the same order they were brought, and placed upon the table,
while the Lady-Taster gave to each of the guard a mouthful to eat, of
the particular dish he had brought, for fear of any poison. During the
time that this guard, which consists of the tallest and stoutest men that
can be found in all England, being carefully selected for this service, were
bringing dinner, twelve trumpets, and two kettle-drums made the hall
ring for half an hour together. At the end of all this ceremonial, a number
of unmarried Ladies appeared, who with particular solemnity lifted the
meat off the table, and conveyed it into the Queen's inner and more
private chamber, where, after she had chosen for herself, the rest goes
to the Ladies of the Court.
p. 53. “The Queen dines and sups alone with very few attendance;
and it is very seldom that any body, foreign or native, is admitted at
that time, and then only at the intercession of somebody in power.
“Near this palace is the Queen's Park stocked with deer: Such Parks
* “Men and women, when they passed her Majesty, fell on their knees, and ex-
claimed, with uplifted hands, “Gott sauve the Quene /' Even nobles are accustomed
to kneel on one knee when they are conversing with her.”—F585. Kiechel of Ulm, in
Fºye, p. 88.
lxxviii LoNDoN THEATRES AND THEIR AUDIENCE. [APP. II.
are common throughout England, belonging to those that are distin-
guished either for their rank or riches. In the middle of this is an old
square Tower, called MIREFLEUR, supposed to be that mentioned in the
romance of Amadis de Gaul; and joining to it a plain, where Knights
and other Gentlemen use to meet at set times and holydays to exercise
on horse-back.”
3. Theatres.
Hentzner in 1598 says of the London theatres, in Horace Walpole's
englishing, 1757, p. 4I-3:— &
“Without the city are some Theatres, where English Actors represent
almost every day Tragedies and Comedies to very numerous audiences;
these are concluded with excellent music, variety of dances, and the
excessive applause of those that are present."
* Reginald Scot in 1587 notes that the song of the workmen at Dover harbour “is
a more ciuil call than the brutish call at the theatre for the comming awaie of the plaiers
to the stage,” the representative of the modern stamping and clapping when the curtain
isn't drawn up at the proper time. (Holinshed, iii. 1546, in Thynne's Animadver-
sãorts, p. lxxxviii.)
Sir John Davies sketches the proud Courtier at the theatre, in his Epigram (A.D.
1598). IN RUFUM, III.
Rufus the Courtier, at the theatre,
Leaving the best and most conspicuous place,
Doth either to the stage himself transfer,
Or through a gate, doth show his double face,
For that the clamorous fry of Inns of Court
Fills up the private rooms of greater price ;
And such a place, where all may have resort,
He, in his singularity, doth despise.
Marlowe's Works, ed. Cunningham, p. 263.
By the date of Ben Jonson's The Devil is an Ass, 1616, the stage was the favourite
show-place for well-dresst folk:
Here is a cloke cost fifty pound, wife,
Which I can sell for thirty, when I have seen
All London in't, and London has seen me.
To-day I go to the Blackfriars playhouse,
Sit in the view, Salute all my acquaintance,
Rise up between the acts, let fall my cloak,
Publish a handsome man and a rich suit ;
And that's a special end why we go thither,
All that pretend to stand for 3 on the stage:
The ladies ask, “who's that P” For they do come
To see us, as we do to see them.
Act I. Sc. iii, p. 347, col. 2, Moxon's edition.
The scene at the break-up of the audience was a mixt one, Sir John Davies says in
1598–Epigram xvii, Marlowe, p. 265, Col. 2:
... we see at all the playhouse doors,
When ended is the play, the dance and song,
APP. II.] PARIS GARDEN. BEAR AND BULL-BAITING. ToBAcco. lxxix
“Not far from one of these Theatres, which are all built of wood,'
lies the Royal barge, close to the river; it has two splendid cabbins,
beautifully ornamented with glass windows, painting and gilding ; it is
kept upon dry ground, and sheltered from the weather.
“There is still another place, built in the form of a Theatre, which
serves for the baiting of Bulls and Bears : they are fastned behind, and
then worried by great English bulldogs ; but not without great risque to
the dogs, from the horns of the one, and the teeth of the other ; and it
sometimes happens they are killed upon the spot; fresh ones are im-
mediately supplied in the places of those that are wounded or tired. To
this entertainment, there often follows that of whipping a blinded Bear,
which is performed by five or six men, standing circularly with whips,
which they exercise upon him without any mercy, as he cannot escape
from them because of his chain : he defends himself with all his force
and skill, throwing down all who come within his reach, and are not
active enough to get out of it, and tearing the whips out of their hands,
and breaking them. At these spectacles, and every where else, the
English are constantly smoking Tobacco, and in this manner: they
have pipes on purpose made of clay, into the farther end of which they
put the herb, so dry that it may be rubbed into powder, and putting fire
to it, they draw the Smoak into their mouths, which they puff out again
through their nostrils, like funnels, [and] along with it, plenty of phlegm
and defluxion from the head.* -
A thousand townsmen, gentlemen and whores,
Porters and serving-men together throng.
A dance and song often followd the performance. The Epilogue to 2 Henry IV.
is spoken by a dancer.
The dress of one of the “light-tayide' sisterhood is given by Davies in his Epigram
xxvi : “Satin gown, cut-lawn” apron, velvet shoes, green silk stockings, petticoat of
taffeta, with golden fringe around, withal perfumed with civet hot.” Did others wear
velvet P
“This comes of . . here in London, haunting
The Globes and Mermaids, wedging in with lords
Still at the table, and affecting letchery
In velvet.”
1616. Ben Jonson. The Devil is an Ass, III. i. p. 357, col. 2.
He brings in his favourite inn again in Bartholomew Fair (1614), I. i. p. 307, col. 2:
“A pox o' these pretenders to wit! Your Three Cranes, Mitre, and Mermaid men I'
* The Globe was of wood. In 16Io, April, “Monday 30th. His Excellency [the
Duke of Wirtemberg] went to the Globe, the usual place for acting Plays; the history
of the Moor of Venice ['Othello'] was represented there."—16io. Hans Jacob Wurms-
Ser von Vendenheym.—Rye, p. 61.
* See Harrison in Appendix I., p. lv., under 1573.
* Embroiderd stockings, cut-work smocks and shirts. B. Jonson, Devil is an Ass, I. i. p.
344, col. 2.
lxxx LONDON THEATREs. YoUTHS Look For PRETTY GIRLs. [APP. II.
“In these theatres, fruits, such as apples, pears and nuts, according
to the season, are carried about to be sold, as well as ale and wine.”
When speaking of the London stage, Kiechel says that there are
some peculiar (sonderóare, i.e. besondere) houses, which are so construct-
ed that they have about three galleries one above the other. “It may
indeed happen, that the players take from 50 to 60 dollars [4. Io to £12]
at a time, particularly if they act any thing new, when people have to
pay double. And that they perform nearly every day in the week; not-
withstanding plays are forbidden on Friday and Saturday, this prohibi-
tion is not observed.”—Rye, p. 88.
For the “light-taylde huswives’ at Shakspere's Globe, see John Lane,
in my Tell-froth volume, p. 132, and the notes on the stanza, at the end
of the book. Also—
In orab. I 580. Stephen Gosson. Playes confuſed.” “In the Play-houses
at London, it is the fashion of youthes” to go first into the yarde?, and to
cary their eye through every gallery; then, like unto ravens, where they
spy carrion, thither they flye, and presse as nere to the fairest as they can.
Instead of pomegranates, they give them pippines; they dally with their
garments to passe the time; they minister talke upon al occasions, and
eyther bring them [the girls] home to their houses" upon small acquaint-
* See Gosson's School of Abuse, 1579; and the Preface to the reprint of it by the
old Shakespeare Society, for an account of the Puritan abusers of plays and players.
The second &zed #3rd Alast of retrait from plažes and Theaters, 1580, is very strong
against them. I shall print Some extracts in my notes to Stubbes's Azatomże.
* The life of the purposeless London gentleman at ease is sketcht by Sir John
Davies in his Epigrammes, 1598 (Marlowe's Works, ed. Cunningham, p. 269).
IN FUSCUM. XXXIX.
Fuscus is, free, and hath the world at will,
Yet in the course of life that he doth lead,
He's like a horse, which, turning round a mill,
Doth always in the self-same circle tread:
First, he doth rise at ten ; and at eleven
He goes to Gill's, where he doth eat till one;
Then sees he a play till six, and sups at seven ;
And after supper, straight to bed is gone.
And there till ten next day he doth remain ;
And then he dines; then sees a comedy;
And then he sups, and goes to bed again :
Thus round he runs without variety;
Save that sometimes he comes not to the play,
But falls into a whore-house by the way.
3 An inn-yard us'd as, or turnd into, a theatre, I suppose, the galleries of the irºn
running round the yard.
4 Stubbes notices this too, in his Chapter on Stage plays : “Do they not maintaine
bawdrie, insinuat folery, & renue the remembrance of hethen ydolatrie? Do they not
f
º
APP. II.] ENGLISH scENERY, CATTLE, BAD RoADs, ETC. lxxxi
ance, or slip into taverns when the plaies are done.”—Collier's Biöl. Cat.
i. 322.
4. a. The Country and Cattle.
1558. Perlin, p. 25. “Le pais est fort couvert & umbrageux ; car les
terres Sont toutes encloses de hayes, chesnes, & plusieurs autres sortes
d'arbres, tellement que vous penses en cheminant que vous soyes en un
perpetuel boys : mais vous trouveres forces escaliers qui sont appelés en
Anglois amphores (? ), & par la les gens de pied vont par des
petis sentiers, & entrent dedans les terres. Les gems de cheval n'y vont
pas; mais s'en vont par le grand chemin, entre arbres & buissoms. En
ce pays la, il n'y a point de bergers qui mainent ordinairement les mou-
tons; mais en les laissent ordinairement dedans les boys, soir & matin,
& dedans les prayries communes.”
4. &. English boggy Roads. Sheep, Owen, Peasants' huts, Rabbits, Pole-
cats, Birds of Prey.
1592. Jacob Rathgeb, printed 16O2. Rye, p. 30. “Between London
and Oxford the country is in some places very fertile, in others very boggy
and mossy; and such immense numbers of sheep are bred on it round
about that it is astonishing. There is besides a superabundance of oxen
and other good cattle . . . . . .
p. 31. “His Highness, however, departed early that same morning,
August 28th, and took the road towards Cambridge.
“On the road we passed through a villainous, boggy, and wild country,
and several times missed our way, because the country thereabouts is very
little inhabited, and is nearly a waste; and there is one spot in particu-
lar where the mud is so deep, that in my opinion it would scarcely be
possible to pass with a coach in winter or rainy weather.
“About mid-day we came upon a fertile country, where there were
little low hillocks, and a fine breed of Splendid large oxen, and countless
numbers of sheep : the peasants dwell in Small huts, and pile up their
induce whordom & vnclennes? nay, are they not rather plaine devour- The fruits of
ers of maydenly virginitie and chastitie? For proofe wherof, but theathers &
marke the flocking and running to Theaters & Curtens, daylie and playes.
hourely, night and daye, tyme and tyde, to see Playes and Enterludes; where such
wanton gestures, such bawdie speaches, such laughing and fleering, The Godl
* { * tº e * tº º º e Godly
such kissing and bussing, such clipping and culling, Suche winckinge demeanoutes .
and glancinge of wanton eyes, and the like, is vsed, as is wonderfull Ysed at playes
to behold. Than, these goodly pageants being done, euery mate enterludes.
sorts to his mate, euery one bringes another homeward of their way verye freendly,
and in their secret conclaues (couertly) they play the Sodomits, or worse. And these
be the fruits of Playes and Enterluds for the most part."
HARRISON. f
lxxxii ENGLISH RABBITS, sold IERS, WITCHES, GAME. [APP. II.
produce out of doors in heaps, and so high that you cannot see their
houses. 4
“At noon his Highness dined at a pleasant village called Winslow,
and towards dark we came to Bedford.
“Between these two places there is for the most part a sandy plain or
heath, on which are a great number of wild rabbits, which are not in en-
closures, but run free, so that you see fifty or sixty of them together, of
all colours; but they scamper off like the wind into their burrows. In
these parts they likewise catch wild-cats (Küder) and pole-cats, and vari-
ous kinds of birds of prey, which do much injury to the rabbits; on this
account they hang them on a gallows, as they do wolves, but first strip
off their skins.”
4. c. English Soldiers, Passports, Climate, Witches, Game, Cattle, Sheep-
shearing, Horses, Crofts, Fish,
1592. Rathgeb, pr. 1602. Rye, p. 50–52. “The soldiers, moreover,
are excellent, but they do not willingly go on foreign service. When
soldiers are wanted, and idlers are seen lounging about, they give them
money and then they are bound to serve whether they like it or not; or
should they [desert andl be caught, their business is soon settled; for
because, as above mentioned, this kingdom is an island, and encompassed
on every side by water, so that no one can enter or depart except in ships,
orders have been issued to all ports or havens, that no Englishman shall
leave it without a licence.
“As regards cold weather and thunder storms we ought to remark
that the winter sets in with snow in December, and lasts till February,
but the snow does not lie long, for the climate is warm.
“Many witches are found there, who frequently do much mischief
by means of hail and tempests.
“Of game, it has great store of fallow-deer of various colours, as well
in the woods as in enclosed parks; likewise red deer, stags, and other
game, though few and small ; but no wild boars nor wolves are met with
in this island, and no roes ; but there are foxes and hares, vast numbers
of rabbits or coneys, which are everywhere to be found in enclosed gar-
dens, as well as in the open fields and woods; these make their escape
from the gardens.
“Of tame quadrupeds, it has beautiful oxen and cows, although not so
big as the Burgundy cattle, but they have very large horns, are low and
heavy, and for the most part black; there is abundance of sheep and
* This shows that Sir Thomas Lucy could have had deer at Charlecote without hav.
ing a regular park there.
APP. II.] ENGLISH SHEEP-SHE ARING, HoRSES, FRUIT, Etc. lxxxiii
wethers in all parts and places, which graze by themselves winter and
summer without shepherds; but when it snows or freezes hard, they are
driven into yards and fed with fodder, otherwise they do not go into the
stables either in summer or winter.
“Sheep-shearing takes place only once, viz., in the month of June;
the heaviest wethers weigh sixty pounds, others from forty to fifty pounds;
they bear at the most not more than six, others four or five pounds of
wool; one of the best wethers (notwithstanding that they are very abund-
ant) sells for about twenty shillings, that is, ten French francs or five
thalers; the inferior sort about ten shillings, or five francs; and the
worst about six or eight English shillings. The skin of the best wether
and sheep is worth about twelve pence, that is, four and a half German
batzen; the worst about eight pence or three batzen; a pound of wool
about twelve pence, or four and a half batzen.
“Horses are abundant, yet, although low and Small, they are very
fleet; the riding horses are geldings, and are generally excellent. The
Queen has forbidden any horse to be exported out of the Kingdom with-
out a licence.
“There are immense numbers of swine, which are larger than in any
other country.
“Of tame and wild fowl, there are swans in great numbers, herons,
ducks, pheasants, partridges, quails, turtle-doves, and wild doves.
“Of agricultural produce, it has very fine corn, rye, barley, oats, beans,
hops, vegetables, apples, pears of various sorts, red and blue plums,
cherries, (which however do not become ripe before June,) but no peaches
except what are grown in gardens.
“There is no wine-growing in this kingdom"; but if you want wine,
you can purchase the best and most delicious sorts, of various nations,
and that on account of the great facility which the sea affords them for
barter with other countries. •
“Oysters are in great plenty, and are better and larger than in Italy;
they are cried in all parts of the streets. They sell also cod, plaice, small
white river fish, pike, carp, trout, lobsters and crawfish, and in fine, all
kinds of sea-fish, which are sold like meat in other parts, both fresh and
salted.”
4. d. 7%e Soil, Climate, Beer, Sheep, &c. of England.
I598. Hentzner, p. 86. “The soil is fruitful, and abounds with cattle,
which inclines the inhabitants rather to feeding than ploughing, so that
near a third part of the land is left uncultivated for grazing. The climate is
* This was a mistake : see Harrison's bk. i., ch. 18, to come in Part II.
Exxxiv ENGLISH wool, &c. A BERKSHIRE HARVEST-Home. [APP. II.
most temperate at all times, and the air never heavy; consequently, mala-
dies are scarcer, and less physic is used there, than any where else. There
are but few rivers : Though the soil is productive, it bears no wine", but
that want is supplied from abroad by the best kinds, as of Orleans, Gas-
con, Rhenish, and Spanish. The general drink is beer, which is pre-
pared from barley, and is excellently well tasted, but strong, and what
soon fuddles. There are many hills without one tree, or any spring,”
which produce a very short and tender grass, and supply plenty of food
to sheep; upon these wander numerous flocks, extremely white; and
whether from the temperature of the air, or goodness of the earth, bear-
ing softer and finer fleeces than those of any other country: This is the
true Golden Fleece, in which consist the chief riches of the inhabitants,
great sums of money being brought into the island by merchants chiefly
for that article of trade. The dogs here are particularly good. It has
mines of gold, silver, and tin, (of which all manner of table utensils are
made, in brightness equal to silver, and used all over Europe) of lead,
and of iron, but not much of the latter : The horses are small but
swift : Glass houses are in plenty here.”
4. e. A Berkshire Harves?-Home.
Hentzner, p. 79. “As we were returning to our inn [at Windsor,
Sept. 14], we happened to meet some country people celebrating their
Harvest-home 3, their last load of corn they crown with flowers, having
besides an image richly dressed, by which, perhaps, they would signify
Ceres; this they keep moving about, while men and women, men and
maid servants, riding through the streets in the cart, shout as loud as
they can till they arrive at the barn. The farmers here do not bind up
their corn in sheaves, as they do with us, but directly as they have
reaped or mowed it, put it into carts, and convey it into their barns.”
5. a. London."
Hentzner, p. 45. “The streets in this city are very handsome and
clean 5; but that which is named from the goldsmiths who inhabit it
1 This was a mistake : see Harrison's bk. i., ch. 18, to come in Part II.
2 The Downs.
3 See Stubbes's Anatomie of Aðases.
4 See Perlin's opinion of the city at p. xli above, note I. . .
5 Here's a London street-scene, in 1590, from Sir Jn. Davies's Epigrammes, that
no doubt Shakspere often saw and sympathizd with, for he lovd music with all his
heart: «
. . the ballade-singer's auditorie,
which hath at Temple-bar his standing chose,
and to the vulgar sings an alehouse storie.
APP. II.] London AND ITs STREETS. THE PIRATE DRAKE. lxxxv
surpasses all the rest: There is in it a gilt Tower, with a fountain
that plays. Near it on the farther side is a handsome house, built by a
goldsmith, and presented by him to the city. There are besides to be
seen in this street, as in all others where there are goldsmiths’ shops, all
sorts of gold and silver vessels exposed to sale ; as well as antient and
modern medals, in such quantities as must surprize a man the first time
he sees and considers them.
“Fitz-Stephens, a writer of English history, reckoned in his time in
London, 127 parish Churches, and 13 belonging to Convents: He men-
tions besides, that upon a review there of men able to bear arms, the
people brought into the field under their colours 40,000 foot and 20,000
horse. Väde Cambden's Britant. Middlesex.”
p. 46. “The best Oysters are sold here in great quantities.
“Every body knows that English Cloth is much approved of, for the
goodness of the materials, and imported into all the kingdoms and
provinces of Europe.
“We were shown at the house of Leonard Smith, a taylor, a most
perfect looking-glass ornamented with gold, pearl, silver, and velvet, so
richly as to be estimated at five hundred ecus du Soleil. We saw at the
same place the hippocamp and eagle stone, both very curious and
Tare.
“And thus much of London.
“Upon taking the air down the river, the first thing that struck us,
was the ship of that noble Pirate, Sir Francis Drake, in which he is said
to have surrounded this globe of earth. On the left hand lies Ratcliffe,
a considerable suburb : On the opposite shore is fixed a long pole with
rams-horns upon it, the intention of which was vulgarly said to be, a
reflection upon wilful and contented cuckolds.”
First stands a Porter: then an Oyster wife
Doth stint her crie, and stay her steps to heare him,
Then comes a cutpurse ready with a knife,
and then a cuntry Client passeth neere him,
There stands the Cunstable, there stands the whore,
And harkning to the song, mark not each other.
There, by the Serieant, standes the debtor poore,
And doth no more mistrust him then his brother:
Thus Orpheus to such hearers giveth musique,
And Philo’ [the quack] to such Patients giueth physicke.
(Marlowe's Works, ed. Cunningham, p. 268, col. 2,) In Philomem. xxxviii. Epi-
grammes and Elegies. By I. Dſavies]. and C. Marlow]. [n.d., but prob. 1590]. At
Middleborugh. sign. C 4 verso. In Grosart's edition of Sir John Davies, 2 Vols. 1876,
in Vol. I. pp. ci-cii, this is shown to have been the archetype of Wordsworth's famous
“Power of Music :” in Vol. II. pp. 36-7 is the Epigram in full, with text of various
readings.-J. W. Ebsworth.
lxxxvi LoNDoN APPRENTICES AND SHOPs. cAMBRIDGE. [APP. II.
#
5. 5. Water.
“The sweet water is preserved in various parts of the city, in large
well-built stone cisterns [conduits], to be drawn off by cocks ; and the
poor labourers [water-bearers] carry it on their shoulders to the different
houses and sell it, in a peculiar kind of wooden vessels, broad at the
bottom, but very narrow at the top, and bound with iron hoops.”—
I592. Jacob Rathgeb, pr. 1602; in Rye, p. 8.
5, c. 7 he London Apprentices.
F558. Perlin, p. 7. “Vous voyrres a Londres les apprentis avec des
robbes contre leurs bouticques, nuds testes, & contre la muraille de leur
maison, tellement qu’en passant parmi les rues, vous en trouveres cin-
quante ou Soixante contre les murailles comme idoles, ayans leurs
bonizetz a la main.”
5. d. The Shops.
1558. Perlin, p. 24, “Ence pays la, toutes les bouticles detous mes-
tiers Sont ouvertes, comme ceux des barbiers en France; & ont force
ouvertures de Voirres, tant aux ouvrerois qu'aux chambres d'en hault :
car aux chambres vous verries force croisées devoire, & par tout les mai-
sons quasi de toutes les villes, quant est aux gens de mestier: & Sont
toutes icelles maisons comme les ouvrerois des barbiers de France, tant
par hault que par bas; & verries a leurs ouvreoirs & fenestres, tant de
ville que de villages, forces fleurs; & aux tavernes, forces foin dessus les
planchiers de boys, & forces oreilliés tapisseries, sur lesquelz les voyagers
se assisent.”
6.a. Cambridge.8
Hentzner, p. 56. “On this side [of the bridge over the Cam] where
* He means that the openings of the [projecting] shops were closed only by shutters,
though some had glass windows, which were more common to the upper rooms. The
London shops were like what Mr Gosling describes those till lately in Canterbury,
open to the weather [Walk in and about Canterbury, p. 46 (A.D. 1774, 1777, &c.).] The
principal use of the Rows in Chester seems to have been to obviate this inconvenience,
as it was found advisable to make the shops in the second story, and the warehouses
and vaults on the ground-floor.—Nichols.
2 of Londons pride I will not boast upon,
Her gold, her silver, and her ornaments;
Her Gems and Jewells, pearles and precious stone,
Her furniture and rich habilliments ;
Her cloth of silver tissue, and of gold,
Which in her shops men dayly may behold.
1607. Rich. Johnson. The Pleasant Walkes of Moore-fields (Collier's Bibl. Cat. i. 408.)
3 See the jolly little Map of Cambridge in 1588, in Wm. Smith's Description of
APP. II.] CAMBRIDGE AND OXFORD. lxxxvii
far the greater part of the town stands, all is splendid : the streets fine,
the churches numerous, and those seats of the Muses, the Colleges, most
beautiful: in these a great number of learned men are supported, and the
studies of all polite sciences and languages flourish.”
p. 58. “We must note here that there is a certain Sect in England,
called Puritans: These, according to the doctrine of the Church of
Geneva, reject all ceremonies antiently held, and admit of neither organs
nor tombs in their places of worship, and entirely abhor all difference in
rank among churchmen, such as Bishops, Deans, &c. : they were first
named Puritans by the Jesuit Sandys. They do not live separate, but
mix with those of the Church of England in the Colleges.”
3. & Oxford.
p. 59. “Oxonium, Oxford, the famed Athens of England; that glorious
seminary of learning and wisdom, whence religion, politeness and letters
are abundantly dispersed into all parts of the kingdom : The town is
remarkably fine, whether you consider the elegance of its private
buildings, the magnificence of its public ones, or the beauty and whole-
somenes of its situation; which is on a plain, encompassed in such
manner with hills shaded with wood, as to be sheltered on the one hand
from the sickly South, and on the other from the blustering West, but
open to the East that blows serene weather, and to the North the pre-
venter of corruption; from which in the opinion of some it formerly
obtained the appellation of Bellositum. This town is watered by two
rivers, the Cherwell and the Isis, vulgarly called the Ouse; and though
these streams join in the same channel, yet the Isis runs more entire,
and with more rapidity towards the South, retaining its name until it
meets the Thames, which it seems long to have sought, at Wallingford,
thence called by the compound name of Thames, it flows the prince of
all British rivers; of whom we may justly say, as the antients did of the
Euphrates, That it both sows and waters England. The Colleges in
this famous University are as follows: [a list given ; then]
p. 63. “Thus far the Colleges and Halls, which for beauty of their
buildings, their rich endowments, and copious Libraries, excell all the
Academies in the Christian world.”
6. c. The Universities of Cambridge and Oxford.
1558. Perlin, p. 12. “En iceluy Royaulme d'Angleterre sont deulx
England and Wales, in the Sloane MS. 2596. Mr Hooper is now cutting it for Prof.
I. E. B. Mayor's edition of Cardinal or Bishop Fisher's English Works for the Early
English Text Society; and I hope to give a print of it in Part II. of this Harrison.
b{xxviii WARWICKSHIRE, RAD WINTER. RAYLEY. [APP. II,
universités, c'est a Scavoir, Cambruches & Auxonne, qu'on appelle en
latin Autonia, Cambruche, en latin, Cambrusium. Ceux du pays ne
courent gaire ou bien peu, & me s'adonnent poinct beaucoup aux lettres,
sinon qu'a toute vanite & ambition, & a toute marchandise. Les Italiens
hantent fort le pays pour raison de la bancque.”
7. Warwickshire. [A.D. 1599.] Harl, MS. 3813, Ieaf 40.
“Warwickshire, a good Mediterranean Prouince, noted to be in
quantitie Superficiall 555 miles, conteyninge H22 miles in circute, beinge
37 miles longe, from Staffordshire vnto Oxfordshire, & 25 miles broade,
from Leycestershire vnto Worcestershire: a Contrey some parte plaine
Champion & y” rest wood lande, deuided with y” ryuer Auon, plentifull
bothe in corne & pasturage, whereby it is well inhabited, conteyninge
I Chase, & 16. parkes for pleasure, & comprehendeth 158 parishes, wherof
their be 12. markett townes, & but I. borough to y” Parliament, besides y”
Cittie of Couentrie; the principall whereof are, the Cittie of Couentrie, a
fyne, neate, & well built towne, & walled about, cheefelie noted, for wollen
workes, & blue thridd, and is a Bushops Sea, ioyned vnto Lychfeild.
Next is y” Burrough of Warwicke, y” Capitall towne of that Contrey, rea-
sonablie well built, with an antient castle, the cheefe seate of y" Earles of
#hat title. Next is Stratford vpon Auon and Henley, good markett townes,
& Bremyngham, cheefelie noted for all sortes of Iron tooles.”
p. vi. Radwinter. Harrison's parsonage. “At Radwinter, Essex, we find by the
terrier of 16Io A.D. that there were two mansions belonging to the benefice, ‘on the
south side of the church, towards the west end, one called the great vicarage, and in
ancient time the Domžas Capellanorum, and the other the less vicarage,’ which latter
“formerly served for the ease of the Parson, and, as appears by evidence, first given to
the end that if any of the parish were sick, the party might be sure to find the Parson
or his curate near the church, ready to go and visit him.’”—Cutts's Scenes and Charac-
ters of the Middle-Ages, 1872, p. 260-1.
p. ro4. Račeigh. Read ‘Raleigh." The name is rightly given by John Norden
(who notes the custom too) in his beautiful MS. Description of Essex, 1594, (much fuller
than the Camden Society's printed one) dedicated to the Earl of Essex, in the Grenville
Library MS. LV, British Museum. Walker's Gazeteer of 1801 describes the town :
“RAYLEIGH, or RALEIGH, a town in Essex, consisting chiefly of one broad handsome
street. It is situated upon the creek called Hadley-Bay, which parts it from Canvey-
Island, 13 miles S.E. of Chelmsford, and 34 N.N.E. of London. Market on Satur-
day." Radwinter, Harrison's town, is near Colchester.
lxxxix
APPENDIX III.
NOTES UPON NORDEN AND His MAP OF LONDON, I 593.
BY
HENRY B. W HEAT LEY.
THE earliest view of London known to exist is the drawing by Anthony
Van den Wyngrerde preserved in the Sutherland Collection (Bodleian
Library, Oxford), but as this most interesting representation of old Lon-
don was made in the reign of Henry VIII., it is of too early a date for
our present purpose, which is to realise if possible the appearance of the
city in which Shakspere lived and did the chief work of his life. The
next plan in point of time is the one included in George Braun's and
Francis Hohenberg's great work—Civitates Orbis Terrarum. I 572.
Although so dated, the map is proved to have been drawn at an earlier
period, as the steeple of old St Paul’s, which was destroyed in 1561, is re-
presented on it. It is therefore supposed to be a copy from some earlier
map not now known to exist. The next is the map attributed to Ralph
Agas, which is undated, but was probably made somewhere between I 561
and 1576. The copy in the Guildhall Library was printed in the reign
of James I., as is proved by the composition of the royal arms in the
upper left-hand corner of the map, where the Scottish lion is quartered
with the lions of England, the fleur de lis of France, and the harp of
Ireland ; but there is reason to believe that many editions had previously
been printed, which are no longer in existence, because the royal arms
of Elizabeth are seen on the state barge off Baynard's Castle. It Imust
have been made after 1561, because the steeple of St Paul's is not
represented, and it seems unlikely, as Mr Halliwell-Phillipps points
out, that if it had been planned after 1576 the positions of The Theatre
and the Curtain would have been left out of So large a map. Besides
these important plans of London there are—a small bird’s-eye view etched
by F. Velagio and inscribed “Londra” (about 1570), which was sold at
Dr Wellesley's sale, and is now in Mr Crace's collection; and a coloured
Xc MR wheatley on NordEN's MAP or LoNDoN, 1593. [APP. III.
drawing of London from the Tower to Westminster Abbey in the inter-
esting manuscript volume by William Smith, Rouge Dragon, entitled
“The Particuler Description of England with the Portratures of certaine
of the cheiffest Citties and Townes,” 1588 (Sloane MS. 2596).
We now come to the special map before us, which is dated 1593, and
is by far the best one for the purpose of illustrating Shakspere's London.
The original, published in Norden's Middlesex, is of small size [9; inches
wide by 6% inches high], but by the aid of photography the present
copy has been considerably enlarged with no detriment to its accuracy."
By this means a good workable map has been obtained, which is of
peculiar value from the large number of references to the names of places
which it includes. The date 1593 appears twice on the plate, once after
the designer's name, and again after that of the engraver, and the trust-
worthiness of this date is proved by the representation of ‘The Play-
house, on the Bankside, which, as Mr Halliwell-Phillipps has already
pointed out in his Illustrations, is intended for the Rose theatre, erected
in the year 1592. Before proceeding to describe the chief features of in-
terest in the map, it will be well to devote a few words to a short notice
of the man to whom we are indebted for its production.
Little is known of John Norden outside of his work, and it is not quite
clear whether there were not two authors bearing both these names who
were living at the same time. Anthony à Wood was of opinion that the
author of a large number of devotional works (one of which, “The Pensive
Man's Practice,’ 12°, 1591, went through forty editions) was the same man
as the surveyor.
. Wood informs us that Norden was born of a good family probably
settled in Wiltshire, and Gough adds the date of his birth as about the
year 1548. He was admitted a Commoner of Hart Hall, Oxford, in 1564,
and graduated B.A. Feb. II, 1568, and M.A. Feb. 26, 1572-3. During his
residence at the University he is supposed to have drawn with the pen,
on sixteen sheets, that map of all the battles fought in England from the
Conquest to the time of Queen Elizabeth, which is mentioned by Hearne
(Letter on Antiquities, &c., p. 34) as formerly existing in the Picture
Gallery at Oxford.
Norden did much valuable work in his day and deserves our esteem,
more especially as he does not appear to have prospered very greatly in
a worldly point of view. Richard Heber, the great Bibliomaniac, pos-
sessed the presentation copy to Elizabeth, of Norden's Hertfordshire,
* The map was re-engraved for the reprint of Norden's Middlesex, 1723, and re-
produced from the original in the first part of Mr Halliwell-Phillipps's Illustrations of
the Life of Shakespeare.
APP. III.] MR wheatley on NordEN's MAP of LoNDoN, 1593. xci
with a manuscript address to the Queen, in which the author stated that
he had spent above one thousand marks, and five years’ time upon the
work, ‘by which being daungerouslie indepted, much greeved, and my
familie distressed, I have no other refuge but to flie unto your Majestie's
never fayling bountie for relief;” and in the printed prefatory letter to
Burghley, he wrote, “I have been forced to struggle with want, the un-
pleasant companion of illustrious desires, and have long sustained foils,
enforced neglect of my purposed business, and sorrow of my working
business, Miseria mentem macerat.” In James the first's reign he pros-
pered better. In 1609 he was ‘Surveyor of his Majesty's Woods,” and,
according to Granger, he received a salary of fifty pounds a year from his
office. He was also “Land Surveyor to Prince Charles,' afterwards Charles
I., and had much work to do connected with the manors of the Duchy of
Cornwall,
In 1596 he dated from his poor house near Fulham, but Wood says
that he lived during the greater part of James's reign at Hendon in Mid-
dlesex. From the following passage in Gerard's Herball (relating to Četa
vulgaris, or red beet) it appears that Norden cultivated plants in his gar-
den—“the seedes taken from that plant which was altogither of one colour
and sowen, doth bring foorth plants of many and variable colours, as the
worshipful gentleman master John Norden can well testifie, unto whom
I gave some of the seedes aforesaide, which in his garden brought foorth
many other of beautiful colours” (Herball, 1597, p. 251). He died in or
about 1626, and Granger describes a portrait which represents him as ‘in
a Scull cap with a wrought border, falling band ; a small oval.’
Norden projected a complete Speculum Britanniae, but only published
two counties, viz. Middlesex in 1593, and Hertfordshire in 1598. The
MS. of the first is in the British Museum (Harl. MSS. 570), with a few
corrections in the handwriting of Lord Burghley, and appears to have
been the author's first draft. It differs somewhat from the printed
copy, in that it contains some interesting particulars afterwards omitted
and has no account of London. The reason for this omission is given
by Norden in the following words—“I purpose to make a perticuler breife
declaracón therof, together with the mapp of the Cytie, might it please
God to be pacient with the Seyd Cytie, and to put awaye his anger, that
the sicknes may cease.” The MS. of the other is in the Archiepiscopal
library at Lambeth. The two books were reprinted together in 1637,
and again in 1723. Northamptonshire was written in 16IO, but was not
published until 1720, and Cornwall was first published in 1728. Essex
was written in 1594, but remained in MS. at Hatfield until 1840, when
* Norden's Essex, ed. Sir Henry Ellis (Camden Society, 1840), p. xxxiv,
xcii MR WHEATLEY on NordEN's MAP of LoNDoN, 1593. [APP. III.
it was printed for the Camden Society by Sir Henry Ellis, who prefixed
a valuable introduction, from which these particulars relating to Norden
have chiefly been obtained. There is another MS. of Essex in the
Grenville Library (MS. LV.) which is altogether a different work from
that at Hatfield." In the dedication of the latter to the Earl of Essex
Norden writes: “Thus, my gratious Lorde, hauinge waded throwgh
this Shire, I haue taken boldenes in humilitie, to present it vnto your
honorable view ; Euen so commendinge it vnto your moste wished
patronage, thowgh symplie contryved in the interime of the fittes of my
longe and chargeable sicknes.”
Kent and Surrey are said to exist in MS., but it is not known where.
Norden's County Maps of Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Middlesex,
Surrey and Sussex appeared upon an enlarged scale with his name
in the sixth edition of Camden's Britannia, 1607, which was the
first edition of that book with maps. These on a still larger scale
(with the exception of Kent, but with Cornwall added) were also
inserted in Speed's Theater of the empire of Great Britain, folio, 1611.
Norden was the first Cartographer to introduce the roads, but these
enlarged copies of his maps have no roads marked. Norden's Sur-
veyor’s Dialogue was published in 1607, and again in 1610 and 161 I.
‘England an Intended Guyde for English Travaillers,’ &c., appealed
in 1625. At the end of Norden's book on Middlesex are the usual
complimentary verses of admiring friends on the projected Søeculum.
Robert Nicolson compares the author with Ptolemy and Ortelius as a
geographer, with Mercator as a chorographer, with Braun as a ‘poly-
grapher,’ and sums up all—
“So Cosmo-choro-Poly-grapher’s he.”
H. O. is still more effusive, and ends his praise with an anagrammatic
pun —
“Norden this glasse shall so exalt thy fame
As grave, nor-den, nor tombe shall hide thy name.’
Among the various Surveys made by Norden in the exercise of the duties
of his offices are, ‘A Description of the Honor of Windesor, 1607” (a fine
set of MS. plans and views on vellum among the Harleian MSS. of the
British Museum), ‘Observations concerning crown lands and woods,
1613’ (Lansdowne MSS. I65, art. 55), and ‘An Abstract of divers
Manors, Landes, and Tenementes latelie graunted unto Prince Charles
by our Soveraigne Lord James, his most loving father. Surveyde by
* Rye's England as seen by Foreigners, 1865, p. 185.
APP. III.] MR wheatley on NordEN's MAP of LoNDoN, 1593. xciii
vertue of a deputation of ye honourable Sir James Fullerton, knighte,
Surveyor general of the landes and land revenews of the sayd moste
worthy Prince Charles, made and performed by John Norden the
elder, and John Norden the younger, as deputies to the sayd Sir James,
in the moneths of June, July, August, and parte of September 1617°
(B. M. Add. MSS. No. 6027).
Norden was still alive in 1624, when he finished with his son the sur-
vey of Sheriff Hutton Manor, County York.
Besides the map of London drawn by Norden in 1593 and engraved
by Pieter van den Keere in the same year, there was “a view of London
in eight sheets having at bottom a representation of the Lord Mayor's
Show, all on horseback and the Aldermen in round caps. Bagford says
this view is singular, and was taken from the pitch of the hill towards
Dulwich College, going to Camberwell from London, about 16O4 or 1606,
and that he had not met with any other of the kind ; he adds, that he saw
it on the staircase of Dulwich College, and that Secretary Pepys went
afterwards to see it, and would have purchased it : but that since it is
quite decayed and destroyed by the damp of the wall. It was given to
the College with the Library by William Cartwright, an eminent come-
dian and bookseller, a friend of the founder’s.”
The map which we are now about to consider has frequently been re-
produced, and several editions were published under the title of ‘A Guide
for Countrymen in the famous Cittey of London, &c.’ 1613, 1653, &c. In
looking at this map it is necessary to bear in mind that it represents the
City only, and that Westminster was delineated on another map pub-
lished in Norden's Middlesex. London is made to extend from a little
outside Temple bar to St Katherines by the Tower.
The three chief Shaksperian localities are Shoreditch, Blackfriars, and
Bankside; but in one point of view we may consider the whole of London
delineated on this map as a Shaksperian locality, for in those days,
when all the town was included within a limited area, every part must
have been familiar to our great poet.
There are two ways by which Shakspere may have come to London
from his home at Stratford-on-Avon, viz. the road by Nether Pillerton,
Banbury, Buckingham, Aylesbury, Wendover, and Amersham ; and
that by Shipston on Stour, Long Compton, Chipping Norton, Woodstock,
Oxford, Wheatley, Tetsworth, High Wycombe, and Beaconsfield, which
we know he used when he stayed at old Davenant's inn—the Crown
at Oxford. Both these roads would meet at Uxbridge, and there-
fore there is little doubt but, that as Shakspere neared London, he
1 Gough, quoted by Ellis (Norden's Essex, p. xxiv.).
Xciv MR wheatley on NoFDEN's MAP of LoNDoN, 1593. [App. 111.
came along the Uxbridge road by Shepherd's Bush, Kensington gravel
pits, Tyburn, the Lord Mayor's Banqueting houses, and the village of St
Giles, along Holborn, and that he passed by Gray's Inn, where Edward
Hall the Chronicler (whose work Shakspere sometimes used), George
Gascoigne, the poet, and William Cecil, afterwards Lord Burghley, had
been students. These buildings, with their beautiful gardens attached, are
at the extreme west of our map. After passing St Andrew's Church and
the Holborn Conduit, Shakspere would enter the City at Newgate. What
did he see? We will now attempt to answer this question. At the time
of this memorable first journey to London, which was made a few years
only before the date of this map, the only theatres on the north side of the
Thames were the Theatre and the Curtain, and both these buildings
were situated in the fields at Shoreditch, which unfortunately are not
here represented. The road which issues from Bishopgate leads to them,
but the limits of the map would not allow of the representation of what
was then a village suburb with a church among the trees. The Black-
friars theatre was not built," nor was the still more famous Globe in exist-
€In Ce.
If we were to mark off the outline of Norden's map upon a plan of Lon-
don of to-day, we should find that it occupied a small portion of the centre
only, and yet this space was made up to some extent of open places.
There is the Gray's Inn lane, the upper part of which led through the
country towards Hampstead. The village of Islington stands alone among
the hills in the far north, and was not then, as it afterwards became, the
high road to the north of England. Not far off, and coming into the
map at the north-west corner, is the River of Wells, which takes a
serpentine course down to Holborn, passes under Holborn bridge, then
under Fleet bridge, and falls into the Thames as the Fleet river or ditch
between Bridewell and Blackfriars. Moorfields was then only lately
drained, but it soon afterwards was laid out in walks. The 'Old Spital
is marked which gave its name to Spitalfields, where crowds used to con-
gregate on Easter Monday and Tuesday, to hear the Spital sermons
preached from the pulpit cross. The ground was originally a Roman
cemetery, and about the year 1576 bricks were largely made from the
clayey earth, the recollection of which is kept alive in the name of Brick
Lane. South of these fields is the church of St Botolph, opposite Ald-
gate, where Robert Dow, citizen and merchant tailor, was buried, a few
years after this map was made. It was this Dow who gave in 1605 the
* The house which Burbage converted into a theatre in 1596 was an old one,
and therefore was here at the date of the map.
app. 111..] MR wheatley on NoFDEN's MAP of London, 1593. Xcy
sum of £50 to the parish of St Sepulchre's, that the interest might remu-
nerate the clerk for ringing a handbell at midnight and daybreak under
the wall of Newgate, and for calling the poor prisoners condemned to
death to prayer and supplication.
The two Smithfields east and west are marked, although even at this
time their dimensions had been much curtailed. It is not easy to Say
what the peculiar objects represented at East Smithfield are intended for,
but Mr Hales throws out the probable conjecture, that they are old-
fashioned ordnance belonging to the Tower." Mr Furnivall, however,
thinks it more likely that they are intended to represent masts, either
for ships or streamers. The buildings outside Aldgate, and above
the Tower, belonged to the nunnery of St Clair, whose inmates were
of the Minorite order. After the dissolution, the land was farmed
by one Goodman, and the remembrance of these several owners is
retained in the names of the Minories and Goodman's Fields. All
these places were outside the city walls. The walls themselves are well
defined, and the different gates from Ludgate, on the South west, to Ald-
gate,” on the east, are clearly marked. On the south of the river are the
open spaces also. There is Lambeth Marsh of unsavoury repute, on the
extreme west; next to it the gardens of Paris Garden; then the Bankside,
with the Bear-house and the Playhouse. Philip Henslowe, part proprietor
of Paris Garden and manager of the Rose Theatre (or the Playhouse),
was one of the inhabitants of the Bankside. Malone asserted that he
had evidence of Shakspere's residence here from 1596 to 1608, and there
is no doubt that the poet's younger brother Edmund Shakspere died on
* Do they not look like cannon unmounted? The breech, and the button, and
the bands all seem visible. See a picture of “an old English cannon in the Tower of
London,’ in Roberts's Social Hist, of the Southern counties of England, p. 102. And,
overbuilt as the old tower precincts were, it might be a relief to turn them outside.
Nor is the size any fatal objection ; for with regard to the ships too there is a varia-
tion from the scale. Another suggestion, however, that occurs, is that East Smithfield
was at this time used as a tenter-ground—a Suggestion that seems to have occurred to
Brayley. The only objects that are mentioned as standing on East Smithfield—except
certain buildings which for a time usurped the ground, but were presently cleared
away—are a Cross (at the N.W. corner), a pair of Stocks, and a cage—a sort of small
prison.—J. W. HALES.
These questionable objects are figured also on Faithorne's Map of London (1658),
but are there of a smaller size and differently arranged.—H. B. W.
* In May 1374 a lease was granted to Chaucer of ‘the whole of the dwelling-house
above the Gate of Algate, with the rooms built over, and a certain cellar beneath the
same gate, on the south side of that gate and the appurtenances thereof; to have and
to hold the whole of the house aforesaid, and the rooms thereof, unto the aforesaid
Geoffrey for the whole life of the said Geoffrey."—Riley's Memorials of London, 1868,
P. 377.
xcvi MR wheatley on NordEN's MAP or LoNDoN, 1593. [APP. III.
the Bankside. Another inhabitant was Philip Massinger, who died in
March 1638-9 suddenly, so suddenly indeed, that retiring to bed in his
own house in good health he was found dead the next morning. His
body was buried in the neighbouring church of St Saviour (or St Mary
Overies), which is not very clearly marked in the map amongst a little
mass of houses. This church was the resting-place of many remarkable
men, from the poet Gower downwards. Sir Edward Dyer, who died in
Winchester House (1607), Lawrence Fletcher, a leading member of the
company of actors to which Shakspere belonged, and John Fletcher the
dramatist. Sir Aston Cokayne wrote of Massinger and Fletcher:-
“In the same grave Fletcher was buried, here
Lies the stage poet, Philip Massinger;
Plays they did write together, were great friends,
And now one grave includes them at their ends ;
To whom on earth nothing did part, beneath
Here in their fames they lie in spight of death.’
It appears from the most interesting contemporary drawing of the Pro-
cession of Edward VI. from the Tower to Westminster (1547), formerly
at Cowdray House, and engraved by Basire for the Society of Anti-
quaries, that Bankside was handsomely embanked (whence probably the
name), and that the several landing-stairs were kept in excellent order.
A row of small houses was ranged along the Bank, behind which were
trees, and all beyond was country. On the South east side of London
Bridge is the church of St Olave's, Tooley Street, which appears on our
map under the name of S. Towleyes.
Old London naturally grew up along the banks of its river, which was
the main artery of the city, and fully deserved the name that has been
given to it of the ‘silent highway.’ The chief features of the north bank
are shown in the map before us, and the names of the places are there
marked. A few notes on these will now be given, beginning from the
west side of the map.
Aleicester house has a special interest from its association with Eliza-
beth's two favourites—Leicester and Essex. The mansion was originally
the inn of the see of Exeter, held by lease from the Knights of St John
of Jerusalem. At the Reformation it came into the possession of William
Lord Paget, when it was called Paget Place. Dudley, Earl of Leicester,
obtained it in Elizabeth's reign, and after his death, in 1588, it passed
into the hands of his step-son, the unfortunate Earl of Essex, from whom
it obtained its more permanent name of Essex House, a name which sur-
vives in Essex street. Spenser refers to this house and the two famous
owners in his last poem, the Prothalamion. First of Leicester —
APP. III.] MR wheatley on NordEN's MAP of LoNDoN, 1593. xcvii
º
“Next whereunto there standes a stately place,
Where oft I gayned giftes and goodly grace
Of that great Lord, which therein wont to dwell ;
Whose want too well now feels my freendles case.”
Then of Essex,
‘Yet therein now doth lodge a noble Peer,
Great England's glory and the world's wide wonder,
Whose dreadfull name late through all Spaine did thunder,
And Hercules two pillors standing neere
Did make to quake and feare.’
The poet himself seems to have resided here for a short time, for in
October 1579, he dated a letter to Gabriel Harvey, from ‘Leycester
House.”
The Temple, also alluded to by Spenser,
‘Where now the studious lawyers have their bowers,
There whylome wont the Templer Knights to bide,
may well be considered as a Shaksperian locality, as the author of the first
part of Henry VI makes the gardens the scene of the white and red
rose-plucking of the respective adherents of the houses of York and Lan-
CaSter.
Whitefriars, the Alsatia of the outcasts of society, is alluded to in
Richard III, in which play Gloucester orders the attendants to take the
corpse of Henry VI to Whitefriars and await his coming.
Bridewell, called after the well of St Bride, was in Shakspere's day a
house of correction, but it had previously been used as a palace, and the
third act of Henry VIII is supposed to be laid here. Ben Jonson named
Bridewell Dock, ‘Avernus.’
Blackfriars was the scene of Queen Katharine's trial, and several of
Queen Elizabeth's courtiers lived within its precincts. In 1593 it had not
become a Shaksperian locality; but long before this plays had been
acted in the precinct. Burbage's theatre, the site of which is now
indicated by Playhouse Yard, was not opened until 1596, and Shak-
spere did not buy his house near Puddle Dock, the ‘Abydos’ of Ben
Jonson, until 1612. Jonson himself dated the dedication to his Voſºone
‘from my house in the Black Friars this 11th day of February 1670.”
In Carter lane, the thoroughfare above Blackfriars and below St
Paul's, was the Bell, where Richard Quyney wrote his letter in 1598,
directed, ‘To my loveing good frend and countryman Mr William
Shackespere deliver thees.”
Baynard's Castle was built by a follower of William the Conqueror
named Baynard. In after times it was twice forfeited to the King, and
HARRTSON. g
xcviii MR wheatley ON No RDEN's MAP of LoNDON, 1593. [APP. III.
it was here that the Duke of Buckingham offered the crown to Richard
of Gloucester.
Of Paul's Wharf nothing need be said. Broken Wharf, according
to Stow, is ‘so called of being broken and fallen into the Thames ;' but
others have affirmed that it was here old worn-out vessels were broken
up. A year after the date of our map, Bevis Bulmer erected here his
engine for supplying Cheapside and Fleet street with water from the
Thames.
Queenhithe is said to have been originally called Edred's hithe, “from
Edred owner thereof, but it has been known as Queen's bank or Queenhithe
from a very early period. Peele, in his play of Edward I, also calls it
Pottershithe, but Stow is silent as to this name. It was from this place
that the Earl of Essex took boat for his own house, in February 1601,
after he had fled down Friday street, on finding his mean of escape
from the city cut off.
The Three Cranes, as Stow tells us, were not called ‘ of three cranes
at a tavern door, but rather of three strong cranes of timber placed on the
Vintry Wharf by the Thames side, to crane up wines there.” On Febru-
ary 1, 1553-4, Queen Mary took barge to Westminster from here after
her visit to the city, to confer with the Lord Mayor about Sir Thomas
Wyat’s insurrection. The site of Three Cranes Wharf is now occupied
by the city end of Southwark bridge.
The Stilliarde or Steelyard was formerly the location of the Hanse
Merchants, who are said to have obtained a settlement in London as
early as the year 1250. The place derives its name from the King's steel-
yard or beam which was erected here for weighing the tonnage of goods
imported into London. When the tonnage was transferred to the city
authorities, the King's beam was moved first to Cornhill and afterwards
to Weighhouse Yard in Little Eastcheap. The Hanse merchants had
great privileges granted to them at various times, but five years after our
map was made, they were expelled the kingdom by a proclamation of the
Queen. The old Steelyard stood on the site of the present Cannon Street
station.
Shrewsbury House is better known as Cold-harbour, or Poultney’s Inn.
It was a large building of great antiquity, and in 1320 was demised or
let to Henry Stow, draper. After a time the place was sold to Sir John
de Poultney, who was four times Lord Mayor, and founded a college in
the parish church of St Lawrence in Candlewick ward, now called St
Lawrence Poultney. It then came into the possession of the Crown, and
here John, Earl of Huntingdon, magnificently entertained his half-brother
Richard II. In 1483 the third Richard gave the house to the Heralds,
APP. III.] MR wheat LEY on NordEN's MAP of LoNDoN, 1593. xcix
but after the battle of Bosworth they were turned out, and it became the
temporary residence of Margaret, Countess of Richmond, the mother of
Henry VII. In the reign of Henry VIII, Bishop Tunstal was lodged at
Coldharbour, but in the last year of Edward VI the house was taken
from Tunstal and given to the Earl of Shrewsbury. In 1600 it was pulled
down by Gilbert, seventh Earl, and a large number of small tenements
were built upon the site.
The Old Swart is of great antiquity as a landing-place, and is mentioned
in ‘A Chronicle of London from Io89 to 1483.” It was the practice of all
prudent persons who feared to trust themselves to the rapids which ran
through the narrow arches of old London bridge, to land at the Swan
stairs and walk to the east side of the bridge and take boat again there.
Zondon bridge, which remained for a century and a half after the date
of this map the only bridge in London, is well marked with its houses
that did not disappear until 1758. There was at this time a drawbridge
forming one of the twenty arches, which was raised to allow ships to
pass through, and the vessel under sail appears to be making for this
opening.
Lion key has a double derivation provided for it by Stow. He writes
“Lion key of one Lion, owner thereof, and since of the sign of a Lion.’
Billingsgate was not originally a fish market exclusively, but in Eliza-
beth's reign was “an open place for the landing and bringing in of any
fish, corn, salt stores, victuals and fruit (grocery wares excepted).’ Nor-
den seems to have been a believer in the theory that the place took its
name from Belin or Bellyn, an ancient British king.
The Custome house here represented was built in Elizabeth's reign,
and superseded a previous building which had been erected in 1385."
Three Custom houses have since been built on the same site.
Galley key is said to have been so called, because the galleys unloaded
and landed their merchandise here, but Stow says that no gallies landed
here “in memorie of men living.” The place was at one time inhabited by
foreigners, who passed among themselves silver coins of Genoa, called
galley half-pence, and thus acted illegally. Another name of this part was
Petty-Wales, given to it, according to Stow, on account of the residence
there of the princes of Wales when they came to London.
The Tower, with its postern on Tower hill, and Traitor's gate on the
Thames, is clearly defined.
The hospital of St Katherine's fills up the extreme eastern limit of the
* This building and its predecessor are associated with the memory of the poet
Chaucer, whose daily work for about twelve years was performed there (June 1374
to December 1386).
c MR wheat LEY ON NORDEN's MAP or LoNDON, I 593. [APP. III.
map. Three years after Norden had published the result of his and
Van den Keere's work, Queen Elizabeth appointed Sir Julius Caesar
Master. In 1825 the hospital was removed to the Regent's Park, and a
spot of ground which was chosen for the purpose by Matilda, wife of king
Stephen, and was associated with the memories of Eleanor, Queen of
Edward I, and Philippa, Queen of Edward III, was denuded of all that
gave it interest. It now forms a part of the St Katherine Docks.
Having noticed some of the chief features of the map and the names
marked upon it, we will now take the references at the side in the order in
which they stand, although it is not easy to make out the principle upon
which the letters and numbers are arranged.
a Bishopsgate street within the walls extends from the gate to the
church of St Martin Outwich, which is marked just below the letter a.
Here was, as Stow tells us, ‘a fair well with two buckets,’ and the church
itself was sometimes called “St Martin’s with the well and two buckets.’
In the yard of the Bull Inn in Bishopsgate street plays were acted by
Tarlton and other early actors. Anthony Bacon (the brother of Francis)
lived near the Bull, and his mother feared that the plays and interludes
acted there would corrupt his servants. The road outside the gate which
led to Shoreditch had not at this time been much built upon.
ô The Papey, according to Stow, was the house of a brotherhood of St
Charity and St John the Evangelist, “for poor impotent priests,’ which was
founded close to the wall and a little to the east of Bishopsgate, in 1430.
The fraternity was suppressed in the reign of Edward VI, and in Eliza-
beth’s reign Sir Francis Walsingham lived in the house before he went
to Seething lane,
c 4//-hallows in the wall, which stood to the west of Bishopsgate, was
one of the few churches which escaped the Fire. In 1764 it was pulled
down and the present church erected in its place.
d S. Taffhyns is meant for the church of St Alphage,' London Wall,
situated in the east of Cripplegate. It was a part of the priory or hos-
pital of St Mary the Virgin, founded in 1332 by W. Elsing. The present
church was erected on the site of the old one in 1777.
e Silver street, just below Cripplegate, was so called, Stow thinks, on
account of the silversmiths that dwelt there. Ben Jonson calls it ‘the
region of money, a good seat for an usurer' (The Staffle of AVews).
f Aldermanbury runs down to the thoroughfare above Cheapside,
* This addition of an initial T, obtained from the final t of Saint, is an example of
the rule followed in Towley, Tantony, &c., but the change of age into yzes seemed a
difficulty until Mr Hales found in Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle a reference to
‘Seynt Alfin's body’ (ed. Hearne, repr. 1810, p. 319).

App. III.] MR wheatley on NordEN's MAP of LoNDoN, 1593. ci
which is unmarked in the map, but consisted of Lad lane and Cateaton
Street (now Gresham street).
g Barbicam. In this street originally stood the watch tower or out-
post of Cripplegate. At the east end of the street is a x like the letter
t, which is intended to represent the red cross in Red cross Street. After
the date of the map the Barbican gained interest for us by becoming the
residence of Sir Henry Spelman and of Milton. The street that leads up
to the north, immediately above the X, is Golden lane, to the east of
which the Fortune theatre was built by Henslow and Alleyn in 1599-
I6oo.
h Aldersgate street leads up north from the gate to Barbican, two doors
from which was the Bell, the inn that John Taylor the Waterpoet started
from on his pennyless pilgrimage to Scotland, in 1618.
In this street died the Countess of Pembroke, ‘Sydney's sister, Pem-
broke's mother.’
2 Charterhouse, above West Smithfield, was at this time in the posses-
sion of Thomas Earl of Suffolk, to whom it was given by Elizabeth.
The Queen stayed here in 1558, and James I in 1603. In 161 I Lord
Suffolk sold the old monastery to Thomas Sutton, who founded what
Fuller called the “ masterpiece of Protestant English charity.’
Å Holborn conduit, by Snow hill, was first built in 1498, and repaired
by William Lamb in 1577, the memory of whose good work still lives in
Lamb's Conduit street, built on the site of the fields where Lamb collected
his waters and made a reservoir to feed this conduit.
Z Chancery lane, opposite Gray's Inn gate, according to Stow, was
originally called New Street. In the very year that Norden made his
map Thomas Wentworth, afterwards the great Earl of Strafford, was born
in this lane.
m Temple bar, near the western limit of the map, was something more
than a mere barrier even at this period. It appears to have been a
wooden erection with gates; and when Queen Elizabeth went to St Paul's
to return thanks for the defeat of the Spanish Armada the waits of the
city were placed “over the gate of the Temple bar.’
72 Holborn was well thought of on account of the freshness and
salubrity of the air. John Gerard (Burghley's gardener for twenty years)
was living here in 1597, when he published the first edition of his Heróal,
which he dates “from my house in Holborn within the suburbs of London.’
This house and the garden attached appear to have been situated on the
south side of the road, and were probably at the corner of Fetter lane.
Nearly opposite St Andrew's church Ely place, with its celebrated gar-
den of forty acres, is marked. Two years before the date of this map
cii MR wheatley on NordEN's MAP of LoNDoN, 1593. [APP. III.
Sir Christopher Hatton died in the house. When Elizabeth made the
Bishop of Ely give up his palace to her favourite, the Bishop reserved
to himself the right of gathering twenty bushels of roses out of the
garden yearly. Holinshed reports that Richard of Gloucester asked
a former Bishop for some strawberries from his garden, and Shak-
spere adopts the passage in his Richard III. Hatton Garden now
marks the position of the place, and Hatton Wall the northern limit
of the garden. Nearly opposite to Gray's Inn Lane, and where South-
ampton Buildings are now, stood Southampton House, the town mansion
of the Wriothesley family for more than a century. It was given to Lord
Chancellor Wriothesley, first Earl of Southampton in Edward VI's reign,
who died here in 1550, and was pulled down by the fourth Earl of
Southampton (son of Shakspere's Earl) about 1652, when he built his
new house on the north side of Bloomsbury Square, which was after-
wards known as Bedford House.
o Gray's Inn ſame leads up north from Holborn, and the upper portion
of the thoroughfare is called ‘the way to Hampstead.”
Ž, St Andrews, Holborn, was an old church which contained monu-
ments of Thomas Lord Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, referred to
above, who was buried in 1550, and Ralph Rokeby, one of the masters
of St Katherine's, who died in 1596. The present church stands on the
site of the old one.
g Wewgate was first erected, according to Stow, about the reign of
Henry I or Stephen.
r St John's, Clerkenwell, the little triangular spot to the west of the
Charterhouse, is hardly to be recognized under the form of ‘S. Jones.’ A
great part of the old priory church of St John of Jerusalem was destroyed
in the reign of Edward VI, and the stones used in the building of
Somerset house. The office of the Revels was held here after the master
of the Revels left Blackfriars and before he removed to St Peter's Hill,
Doctors’ Commons, and here the court plays were rehearsed.
s St Nicholas Shambles, the church between s and t, was so named
from the shambles or stalls of the butchers which stood in the street
that led from Newgate to Cheapside.
# Cheapside is chiefly interesting as a Shaksperian locality from the
Mermaid tavern being situated in it. This world-renowned house is
sometimes described as in Bread street, and at other times in Friday
street, and also in Cheapside. We are thus able to fix its exact position.
To the left of the eastern letter # on the map is Bow church, next which,
on the west, is Bread street, then a block of houses, then Friday street.
It was in this block that the ‘Mermaid' was situated, and there appear
APP. III.] MR wheatley on NordEN's MAP of LoNDoN, 1593. cili
to have been entrances from each street. What makes this fact still more
certain is the circumstance that a haberdasher in Cheapside living “twixt
Wood street and Milk street” described himself as “over against the
Mermaid tavern in Cheapside.” These two streets, on the north side of the
main thoroughfare, are shown on the map, but their names are not marked.
The cross that succeeded the Eleanor cross is figured at the end of Friday
street close by the Mermaid, and the Standard opposite Bow church not
far from the eastern #. The great conduit stood in the middle of the street
near the Poultry, and the little conduit at the other end near Foster lane,
which runs up above the western f. Harrison himself was born in
‘Cordwainers Street otherwise called Bow Lane” (pp. x, xlix, above), which
runs south from the eastern f. Howes, the continuer of Stow's Annales,
says that Cheapside, which was worthily called the “Beauty of London’
in his day, “was formerly very meanly furnished on the north side.’
at Bucklersbury, below the Poultry, is interesting as the residence of
Sir Thomas More and the birthplace of Margaret Roper and his other
children. It was chiefly inhabited by druggists and grocers, and the
smell in the street, “in simple time,’ helped Falstaff to a simile.
w Broad street, leading up to the wall, had Gilbert Talbot, Earl of
Shrewsbury, for one of its inhabitants in Elizabeth's reign.
* The Stocks mark the site where the Mansion house was built in
1739, and the Stocks market, which stood here for several centuries, took
its name from them,
y The Exchange had only been opened two-and-twenty years when
this map was made. In 1571 Queen Elizabeth, after dining with Sir
Thomas Gresham in Bishopsgate street, visited the newly erected ‘Burse,'
and caused the herald to proclaim it the Royal Exchange, “so to be called
from thenceforth and no otherwise.”
3 Cornhill was called after the corn market that was once held
there. Stow reports that he had ‘seen a quinten set upon Cornehill, by
the Leadenhall, where the attendants on the Lords of the merry disports
have run and made great pastime.”
We now come to the number references, which begin with
2 Coleman street, running up from Cateaton street to the wall by
Moorgate. Justice Clement, in Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour,
lived in this street.
3 Basinghall street is the next turning on the west, and takes its
name from Bassings Hall, formerly the residence of the important London
family of Bassings in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
s * Sir Thomas More was born in Milk Street; ‘the brightest star that ever shone
in that via lactea,' says Fuller.
civ MR wheatley on NordEN's MAP of LoNDoN, 1593. [APP. III.
4 Houndsditch, extending outside the city wall from Bishopsgate to
Aldgate, was even at the time of this map notorious for its brokers.
5 Leadenhall was originally a manor house, and afterwards used as a
market. It was situated on the south side of the thoroughfare afterwards
known as Leadenhall street.
6 Gracechurch street is here called Gratious street. Stow terms it
‘ Grasse Street,” and he is nearer the original form, for the name is said to
be derived from the herb market that was once held there. Richard
Tarlton, the Elizabethan actor, lived at the Saba tavern in this street,
and Bankes exhibited his wonderful horse Marocco at the Cross Keys
Inn.
7 Heneage House was situated near the London wall, between Bishop-
gate and Aldgate, and took its name from Thomas Heneage and his son
Sir Thomas, who was step-father to Shakspere's Lord Southampton.
Bevis Marks shows the site.
8 Fenchurch street, which extends from Gracechurch street to Aldgate
(called here Fanchurche), has an Elizabethan interest on account of the
dinner of pork and peas which the Queen ate at the King's Head in this
street after her release from the Tower in 1554.
9 Mark lame, running down from Fenchurch street to Tower street, is
the Marte lane of Stow. The next street to the east is Seething lane,
where Sir Francis Walsingham lived, and where he died about midnight
of the 6th of April, I 590. The Earl of Essex, Walsingham's son-in-law,
also had a house here, as well as his mansion on the Thames. On
Sunday, Feb. 8, 1601, when he made his rash entry into the city with a
following of gallants, the multitude supposed that he and the Queen
were made friends, and that he was riding thus triumphantly ‘unto his
home in Seeding Lane.’ So they cried God save your honour, God
bless your honour. Essex soon found that his treasonable purpose was
frustrated by the prompt action of those in authority; and dispirited,
faint, and deserted by his followers, he hurried as best he could to the
Thames in order to escape to Essex House, which he fortified “with full
purpose to die in his owne defence.’
Essex's son, Robert Devereux, afterwards third Earl of Essex, and the
Parliamentary Commander-in-chief, who died in 1646, was baptized at
the house of his grandmother, Lady Walsingham, in Seeding lane, on
the 22nd of January, I 59 I.
Io Mincing lane is the next street to the west. It is written Min-
cheon lané by Stow, who derives the name from the Minchuns or nuns
of St Helen's in Bishopsgate street. *
II St Paul's was so severely injured in 1561 that it was necessary to
APP. III.] MR wheatley on No RDEN's MAP OF LONDON, I 593. CV
take the steeple down, and a new one was never built. The fine old ca-
thedral is here figured with its low tower only. St Paul's Churchyard
before the Fire was chiefly inhabited by booksellers, and several of the
early editions of Shakspere's poems and plays were published here.
Venus and Adonis, 1593, was to be sold at the White Greyhound, where
also J. Harrison published the Raffe of Lucrece, I 594. The first edition
of the Merry Wives of Windsor appeared at the Flower de Luce and
Crown, kept by A. Johnson; the first edition of the Merchant of Venice
at the Green Dragon, by T. Heyes; the first editions of Richard //,
Richard III, and First part of Henry IV, at the Angel, by A. Wise; the
first edition of Zºo:/us and Cressida at the Spread Eagle over against the
great north door of Paul’s, by R. Bonian and H. Whalley; the first
edition of Lear at the Pied Bull, by N. Butter, and the first known
edition of Titus Andronicus, at the Gun, near the little north door of
Paul's, by E. White. M. Law published several of the quartos at the
Fox.
12 Eastcheap was chiefly occupied by butchers, tavern-keepers, and
cooks. The ‘Boar's Head,” immortalized by Shakspere as the chosen
resort of Jack Falstaff and his roystering companions, was situated in the
Great Eastcheap, and has been described as near the London stone which
is marked 17 in this map. It did in fact stand about the spot now occu-
pied by the statue of William IV.
13 Fleet street is marked as a wide thoroughfare with the old church
of St Bride's (above Bridewell) standing out in the road.
I4 Fetter lane is called Fewter lane by Stow, who derives the name
from the fewters or idle people that hung about it at one time. The
Fleet street and Holborn ends of the lane were both used as places of
public execution.
I5 Sł Zieristan's in the west, close by Temple bar, has its name sadly
maltreated in the map. It is probable that the Dutch engraver could
not read Norden's writing, for no Englishman would have written Duzz-
shous. Under the dial of the old projecting clock was the shop of John
Smethwick, the publisher of the 1609 edition of Romeo and Žuliet and of
several editions of Hamlet.
I6 Thames street was the same long thoroughfare that it is now. In
that part of this street just above the Stilliarde, John Chaucer, vintner
and father of the poet, had his tavern or wine shop, and there Geoffrey
probably gathered some of the materials for those pictures of life and
character he afterwards bestowed upon the world.
I7 London Stone, then on the south side of Cannon street, near the
west end of Eastcheap, is introduced in the second part of Henry VI
cvi MR wheatley on NoFDEN's MAP of LoNDoN, 1593. [APP. III.
(act iv. sc. 6), where Jack Cade is made to strike the stone and assert his
lordship of the city. The incident is taken from Holinshed, and shows
the strength of the old tradition that the British kings took their oaths
on the stone at their accession. Until they had done so they were looked
upon as only kings presumptive. The stone has twice been removed
since the date of this map. *.
18 Old Bailey, outside Newgate, was the birthplace of the greatest
of antiquaries, William Camden, born May 2, 155 I.
19 Clerkenwell was situated at the extreme north-western limit of the
city at the time this map was made. This place was famous for its plays
in early times. Clerkenwell takes its name from the well near which the
parish clerks of London assembled yearly ‘to play some large history of
Holy Scripture.’ Skinner's well close by was so called because the
Skinners of London also performed miracle plays there each year. In
1390 the clerks acted a play at Skinner's Well which lasted three days,
and in 1409 one from the creation of the world, which lasted eight days.
The King (Richard II) and Queen with their court attended the first,
and ‘most part of the nobles and gentles in England’ were spectators at
the last.
20 Winchester House, the town residence of the Bishops of Winches-
ter for several centuries, is clearly shown in the map, with its handsome
gardens situated near the church of St Mary Overies (or St Saviour's).
Stow describes it as “a very fair house, well repaired, with a large wharf
and landing place called the Bishop of Winchester's stairs.” About forty
years before 1593, Bishop Gardiner was living here in great state.
21 Battle āridge, Southwark, does not take its name from any mili-
tary engagement, but from its nearness to the Abbot of Battle's Inn, or
London residence.
22 Bermondsey streef led down to the site of the old priory of Ber-
mondsey which was beyond the limits of our map.
Norden's own words in concluding his description of the city will not
be out of place here —“It (London) is most sweetely scituate upon the
Thamis, served with all kind of necessaries most commodiouslie. The
aire is healthfull, it is populous, rich and beautiful ; be it also faithfull,
loving and faithfull.”
From this map we may learn to understand the outline of the city in
which Shakspere dwelt for some years, and the position of the places he
visited; but for glimpses of the life that was lived in these narrow streets
and open spaces we must seek elsewhere.
H. B. W.
September, 1876.
cvii
'3 39tstription of Čngland,
or 1
a briefe regergåll of the mature amº qualitieś of the people
of Čnglamº
amh guth tommonities as are fo be fount in the game.
comprehenbeh in fog º bookes, alth
turitten by &l. 35.
[THAT Is,
WILLIAM HARRISON, B.D., CAM.B.,
RECTOR OF RADWINTER, CANON OF WINDSOR.
-->-—
THE 2ND EDITION OF 1587, COLLATED WITH THE 1st EDITION OF I577,
AS PREFIXT TO HOLINSHED'S CHRONICzz.]
*-* “Am Historicall description of the Iland of Britaine, with "—Heading of the whole
Treatise, with Book I. ed. 1587. * three.--iö.
cix
HARRISON'S PREFACE.
To the Right Honorable, and his singular good Lord and Maister,
S. William Brooke, Knight, Lord Warden of the cinque Ports,
and Baron of Cobham, all increase of the feare and knowledge
of God, firme obedience toward his Prince, infallible loue to
the common wealth, and commendable renowme here in this
world, and in the world to come life euerlasting.
Auing had iust occasion, Right Honorable, to
remaine in London during the time of Trinitie"
terme last passed, and being earnestlie required
of diuers my freends to set downe some breefe
discourse of parcell of those things which I had
kºzęl observed in the reading of such manifold anti-
quities as I had perused toward the furniture of a Chronologie, which
I haue yet” in hand; I was at the first verie loth to yeeld to their
desires: first, for that I thought my selfe vinable for want of skill &
and iudgment, so suddenlie & 4 with so hastie 4 speed to take such a
charge vpon me: secondlie, bicause the dealing therein might prooue
an [hinderance and impechment vnto mine owne Treatise; and
finallie, for that I had giuen ouer all [earnest] studie of histories,
as iudging the time spent about the same, to be an hinderance vnto
my more necessarie dealings in that vocation & function wherevnto
I am called in the ministerie. But when they were so importunate
with me, that no reasonable excuse could serue to put by this
trauell, I condescended at the length vnto their yrkesome sute, pro-
mising that I would spend such void time as I had to spare, whilest
I should be inforced to tarie in the citie, vpon some thing or other
that should [satisfie their request; and stand in lieu of a descrip-
tion of my Countrie. For their parts also they assured me of such
helps as they could purchase: and thus with hope of good, although
no gaie successe, I went in hand withall, then almost as one leaning
altogither vnto memorie, sith my books and I were parted by fourtie
* Midsomer 2 had then $ witte *—4 such

CX HARRIS ON's PREFACE.
miles in Sunder. In this order also I spent a part of Michaelmas
and Hilarie termes insuing, being inforced thereto, I say, by other
businesses which compelled me to keepe in the citie, and absent
my selfe from my charge, though in the meane season I had some
repaire vnto my [poore] librarie, but not so great as the dignitie of
the matter required, and yet far greater than the Printers hast would
suffer. One helpe, and none of the smallest that I obtained herein,
was by such commentaries as Zeland had sometime collected of
the state of Britaine, books vtterlie mangled, defaced with wet and
weather, and finallie vnperfect through want of sundrie volumes;
secondlie, I gat some knowledge of things by letters and pam-
phlets, from sundrie places & shires of England, but so discordant
now & then amongst themselues, especiallie in the names & courses
of riuers and situation of townes, that I had oft greater trouble to
reconcile them [one with an other, than orderlie] to pen the whole
discourse of such points as they contained : the third aid did grow
by conference with diuers, either at the table, or secretlie alone,
wherein I marked in what things the talkers did agree, and wherin
they impugned ech other, choosing in the end the former, and re-
iecting the later, as one desirous to set foorth the truth absolutelie,
or such things in deed as were most likelie to be true. The last
comfort arose by mine owne reading of such writers as haue hereto-
fore made mention of the condition of our Countrie, in speaking
wherof, if I should make account of the successe, & extraordinarie
comming by Sundrie treatises not supposed to be extant, I should
but seeme to pronounce more than may well be said with modestie,
& say farder of my selfe than this Treatise can beare witnes of
Howbeit, ”I refer not this successe wholie vnto my purpose about”
this Description, but rather giue notice thereof to come to passe in
the penning of my Chronologie, whose crums as it were fell out
verie well in the framing of this Pamphlet. In the processe there-
fore of this Booke, if your Honor regard the substance of that which
is here declared, I must needs confesse that it is none of mine owne;
but if your Lordship haue consideration of the barbarous composi-
tion shewed herein, that I may boldlie claime and challenge for
mine owne, sith there is no man of any so slender skill, that will
defraud me of that reproch, which is due vnto me for the meere
negligence, disorder, and euill disposition of matter comprehended
in the same. Certes I protest before God and your Honour, that I
neuer made any choise of stile, or * words, neither regarded to
1 collected sometime * back of leaf. ° in, ed. 1577. 4 or picked
HARRISON's PREFACE. cxi
handle this Treatise in such precise order and method as manie
other would [haue done], thinking it sufficient, truelie and plainelie
to set foorth such things as I minded to intreat of, rather than with
vaine affectation of eloquence to paint out a rotten sepulchre; a
thing neither commendable in a writer nor profitable to the reader.
How other affaires troubled me in the writing hereof, manie know,
and peraduenture the slacknesse shewed herein can better testifie:
but howsoeuer it be done, & whatsoeuer I haue done, I haue had
an especiall eye vnto the truth of things, and for the rest, I hope that
this foule frizeled Treatise of mine will prooue a spur to others better
learned, "more skilfull in Chorographie, and of greater iudgement
in choise of matter" to handle the self same argument,” if in my life
time I do not peruse it againe.” It is possible also that your
Honour will mislike hereof, for that I haue not by mine owne trauell
and eysight viewed such things as I doo here intreat of. In deed I
must needs confesse, that [wntill now of late, except it were from
the parish where I dwell, vnto your Honour in Kent; or out of
London where I was borne, vnto Oxford & Cambridge where I haue
bene brought vp, I neuer trauelled 40 miles [foorthright and at one
iourney] in all my life; neuerthelesse in may report of these things,
Ivse their authorities, who [either] haue performed in their persons,
[or left in writing vpon sufficient ground (as I said before)] whatso-
euer is wanting in mine. It may be in like sort that your Honour
will take offense at my rash and retchlesse behauiour vsed in the
composition of this volume, and much more that, being scambled vp
after this maner, I dare presume to make tendour of the protection
therof Vnto your Lordships hands. But when I consider the singu-
lar affection that your Honour dooth beare to those that in any wise
will trauell to set foorth such [profitable] things as lie hidden,” and
there vnto doo weigh on mine owne behalfe my bounden dutie and
gratefull mind to such a one as hath so manie and sundrie waies
1—1 in more skilfull manner
*—” As for faultes escaped herein, as there are diuers, I must needes confesse,
both in the penning and printing, so I haue to craue pardon of your Honour, &
of all the learned readers. For such was my shortnesse of time allowed in the
writing, & so great the speede made in the Printing, that I could seldome with
any deliberation peruse, or almost with any iudgement deliberate exactly upon,
such notes as were to be inserted. Sometimes in deede their leysure gaue me
libertie, but that I applyed in following my vocation; many times their expedi-
tion abridged my perusall; and by this later it came to passe, that most of this
booke was no sooner penned then printed, neither well conceyued before it came
to writing. But it is now to late to excuse the maner of doing.
3 of their countries, without regarde of fine & eloquent handling
cxii HARRISON's PREFACE.
*
benefited' me that otherwise can make no recompense, I can not
but cut off all such occasion of doubt, and therevpon exhibit it, such
as it is, and so penned as it is, vnto your Lordships tuition, vnto
whome if it may seeme in anie wise acceptable, I haue my whole
desire. And as I am the first that (notwithstanding the great re-
pugnancie to be seene among our writers) hath taken vpon him so
particularlie to describe this Ile of Britaine; so I hope the learned
and godlie will beare withall, & reforme with charitie where I doo
tread amisse. As for the curious, and such as can rather euill
fauouredlie espie, than skilfullie correct an error, and sooner carpe
at another mans doings than publish anything of their owne, (keep-
ing themselues close with an obscure admiration of learning &
knowledge among the common sort) I force not what they saie
hereof: for whether it doo please or displease them, all is one to
me, sith I referre my whole trauell in the gratification of your
Honour, and such as are of experience to consider of my trauell,
and the large scope of things purposed in this Treatise, of whome
my seruice in this behalfe may be taken in good part, that I will
repute for my full recompense and large guerdon of my labours.
The Almightie God preserue your Lordship in continuall health,
wealth, and prosperitie, with my good Ladie your wife, your
Honours children (whom God hath indued with a singular toward-
nesse vnto all vertue and learning), and the rest of [your] reformed
familie, vnto whom I wish farder increase of his holie spirit, vinder-
standing of his word, augmentation of honor, and *continuance of?
zeale to follow his commandements.
\
Your Lordships humble seruant
and houshold Chaplein, W. H.
* profited and preferred *—” finally an earnest
The Contents of the ſecond Booke.
[p. 131]
1 Of the ancient and preſent eſtate of pointed for malefactors, p. 22.
the church of England, p. 1. 12 Of the maner of building and fur-
2 Of the number of biſhoprikes and niture of our houſes, pp. 233 &
their ſeuerall circuits, p. 38. 337-9, 34-I.
3 Of ‘vniuerſities, p. 7o. 13 Of cities and townes in England, p.
4. Of the partition of England into 244.
ſhires and counties, p. 9o. 14. Of caſtels and holds, p. 262.
5 Of degrees of people in the common- 15 Of palaces belonging to the prince,
‘wealth of England, p. 1 os. p. 267.
6 Of the food and diet of the Engliſh, 16 Of armour and munition, p. 278.
p. I4 r. 17 Of the nauie of England, p. 285.
7 Of their apparell and attire, p. 18 Offaires and markets, p. 294.
167. 19 Of parkes and warrens, p. 303.
8 Of the high court of parlement & 20 Of gardens and orchards, p. 322.
authoritie of the ſame, p. 173. 21 Ofswaters generallie, p. 332.
9 Of the lawes of England ſince hir 22 Of woods and mariſhes, p. 336.
firſt inhabitation, p. 188. 23 Of baths and hot welles, p. 347.
1o Of prouiſion made for the poore, p. 24. Of antiquities found, p. 356.
2 I 2. 25 Of the coines of England, p. 361.
11 Ofſundrie kinds of puniſhment ap- |(Notes on Trees, Richborow, p. 366.)
sº--—
"Of the [ancient andjº preſent eſtate
of the church of England.”
Chap. I.”
Here are [now] two prouinces [onelie] in . º
© * UlrCºn El:AS ºn OW
* England, of which the firſt and greateſt is ºwn Pro-
º e zyzzzces",
ſubie&t to the ſee of Canturburie, [compre- I. Canterbury,
hending a parte of Lhoegres, whole Cambria, & alſo
* A good deal of this chapter and the following one is mere compilation; but
there are interesting bits of Harrison's own self and time in his ‘old cocke of
Canturburie” (p. 9), the prophecies or conferences then lately begun, and soon
closed (p. 19), the taxes on parsons (p. 22), the church being the ass for every
market-man to ride on (p. 25), the then state of the churches, and abolition of
Feast and Gild-days (p. 32), the Popish priest drest like a dancing peacock (p. 33),
the contempt felt for the ministry, and their poverty (p. 37).-F.
I sign all the notes that are not various readings of the 1st edition of 1577 –F.
* The square brackets [ ] show the insertions of the 2nd ed. of 1586 in the 1st
ed. of 1577. The italic side-notes are Harrison's or John Hooker's.-F.
* England and Wales. * Chap. 5. 5—5 From ed. 1577. —F.
HARRISON. I
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
II. York;
and each has its
Archbishop.
Ireland, which in time paſt were ſeuerall, & brought
into one by the archbiſhop of the ſaid ſee, & aſſiſtance
of the pope; who in reſpect of meed, did yeeld vnto
the ambitious defires of fundrie archbiſhops of Cantur-
burie, as I haue elſewhere declared.] The ſecond
prouince "is vinder the ſee 1 of Yorke; and of theſe,
either hath hir archbiſhop reſident commonlie” within
hir owne limits, who hath not onelie the cheefe dealing
in matters apperteining to the hierarchie and iuriſdićtion
of the church; but alſo great authoritie in ciuill affaires
touching the gouernement of the common wealth : ſo
far foorth as their [commiſſions and ſeuerall circuits
doo extend.
[In old time there were three archbiſhops, and ſo
manie prouinces in this Ile ; of which one kept at
London, another at Yorke, and the third at Caerlheon
vpon Uſke. But as that of London was tranſlated to
Canturburie by Auguſtine, and that of Yorke remaineth
(notwithſtanding that the greateſt part of his iuriſdićtion
is now bereft him and giuen to the Scotiſh archbiſhop), ſo
that of Caerlheon is vtterlie extinguiſhed, and the gou-
ernement of the countrie vnited to that of Canturburie
in ſpirituall caſes: after it was once before remoued to S.
Dauids 8in Wales, by Dauid ſucceſſor to Dubritius, and
vncle to king Arthur, in the 519 of Grace, to the end
that he and his clearkes might be further off from the
crueltie of the Saxons; where it remained till the time
of the Baſtard, and for a ſeaſon after, before it was
annexed vnto the ſee of Canturburie.]
The archbiſhop of Canturburie is commonlie called
primat of all England; and in the coronations of the
kings of this land, [and all other times, wherein it ſhall
pleaſe the prince to weare and put on his crowne, his
office is to ſet it 4 vpon their heads. They beare alſo
the name of their high chapleins continuallie,” although
Of old were 3
Archbishops:
those of London,
York, and
Caerleon ;
but London was
translated to
Canterbury,
and Caerleon
was united
to it,
after having
been removd
to St David’s.
[3 p. 132]
The Archbishop
of Canterbury
is Primate of
all England.
He crowns
kings,
1–1 to that * continuallye 4 the Crowne
° perpetually
CHAP. I.] THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
3
not a few of them haue preſumed (in time paſt) to be
their equals, and void of ſubjećtion vnto them. *That
this is true, it” may eaſilie appeere by their owne acts
[yet kept in record; beſide their] epiſtles & anſwers
[written or in print;] wherein they haue ſought, not
onelie to match but alſo to mate them with great rigor
and more than open tyrannie. [Our aduerſaries will
peraduenture denie this abſolutelie, as they doo manie
other things apparant, though not without ſhameleſſe
impudencie, or at the leaſt wiſe defend it as iuſt and
not ſwaruing from common equitie; bicauſe they
imagine euerie archbiſhop to be the kings equall in his
owne prouince. But how well their dooing herein
agreeth with the ſaieng of Peter, & examples of the
primitiue church, it may eaſilie appeere. Some ex-
amples alſo of their demeanor (I meane in the time of
poperie) I will not let to remember, leaſt they ſhould
ſaie I ſpeake of malice, and without all ground of
likelihood.
Of their praćtiſes with meane perſons I ſpeake not,
neither will I begin at Dunſtane, the author of all their
pride and preſumption here in England. But for
ſomuch as the dealing of Robert the Norman againſt
earle Goodwine is a rare hiſtorie, and deſerueth to be
remembred, I will touch it in this place; proteſting to
deale withall in more faithfull maner than it hath
heretofore beene deliuered vnto vs by the Norman
writers, or French Engliſh, who (of ſet purpoſe) haue
ſo defaced earle Goodwine, that were it not for the
teſtimonie of one or two meere Engliſhmen liuing in
thoſe daies, it ſhould be impoſſible for me (or anie
other) at this preſent to declare the truth of that matter
according to hir circumſtances. Marke therefore what
I ſaie. For the truth is, that ſuch Normans as came in
with Emma in the time of Ethelred, and Canutus, and
the Confeſſor, did fall by ſundrie means into ſuch fauor
1 of any 2–3 which
and some have
claimd to be
kings' equals,
even in
tyranny.
[This insertion
ends at p. 8.]
But this agrees
not with St.
Peter's words.
Dunstan was
the author of
their pride in
England.
I'll tell you
how Robert,
a Norman
priest, acted
against Earl
Godwin.
The Normans
who came in
with Emma
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book 11.
got high places
, at Court,
and the best
benefices.
Robert became
Archbishop of
Canterbury,
and Ulfo,
Bishop of
Lincoln.
These Normans
abusd the
English,
yet King Ed-
ward put them
On his Council.
Earl Godwin’s
servants at-
tackt some
French ser-
wants,
and so the
French courtiers
sought revenge.
Archbishop
Robert accusd.
º Godwin
O
murdering
Alfred, the
king's brother,
whom Harold
and his Danes
had killd
[with thoſe princes, that the gentlemen did grow to
beare great rule in the court, and their clearkes to be
poſſeſſors of the beſt benefices in the land. Hervpon
therefore one Robert, a iolie ambitious preeſt, gat firſt
to be biſhop of London, and after the death of Eadſius,
to be archbiſhop of Canturburie by the gift of king
Edward; leauing his former ſee to William his
countrieman. Ulfo, alſo a Norman, was preferred to
Lincolne, and other to other places, as the king did
thinke conuenient.
Theſe Norman clerkes, and their freends, being thus
exalted, it was not long yer they began to mocke,
abuſe, and deſpiſe the Engliſh: and ſo much the more,
as they dailie ſaw themſelues to increaſe in fauour with
king Edward, who alſo called diuerſe of them to be of
his ſecret Councell, which did not a litle incenſe the
harts of the Engliſh againſt them. A fraie alſo was
made at Douer, betweene the ſeruants of earle Good-
wine and the French, whoſe maiſters came ouer to ſee
and ſalute the king : whereof I haue ſpoken in my
Chronologie," which ſo inflamed the minds of the
French cleargie and courtiers againſt the Engliſh
nobilitie, that each part ſought for opportunitie of
reuenge, which yer long tooke hold betweene them.
For the ſaid Robert, being called to be archbiſhop of
Canturburie, was no ſooner in poſſeſſion of his ſee,
than he began to quarrell with earle Goodwine (the
kings father in law by the mariage of his daughter)
who alſo was readie to acquit his demeanor with like
malice; and ſo the miſchiefe begun. Herevpon there-
fore the archbiſhop charged the earle with the murther
of Alfred the kings brother, whom not he, but Harald
the ſonne of Canutus, and the Danes, had cruellie made
awaie. For Alfred and his brother comming into the
land with fiue and twenty ſaile, vpon the death of
Canutus, and being landed, the Normans that arriued
1 Another book, which Harrison has “yet in hand.”—Dedication.
j
CHAP, I.] THE CHURCH OF F. NG LAND.
[with them gluing out how they came to recouer their
right, to wit, the crowne of England; & therevnto the
wnſkilfull yoong gentlemen, ſhewing themſelues to like
of the rumour that was ſpred in this behalfe, the report
of their demeanor was quicklie brought to Harald, who
cauſed a companie foorthwith of Danes priuilie to laie
wait for them, as they roade toward Gilford, where
Alfred was ſlaine, and whence Edward with much
difficultie eſcaped to his ſhips, and ſo returned into
Normandie.
But to proceed. This affirmation of the archbiſhop
being greatlie ſoothed out with his craftie vtterance
(for he was lerned) confirmed by his French freends,
(for they had all conſpired againſt the erle) and there-
wnto the king being deſirous to reuenge the death of
his brother, bred ſuch a grudge in his mind againſt
Goodwine, that he baniſhed him and his ſons cleane out
of the land. He ſent alſo his wife, the erles daughter,
priſoner to Wilton, with one onelie maiden attending
vpon hir, where ſhe laie almoſt a yeare before ſhe was
releaſed. In the meane ſeaſon, the reſt of the peeres,
as Siward earle of Northumberland ſurnamed Digara
or Fortis, Leofrijc earle of Cheſter, and other, went to
the king, before the departure of Goodwine, indeuouring
to perſuade him vnto the reuocation of his ſentence;
and deſiring that his cauſe might be heard and diſcuſſed
by order of law. But the king incenſed by the arch-
biſhop and his Normans would not heare on that ſide,
ſaieng plainelie, and ſwearing by ſaint John the
euangeliſt (for that was his common oth) that earle
Goodwine ſhould not haue his peace till he reſtored his
brother Alfred aliue againe vnto his preſence. With
which anſwer the peeres departed in choler from the
court, and Goodwine toward the coaſt.
Comming alſo vnto the ſhore, and readie to take
ſhipping, he kneeled downe in preſence of his condućt
(to wit at Boſenham in the moneth of September, from
tis he rode
towards Guild-
ford.
This lie of
Archbishop
Robert's,
king Edward
believd;
banisht God-
Win and his
Sons ; and
imprisond
his own wife,
Godwin’s
daughter.
Siward and
Leofric
interceded
for Godwin,
but the king
swore he would
not relent
unless his
brother Alfred
were brought
to him alive.
Earl Godwin
went to the
Coast,
THE DESCRIPTION of ENGLAND. [Book II.
, and there vowd
he’d never rebel
against the
king.
Soon after he
got on board
he saw soldiers,
sent by the
Archbishop,
come to the
shore to kill
him.
Arrival in
Flanders,
Godwin got
fresh entreaty
made to
Edward, but
in vain.
So he invaded
England,
and came to
Southwark.
[* p. 133, ed
1586]
• The Londoners
took them into
the City, and
many folk
joind them.
[whence he intended to ſaile into Flanders vnto Bald-
wine the earle) and there praied openlie before them
all, that if euer he attempted anie thing againſt the
kings perſon of England, or his roiall eſtate, that he
might neuer come ſafe vnto his couſine, nor ſee his
countrie any more, but periſh in this voiage. And
herewith he went aboord the ſhip that was prouided for
him, and ſo from the coaſt into the open ſea. But ſee
what followed. He was not yet gone a mile waie from
the land, before he ſaw the ſhore full of armed ſouldiers,
ſent after by the archbiſhop and his freends to kill
him yer he ſhould depart and go out of the countrie :
which yet more incenſed the harts of the Engliſh
againſt them.
Being come alſo to Flanders, he cauſed the earle,
the French king, and other of his freends, among
whome alſo the emperour was one, to write vnto the
king in his behalfe; but all in vaine; for nothing
could be obteined from him, of which the Normans
fiad no liking, wherevpon the earle and his ſonnes
changed their minds, obteined aid, and inuaded the
land in ſundry places. Finallie ioining their powers,
they came by the Thames into Southwarke neere
London, where they lodged, and looked for the king to
1 incounter with them in the field. The king ſeeing
what was doone, commanded the Londoners not to
aid nor vittell them. But the citizens made anſwer,
how the quarrell of Goodwine was the cauſe of the
whole realme, which he had in maner giuen ouer vnto
the ſpoile of the French : and therevpon they not onelie
vittelled them aboundantlie, but alſo receiued the earle
and his chiefe freendes into the citie, where they lodged
them at their eaſe, till the kings power was readie to
ioine with them in battell.
Great reſort alſo was made vnto them from all
places of the realme, ſo that the earles armie was
woonderfullie increaſed, and the daie and place choſen
CHAP. 1.j THE CH.URCH OF ENGLAND,
7
[wherein the battell ſhould be fought. But when the
armies met, the kings ſide began, ſome to flee to the
earle, other to laie downe their weapons, and not a few
to run awaie out right; the reſt telling him plainelie
that they would neuer fight againſt their owne coun-
triemen, to mainteine Frenchmens quarrels. The Nor-
mans alſo ſeeing the ſequele, fled awaie ſo faſt as they
might gallop, leauing the king in the field to ſhift for
himſelfe (as he beſt might) whileſt they did ſaue
themſelues elſewhere.
In the meane ſeaſon the earles power would haue
ſet vpon the king, either to his ſlaughter, or apprehen-
fion; but he ſtaied them, ſaieng after this maner:
“The king is my ſonne (as you all know) and it is not
for a father to deale ſo hardlie with his child, neither
a ſubjećt with his ſouereigne; it is not he that hath
hurt or doone me this iniurie, but the proud Normans
that are about him : wherfore to gaine a kingdome, I
will doo him no violence.” And therewithall caſting
aſide his battell ax, he ran to the king, that ſtood alto-
gither amazed, and falling at his feet he craued his
peace, accuſed the archbiſhop, required that his cauſe
might be heard in open aſſemblie of his peeres; and
finallie determined as truth and equitie ſhould deſerue.
The king (after he had pauſed a pretie while) ſeeing
his old father in law to lie groueling" at his feet, and
conceiuing with himſelfe that his ſute was not vnreaſon-
able; ſeeing alſo his children, and the reſt of the
greateſt barons of the land to kneele before him, and
make the like requeſt: he lifted vp the earle by the
hand, bad him be of good comfort, pardoned all that
was paſt, and freendlie hauing kiſſed him and his ſonnes
vpon the cheekes, he lead them to his palace, called
home the queene, and ſummoned all his lords vnto a
councell.
When the fight
began, Edward's
men went over
to Godwin,
the Normans
fled,
but Godwin
Stopt his men
from falling on
Edward, laid
the blame on
the Normans
and prayd Ed-
ward
to try him fairly.
Edward at once
forgave Godwin,
calld a Council,
* This is the adverb in -ling (A.Sax. -linga, -lunga), as Dr R. Morris has shown
in the Philol. Soc. Trans. 1862-3, p. 88.—F.
8
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLANI). [Book II.
heard proofs of
the Normans’
crimes, and
banisht them
from England.
EHere ends the
lst clergy-broil.
For others, see
those of
Aztselma
and Becket.
-
• Anselm's hy-
pocrisy is shown
by his feignd
unwillingness
to take the see
of Canterbury,
when he said
[Wherein it is much to read, how manie billes were
preſented againſt the biſhop & his Normans; ſome
conteining matter of rape, other of robberie, extortion,
murder, manſlaughter, high treaſon, adulterie; and not
a few of batterie. Wherwith the king (as a man now
awaked out of ſleepe) was ſo offended, that vpon con-
ſultation had of theſe things, he baniſhed all the Nor-
mans out of the land, onelie three or foure excepted,
whome he reteined for ſundrie neceſſarie cauſes, albeit
they came neuer more ſo neere him afterward as to be .
of his priuie councell.
After this alſo the earle liued almoſt two yeares,
and then falling into an apoplexie, as he ſat with the
king at the table, he was taken vp and carried into the
kings bedchamber, where (after a few daies) he made
an end of his life. And thus much of our firſt broile
raiſed by the cleargie, and pračtiſe of the archbiſhop.
I would intreat of all the like examples of tyrannie,
pračtiſed by the prelats of this ſee, againſt their lords
and ſouereignes : but then I ſhould rather write an
hiſtorie than a deſcription of this Iland.
1 Wherefore I refer you to thoſe reports of Anſelme
and Becket, ſufficientlie penned by other, the which
Anſelme alſo] making a ſhew, as if he had bin verie
wnwilling to be placed in the ſee of Canturburie, gaue
this? anſwer to the letters of ſuch his freends, as * did
make” requeſt vnto him to take the charge vpon him.
Secularia negotia neſcio, quia ſcire nolo, eorum nómgue
Volum-
tati ſacrarum intendo ſcripturarum, vos diffönantiam
facitis, verendtºmºue eſt me aratrum ſančia eccleſiae,
quod in Anglia duo boues validi & pari fortitudine, ad
occupationes horreo, liberum affeótans animum.
bonum certantes, id est, rea: & archiepiſcopus, debeant
trahere, nunc oue vetula cum tauro indomito iugata, dis-
1–1 Examples hereof I could bring many, but this one shall suffice of Anselme
who making
2 his
3–3 made * that
chap. 1.] THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
torqueatur d rečto. Ego ouis vetula, qui ſi quietus effem,
verbi Dei lačie, & operimento lande, aliquibus paſſem
fortaſsis non ingratus effe, ſed ſº me cum hoc tauro con-
iungitis, videlitis pro diſparilitate trahentium, aratrum
non reëte procedere, &c. Which is in Engliſh thus *:
‘ Of ſecular affaires I haue no ſkill, bicauſe I will not
know them, for I euen abhor the troubles that riſe
about them, as one that deſireth to haue his mind at
libertie. I applie my whole indeuor to the rule of the
ſcriptures, you lead me to the contrarie. [And] it is to
be feared leaſt” the plough of holie church, which two
ſtrong oxen of equall force, and both like earneſt to
contend vnto that which is good (that is the king and
the archbiſhop) ought to draw, ſhould thereby now
ſwarue from the right forrow, by matching of an old
I am that old
ſheepe, who if I might be quiet, could peraduenture
ſheepe with a wild vntamed bull.
ſhew my ſelfe not altogither vngratfull to ſome, by
feeding them with the milke of the word of God, and
couering them with wooll: but if you match me with
this bull, you ſhall ſee that, thorough want of equalitie
in draught, the plough will not go to right &c.; ” as
foloweth in the proceſſe of his letters. [The ſaid]
Thomas Becket was ſo proud, that he wrote to king
Henrie the ſecond, as to his lord, to his king, and to
his ſonne, offering him his counſell, his reuerence, and
due corre&tion, &c. Others in like ſort haue proteſted,
that they owght” nothing to the kings of this land, but
their counſell onelie, reſeruing all obedience vinto the
ſee of Rome.*
[And as the old cocke of Canturburie did crow in
this behalfe, ſo the yoong cockerels of other ſees did
imitate his demeanor, as may be ſeene by this one
example alſo in king Stephans time, worthie to be re-
l this ? lest
3 owed.—F.
he knew no-
thing of secular
affairs,
thought only of
the scriptures,
calld himself
an old Sheep,
and the King a
wild Bull.
Thorneas Becke?
was proud too.
Like the old
Cock, crowd
the cockerel's
witness, the Bp
of London in
Stephen's time
* Rome, whereby we may easily see the pride & ambition of the cleargie in the
blinde tyme of ignorance.
l O
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
membred ; vnto whome the bifhop of London would
not fo much as fweare to be true fubie&t : wherein alfo
he was mainteined by the pope, as appeareth by thefe
letters, -
Eugenius epìfcopus, feruus feruorum Dei, dileéto in
Christo filio Stephano illustri regi Anglorum falutem, &
apostolicam benedictionem. Ad hæc fuperna prouidentia
in ecclefia pontifices ordinauit, vt Chrifìianus populus
ab eis pafcua vitæ reciperet, & tam principes feculares,
quàm inferioris conditionis homines, ipfis pontificibus,
tanquam Christi vicarijs, reuerentiam exhiberent. Vene-
rabilis fiquidem frater noster Robertus London epifcopus,
tanquam vir fapiens & honestus, & relligionis amator, à
nobilitate tua benignè traétandus efi, & pro collata à Deo
prudentia propen/ìùs honorandus. Quia ergò, ficut in
veritate comperimus cum animæ fuæ falute, ac fuæ ordi-
nis periculo, fidelitate quæ ab eo requiritur aftringi non
poteft : volumus, & eæ paterno tibi qffeéîu confulimus,
quatenus praediétum fratrem nqfirum fuper hoc nullatenus
inquietes, immò pro beati Petri & nostra reuerentia, eum
in amorem & gratiam tuam recipias. Cùm autem illud
iuramentum præstare non pQf$it, figfficiat difcretioni tuæ,
vt fimplici & veraci verbo promittat, quòd læfionem tibi
vel terræ tuæ non inferat : Vale. Dat. Meldis 6. ca
Iulij.
Thus we fee, that kings were to rule no further
than it pleafed the pope to like of; neither to chalenge
more obedience of their fubie&ts than ftood al'fo with
their good will and pleafure. He wrote in like fort
vnto queene Mawd about the fame matter, making hir
Samfons calfe* (the better to bring his purpofe to paffe)
as appeareth by the fame letter here infuing.
Solomone attestante, didicimus quòd mulier fapiens
(whom the Pope
told the King
not to disquiet,
and not, to re-
quire am oath
from, but only a,
simple promise).
[* p. 134]
Witness again
the Pope to
Queem Matilda,
2 Calf, meaming a fool,—as witness Cotgrave's definition of * Veau, A Calfe or
Weale; also, a lozell, hoydom, dumce, iobbernoll, doddipole,'—had divers owners
put before it, of whom Waltham seems to have been the best knowm. “ Waltham's-
calf. As wise as Waltham's calf, ì. e. very foolish. Waltham's calf ram mine miles
to suck a bull.''—Halliwell's Glossary.
CHAP. I.] THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
Iſ I
aedificat domum ; inſipiens autem constručiam destruet
manibus. Gaudemus pro te, & deuotionis ſtudium in
Domino collaudamus ; quoniam ſicut religioſorum rela-
tione accepimus, timorem Dei prae oculis habens, operiºus
pietatis intendis, & perſonas eccleſiaſticas & diligis &
honoras. Vt ergo de bono in melius (inſpirante Domino)
proficere valeas, nobilitatem tuam in Domino rogamus, &
rogando monemus, & earhortamur in Domino, quatenus
bonis initijs exitus meliores iniumgas, & venerabilem
fratrem nostrum Robertum London epiſcopum, pro illius
reuerentia, qui cºm olim diues eſſet, pro nobis pauper
Jieri voluit, attentiºs diligas, & honores. Apud virum
tuum, & dilečium filium nostrum, Stephanum, inſignem
regem Anglorum efficere ſtudeas, vt monitis, hortatu, &
conſilio tuo, ipſum in benignitatem & dilećtionem ſuam.
ſuſcipiat, & pro beati Petri, & mostra reuerentia pro-
penſills habeat commendatum. Et quia ficut (veritate
teste) attendimus eum ſine ſalute, & ſui ordinis periculo,
praefato filio mostro astringi non poſſe ; volumus, &
paterno ſibi & tibi affečiu conſulimus, vt votis ſufficiat,
veraci & ſimplici verbo promiſsionem ab eo ſuſcipere,
quðd laſtonem vel detrimentum ei, vel terrae ſuae non
inferat. Dat. vt ſupra.
Is it not ſtrange, that a peeuiſh order of religion
(deuiſed by man) ſhould breake the expreſſe law of
God, who commandeth all men to honour and obeie
their kings and princes, in whome ſome part of the
And
euen vnto this end the cardinall of Hoſtia alſo wrote
power of God is manifeſt and laid open vnto vs 2
to the canons of Paules, after this maner; couertlie
incoraging them to ſtand to their election of the ſaid
Robert, who was no more willing to giue ouer his new
biſhoprike, than they carefull to offend the king; but
rather imagined which waie to keepe it ſtill, maugre
his diſpleaſure; & yet not to ſweare obedience vnto
him, for all that he ſhould be able to do or performe
wnto the contrarie.
whom he ex-
horted
to imitate her
husband King
Stephen,
and require no
oath of Robert,
Bp of London,
lout only a sim-
ple promise.
Thus these
peewish Papists
broke God's law
And the Car-
dinal of Hostia
also told the
Canons of St.
Paul's to support
Bp Robert :
I 2,
THE DE SC RI PT I O N O R EN GLAND, [Book II.
witness his
letter,
Æ7o?<sztaza mea*a&-
^ra/emyz.
recommending
Ep Robert, to
them,
Humilis Dei gratia Hostienfis epifcopus, Londinenfis
ecclefiae canonicis fpiritum con/ìlij in Domino. Sicut
rationi contraria prorfus eft abijcienda petitio, ita in hijs,
quæ iustè defyderantur, effeétum negare omninò non
conuenit. Sanè nuper accepimus, quòd Londinenfis ec-
clefia, diu proprio defiituta pastore, communi voto, & pari
affènfù cleri & populi, venerabilem filium nostrum Ro-
bertum, eiufdem ecclefiae archidiaconum, in pastorem &
epifcopum animarum fuarum fufceperit & elegerit. No-
vimus quidem eum effè perfonam, quam fapientia de fuper
ei attributa, & honestas conuerfationis, & morum reue-
rentia plurimùm commendabilem reddidit. Inde efì quòd
amd equnselling fraternitati veftræ mandando confulimus, vt propofito
them to stand
by him.
Treasonous
Thomas of
Arundel also
gave King
Richard II.
rmuch trouble in
I 398.
[* Read
* Thomas': see
the Latim
lbelow.]
Roger Waldem
had his see (but
only for two
years).
vestro bono (quod vt credimus ex Deo efi) & vt ex literis
domini papæ cognQfcetis, non tepidè, non lentè debitum
finem imponatis : ne tam nobilis ecclefia, fub occqfione
huiufìnodi, fpiritualium, quod al/ìt, & temporalium detri-
mentum patiatur. Ipfius námque industria credimus,
quòd antiqua relligio, & forma difciplinæ, & grauitas
habitus, in ecclefia vestra reparari : & / quæ fuerint
ipfius contentiones, eæ pastoris alfentia, Dei gratia co-
operante, & eodem præfente, poterint reformari. Dat. &c.
Hereby you fee how king Stephan was dealt with-
all. And albeit the archbifhop of Canturburie is not
openlie to be touched herewith, yet it is not to be
doubted, but he was a dooer in it, fo far as might tend
to the maintenance of thé right and prerogatiue of holie
church. And euen no leffe vnquietneffe had another
of our princes with John ' of Arundell, who fled to
Rome for feare of his head, and caufed the pope to
write an ambitious and contumelious letter vnto his
fouereigne about his reftitution. But when (by the
kings letters yet extant) & beginning thus ; Thomas pro-
ditionis non expers nostræ regiæ maiestati infidias fabri-
cauit, the pope vnderftood the botome of the matfer, he
was contented that Thomas fhould be depriued, and
another archbifhop chofen in his fted.
CHAP. I.] THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
I 3
Neither did this pride ſtaie at archbiſhops and
biſhops, but deſcended lower, euen to the rake-helles
of the clergie and puddels of all vngodlineſſe. For
beſide the iniurie receiued of their ſuperiors, how was
K. John dealt withall by the vile Ciſtertians at Lincolne
in the ſecond of his reigne : Certes, when he had
(vpon iuſt occaſion) conceiued ſome grudge againſt
them for their ambitious demeanor; and vpon deniall
to paie ſuch ſummes of moneie as were allotted vnto
them, he had cauſed ſeizure to be made of ſuch horſſes,
ſwine, neate, and other things of theirs, as were main-
teined in his forreſts. They denounced him as faſt
amongſt themſelues with bell, booke and candle, to be
accurſſed and excommunicated. Therevnto they ſo
handled the matter with the pope and their friends,
that the king was faine to yeeld to their good graces:
inſomuch that a meeting for pacification was appointed
betweene them at Lincolne, by meanes of the preſent
archbiſhop” of Canturburie, who went off betweene him
and the Ciſtertian commiſſioners before the matter
could be finiſhed. In the end, the king himſelfe came
alſo vnto the ſaid commiſſioners” as they ſat in their
chapiter houſe, and there with teares fell downe at their
feet, crauing pardon for his treſpaſſes againſt them, and
heartilie requiring that they would (from thencefoorth)
commend him and his realme in their praiers vinto the
protećtion of the almightie, and receiue him into their
fraternitie: promiſing moreouer full ſatiſfaction of their
damages ſuſteined; and to build an houſe of their order
in whatſoeuer place of England it ſhould pleaſe them
to aſſigne. And this he confirmed by charter, bear-
ing date the ſeauen and twentith of Nouember,
after the Scotiſh king was returned into Scotland, &
departed from the king. Whereby (and by other the
like, as betweene John Stratford and Edward the third,
&c :) a man may eaſilie conceiue how proud the
* The Archbishop who was present there.—F.
The rakehels of
the Popish
clergy were
proud too.
Witness how the
Cistercians at
Lincoln
excommuni-
cated King John,
made him yield
to them,
fall at the feet
of the Pope's
commissioners,
crave pardon
for his tres-
passes,
promise to pay
damages, and
build them a
house.
John Stratford
troubld Ed-
ward III. too.
I4.
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book 11.
So proud were
the clergy of old.
Though the
Archbp of Can-
terbury is above
him of York, yet
he of York is
calld Primate
of England,
and crowns the
Queen.
[3 p. 135]
Tzvezztze opte
bishoprikes
zmder ye see of
Cazetterburie.
Ortelie foure
sees zºnder the
archbishop of
3/orée.
JDeazles.
Cantoweries.
But our present
Canons, &c.,
cleargie-men haue beene in former times, as wholie
preſuming vpon the primaſſie of their pope. More
matter could I alledge of theſe and the like broiles,
not to be found among our common hiſtoriographers:
howbeit reſeruing the ſame vnto places more conueni-
ent, I will ceaſe to ſpeake of them at this time, and go
forward with ſuch other things as my purpoſe is to
ſpeake of. At the firſt therefore there was like and
equall authoritie in both our archbiſhops :] but as he of
Canturburie hath long fince obteined the prerogatiue.
aboue Yorke (although [I saiel not without great
trouble, ſute, ſome bloudſhed & contention) ſo the
archbiſhop of Yorke is neuertheleſſe [written] primate
of England, as one contenting himſelfe with a peece
[of a title] at the leaſt, when (all) could not be gotten.
And as he of Canturburie crowneth the king, ſo this of
Yorke dooth the like to the queene, whoſe perpetuall
chapleine he is, & hath beene from time to time, [fince
the determination of this controuerfie, as” writers doo
The firſt alſo hath vnder his iuriſdićtion to
* the number of one and twentie inferiour biſhops, the
other hath onlie foure, by reaſon that the churches of
Scotland are now remooued from his obedience vnto
report.
an archbiſhop of their owne, whereby the greatneſſe
and circuit of the iuriſdićtion of Yorke is not a little
diminiſhed. In like ſort, each of theſe ſeauen and
twentie ſees haue their cathedrall churches, wherein
the deanes [(a calling not knowne in England before
the conqueſt)] doo beare the cheeſe rule, being men
eſpeciallie choſen to that vocation, both for their learn-
Theſe
cathedrall churches haue in like maner other dignities
ing and godlineſſe, ſo neere as can be poſſible.
and canonries ſtill remaining vnto them, as heeretofore
Howbeit thoſe that are
choſen to the ſame are no idle and vnprofitable perſons
(as in times paſt they haue beene when moſt of theſe
* The Archbishop * as the
vnder the popiſh regiment.
cHAP. I.] THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND,
15
liuings were either furniſhed with ſtrangers, eſpeciallie
out of Italie, [boies, or ſuch idiots as had leaſt ſkill of
all in diſcharging of thoſe funétions, wherevnto they
were called by vertue of theſe ſtipends) but ſuch as by
preaching and teaching can and doo learnedlie ſet foorth
the glorie of God, and further the ouerthrow of anti-
chriſt to the vºtermoſt of their powers.
[Theſe churches are called cathedrall, bicauſe the
biſhops dwell or lie neere vnto the ſame, as bound to
keepe continuall reſidence within their iuriſdićtions, for
the better ouerfight and gouernance of the ſame: the
word being deriued A cathedra, that is to ſaie, a chaire
or ſeat where he reſteth, and for the moſt part abideth.
At the firſt there was but one church in euerie iuriſ-
dićtion, wherinto no man entred to praie, but with ſome
oblation or other toward the maintenance of the paſtor.
For as it was reputed an infamie to paſſe by anie of
them without viſitation, ſo it was a no leſſe reproch to
appeare emptie before the Lord. And for this occaſion
alſo they were builded verie huge and great, for
otherwiſe they were not capable of ſuch multitudes as
came dailie vnto them, to heare the word; and receiue
the ſacraments.
But as the number of chriſtians increaſed, ſo firſt
monaſteries, then finallie pariſh churches, were buil-
ded in euerie iuriſdićtion : from whence I take our
deanerie churches to haue their originall, now called
mother churches, and their incumbents archpreeſts;
the reſt being added fince the conqueſt, either by the
lords of euerie towne, or zealous men, loth to trauell
farre, and willing to haue ſome eaſe by building them
neere hand. Wnto theſe deanerie churches alſo the
cleargie in old time of the ſame deanrie were appointed
to repaire at ſundrie ſeaſons, there to receiue whole-
ſome ordinances, and to conſult vpon the neceſſarie
affaires of the whole iuriſdićtion, if neceſſitie ſo re-
quired: and ſome image hereof is yet to be ſeene in the
preach well, and
help to over-
throw Anti-
christ
Cathedrals are
so calld from
cathedra, a seat
where the
Bishop abides.
At first, each
diocese had but
one church,
a huge one,
but soon monas-
teries and
parish churches
followd,
whence came
our Deanery or
Mother
Churches,
to which the
Clergy repaird
at Sundry sea-
Sons,
I6
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
as they do still
in the North.
Cathedrals are
now, in their
lower parts, only
markets and
shops.
Ordizzazie
Sé/7/2072&.
Ordinarie ex-
Zositions of the
scriptures.
The bishops
Areach dili-
gentlie, whose
zºredecessors
heretofore haze
beene occupied
in temporall
affairs.
But translations
of Bishops are
now wrongly
made.
With princes,
once done is
well done, and
to be done often,
north parts. But as the number of churches increaſed,
ſo the repaire of the faithfull vnto the cathedrals did
diminiſh: whereby they now become, eſpeciallie in their
nether parts, rather markets and ſhops for merchandize,
than ſolemn places of praier, wherevnto they were
firſt erected.] Moreouer, in the ſaid cathedrall churches
vpon fundaies and feſtiuall daies, the canons doo make
certeine ordinarie ſermons by courſe, wherevnto great
numbers of all eſtates doo orderlie reſort: and vpon the
working daies, thriſe in the weeke, one of the ſaid
canons, [or ſome other in his ſteed, dooth read and
expound ſome peece of holie ſcripture, wherevnto the
people dooverie reuerentlie repaire. The biſhops them-
ſelues in like ſort are not idle in their callings, for being
now exempt from court and councell, [which is one
(and a no ſmall) peece of their felicitie (although
Richard archbiſhop of Canturburie thought otherwiſe,
as yet appeareth by his letters to pope Alexander,
Epiſtola 44. Petri Bleſenſis, where he ſaith; Bicauſe
the cleargie of his time were ſomewhat narrowlie looked
wnto, Supra dorſum eccleſiae fabricant peccatores, &c.)]
they ſo applie their minds to the ſetting foorth of the
word, that there are verie few of them, which doo not
euerie ſundaie or oftener reſort to ſome place or other,
within their iuriſdićtions, where they expound the
ſcriptures with much grauitie and ſkill; [and yet not
without the great miſliking and contempt of ſuch as
hate the word. Of their manifold tranſlations from
one ſee to another I will ſaie nothing, which is not
now doone for the benefit of the flocke, as the prefer-
ment of the partie fauoured, and aduantage vnto the
prince, a matter in time paſt much doubted of, to wit,
whether a biſhop or paſtor might be tranſlated from
one ſee to another; & left vndecided, till preſcription
by roiall authoritie made it good. For among princes
a thing once doone, is well doone, and to be doone
oftentimes, though no warrant be to be found therefore.]
CHAP. I.] THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
17
They haue vnder them alſo their archdeacons,
ſome one, diuerſe two, and manie foure or mo, as
their circuits are in quantitie, which archdeacons are
termed in law the biſhops eies: and theſe (beſide
their ordinarie courts, which are holden [within ſo
manie or more of their ſeuerall deanries] by them-
ſelues or their officials once in a moneth at the leaſt)
doo keepe yearelie two viſitations or ſynods (as the
biſhop dooth in euerie third yeare, wherein [he confir-
meth ſome children, though moſt care but a litle for
that ceremonie) in which] they make diligent inqui-
ſition and ſearch, as well for the doćtrine and behauiour
of the miniſters, as the orderlie dealing of the
pariſhioners in reſorting to their pariſh churches and
conformitie vnto religion. They puniſh alſo with
great ſeueritie all ſuch treſpaſſers, [either in perſon or
by the purſſe (where permutation of penance is thought
more greeuous to the offendor)] as are preſented vnto
them : or if the cauſe be of the more weight, as in
caſes of herefie, pertinacie, contempt, and ſuch like,
they referre them either to the biſhop of the dioceſſe,
or his chancellor, or elſe to fundrie graue perſons ſet
in authoritie, by vertue of an high commiſſion dire&ted
wnto them from the prince to that end, who in
verie courteous maner doo ſee the offendors gently
reformed, or elſe ſeuerlie puniſhed, if neceſſitie ſo in-
force.
Beſide this, in manie of our archdeaconries we haue
an exerciſe latelie begun, which for the moſt part is
called a propheſie or conference, and erected onelie for
the examination or triall of the diligence of the cleargie
in their ſtudie of holie ſcriptures. Howbeit, ſuch is the
thirſtie deſire of the people in theſe daies to heare the
word of God, that they alſo haue as it were with
zealous violence intruded themſelues among them (but
as hearers onelie) to come by more knowledge through
their preſence at the ſame. Herein alſo (for the moſt
HARRISON. 2
Archdecoms
are in law. The
Bishops' Eyes.
They hold two
Visitations a
year. The
Bishop one
everythird year,
to confirm.
children, which
is little car'd
for
The Arch-
deacons punish
trespassers.
A/?gh commis-
S2072&7 S.
A £2 ozºhesie or
cozzference
of Ministers, to
examine them
in Scripture.
The zealous laity
have got in to
hear these.
I 8
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Two young
ministers
expound the
Bible
for an hour;
then a graduate
sums up and
comments on
their discourses
for another
hour.
The good are
praisd,
[? p. 136]
and the slack
reprowd.
The laity never
Speak.
This is a notable
spur to min-
isters,
and keeps them
from the old
hunting, cards,
and tippling.
1–4 them
part) two of the yoonger ſort of miniſters doo expound,
ech after other, ſome peece of the ſcriptures ordinarilie
appointed vnto them in their courſes (wherein they
orderlie-go through with ſome one of the euangeliſts,
or of the epiſtles, as it pleaſeth the whole aſſemblie" to
chooſe at the firſt in euerie of theſe conferences); and
when they haue ſpent an houre or a little more be-
tweene them, then commeth one of the better learned
ſort, who [being a graduat for the moſt part, or knowne
to be a preacher ſufficientlie authoriſed, & of a ſound
iudgement, ſupplieth the roome of a moderator,
making firſt a breefe rehearſall of their diſcourſes, and
then adding what him thinketh good of his owne
knowledge, wherby two houres are thus commonlie
ſpent at this moſt profitable meeting. When all is
doone, if the firſt ſpeakers haue ſhewed anie peece of
diligence, they are commended for their trauell, and
in°couraged to go forward. If they haue beene found
to be ſlacke, [or not ſound in deliuerie of their doćtrine,
their negligence [and error] is openlie reprooued before
all their brethren, who go afide of purpoſe from the
laitie, after the exerciſe ended, to iudge of theſe mat-
ters, and conſult of the next ſpeakers and quantitie of
the text to be handled in that place. The laitie neuer
ſpeake [of courſe (except ſome vaine and bufie head
will now and then intrude themſelues with offenſe)]
but are onelie hearers ; and as it is vſed in ſome places
weekelie, in other once in foureteene daies, in diuerſe
monethlie, and elſewhere twiſe in a yeare, ſo is it a
notable ſpurre vnto all the miniſters, thereby to applie
their bookes, which otherwiſe (as in times paſt)
would “giue themſelues to hawking, hunting, tables,
cards, dice, tipling at the alehouſe, ſhooting [of
matches, and other like vanities, nothing commend-
able in ſuch as ſhould be godlie and zealous ſtewards
of the good gifts of God, faithfull diſtributors of his
* did. See Doctour Doubble Ale, Hazlitt's Pop. Poet., iii. 306.
CHAP. I.] THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. I9
word vnto the people, and diligent paſtors according
to their calling.
[But alas! as ſathan, the author of all miſcheefe, But, alas, the
Devil has
hath in fundrie manners heretofore hindered the erec-
tion and maintenance of manie good things: ſo in this
he hath ſtirred vp aduerſaries of late vnto this moſt stirrd up
gº . . adversaries
profitable exerciſe, who, not regarding the commoditie
that riſeth thereby ſo well to the hearers as ſpekers;
but either ſtumbling (I cannot tell how) at words, and
termes, or at the leaſt wiſe not liking to here of the
reprehenſion of vice, or peraduenture taking a miſliking
at the ſlender demeanours of ſuch negligent miniſters,
as now and then in their courſes doo occupie the
roomes: haue either by their owne practiſe, their
finiſter information, or ſuggeſtions made vpon ſurmiſes
wnto other, procured the ſuppreſſion of theſe conferences, who have got
these Confer-
condemning them as hurtfull, pernicious, and dailie ºup.
te g presst.
breeders of no ſmall hurt & inconuenience." But
* Writing on March 25, 1574, to one Matchet, his chaplain, parson of Thur-
garton, in the diocese of Norwich, Archbishop Parker requested him to repair to his
ordinary, and to show him how the Queen willd the Archbishop to suppress those
wain prophesyings, and requird the ordinary, in her Majesty's name, to stop them.
This not being acceptable to the Bishop of Norwich, an altercation between the
Archbishop and the Bishop ensu'd. But eventually the prophesyings were stopt,
—the following order being sent by the Bishop of Norwich to his Chancellor on the
7th of June, 1574:—“After my hearty commendations: whereas by the receipt of
my Lord of Canterbury's letter, I am commanded by him, in the Queen her
Majesty's name, that the prophesyings throughout my diocese should be suppressed;
these are therefore to will you, that, as conveniently as you may, you give notice to
every of my Commissaries, that they, in their several circuits, may suppress the
same. And so I leave you to God.”—Strype's Life of Abp. Parker, vol. ii. p. 362.
See more about them in these references to Strype's Works, from the Index:—
“Prophesyings, certain exercises expounding the Scriptures, so called, P. II. 358,
A. II. i. 133; orders respecting their use in the church of Northampton, 136, G.
260; this exercise set up at Bury, A. II. i. 325; Bishop Parkhurst's letter of per-
mission, ii. 494; generally used by the clergy, i. 472; Bishop Cooper's regulations
and allowance for them in Herefordshire, ib. 476; Bishop Parkhurst stops them in
the diocese of Norwich, 477–480, P. II. 358–362; some privy counsellors write to
him in their favour, ib.; he communicates with Archbishop Parker and some bishops
upon the matter, ib.; they are suppressed, ib.; the contentions of the ministers, the
occasion thereof, ib.; directions for this exercise in the diocese of Chester, A. II. i.
481, ii. 544; III. i. 476; the permission of Bishop Chaderton, II. ii. 546; III. i.
477; Bishop Cox's opinion of them, II. ii. 13; the Queen's letter to the Bishop of
2 O THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
hereof let God be iudge, vuto whome the cauſe be-
longeth.]
Mſzzlisters & Our elders or miniſters and deacons (for ſubdeacons .
deacons and the other inferiour orders, ſometime vſed in popiſh
- church we haue not,) are made according to a certeine
are consecrated, forme of conſecration concluded vpon in the time of
king Edward the fixt, by the cleargie of England, and
ſoone after confirmed by the three eſtates of the realme,
and from them in the high court of parlement. And out of the firſt
ſort, that is to ſaie, of ſuch as are called to the miniſterie
[(without reſpect whether they be married or not)] are
biſhops, deanes, archdeacons, & ſuch as haue the higher
ºy places in the hierarchie of the church elected; and
theſe alſo, as all the reſt, at the firſt comming vnto anie
Qn promotion ſpirituall promotion, doo yeeld vnto the prince the
they pay one
year's entire taxe of [that] their liuing” for one whole yeare, if it
income to the amount in value vnto ten pounds and vpwards, and this
King as First-
fruits, vnder the name [and title] of firſt fruits.”
Faculties. *[With vs alſo it is permitted, that a ſufficient man
enabling men to
hold two livings may (by diſpenſation from the prince") hold two liuings,
not over 30
miles apart. not diſtant either from other aboue thirtie miles;
Lincoln to stop them in his diocese, 114,612; Abuses of these exercises, G. 326;
Archbishop Grindal's orders for their reformation, 327; the Queen orders the Arch-
bishop to put a stop to them, 328; his expostulations with her on the subject, 329,
558; the Queen's letter for their suppression, 574, W.I. 163.”—Indew to Strype's
Works, vol. ii., p. 208 (1828 edit.).
There are frequent allusions to the Prophesyings “in the Bishops' Injunctions
and Questions, the whole of which are printed in the Appendix to the 2nd Report
of the Ritual Commission. See page 432, par. 25; p. 435, par. 20; p. 445, par.
26; p. 447, par. 18.”—F. 1 in the * liuings
3 John Parkhurst, Bishop of Norwich, writing to his friend Henry Bullinger,
on April 28, 1562, says: —“And that you might not think I had forgotten you
(since I was unable to write through illness), I sent you a small present. Whenever
I shall have paid my first fruits, and extricated myself from debt, you shall know
who and what kind of a man is your friend Parkhurst.”—Parker Society’s Zürich
Letters, i. 107.—F. * This addition ends on p. 22.—F.
5 The act of Henry VIII. for restraining pluralities contains a clause making
employment at court an excuse for non-residence and pluralities; see Tyndale's
Expositions, &c., 256, 336. Bradford contends that they are hurtful to the Church,
Writings, ii. 395; so does Jewel, ii. 984; Whitgift defends them, i. 528, &c. See
also Bullinger's Decades, iv. 144; Hutchinson's Works, 5; Latimer's Works, i.
122; Whitgift's Works, i. 506, &c., Parker Society (Index).-F.
CHAP. 1.] THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 2 I
[whereby it commeth to paſſe, that as hir maieſtie dooth
reape ſome commoditie by the facultie, ſo the vnition
of two in one man dooth bring oftentimes more benefit
to one of them in a moneth (I meane for doćtrine)
than they haue had before peraduenture in manie
yeares.
Manie exclame againſt ſuch faculties," as if there Many object to
this pluralism,
were mo good preachers that want maintenance, than
liuings to mainteine them. In deed, when a liuing is
void, there are ſo manie ſutors for it, that a man would
thinke the report to be true, and moſt certeine: but but there are so
t- e a- few really good
when it commeth to the triall, who are ſufficient, and Ministers,
who not, who are ſtaied men in conuerſation, iudge-
ment, and learning; of that great number you ſhall
hardlie find one or two, ſuch as they ought to be : and
yet none more earneſt to make ſute, to promiſe largelie,
beare a better ſhew, or find fault with the ſtate of
things, than they. Neuertheleſſe, I doo not thinke that
their exclamations, if they were wiſelie handled, are
altogither grounded vpon rumors or ambitious minds,
if you reſpect the ſtate of the thing it ſelfe, and not
the neceſſitie growing through want of able men, to we so want
furniſh out all the cures in England, which both our able men,
vniuerſities are neuer able to performe. For if you ºš.
ſº ford can'
obſerue what numbers of preachers Cambridge” and . ...”
* See W. Stafford's argument against pluralities in his Compendious Examina-
tion, 1581, fol. 53. “What reason is it that one man should haue two mens
liuinges and two mens charge, when he is able to discharge but one P Then, to
haue more, and discharge the cure of neuer a one, is to farre agaynst reason. But
some percase will say, “there be some of vs worthy a greater preferment then others,
and one benefice were to litle for such a one.’ Is there not as many degrees in the
variety of benefices as there is in mens qualities P Yes, forsooth, there is yet in
this realme (thanked be God) benefices from M. markes to XX. markes a yeare of
sundry value to endow euery man with, after his qualities and degree. And if a
meane benefice happen to fal, let euery man be contented therewith til a better fal,”
&c. &c.—F.
* “It would pytye a mans hert to heare that that I heare of the state of Cam-
bridge ; what it is in Oxforde I can not tell. Ther be few do study diuinitie, but
so many as of necessiti must furnish the Colledges. For their lyuynges be so small,
and Vytaylee so dere, that they tarry not ther, but go other where to seke lyuynges,
2 2.
THE DESCRIPTION of ENGLAND. [Book II.
that it’d be a
benefit to put
four or five little
churches into
One.
One small living
won’t keep a
mean scholar
even, being only
from £10 to £30
a year.
The clergy are
now, too, more
taxt than ever.
[First fruites
and J Terzths
we pay yearly
to the Queen.
and so they go aboute.
diuinitie. . . .
[Oxford doo yearelie ſend foorth; and how manie new
compoſitions are made in the court of firſt fruits, by
the deaths of the laſt incumbents : you ſhall ſoone ſee
a difference. Wherefore, if in countrie townes & cities,
yea euen in London it ſelfe, foure or five of the litle
churches were brought into one, the inconuenience
would in great part be redreſſed and amended.
And to ſaie truth, one moſt commonlie of theſe
ſmall liuings is of ſo little value, that it is not able to
mainteine a meane ſcholar, much leſſe a learned man,
as not being aboue ten, twelue, fixteene, ſeuenteene,
twentie, or thirtie pounds at the moſt, toward their
charges, which now (more than before time) doo go
out of the ſame. I ſaie more than before, bicauſe
euerie ſmall trifle, noble mans requeſt, or courtefie
craued by the biſhop, dooth impoſe and command a
twentith part, a three ſcore part, or two pence in the
pound, &c.; out of our liuings, which hitherto hath not
beene vſuallie granted, but by conſent of a ſynod,
wherein things were decided according to equitie,
and the poorer ſort confidered of, which now are equal-
lie burdened.]
1. We paie alſo the tenths of our liuings to the prince
yearelie, according to ſuch valuation of ech of them,
as hath beene latelie made : * [which * neuertheleſſe in
time paſt were not annuall, but voluntarie, & paid at
requeſt of king or pope. Herevpon alſo hangeth a
pleaſant ſtorie though doone of late yeares, to wit I 452,
Nowe there be a fewe gentylmen, and they studye a little
There be none nowe but greate mens sonnes in Colledges, and theyr
fathers loke not to haue them preachers, so euerye waye thys offyce of preachynge
is pyncht at.”—Latimer's 5th Sermon before Edward IV., A.D. 1549, p. 140, ed.
Arber.
The scarcity of preachers in the time of Queen Elizabeth is lamented by Jewel
in his Works, ii. 999, 1000, and by Archbp. Sandys, Works, p. 154 (Parker Soc.).
He also complains of the ignorance of ministers in Elizabeth's time, Works, ii.
1012 (Parker Soc.).—F.
*— They paye the tenthes yearely also of theyr saydeliuynges accordyng to such
valuations as have beene made latelye of the same.
* This addition ends on p. 24.—F.
CHAP. I.] THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
23
[at which time the cleargie, ſeeing the continuall loſſes
that the king of England ſuſteined in France, vpon
ſome motion of releefe made, granted in an open
conuocation to giue him two tenths toward the re-
couerie of Burdeaux, which his grace verie thankefullie
receiued. It fortuned alſo at the ſame time that Vin-
centius Clemens the popes fačtor was here in England,
who hearing what the clergie had doone, came into the
conuocation houſe alſo in great haſt and leſſe ſpeed,
where, in a ſolemne oration he earneſtlie required them
to be no leſſe fauourable to their ſpirituall father the
pope, and mother the ſee of Rome, than they had
ſhewed themſelues vnto his vaſſall and inferiour, mean-
ing their ſouereigne lord in temporall iuriſdićtion, &c.
In deliuering alſo the cauſe of his ſute, he ſhewed how
greeuouſlie the pope was diſturbed by cutthrotes, varlets,
and harlots, which doo now ſo abound in Rome, that
his holineſſe is in dailie danger to be made awaie
amongſt them. To be ſhort, when this fine tale was
told, one of the companie ſtood vp and ſaid vnto him :
“My lord, we haue heard your requeſt; and, as we
thinke, it deſerueth litle confideration and leſſe eare;
for how would you haue vs to contribute to his aid
in ſuppreſſion of ſuch as he and ſuch as you are, doo
continuall vphold : it is not vnknowen in this houſe
what rule is kept in Rome.”
“I grant" (quoth Vincent) “ that there wanteth
iuſt reformation of manie things in that citie, which
would haue beene made ſooner, but now it is too late:
neuertheleſſe I beſeech you to write vnto his holineſſe,
with requeſt that he would leaue and abandon that
Babylon, which is but a finke of miſchiefe, and keepe
his court elſewhere in place of better fame. And this
he ſhall be the better able alſo to performe, if by your
"liberalitie extended towards him, vnto whom you are
moſt bound, he be incouraged thereto.” Manie other
words paſſed to and fro amongſt them, howbeit in the
In 1452 the
clergy voted
Kin
g
two tenths to
recover Bor-
deaux.
The Pope's
Factor
urg’d them to
give the same to
the Pope,
as he was dis-
furbd by cut-
throats and
harlots in Rome.
An Englishman
Said,
“We can’t pay to
Suppress the
harlots that you
Romish clergy
Support in
Rome.’
* True,” said the
Factor ;
‘ but do you ask
the Pope to
leave Rome,
that sink of
iniquity, and
give him your
[l p. 137]
money to
enable him to
do it.”
24
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
But the English ſend Vincent ouercame not, but was diſmiſſed without
clergy wouldn’t.
Besides our
tenths,
we pay
firstfruits,
for both which a
special Court
of First fruits
and Tenths has
been set up,
and if a parson
doesn’t pay up,
he incurs a
great penalty.
We clergy pay
[Sztósidies] too,
more than the
laity.
Out of £20 a.
year,
we hardly get
£13 6s. 8d.
We can’t get
relief from
taxation, On
account of
poverty, like
the laity can.
anie penie obteined. But to returne to our tenths, a
paiement firſt as deuiſed by the pope, and afterward
taken vp as by the preſcription of the king, wherevnto
we may ioine alſo our firſt fruits, which is one whole
yeares commoditie of our liuing, due at our entrance
into the ſame, the tenths abated vnto the princes cofers,
and paid commonlie in two yeares.] For the receipt
[alſo] of theſe two painments, an eſpeciall office or
court is erected, which beareth name of firſt fruits and
tenths, wherevnto, if the partie to be preferred, doo not
make his dutifull repaire by an appointed time after
poſſeſſion taken, there to compound for the painment of
his [ſaid] fruits, he incurreth the danger of a great
penaltie, limited by a certeine ſtatute prouided in that
behalfe, againſt ſuch as doo intrude into the eccleſi-
aſticall function, [and refuſe to paie the accuſtomed
duties belonging to the ſame.]
They paie likewiſe ſubſidies with the temporaltie,
but in ſuch ſort, that if theſe paie after foure ſhillings
for land, the cleargie contribute * commonlie after fix
ſhillings of the pound, ſo that of a benefice of twentie
pounds by the yeare, the incumbent thinketh himſelfe
well acquited, if, all “ordinarie painments * being diſ-
charged, he may reſerue 4 thirteene pounds ſix ſhillings
eight pence * towards his owne ſuſtentation, and main-
tenance of his familie. Seldome alſo are they without
the compaſſe of a ſubſidie, for if they be one yeare
cleare from this paiement, [a thing not often ſeene of
late yeeres, they are like in the next to heare of another
grant: ſo that I ſaie againe they are ſeldome without
the limit of a ſubſidie.
find themſelues grieued, that] the laitie may at euerie
[Herein alſo they ſomewhat
taxation * helpe themſelues, and ſo they doo through
conſideration had of their decaie and hinderance, and
yet their impoueriſhment cannot but touch alſo the
paye *—” things
1 which
4–4 fifteene pounde * taxation also
CH AE’. 1.] THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
25
parſon or vicar, [wnto whom ſuch libertie is denied.].
as is dailie to be ſeene in their accompts and
tithings.
[Some of them alſo, after the mariages of their
children, will haue their proportions qualified, or by
freendſhip get themſelues quite out of the booke. But
what ſtand I vpon theſe things, who haue rather to
complaine of the iniurie offered by ſome of our
neighbors of the laitie, which dailie indeuor to bring
vs alſo within the compaſſe of their fifteens or taxes for
their owne eaſe, whereas the taxe of the whole realme,
which is commonlie greater in the champeigne than
woodland ſoile, amounteth onelie to 3793o pounds nine
pence halfepenie, is a burden eaſie inough to be borne
vpon ſo manie ſhoulders, without the helpe of the
cleargie, whoſe tenths and ſubſidies make vp commonlie
a double, if not troubleſome vnto their aforeſaid
painments. Sometimes alſo we are threatned with a
Meliºs inquirendum, as if our liuings were not racked
high inough alreadie. But if a man ſhould ſeeke out
where all thoſe church lands, which in time paſt did
contribute vnto the old ſumme required or to be made
vp, no doubt no ſmall number of the laitie of all ſtates
ſhould be contributors alſo with vs, the prince not
defrauded of hir expectation and right. We are alſo
charged with armor & munitions from thirtie pounds
vpwards, a thing more needfull, than diuerſe other
charges impoſed vpon vs are conuenient; by which &
other burdens our eaſe groweth to be more heauie by a
great deale (notwithſtanding our immunitie from
temporall ſeruices) than that of the laitie, and for ought
that I ſee, not likelie to be diminiſhed, as if the church
were now become the aſſe whereon euerie market man
is to ride and caſt his wallet.]
The other painments due vnto the archbiſhop and
biſhop at their ſeuerall viſitations (of which the firſt is
double to the latter) and ſuch alſo as the archdeacon
The laity too
try to make us
clergy pay
part of their
Fifteens or
Taxes,
tho’ Our Tenths
and Subsidies
are twice as
heavy as their
Taxes.
Where are the
old Church
lands gone to ?
Let the laity
pay for them.
We're charg'd
with Armour
and Munitions
too !
The Church is
now the ass
for every man
to ride on 1
We pay for
Visitations too
26
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
and double
Inquisition fees
to the Prince.
Thus we pay
for Prince and
Laity too,
and they both
grumble at
us and slander
UlS.
Some greedy
patrons even
give advowsons
to their cooks,
falconers, and
receiueth at his ſynods, &c.; remaine ſtill as they did
without anie alteration ; onelie this I thinke be added
within memorie of man, that at the comming of euerie
prince, his appointed officers doo commonlie viſit the
whole realme vnder the forme of an eccleſiaſticall
inquiſition, in which the clergie doo [vſuallie] paie
double fees, as vnto the archbiſhop. Hereby then,
and by thoſe alreadie remembred, it is found that the
church of England is no leſſe commodious to the
princes coffers than the [ſtate of the laitie, if it doo
not farre exceed the ſame, ſince their painments are
certeine, continuall, and ſeldome abated, howſoeuer,
they gather vp their owne duties [with grudging,
murmuring, ſute, and ſlanderous ſpeeches of the
paiers, or haue their liuings otherwiſe hardlie valued
wnto the vttermoſt farding, or ſhrewdlie cancelled by
the couetouſneſſe of the patrones," of whome ſome doo
beſtow aduouſons of benefices vpon their bakers,
butlers, cookes, [good archers, falconers, and horſe-
housekeepers, keepers,” in ſted of other recompenſe, for their long
1 (Long side-note here in edition of 1577, as follows): The very cause
why weauers pedlers & glouers haue been made Ministers, for the learned refuse
such matches, so that yf the Bishops in times past hadde not made such by oversight
friendship I wote not howe such men should haue done wyth their aduousons, as for
a glouer or a tayler will be glad of an augmentation of 8 or 10 pound by the yere,
and well contented that his patrone shall haue all the rest, so he may be sure of this
pension.
2 “But what do you patrons Sell your benefices, or give them to your servants
for their service, for keeping of hounds or hawks, for making of your gardens.
These patrons regard no souls, neither their own nor other men's. What care they
for souls, so they have money, though they [souls] perish, though they go to the
devil P "–Latimer’s Sermon at Stamford, 9 Nov. 1550, Works, i. 290.
On the general character of the ministers of England, see the Parker Society's
Zürich Letters, ii. 63. Harding calls them tinkers, tapsters, fiddlers and pipers,
Jewel's Works, iv. 873, 209; Jewel admits their want of learning, ib, 910; many of
them were made of “the basest sort of the people,” Whitgift's Works, i. 316; arti-
ficers and unlearned men were admitted to the ministry, Archbp. Parker's Corre-
spondence, p. 120; many had come out of the shop into the clergy, Fulke's Works,
ii. 118; an order was given to ordain no more artificers, Archbp. Grindal's Remains,
p. 241, note; some beneficed ministers were neither priests nor deacons, Archbp.
Parker's Corr., pp. 128, 154, 308; laymen were presented to benefices, and made
prebendaries, ib. 311, 312, and an Archdeacon was not in orders, ib. 142, note-
Parker Society’s Indez, p. 537.—F.
CHAP. I.] THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 27
and faithfull ſeruice, which they imploie [afterward]
wnto their moſt aduantage."
[Certes here they reſemble the pope verie much,
for as he ſendeth out his idols, ſo doo they their para-
ſites, pages, chamberleins, ſtewards, groomes, & lackies;
and yet theſe be the men that firſt exclame of the and yet cry
out about the
inſufficiencie of the miniſters, as hoping thereby in due incºmpetency
of Ministers |
time to get alſo their glebes and grounds into their
hands.” In times paſt, biſhopriks went almoſt after the ºhops
pald their
ſame maner vnder the laie princes, and then vnder the #.
€II SeeS.
pope, ſo that he which helped a clerke vnto a ſee, was
ſure to haue a preſent or purſe fine, if not an annuall
penſion, beſides that which went to the popes coffers,
and was thought to be verie good merchandize.
Hereof one example may be touched, as of a thing Take an
* * * g example ill
doone in my yoonger daies, whileſt queene Marie bare ºn Mary's
p & & s ys:
the ſwaie and gouerned in this land. After the death
of Stephan Gardiner, the ſee of Wincheſter was void after Gardiner's
death, Cardinal
for a ſeaſon, during which time cardinall Poole made Pole seizd his
vacant see of
ſeizure vpon the reuenues and commodities of the ſame, Winchester.
pretending authoritie therevnto Sede vacante, by vertue
of his place. With this a&t of his, the biſhop of Lin- To stop him, the
* “I will not speak now of them that, being not content with their lands and
rents, do catch into their hands spiritual livings, as parsonages and such like; and
that under the pretence to make provision for their houses. What hurt and damage
this realm of England doth sustain by that devilish kind of provision for gentlemen's
houses, knights’ and lords’ houses, they can tell best that do travel in the countries,
and see with their eyes great parishes and market towns, with innumerable others,
to be utterly destitute of God’s word; and that, because that these greedy men have
spoiled the livings, and gotten them into their hands; and instead of a faithful and
painful preacher, they hire a Sir John, which hath better skill in playing at tables,
or in keeping of a garden, than in God’s word; and he for a trifle doth serve the
cure, and so help to bring the people of God in danger of their souls. And all those
serve to accomplish the abominable pride of such gentlemen, which consume the
goods of the poor (the which ought to have been bestowed upon a learned minister)
in costly apparel, belly-cheer, or in building of gorgeous houses.” 1562. A. Bernher's
Dedication to Latimer's Sermons on the Lord's Prayer of A.D. 1552. Latimer's
Works, i. 317 (Parker Soc.).-F.
* On the neglect of their duties by the Elizabethan clergy, and shifting the
consequences of it on to the laity, see the Doctor's speech, on leaves 51–53 of Wm
Stafford's Compendious Examination, 1581 A.D.—F.
28
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Bishop of
Lincoln askt
the Pope for
the see,
and promist
him £1600 a.
year for it.
The Pope,
counting more,
rebukt the
Bishop for his
Simony,
frightend him,
got more money
out of him,
and then
procurd him
the see.
I could tell
many more
like cases.
[l p. 138]
Our old names,
parson, vicar,
&c., are still
us'd,
the Canon Law
is still pleaded,
*—” But to proceede with our purpose.
colne (called White) tooke ſuch diſpleaſure, that he
ſtepped in like a mate, with full purpoſe (as he ſaid) to
keepe that ſee from ruine. He wrote alſo to Paulus
the fourth pope, requiring that he might be preferred
therevnto, promiſing ſo as he might be Compos voti, to
paie to the popes coffers 16oo pounds yearlie during his
naturall life, and for one yeere after. But the pope
nothing liking of his motion, and yet defirous to reape
a further benefit, firſt ſhewed himſelfe to ſtomach his
fimonicall pračtiſe verie grieuouſlie, confidering the
dangerouſneſſe of the time and preſent eſtate of the
church of England, which hoong as yet in balance
readie to yeeld anie waie, ſauing foorth right, as he
alledged in his letters. By which replie he ſo terrified
the poore biſhop, that he was driuen vnto another iſſue,
I meane, to recouer the popes good will, with a further
ſumme than ſtood with his eaſe to part withall. In the
end, when the pope had gotten this fleece, a new deuiſe
was found, and meanes made to and by the prince, that
White might be biſhop of Wincheſter, which at the
laſt he obteined, but in ſuch wiſe as that the pope and
his neereſt friends did loſe but a little by it. I could,
if need were, ſet downe a report of diuerſe other the
like pračtiſes, but this ſhall ſuffice in ſteed of all the
reſt, leaſt in reprehending of vice I might ſhew my ſelfe
to be a teacher of vngodlineſſe, or to ſcatter more
wngratious ſeed in lewd ground alreadie choked with
wickedneſſe.]
*To proceed therefore with the reſt, I thinke it
good alſo to remember, that the names” vſuallie giuen
wnto ſuch as feed the flocke, remaine in like ſort as in
times paſt, ſo that theſe words, parſon, vicar, curat,
and ſuch are not yet? aboliſhed more than the canon
law it ſelfe, which is dailie pleaded, as I haue ſaid elſe-
where; although the ſtatutes of the realme haue
greatlie infringed the large ſcope, and brought the
The names moreover * as yet
CHAP. I.] | THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
29
exerciſe of the ſame into ſome narrower limits. There
is nothing read in our churches but the canonicall
ſcriptures, whereby it commeth to paſſe that the
pſalter is ſaid ouer once in thirtie daies, the new teſta-
ment foure times, and the old teſtament once in the
yeare. And herevnto if the curat be adjudged by the
biſhop or his deputies, ſufficientlie inſtructed in the
holie ſcriptures, [and therewithall able to teach, he
permitteth him to make ſome expoſition or exhortation
in his pariſh, vinto amendment of life. And for ſo *
much as our churches and vniuerſities haue beene ſo
ſpoiled in time of errour, as there cannot yet be had
ſuch number of able * paſtours as may ſuffice for euerie
pariſh to haue one *: there are [(beſide foure ſermons
appointed by publike order in the yeare)] certeine
ſermons or homilies (deuiſed by ſundrie learned men,
confirmed for ſound doćtrine by conſent of the diuines,
and publike authoritie of the prince) and thoſe ap-
pointed to be read by the curats of meane vnderſtanding
(which homilies doo comprehend the principall parts of
chriſtian doćtrine, as of originall finne, of iuſtification
by faith, of charitie, and ſuch like) vpon the ſabbaoth
*And after a certeine
number of pſalmes read, which are limited according to
daies, vinto the congregation.
the dates of the month, for morning and euening praier,
we haue two leſſons, wherof the firſt is taken out of
the old teſtament, the ſecond out of the new ; and of
theſe latter, that in the morning is out of the goſpels,
the other in the after-noone, out of ſome one of the
epiſtles. After morning praier alſo we haue the letanie
and ſuffrages, an inuocation in mine opinion not
deuiſed without the great affiſtance of the ſpirit of God,
although manie curious mindficke perſons vtterlie con-
1 for as * learned
* See note, p. 21 above.
we read the
Psalter once a
month,
the New Testa-
ment 4 times
a year, and the
Old once.
Curates, if able,
are allowd to
preach,
The Homzlies
are read in
church on
Sabbath-days;
[4 for of her 4 see
next page.]
so are the
Psalms,
two Lessons,
and after
Morning
Prayer, the
Litany and
Suffrages.
F.
*—* Likewise in our common prayer, the lessons are onely certeine appointed
chapters, taken out of the olde & newe Testament.
The administration moreouer of
the sacraments and residue of the seruice is done in the churches wholly
30
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Then we have
the Com-
munion ; or if
no people come
to it, we read
the Decalogue,
&c. : then a
Homily:
lastly, Bap-
tisms.
for Afternoon
Service we have
Psalms, Lessons,
and a Sermon
or Catechisillg.
[4 for first see
last page.]
All is in the
Yulgar tongue,
tho' in Cathe-
drals, &c., the
psalms are
Suhg,
and also the
answers in the
Communion.
The translation
of the Services
always offended
the Pope,
though some
Princes would
have it.
demne it as ſuperſtitious, and ſauoring of coniuration
and ſorcerie,
This being doone, we proceed vnto the communion,
if anie communicants be to receiue the euchariſt; if not
we read the decalog, epiſtle and goſpell, with the
Nicene creed (of ſome in derifion called the drie com-
munion,) and then proceed vnto an homilie or ſermon,
which hath a pſalme before and after it, and finallie
wnto the baptiſme of ſuch infants as on euerie ſabaoth
daie (if occaſion ſo require) are brought vinto the
churches: and thus is the forenoone beſtowed. In the
after noone likewiſe we meet againe, and after the
pſalmes and leſſons ended, we haue commonlie a
ſermon, or at the leaſtwiſe our youth catechiſed by
And thus doo we ſpend the
ſabaoth daie in good and godlie exerciſes, all doone * in
the ſpace of an houre.
our vulgar toong, that each one preſent may heare
aud vnderſtand the ſame, which alſo in cathedrall and
collegiat churches is ſo ordered, that the pſalmes onelie
are ſoong by note, the reſt being read (as in common
pariſh churches) by the miniſter with a lowd voice,
ſauing that in the adminiſtration of the communion the
quier fingeth the anſwers, the creed, and ſundrie other
things appointed, but in ſo plaine, I ſaie, and diſtinčt
maner, that each one preſent may vnderſtand what
they fing, euerie word hauing but one note, though
the whole harmonie conſiſt of manie parts, and
thoſe verie cunninglie ſet by the ſkilfull in that
ſcience.
[Certes this tranſlation of the ſeruice of the church
into the vulgar toong, hath not a litle offended the
pope almoſt in euerie age, as a thing verie often at-
tempted by diuers princes, but neuer generallie obteined,
for feare leaſt the conſenting thervnto might breed the
ouerthrow (as it would in deed) of all his religion and
hierarchie ; neuertheleſſe, in ſome places where the
kings and princes dwelled not vnder his noſe, it was
CHAP. I.] THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND,
3 I
performed maugre his reſiſtance.
Bohemia, would long ſince haue doome the like alſo in
his kingdome; but not daring to venter ſo farre without
the conſent of the pope, he wrote vnto him thereof,
and receiued his anſwer inhibitorie vnto all his pro-
ceeding in the ſame :—
Gregorius ſeptimus, Wratiſlao Bohemorum duci, &c.
Quia nobilitas tua postulat, quëd ſecundum Sclauonicam
linguam apud vos diuinum celebrari annueremus officium,
ſcias nos huic petitioni tua nequaquàm poſſe fauere, ea.
hoc nempe ſe voluentibus liquet, non immerito ſacram
Jeripturam optimo Deo placuiſe quibuſdam locis effe
occultam ; ne ſ ad liquidum cunétis pateret, forte vile-
ſceret, & ſubiaceret deſpectui, aut praue intelle&ia de
mediocritius in errorem induceret. Neque enim ad
excuſationem iuuat, quðd quidam viri hoc, quod ſimpler
populus quaerit patienter tulerunt, ſeu incorrečium dimi-
ſerunt : cum primitiua eccleſia multa diſsimulauerit, quae
d ſanétis patribus postmodum, firmata christianitate &
religione creſcente, ſubtili examinatione correóta ſunt :
vnde id nè fiat, quod d vestris imprudenter expoſcitur,
authoritate beati Petri inhibemus ; tāque ad honorem
optimi Dei huic vande temeritati viribus totis reſistere
pracipimus, &c. Datum Roma, &c.
I would ſet downe two or three more of the like
inſtruments paſſed from that ſee vnto the like end, but
this ſhall ſuffice, being lefſe common than the other,
which are to be had more plentifullie.]
As for our churches themſelues, belles, and times
of morning and euening praier, remaine" as in times
paſt, ſauing that all images, ſhrines, tabernacles, rood-
lofts, and monuments of idolatrie are remooued, taken
downe, and defaced; onelie the ſtories in glaſſe
windowes excepted, which for want of ſufficient ſtore
of new ſtuffe, and by reaſon of extreame charge that
ſhould grow by * the alteration of the ſame into white
Wratiſlaus duke of wratislaus of
1 they remaine 2 throwe
hemia
askt the Pope's
consent to it,
but the Pope
refusd,
and forbade its
being done.
Our churches
remain as of
old ; but
idolatrous
images, &c., are
removd,
except the
stories in the
glass windows,
which would
cost too much
to change.
32.
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLANI). [Book 11.
The choir is not
cut off from the
body of the
church,
where the
Minister says
his service in a
little taber-
nacle,
and the people
pray with him.
Holy and
Festival-Days
have been
reduc’d
panes throughout the realme, are not altogither
aboliſhed in moſt places at once, but by little and little
ſuffered to decaie, that white glaſſe may be prouided
and ſet vp in their roomes. Finallie, whereas there
was woont to be a great partition betweene the quire
and the bodie of the church ; now it is either verie
ſmall or none at all : and to ſaie the truth altogither
needleſſe, ſith the miniſter ſaith his ſeruice commonlie
in the bodie of the church, with his face toward the
people, in a little tabernacle of wainſcot prouided for
the purpoſe : by which means the ignorant doo not
onelie learne diuerſe of the pſalmes and vſuall praiers
by heart, but alſo ſuch as can read, doo praie togither
with him : ſo that the whole congregation at one
inſtant 1 powre out their petitions vinto the liuing God,
for the whole eſtate of his church in moſt earneſt and
[Our holie and feſtiuall daies are
verie well reduced alſo vnto a leſſe number; for
feruent manner.
whereas (not long fince) we had vnder the pope foure
ſcore and fifteene, called feſtiuall, and thirtie Profesti,
beſide the ſundaies, they are all brought vnto ſeauen
and twentie : and with them the ſuperfluous numbers
of idle waks, guilds, fraternities, church-ales, helpe-ales,
and ſoule-ales, called alſo dirge-ales, with the heathniſh
rioting at bride-ales, are well diminiſhed and laid aſide.
And no great matter were it if the feaſts of all our
apoſtles, euangeliſts, and martyrs, with that of all ſain&ts,
were brought to the holie daies that follow vpon Chriſt-
maſſe, Eaſter, and Whitſuntide; and thoſe of the virgine
Marie, with the reſt, vtterlie remooued from the calen-
dars, as neither neceſſarie nor commendable in a
reformed church.
*The apparell in like ſort of our clergie men is com-
lie, & in truth, more decent than euer it was in the
popish church; before the vniuerfities bound their
graduats vnto a ſtable attire, afterward vſurped also
from 125 to 91
(that is, from 43,
with 52 Sundays
and 30 eves, to
27, with 52 Sun-
days and 12
eves);
and all wakes
and gilds have
been stopt,
as well as
rioting at
bride-ales.
We might as
well get rid
of Apostles'
and the Virgin
Mary's days, &c.
too.
[? p. 139]
[Apparell.]
Ours is more
decent than the
Popish clergy's.
1 instant doe
f
CHAP. I.] THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
33
euen by the blind fir Johns. For if you peruſe well
my chronologie inſuing, you ſhall find, that they went
either in diuerſe colors like plaiers, or in garments of
light hew, as yellow, red, greene, &c.; with their ſhooes
piked, their haire criſped, their girdles armed with
filuer; their ſhooes, ſpurres, bridles, &c. buckled with
like mettall. their apparell (for the moſt part) of filke,
and richlie furred; their cappes laced and butned with
gold : ſo that to meet a prieſt in thoſe daies, was to
behold a peacocke that ſpreadeth his taile when he
danſeth before the henne": which now (I ſaie) is well
reformed. Touching hoſpitalitie, there was neuer anie
greater vſed in England, ſith by reaſon that mariage is
permitted to him that will chooſe that kind of life,
their meat and drinke is more orderlie and frugallie
dreſſed ; their furniture of houſhold more conuenient
and better looked vnto; and the poore oftener fed
generallie than heretofore they haue beene, when onlie
a few biſhops, and double or treble beneficed men did
make good cheere at Chriſtmaſſe onelie, or otherwiſe
kept great houſes for the interteinment of the rich,
which did often ſee and viſit them. It is thought
much peraduenture, that ſome biſhops, &c. in our time
doo come ſhort of the ancient gluttonie and prodigalitie
of their predeceſſors: but to ſuch as doo confider of the
curtailing of their liuings, or exceſſiue prices whervnto
things are growen, and how their courſe is limited by
law, and eſtate looked into on euery fide, the cauſe of
their ſo dooing is well inough perceiued. This alſo
offendeth manie, that they ſhould, after their deaths,
leaue their ſubſtances to their wines and children :
wheras they conſider not, that in old time ſuch as had
no lemans nor baſtards” (verie few were there God wot
of this ſort) did leaue their goods and poſſeſſions to
They drest in
parti-colours
like players,
or in red, green,
&c.,
with silver orna-
ments,
silks and fur.
A priest was like
a peacock danc-
ing before a hen.
[Hospitalitie.]
The marriage of
our clergy has
increast this,
and the poor are
now oftener fed.
Some of our
Bishops are not
so hospitable as
Popish ones,
because their
income is cut
down.
If they leave
property to their
wives,
so did Popish
Priests to fileir
lemans and
bastards,
* See Chaucer's description of his Monk, Prol. to Cant. Tales, l, 165-207 ; and
my Ballads from Manuscripts, vol. i. p. 193-4.—F.
* See Ballads from Manuscripts, vol. i. p. 59-78.—F.
HARRISON 3
34
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II,
or their kins-
folk.
Instead of
founding Col-
leges,
we do good at
our homes.
[Mariage.]
If some of our
widows marry
again badly,
so do some
duchesses.
Eve will be Eve,
though Adam
say Nay,
[Thred-bare
gownes, fromt
zwhence they
come.]
Why, from
Patrons grind-
ing us:
getting Hawks'
meat out of us,
as they call it.
Patrons scrape
the wool from
the cloaks of us
parsons.
May they get
better,
or may good
Bishops bestow
the livings on
the deserving !
their brethren and kinſfolks, whereby (as I can ſhew by
good record) manie houſes of gentilitie haue growen
and beene erected. If in anie age ſome one of them
did found a college, almeſhouſe, or ſchoole, if you looke
wnto theſe our times, you ſhall ſee no fewer deeds of
charitie doone, nor better grounded vpon the right ſtub
of pietie than before. If you ſaie that their wiues be
fond, after the deceaſe of their huſbands, and beſtow
themſelues not ſo aduiſedlie as their calling requireth,
(which, God knoweth, theſe curious ſurueiors make ſmall
accompt of in truth, further than thereby to gather
matter of reprehenſion :) I beſeech you then to looke
into all ſtates of the laitie, & tell me whether ſome
ducheſſes, counteſſes, barons, or knights wiues, doo not
fullie ſo often offend in the like as they for Eue will
be Eue, though Adam would ſaie naie. Not a few
alſo find fault with our thred-bare gowns, as if not our
But if
it were knowne to all, that I know to haue beene per-
formed of late in Eſſex,−where a miniſter taking a
benefice (of leſſe than twentie pounds in the Queenes
bookes ſo farre as I remember) was inforced to paie to
his patrone, twentie quarters of otes, ten quarters of
wheat, and fixteene yeerelie of barleie, which he called
hawkes meat; and another lett the like in farme to his
patrone for ten pounds by the yeere, which is well
woorth fortie at the leaſt,-the cauſe of our thred-bare
gownes would eaſilie appeere; for ſuch patrons doo
ſcrape the wooll from our clokes. Wherfore I may
well ſaie, that ſuch a thred-bare miniſter is either an ill
man or hath an ill patrone, or both ; and when ſuch
cookes & cobling ſhifters' ſhall be remooued and
weeded out of the miniſterie, I doubt not but our
patrons will proue better men, and be reformed whether
they will or not, or elſe the fingle minded biſhops ſhall
ſee the liuing beſtowed upon ſuch as doo deſerue it.
1 See note 2, p. 26, above.—F.
patrones but our wiues were cauſes of our wo.
CHAP. I.] THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
When the Pragmatike ſančtion tooke place firſt in
France, it was ſuppoſed that theſe enormities ſhould
vtterlie haue ceaſed: but when the ele&tions of biſhops
came once into the hands of the canons and ſpirituall
men, it grew to be farre worſe. For they alſo within
a while waxing couetous, by their owne experience
learned aforehand, raiſed the markets, and ſought after
new gaines by the gifts of the greateſt liuings in that
countrie, wherein (as Machiauell writeth) are eighteene
archbiſhoprikes, one hundred fortie and fixe biſhoprikes,
740 abbies, eleuen vniuerſities, Iooo700 ſteeples (if his
report be ſound.) Some are of the opinion, that if
ſufficient men in euerie towne might be ſent for from
the vniuerſities, this miſchiefe would ſoone be remedied;
but I am cleane of another mind. For when I con-
ſider wherevnto the gifts of felowſhips in ſome places
are growen ; the profit that ariſeth at fundrie ele&tions
of ſcholars out of grammar ſchooles, to the poſers,
ſchoolemaſters, and preferrers of them to our vniuerfi-
ties; the gifts of a great number of almeſhouſes builded
for the maimed and impotent ſouldiors, by princes and
good men heretofore mooued with a pittifull-confider-
ation of the poore diſtreſſed; how rewards, penſions,
and annuities alſo doo reigne in other caſes, wherby
the giuer is brought ſomtimes into extreame miſerie, &
that not ſo much as the roome of a common ſouldior
is not obteined oftentimes, without a What will you
giue me?; I am brought into ſuch a miſtruſt of the
ſequele of this deuiſe, that I dare pronounce (almoſt
for certeine) that if Homer were now aliue, it ſhould
be ſaid to him :
Túque licet venias mufts comitatus Homere,
Si nihil attuleris, ibis Homere foras 1
More I could ſaie, and more I would ſaie, of theſe
and other things, were it not that in mine owne iudge-
ment I haue ſaid inough alreadie for the aduertiſement
of ſuch as be wiſe. Neuertheleſſe, before I finiſh this
The French
found they
couldn’t trust
Canons, &c.
[Wumber of
churches in
Prance.]
Asking for men
from the Uni-
versities would
not cure the
evil.
There's [AE’refie
Aacking.]
there !
Big thieves
robbing the
poor;
givers of pen-
Sions even
refusd help ;
‘What'll you
give?’ always)
askt.
If Homer came
now empty-
handed, they’d
send him
packing.
I could say
more ; but with-
hold.
36
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Now I’ll add a
few words on
the
[Old estate of
cathedral/
chaerches.]
Each see had
One school,
under its
Bishop,
and the best
scholars were
put into the
Cathedrals
to be traind.
After examina-
tion
and consecra-
tion they were
sent out to
work.
[l p. 140]
chapter, I will adde a word or two (ſo brieflie as I can) of
the old eſtate of cathedrall churches, which I haue collect-
ed togither here and there among the writers, and where-
by it ſhall eaſilie be ſeene what they were, and how neere
the gouernment of ours doo in theſe daies approch vnto
them ; for that there is an irreconciliable ods betweene
them and thoſe of the papiſts, I hope there is no learned
man indeed, but will acknowlege and yeeld vnto it.
We find therefore in the time of the primitiue
church, that there was in euerie ſee or iuriſdićtion one
ſchoole at the leaſt, whereinto ſuch as were catechiſtes
in chriſtian religion did reſort. And hereof as we may
find great teſtimonie for Alexandria, Antioch, Rome,
and Hieruſalem; ſo no ſmall notice is left of the like in
the inferior ſort, if the names of ſuch as taught in them
be called to mind, & the hiſtories well read which
make report of the ſame. Theſe ſchooles were vnder
the iuriſdićtion of the biſhops, and from thence did
they & the reſt of the elders chooſe out ſuch as were the
ripeſt ſcholars, and willing to ſerue in the miniſterie,
whome they placed alſo in their cathedrall churches,
there not onelie to be further inſtructed in the know-
ledge of the word, but alſo to invre them to the
deliuerie of the ſame vnto the people in ſound maner,
to miniſter the ſacraments, to viſit the ficke and
brethren impriſoned, and to performe ſuch other duties
The biſhop him-
ſelfe and elders of the church were alſo hearers and
as then belonged to their charges.
examiners of their doctrine, and being in proceſſe of
time found meet workmen for the lords harueſt, they
were forthwith ſent abrode (after impoſition of hands,
and praier generallie made for their good proceeding)
to ſome place or other then deſtitute of hir paſtor, and
other taken from the ſchoole alſo placed in their
roomes. What number of ſuch clerks belonged now
and then to ſome one ſee, the chronologie following
ſhall eaſilie declare; and in like ſort, what officers,
CHAP. I.] THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
37
widowes, and other perſons were dailie mainteined
in thoſe ſeaſons by the offerings and oblations of the
faithfull, it is incredible to be reported, if we compare
the ſame with the decaies and ablations ſeene and
pračtiſed at this preſent. But what is that in all the
world which auarice and negligence will not corrupt
and impaire? And as this is a paterne of the eſtate of
the cathedrall churches in thoſe times, ſo I wiſh that
the like order of gouernment might once againe be
reſtored vnto the ſame, which may be doone with
eaſe, fith the ſchooles are alreadie builded in euerie
dioceſſe, the vniuerſities, places of their preferment vinto
further knowledge, and the cathedrall churches great
inough to receiue ſo manie as ſhall come from thence
to be inſtrućted vnto doćtrine. But one hinderance of
this is alreadie and more & more to be looked for
(beſide the plucking and ſnatching commonlie ſeene
from ſuch houſes and the church) and that is, the
generall contempt of the miniſterie, and ſmall confider-
ation of their former paines taken, whereby lefſe and
leſſe hope of competent maintenance by preaching the
word is likelie to inſue. Wherefore the greateſt part
of the more excellent wits chooſe rather to imploy
their ſtudies vnto phyſike and the lawes, vtterlie giuing
ouer the ſtudie of the ſcriptures, for feare leaſt they
By
this meanes alſo the ſtalles in their queeres would be
ſhould in time not get their bread by the ſame.
better filled, which now (for the moſt part) are emptie,
and prebends ſhould be prebends indeed, there to liue
till they were preferred to ſome eccleſiaſticall funètion,
and then other men choſen to ſucceed them in their
roomes, whereas now prebends are but ſuperfluous
additaments vnto former exceſſes, & perpetuall com-
modities vnto the owners, which before time were but
temporall (as I haue ſaid before.) But as I haue good
leiſure to wiſh for theſe things: ſo it ſhall be a longer
time before it will be brought to paſſe. Neuertheleſſe,
Many widows,
&c. were then
kept by the
offerings of the
faithful; but
now few are.
Avarice reigns.
I wish the old
Cathedral-sys-
tem were re-
stord 1
Schools, Uni-
versities, and
Cathedrals are
ready ;
but plunder of,
and contempt
for, the Minis-
try, prevent a
competence
being got in it ;
and so our best
wits take to
Physic and Law
Most of our
Stalls are empty
Prebends are
not prebends,
but useless ad-
ditions to prior
preferments.
38
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAN ID, [Book II.
I pray for re-
form of this,
and end.
I’ll now treat
of the several
sees, and first of
Canturburie.
Though its pro-
vince is all
South and West
England and
Ireland,
as I will praie for a reformation in this behalfe, ſo will
I here conclude this my diſcourſe of the eſtate of our
churches, and go in hand with the limits and bounds
of our ſeuerall ſees, in ſuch order as they ſhall come
wnto my preſent remembrance.]
* [Of the number of biſhoprikes and
their ſeuerall circuits.
Chap. 2..]"
2 Auing alreadie ſpoken generally of the ſtate
of our church, now will I touch the ſees
ſeuerallie, ſaieng ſo much of ech of them
as ſhall be conuenient for the time, and not onelie out
of the ancient, but alſo the later writers, and ſomewhat
of mine owne experience, beginning firſt with the ſee
of Canturburie, as the moſt notable, whoſe archbiſhop
is the primat of all this land for eccleſiaſticall iuriſ-
dićtion, and moſt accompted of commonlie, bicauſe he
is neerer to the prince, and readie at euerie call.”
The iuriſdićtion of Canturburie [therefore, erected
firſt by Augustine the moonke, [in the time of Ethelbert
king of Kent, if you haue reſpect to hir” prouinciall
regiment, extendeth it ſelfe ouer all the ſouth [and
weſt] part[s] of this Iland [and Ireland, as I haue
noted in the chapter precedent; and few ſhires there
are wherein the archbiſhop hath not ſome peculiars].
1_1 In 1577 ed. this chapter is run into the preceding one, or 5th of the 2nd
Book. There is not much of Harrison's own self in this chapter, except about the
collops (p.61) and the Pope's best bellows (p. 63). I don't find it of much interest.—F.
2. 2. Thus much briefly of the estate of the church of England, I meane touch-
ing the regiment of the same, y” seruice of God, & forme of common Prayer: now will
I returne to the particular limites of eache seuerall Byshoprijo whereby we shall see
theyr boundes and how farre theyr iurisdictions doe extende, beginning first with
the Sie of Cantorbury in such briefe order as foloweth here at hand. 3 his
CHAP. II.] BISHO PRICS AND THEIR CIRCUIT.S. 39
But if you regard the ſame onelie that "was and is
proper' vnto his ſee [from the beginning], it reacheth yet its proper
sº see is only
but ouer one parcell of Kent [which Rudburne calleth Fºº
Cantwarland).
Cantwarland], the iuriſdićtion” of Rocheſter including *
the reſt: ſo that in this one countie the greateſt arch-
biſhoprike and 4 the leaſt biſhoprike of all are linked *
[in] togither. That of Canturburie hath vinder it one .º Arch-
archdeaconrie,” who hath iuriſdićtion" ouer eleauen
deanries or a hundred sixtie” one pariſh churches;
& in the popiſh time [in ſted of the 3093 pounds, It pays the
& g * º * * Queen
eighteene ſhillings, halfepenie, farthing, which it now £309318s. 3d.
paieth unto hir maieſtie, Vnder the name of firſt frutes,)
there went out of this ſee to Rome, at euerie alien-
ation? Ioooo ducates or florens,” beſide 5ooo that the
new elect [did] vſuallie paie” for his pall, [each ducat
being then worth an Engliſh crowne or thereabout, as
I haue beene informed.]”
The ſee of Rocheſter is alſo included within the Rochester
limits of Kent [being erected by Auguſtine in the
604 of Grace, and reigne of Ceolrijc ouer the weſt-
Saxons. The biſhop of this ſee hath one archdeacon, ºf Arch:
vnder whoſe gouernment in cauſes eccleſiaſticall are
three deanries, or]” I32 pariſh churches: ſo that hereby
it is to be gathered, that there are * 393 pariſh churches
in Kent, ouer which * the ſaid” two archdeacons 1°haue
eſpeciall cure & charge.” ". He was woont to paie alſo
wnto the court of Rome at his admiſſion to that ſee"
13oo ducats or florens, [as I read, which was an hard
valuation, confidering the ſmalneſſe of circuit belong-
1–1 belongeth unto * diocesse * enjoying * and at
* united & strictly linked 6 archdeacon 7 charge 8 three score and
9 alienation for first fruites 19 (for I read both) * payed
1% pall. I woulde speake somewhat of his peculiers dispersed here and there in
other shires, but sith I haue no certaine knowledge of them, I passe them ouer untill
an other tyme.
18 whose Archdeacon hath onlye three denaries under his jurisdiction contayn-
ing 14 are at the least 15 these
16 afore remembred do exercise Ecclesiasticall authoritie
17 This Byshop at euery alienation was wont to pay to the Sie of Rome.
4O
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
The Bishop of
Rochester pays
the Queen on
his admission
#358 3s. 6;d.
The luckiest
Archbishop of
Canterbury was
Thornas Kempe,
son of a poor
man of Wye,
who was made
a Cardinal, and
priest in the
Court of Rome.
He favourd the
Gospel, and
started the Sab-
bath Sermons
at Paul's Cross,
which are now
the soundest in
doctrine.
Dondon
1 also
ing to his ſee. Howbeit, in my time it is ſo farre from
eaſe by diminution, that it is raiſed to 1432 crownes,
&c.; or as we reſolue them into our pounds, 358 pounds,
three ſhillings, fix pence, halfepennie, farthing, a reckon-
ing a great deale more preciſelie made than anie biſhop
of that ſee dooth take any great delight in..] He was"
croſſe-bearer in times” paſt vnto the archbiſhop of Can-
turburie. *[And there are and haue beene few ſees in
England, which at one time or other haue not fetched
their biſhops for the moſt part from this ſee: for as it
is of it ſelfe but a ſmall thing in deed, ſo it is com-
nonlie a preparatiue to an higher place. But of all,
that euer poſſeſſed it, Thomas Kempe had the best
lucke, who, being but a poore mans ſonne of Wie (wnto
which towne he was a great benefactor), grew firſt to
be doćtor of both lawes, then of diuinitie; and after-
ward being promoted to this ſee, he was tranſlated
from thence to Chicheſter, thirdlie to London, next of
all to Yorke, and finallie, after ſeauen and twentie
yeares, to Canturburie, where he became alſo cardinall,
deacon, and then preeſt in the court of Rome, accord-
ing to this verſe, Bis primas, ter praeſes, bis cardine
funèius. Certes I note this man, bicauſe he bare ſome
fauour to the furtherance of the goſpell; and to that
end he either builded or repared the pulpit in Paules
churchyard, and tooke order for the continuall main-
tenance of a ſermon there vpon the ſabaoth, which
dooth continue vnto my time, as a place from whence
the ſoundeſt doćtrine is alwaies to be looked for, and
for ſuch ſtrangers to reſort vnto as haue no habitation
in anie pariſh within the citie where it ſtandeth.]*
The ſee of London *[was erected at the firſt by
* tyme
a 3 and ſustus was the first Byshop that was installed in the same.
4_4 whereof Mellitus is accounted to be the first Pastor in the Popish Cataloge,
is now contented to be under the gournaunce of a Bishop, which in olde time had hir
Archebishop wintill Cantorbury bereft hir of that honour by the practise of Augustine
CHAP. II.] BISHOPRICS AND THEIR CIRCUITS.
4 I
Lucius, who made it, of an archeſlamine" and temple
of Jupiter, an archbiſhops ſee, and temple vnto the
liuing God, and ſo it continued, vntill Auguſtine
tranſlated the title thereof to Canturburie. The names
of the archbiſhops of London are these ; Theon,
Eluan, Cadoc, Owen, Conan, Palladius, Stephan, Il-
tutus reſtitutus, anno 35o, Theodromus, Theodredus,
Hilarius, Faſtidius, anno 42 o, Guittelinus, Podinus
ſlaine by the Saxons, and Theonus Iunior. But "for
their iuſt order of ſucceſſion as yet I am not re-
ſolued; neuertheleſſe the firſt biſhop there was ordeined
by Auguſtine the moonke, in the yeare of Chriſt 604, in
the time of Ceolrijc, after he had remooued his ſee
further off into Kent: I wote not vpon what ſecret
occaſion, if not the ſpeedie hearing of newes from Rome,
and readineſſe to flee out of the land, if any trouble
ſhould betide him. For iuriſdićtion*] it includeth Eſſex,
Midleſex, and part of Herefordſhire, which * is neither
more nor leſſe in quantitie than the ancient kingdome
of the eaſt Angles,” before it was vnited to° the weſt
Saxons." [The cathedrall church belonging to this ſee,
was firſt begun by Ethelbert of Kent, Indic. I. 598 of
Inuber as I find, whileft he held that part of the ſaid
kingdome vnder his gouernment. Afterward when the
Danes had ſundrie times defaced it, it was repared and
made vp with hard ſtone, but in the end it was taken
downe, and wholie reedified by Mawrice biſhop of that
ſee, and ſometimes chapleine to the baſtard Henrie the
firſt, allowing him ſtone and ſtuffe from Bainards caſtell
neere vnto Ludgate, then ruinous for the furtherance of
his works. Howbeit the moold of the quire was not
ſtatelie inough in the eies of ſome of his ſucceſſors;
wherefore in the yeare of Grace 1256, it was taken
downe and brought into another forme, and called the
was an Arch-
bishop's see till
Augustine
transferrd it
to Canterbury.
[? p. 141]
London see
includes Essex,
Middlesex, and
part of Hert-
fordshire.
Its Cathedral
was built by
Ethelbert of
Kent ;
rebuilt by
Bishop Maurice
with the stone
of Baynard's
Castle,
and again built
in 1256 A.D.
the monke, who, I wote not upon what priuie occasion, remooued his Archebishops
Sie from thence farder into Kent.
8 and 5 Saxons 6 that of the
* Compare Robert Manning of Brunne.
7 as our hystories doe report.
42.
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
It has four Arch-
deacons,
363
parish
churches.
Henry VIII.
added the Arch-
deaconry of St
Alban's ; but
that now
belongs to Lin-
coln
«»
Châchestez’
The see was
first in Selsey,
1 that is
new worke, at which time alſo the bodies of diuerſe
kings and biſhops were taken vp and beſtowed in the
walles, to the end their memories ſhould be of longer
continuance.] The iuriſdićtion of this ſee [alſo] vnder
the biſhop, is committed to foure archdeacons, to wit,”
of London, Eſſex, Middleſex, and Colcheſter, who? haue
amongſt them to the number of 363 pariſh churches,” or
thereabouts, beſide the peculiars belonging to the arch-
biſhop [and chapiter of that houſe], and at euerie
alienation the “biſhop paieth for his owne part II 19
pounds, eight ſhillings and foure pence (but in old time
3ooo florens) which diuerſe ſuppoſe to be more, than
(as it now ſtandeth) the biſhop is able to make of it.
Of the archdeconrie of S. Albons added therevnto by
king Henrie the eight (whereby the biſhop hath fiue
eies) I ſpeake not, for although it be vnder the biſhop
of London for viſitations and ſynods, yet is it otherwiſe
reputed as member of the ſee of Lincolne, and therefore
worthilie called an exempt, it hath alſo fiue and twentie
pariſhes, of which foure are in Buckingham, the reſt
in Herefordſhire.*
* The firſt beginning of the ſee of Chicheſter was in
the Ile of Seales or Seokſeie, and from thence tranſ-
lated 5 to Chicheſter, [in the time of William the baſt-
ard, and generall remoouing of ſees from ſmall vil-
lages vnto the greater townes. It] conteineth" Suſſex
onelie 7 vnder & hir iuriſdićtion, wherein” are ſixteene
deanries, and 9 551 "pariſh churches": it paid at euerie
alienation to the ſee of Rome 333 ducats * : * and after
Edbert the firſt biſhop,” one Cella ſucceeded, after
2 and those 8 Parishes
4–4 new incumbent was bounde to pay to the Bishop of Rome 3000. ducats or
florens as I reade. -
* 5 Chichester (the beginning of which sie was in ye Ile of Selesey, but after-
wards translated.
6 hath now
7 only and the wight 8–8 which are
9 containing to ye number of 10–19 parishes " as I haue reade of late
12—12 One Edbert was the first bishop there, then
CHAP. II.] BISHOPRICS AND THEIR CIRCUITS• .
43
whome the 1 pontificall chaire (not then worth 677
pounds by the yeere, as now it is,) * was void by many
yeares. It was erected [in Seoleſeie] alſo 711, by the
decree of a ſynod holden in Suſſex, which borowed “it
from the iuriſdićtion of 8 Wincheſter, whereof before
it was reputed a parcell. [Of all the biſhops that haue
beene in this ſee, Thomas Kempe alwaies excepted, I
read not of anie one that hath beene of more eſtimation
than William Read, ſometime fellow of Merteine
college in Oxford, doćtor of diuinitie, and the moſt
profound aſtronomer that liued in his time, as appear-
eth by his colle&tion which ſometime I did poſſeſſe;
his image is yet in the librarie there, and manie inſtru-
ments of aſtronomie reſerued in that houſe (a college
erected ſometime by Walter Merton biſhop of Rocheſter,
and lord chancellor of England); he builded alſo the
caſtell of Amberleie from the verie foundation, as
Edward Scorie or Storie his ſucceſſor did the new croſſe
in the market place of Chicheſter.]
*The by ſhope of Wincheſter was ſometime called
biſhop of the weſt Saxons, and * of Dorcheſter, which
towne was giuen to Birinus and his ſucceſſors, by
Kinigils" and Oſwald 7 of the Northumbers," [in whoſe
time it was erected by Birinus and his fellowes. In
my time, it hath iuriſdićtion onelie ouer] & Hamſhire,
*Surrie, "Iardeſeie, Gardeſeie, and 19 the Wight, il con-
teining” eight deaneries, *two hundred ſeuentie and fix
pariſh churches,” and beſide “all this, he is is perpetuall
prelate to the honorable order of the Garter, [deuiſed
by Edward the third :] *he paid in old time to Rome 14
I2Ooo ducates or florens, [but now his firſt fruits are
2491 pounds nine ſhillings eight pence halfe penie.
1 sie * separated
* (Given in a side note in 1577 ed.)
* Kinigils of the west Saxons
9 and 19 and in olde time
*—” that the Bishoppe of this Diocesse
7 Oswald king
** wherein are
A.D. 711, and
was taken from
the see of
Winchester.
Its best holder
was the astrono-
mer Wm. Read,
of Merton
(whose collec-
tion I possest).
Witchester.
This see has
eight deaneries,
and 276
churches.
Its Bishop is
Prelate of the
Order of the
Garter.
3 ye sie of
5 or
* Winchester hath
*—12 and 276
*—“ his taxe at his institution was
44
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Canturburie was ſaid to be the higher racke, but Win-
cheſter hath borne the name to be the better mangier.
There are alſo which make Lucius to be the firſt
founder of an houſe of praier in Wincheſter, as Kinigils
did build the ſecond, and Kinwaldus his ſonne the
third; but you ſhall ſee the truth herof in the chrono-
logie inſuing. And herevnto] if the old catalog of the
biſhops of this ſee be well conſidered of, and the aëts
of the greateſt part of them indifferentlie weighed, as
they are to be read in our hiſtories, you ſhall find the
moſt egregious hypocrites, the ſtouteſt warriours, the
cruelleſt tyrants, the richeſt monimoongers, and politike
counſellors in temporall affaires, to haue, I wote not by
what ſecret working of the diuine prouidence, beene
placed here in Wincheſter, fince the foundation of that
ſee, which was erected by Birinus 639 (whome pope
Honorius ſent hither out of Italie) and firſt planted at
Dorcheſter, in the time of Kinigils, then tranſlated to
Wincheſter, where it dooth yet continue.
Saliſburie [was made the cheefe ſee of Shirburne
by biſhop Harman (predeceſſor to Oſmond) who
brought it from Shirburne to that citie; it] hath now
Barkeſhire, Wilſhire,” [and Dorſetſhire vnder hir iuriſ-
dićtion.] For after the death of Hedda, which was
704, Wincheſter was diuided in two, ſo that onelie
Hamſhire 3 and Surrie were left vnto it, and Wilton,
Dorſet, Barkeſhire, Summerſet, Deuon & Cornewill
aſſigned vnto Shirburne,4 till other order was taken.
[Biſhop Adelme did firſt fit in that biſhoprike (704 as I
ſaid) and placed his chaire at Shirburne vpon the ſaid
diuiſion. And as manie lerned biſhops did ſucceed him
in that roome, before and after it was remooued to
Sarum; ſo there was neuer a more noble ornament to
that ſee than biſhop Iuell, of whoſe great learning and
iudgement the world it ſelfe beareth witneſſe, notwith-
ſtanding that the papiſts prefer S. Oſmond (as they call
Winchester's
the better
manger, though
Canterbury's the
higher rack.
Some of its
Bishops have
been the biggest
hypocrites and
rogues, others
the best war-
riors and coun-
sellors.
The see was
erected by
Birinus, A.D.
639.
Salisburie
was transferrd
from Sherborne,
after Winchester
was divided into
two.
Sherborne had
many learned
bishops,
specially
IBishop Jewel
(author of the
Apology)
1 and * onely * Hampton 4 Salisbury
CHAP. II.] BISHOPRICS AND THEIR CIRCUITS.
45
him) becauſe he builded the minſter there, and made
the porteſſe called Ordinale eccleſiastici efficij, which
old preeſts were woont to vſe. The biſhops alſo of this
ſee were ſometimes called biſhops of Sunning, of their
old manſion houſe neere vnto Reading (as it ſhould
ſeeme) and among thoſe that liued before the ſaid
Iuell, one Roger builded the caſtell of the Vies in the
time of Henrie the firſt, taken in thoſe daies for the
ſtrongeſt hold in England, as vnto whoſe gate there
were regals and gripes for ſix or ſeuen port culliſes.
Finallie this ſée paid ynto Rome 4ooo florens, but
wnto hir maieſtie in my time 1367 pounds twelue ſhil-
lings eight pence, as I did find of late.]"
Exceſter hath Deuonſhire and Cornewall, [ſome-
time two ſeuerall biſhopriks, but in the end brought
into one of Cornewall, and from thence to Exceſter
in the time of the Baſtard or ſoone after. It began
vpon this occaſion, Anno Gratide 905, in a prouinciall
councell holden by the elder Edward & Plegimond
archbiſhop of Canturburie, among the Gewiſes,” wherein
it was found, that the ſee of Wincheſter had not
onelie beene without hir paſtor by the ſpace of ſeuen
yeeres, but alſo that hir iuriſdićtion was farre greater
than two men were able well to gouerne ; therefore
from the former two, to wit, Wincheſter and Shirburne,
three other were taken, whereby that ſee was now
diuided into fiue parts; the latter three being Welles,
Kirton, and Cornwall: this of Cornwall hauing hir ſee
then at ſaint Patroks, not farre from north-Wales vpon
the riuer Helmouth : he of Deuon holding his iuriſdic-
tion in Deuonſhire, Kirton, or Cridioc : and the biſhop
of Welles being allowed Dorſet and Barkſhires for his
and Osmund,
who establisht
the Sarum use.
They were
sometimes
calld Bishops
of Sunning.
Another Bishop
louilt Devizes
Castle.
Aºrceste?’
has Devon and
Cornwall,
A.D. 905;
[? p. 142]
out of Win-
chester and
Sherborne were
made three
fresh sees.
* The valuation hereof in Rome was lately 4000 ducats or florens, as the taxe
therof yet recordeth. Certes I haue not read of any bishop that hath beene a greater
ornament to this Sie then Bishop Jewell lately deceased, sith the tyme that Adelmedyd
first beginne that Bishoprijcke 704, which was before a percell of the iurisdiction of
Winchester, founded at Shirburne, & afterward translated to Salisbury, but I can
not well tell in what yeare after the conquest.
46
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book 11.
The Bishoprio
of Exeter is
worth a little
over £500 a year
DOW.
Bath.
This see was
once at Wells,
It's now worth
#533 1s. a year.
It was erected
A.D. 905,
The bishoprike
of Shirburne
azzezded into
three.
1 &
part, to gouerne and looke vnto according to his charge.
Finallie, theſe two of Deuon and Cornwall being
wnited, the valuation ºthereof was taxed by the ſee of
Rome at fix thouſand ducats or florens, which were
trulie paid at euerie alienation; * [but verie hardlie (as
I geſſe) fith that in my time, wherein all things are
racked to the verie vttermoſt, I find that it is litle worth
aboue fiue hundred pounds by the yeere, bicauſe hir
tenths are but fiftie.]
Bath, whoſe ſee was ſometime at Welles, [before
John the biſhop there annexed the church of Bath
wnto it, which was Io94,] hath Summerſetſhire onlie,
and the valuation thereof * in the court of Rome was
foure hundred & thirtie florens : but in hir maieſties
books I find it fiue hundred thirtie and three pounds,
and about one od ſhilling: which declareth a preciſe
examination of the eſtate of that ſee.” [Of the erection
of this biſhoprike, mentioned in the diſcourſe of Ex-
ceſter, I find the former aſſertion confirmed by another
author, and in ſomewhat more large maner, which I
will alſo remember, onelie becauſe it pleaſeth me ſome-
what better than the words before alleged out of the
former writer.] This biſhoprike [(ſaith he)] was
erected 905, in a councell holden among the Gewiſes,
whereat king Edward of the weſt-Saxons, and Plegi-
mond archbiſhop of Canturburie were preſent. For
that part of the countrie had beene ſeuen yeeres without
anie paſtorall cure. And therfore in this councell it
was agreed, that for the two biſhoprikes (whereof one
was at Wincheſter, another at Shireburne) there ſhould
be fiue ordeined, whereby the people there might be
the better inſtrućted. By this meanes Frithſtan was
placed at Wincheſter, and Etheline at Shireburne,
2–2 of this liuing was 6000, ducates, which were payde at euery alienation
unto the Bishoppe of Rome.
*—3 was rated at 430 Ducates in ye Popish taxation, except I be deceived.
CHAP. II.] B ISPIO PRICS AND THEIR CIRCUITS.
47
both of them being then void. Shireburne alſo ſuſ.
teined the ſubdiuifion; ſo that Werſtane was made
biſhop of Cridioc or Deuonſhire (whoſe ſee was at
Kirton) Herſtan of Cornwall, and Eadulfe of Welles,
wnto whome Barkſhire and Dorſetſhire were appointed.
But now you ſee what alteration is made, by confider-
ation of the limits of their preſent iuriſdićtions.
Worceſter ſometime called Epiſcopatus Wicciorum
[(that is, the biſhoprike of the Wiccies or Huiccies)]
hath Worceſter, & part of Warwikeſhires. And before
the biſhoprike of Gloceſter was taken out of the ſame,
it paid to the pope two thouſand ducats of gold at
euerie change of prelat: [but now the valuation there-
of is one thouſand fortie nine pounds, ſeauen pence
halfe penie farthing (except my remembrance doo
deceiue me.)] This ſee was begunne either in, or not
long before the time of Offa king of the eaſt-Angles,
and Boſelus was the firſt biſhop there ; after whome
ſucceeded Oſtfort, then Egwine who went in pilgrimage
to Rome, with Kinredus of Mercia and the ſaid Offa,
and there gat a monaſterie (which he builded in Wor-
ceſter) confirmed by Conſtantine the pope. [In this
ſee was one of your lordſhips anceſtors ſometime biſhop,
whoſe name was Cobham, and doćtor both of diuinitie
and of the canon law, who, during the time of his
pontificalitie there, builded the vault of the north fide
of the bodie of the church, and there lieth buried in the
ſame (as I haue beene informed.) Certes this man
was once elected, and ſhould haue beene archbiſhop of
Canturburie in the roome of Reginald that died 1313
vnder Edward the ſecond : but the pope fruſtrated his
election, fearing leaſt he would haue ſhewed himſelfe
more affectionate towards his prince than to his court
of Rome; wherefore he gaue Canturburie to the
biſhop of Worceſter then being. And furthermore,
leaſt he ſhould ſeeme altogither to reie&t the ſaid
Thomas and diſpleaſe the king, he gaue him in the end
Wozzesfe?”
is valu’d at
£1049 08, 7#d. a
year,
Dr Cobham (an
ancestor of Sir
Wm. Broke, knt,
Baron of Cob-
ham, to whom
this ‘Descrip-
tion * is dedi-
cated) was once
Bishop of Wor-
cester,
and lies buri’d
in the Cathe-
dral.
48
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
the biſhoprike of Worceſter, whereinto he entred 1317,
Martij 31, being thurſdaie (as appeereth by the regiſter
of that houſe) after long plee holden for the aforeſaid
ſee of Canturburie in the court of Rome, wherein moſt
monie did ofteneſt preuaile. This is alſo notable of that
ſee, that fiue Italians ſucceeded ech other in the ſame,
by the popes prouiſion ; as Egidius, Sylueſter, Egidius
his nephue (for nephues might ſay in thoſe daies;
“Father, ſhall I call you vncle?” And vncles alſo; “Son,
I muſt call thee nephue 2 ") Iulius de Medices, afterward
pope Clement, and Hieronymus de Nugutijs : men verie
likelie, no doubt, to benefit the common people by
their doćtrine. Some of theſe being at the firſt but
poore men in Rome, and yet able by ſelling all they
had to make a round ſumme againſt a rainie daie, came
firſt into fauor with the pope, then into familiaritie,
finallie into orders; and from thence into the beſt
liuings of the church, farre off where their parentage
could not eaſilie be heard of, nor made knowne vnto
their neighbours.]
Gloceſter hath Gloceſterſhire onelie, wherein are
nine deanries, and to the number of 294 pariſh churches,
as I find by good record. But it neuer paid anie thing
to Rome, -bicauſe it was erected by king Henrie the
eight, after he had aboliſhed the vſurped authoritie of
the pope, except in queene Maries, if anie ſuch thing
were demanded," as I doubt not but it was : [yet is it
woorth yeerelie 315 pounds, ſeauen ſhillings three pence,
as the booke of firſt fruits declareth.]
Hereford hath Herefordſhire and part of Shrop-
ſhire, and [it] paid to Rome at euerie º alienation * 1800
ducats” at the leaſt [but in my time it paieth vnto hir
maieſties cofers 768 pounds, ten ſhillings, ten pence,
halfe penie, farthing. In this ſee there was a biſhop
ſometime called John Bruton, vpon whome the king
Five Italians
Succeeded each
other as Bishops
of Worcester.
Their morals
were about as
good as their
English.
Głocester
was erected by
Henry VIII.
Hereford
is valu’d at £768
108. 10%d.
then reigning, by likelihood for want of competent
1 demeaned * change of Bishop * or florens
CHAP. II.] BISHO PRICS AND THEIR CIRCUIT.S.
49
maintenance, beſtowed the keeping of his wardrobe,
which he held long time with great honour, as his
regiſter ſaith. A wonderfull preferment, that biſhops
ſhould be preferred from the pulpit, to the cuſtodie of
wardrobes but ſuch was the time. Neuertheleſſe, his
honorable cuſtodie of that charge is more ſolemnlie
remembred, than anie good ſermon that euer he made,
which function peraduenture he committed to his ſuf-
fragane, fith biſhops in thoſe daies had ſo much buff-
neſſe in the court, that they could not attend to doćtrine
and exhortation.]
Licheffield, wherevnto Couentrie was added, [in
the time of Henrie the firſt, at the earneſt ſute of
Robert biſhop of that ſee] hath Staffordſhire, Darbi-
ſhire, part of Shropſhire, and the reſt of Warwike-
ſhire, that is void of ſubjećtion to the ſee of Worceſ.
terſhire. It was erected in the time of Peada king
of the ſouth Mercians, which laie on this ſide the
Trent, and therein one Dinas was inſtalled, about
the yeare of Grace 656, after whom” Kellac [firſt] then
Tunher an Engliſhman, “ſucceeded, this later being
well learned, and * conſecrated by the Scots. [In
the time of the baſtard, I wot not vpon what occaſion,
one Peter, biſhop of this ſee, tranſlated his chaire "to
Cheſter, and there held it for a ſeaſon, whereby it
came to paſſe that the biſhops of Lichfield were for a
while called biſhops of Cheſter. But Robert, his ſuc-
ceſſor, not likeing of this preſident, remooued his chaire
from Cheſter to Couentrie, and there held it whileſt
he liued, whereby the originall diuifion of the biſhop-
rike of Lichfield, into Lichefield, Cheſter, and Couentrie,
dooth eaſilie appeare, although in my time Lichfield
and Couentrie be united, and Cheſter remaineth a
biſhoprike by it ſelfe.] It paid " the pope at euerie
4–4
1 is 8 succeeded
To increase his
income, Bishop
Bruton was
made Keeper of
the King's
Wardrobe I
Lichfteld.”
contains Staf-
ford, Derby-
shire, &c.
[S p. 143]
Why its Bishops
Were once call’d
Bishops of
Chester.
Now Lichfield
and Coventry
are one bishop-
ric ; and Chester
another.
but
2 whose Sie was holden for a time at Westchester, that now hath a Bishop of
hir owne.
HARRISON, 4
6–6 to the Pope
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
Bishop Langton
built the Cathe-
dral Close at
Lichfield.
Lichfield = field
of the corpses.
The yearly value
of the bishopric
is £703 5s. 23d.
[Oxforde)
Goldwell, a
Jesuit, was
Bishop in Queen
|Mary’s time.
alienation" 1733 + florens, or (as ſome old bookes haue)
3ooo, a good round ſumme," but not without a iuſt
puniſhment, * as one faith, fith that anno 765, Edulfe,
biſhop there vnder Offa king of Mercia, would by his
helpe haue bereaued the archbiſhop of Canturburie of
his pall, & ſo did in deed vnder pope Hadrian, holding
the ſame vntil] things were reduced vnto their ancient
forme.” [Before the time alſo of biſhop Langton, the
prebends of this ſee laie here and there abroad in the
citie, where the vicars alſo had an houſe, of which this
honeſt biſhop miſliked not a little for ſundrie cauſes;
wherefore he began their cloſe, and beſtowed ſo much
in building the ſame, and pauing the streets, that his
hungrie kinſmen did not a little grudge at his expenſes,
thinking that his emptie cofers would neuer make
them gentlemen, for which preferment the freends of
moſt biſhops gaped earneſtlie in thoſe daies. King
John was the greateſt benefactor vnto this ſee, next
wnto Offa; and it is called Lichfield, Quqſ, mortuorum
campus, bicauſe of the great ſlaughter of chriſtians made
there (as ſome write) vnder Diocleſian. Howbeit in
my time the valuation thereof is 703 pounds, fiue
ſhillings two pence, halfepenie, farthing, a ſumme verie
narrowlie caſt by that auditor which tooke it firſt in
hand.]
* Oxford hath Oxfordſhire onelie, a verie yoong
iuriſdićtion, erected by king Henrie the eight, &
where in the time of queene Marie, one Goldwell was
biſhop, who (as I remember) was a Jeſuit, dwelling in
Rome, and more conuerſant (as the [conſtant] fame
went) in the blacke art, than ſkilfull in the ſcriptures,
and yet he was of great countenance amongſt the
1–1 Ducates, in mine opinion a good round fine.
2 2 sith that in times past vz. 765 Eldulf Bishoppe there under King Offa of
Mertia woulde haue bereft the sie of Cantorbury of hir pall in the time of Pope
Adriane, and so dyd for a season till thinges were reduced into their former order.
3 Oxforde (side heading).
CHAP. II.] BISHO PRICS AND THE IR CIRCUIT.S.
5 I
Romane Inonarchs. It is ſaid that, obſeruing the
canons of his order, he regarded not the temporalities
[of that ſee] : but I haue heard fince that he wiſt well
inough what became of thoſe commodities, [for by one
meane and other he found the ſweetneſſe of 354 pounds
ſixteene ſhillings three pence halfe penie, yearelie
growing to him, which was euen inough (if not too
much) for the maintenance of a frier toward the
drawing out of circles, characters, & lineaments of
imagerie, wherein he was paſſing ſkilfull, as the ſame
then went in Rome, and not vnheard of in Oxford.]
Elie hath Cambridgſhire, and the Ile of Elie. It
was erected 1 Io9 by Henrie the firſt, being before a
rich and wealthie abbeie. One Heruie alſo was made
biſhop there, as I haue found in a regiſter, belonging
ſometime to that houſe [being tranſlated from Bangor].
Finallie it paid to the pope at euerie alienation 7ooo
ducats, as the regiſters there do º teſtifie at large. [* Al-
beit that in my time I find a note of 2134 pounds
ſixteene ſhillings three pence halfe penie farthing,
whoſe diſme, ioined to thoſe of all the biſhopriks in
England, doo yeeld yearelie to hir maieſties coffers
23370 pounds ſixteene ſhillings three penſe halfe penie
farthing : whereby alſo the huge ſums of monie going
out of this land to the court of Rome dooth in ſome
meaſure appeere. Ethelwold, afterward biſhop of
Wincheſter, builded the firſt monaſterie of Elie vpon
the ruines of a nunrie then in the kings hands; howbeit
the ſame houſe, whereof he himſelfe was abbat, was yer
long deſtroied by enimies, and he, iri lieu of his old
preferment, rewarded by king Edgar, with the aforeſaid
biſhoprike, from whence with more than lionlike bold-
neſſe he expelled the ſecular preeſts, and ſtored with
moonkes prouided from Abandune neere Oxford, by
the helpe of Edgar, and Dunſtane, then metropolitane
of England. . There was ſometime a greeuous conten-
1 doth
Out of his £354
168. 3}d. a year,
he kept a friar
to draw circles,
&c. for his prac-
tise in the
Black Art.
Elie.
erected 1109 A.D.
[* This addition
ends on p. 55.]
All the Bishops'
tenths amount
to £23370 16s.
3#d. a year, and
go to the Queen.
52
. THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. |Book II.
The grievous
dispute between
Bishop Lild of
Ely, and King
bdward III. :—
The unlearned
Robert Strotton
is chosen Bishop
of Ely
The Pope stays
his consecration.
Stretton goes to
Rome,
bribes the Pop?
is approvd, and
on his return is
rude to the
King, who
orders him out
of the room.
The Duchess of
Lancaster dis-
putes the
Bishop's right to
Some land :
out of his preſence.
[tion betweene Thomas Lild biſhop of this ſee, and the
king of England, about the yeare of Grace 1355,
which I will here deliuer out of an old record, becauſe
the matter is ſo parciallie penned by ſome of the
brethren of that houſe, in fauour of the biſhop; & for
that I was alſo abuſed with the ſame in the entrance
thereof at the firſt into my chronologie. The blacke
prince fauoring one Robert Stretton his chapleine,
a man vnlearned, and not worthie the name of a
clearke, the matter went on ſo farre, that what for
loue, and ſomewhat elſe, of a canon of Lichfield he
was choſen biſhop of that ſee. Herevpon the pope,
vnderſtanding what he was by his Nuncio here in Eng-
land, ſtaied his conſecration by his letters for a time,
and in the meane ſeaſon committed his examination to
the archbiſhop of Canturburie, and the biſhop of
Rocheſter, who felt and dealt ſo fauourablie with him
in golden reaſoning, that his worthineſſe was com-
mended to the popes holineſſe; & to Rome he goeth.
Being come to Rome, the pope himſelfe appoſed him,
and after ſecret conference vtterlie diſableth his ele&tion,
till he had prooued by ſubſtantiall argument and of
great weight before him alſo, that he was not ſo lightlie
to be reie&ted. Which kind of reaſoning ſo well
pleaſed his holineſſe, that Ex mera plenitudine potestatis,
he was made capable of the benefice, and ſo returneth
into England; when he came home, this biſhop being
in the kings preſence, told him how he had doone he
wiſt not what, in preferring ſo vnmeet a man vnto ſo
high a calling. With which ſpeach the king was ſo
offended, that he commanded him out of hand to auoid
In like ſort the ladie Wake, then
ducheſſe of Lancaſter, ſtanding by, and hearing the
king hir couſine to gather vp the biſhop ſo roundlie,
and thereto an old grudge againſt him for ſome other
matter, dooth preſentlie picke a quarrell againſt him
about certeine lands then in his poſſeſſion; which he
CHAP. II.] BISHO PRICS AND THEIR CIRCUIT.S.
53
[defended, & in the end obteined againſt her by plee and
courſe of lawyer long alſo afore hapned in a part of hir
houſe, for which ſhe accuſed the biſhop, and in the end,
by verdićt of twelue men found that he was priuie vnto
the fa&t of his men in the ſaid fa&t, wherfore he was
condemned in nine hundred pounds damages, which he
paid, euerie penie.
Neuertheleſſe, being ſore grieued, that ſhe had
(as he ſaid) wreſted out ſuch a verdićt againſt him, and
therein packed vp a queſt at hir owne choiſe : he taketh
his horſe, goeth to the court, and there complaineth to
the king of his great iniurie receiued at hir hands. But
in the deliuerie of his tale, his ſpeech was ſo blockiſh,
& termes ſo euill fauoredlie (though maliciouſlie)
placed, that the king tooke yet more offenſe with him
than before ; inſomuch that he led him with him into
the parlement houſe, for then was that court holden,
and there before the lords accuſed him of no ſmall
miſdemeanor toward his perſon by his rude and
threatening ſpeeches. But the biſhop egerlie denieth
the kings obie&tions, which he ſtill auoucheth vpon his
honor; and in the end confirmeth his allegations by
witneſſe: , wherevpon he is baniſhed from the kings
preſence during his naturall life by verdićt of that houſe.
In the meane time the ducheſſe hearing what was
doone, ſhe beginneth a new to be dealing with him :
and in a brabling fraie betweene their ſeruants, one of
hir men was ſlaine : for which he was called before the
magiſtrat, as chiefe acceſſarie vnto the fact. But he,
fearing the ſequele 4 of his third cauſe by his ſucceſſe had
in the two firſt, hideth himſelfe after he had ſold all his
moouables, and committed the monie vnto his truſtie
friends. And being found giltie by the inqueſt, the
king ſeizeth vpon his poſſeſſions, and calleth vp the
biſhop to anſwer vnto the treſpaſſe. To be ſhort, vpon
ſafe-condućt the biſhop commeth to the kings preſence,
where he denieth that he was acceſſarie to the fact,
f
he defends it,
and keeps the
land,
but has to pay
£900 damages.
The Bishop (of
Ely), angry at
the false verdict,
complains to the
King, but so
rudely
that the King
accuses him
before the Par-
liament,
and he is banisht
from the King's
presence.
The Duchess
then summons
him for being
accessary to the
death of one of
her servants.
[' p. 144]
The Bishop
hides himself,
and is found
guilty,
54
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENG LAN ID, [Book II.
but asks tor
trial by his
peers.
Edward III.
condemns the
IBishop of Ely.
The Bishop
appeals first to
the Archbishop,
and then to the
Pope.
His accusers
don’t attend at
Rome, and are
excommuni-
cated.
Folward III.
forbids the
import of Papal
bulls, &c.
The Pope
threatens the
King with
CUll'SČS.
At last the King
gives way; and
then
[either before, at, or after the deed committed, and
therevpon craueth to be tried by his peeres. But this
petition was in vaine : for ſentence paſſeth againſt him
alſo by the kings owne mouth. Wherevpon he
craueth helpe of the archbiſhop of Canturburie, and
priuileges of the church, hoping by ſuch meanes to be
ſolemnlie reſcued. But they, fearing the kings diſ-
pleaſure, who bare ſmall fauour to the clergie of his
time, gaue ouer to vſe anie ſuch meanes; but rather
willed him to ſubmit himſelfe vnto the kings mercie,
which he refuſed, ſtanding vpon his innocencie from the
firſt vnto the laſt. Finallie, growing into choler, that
the malice of a woman ſhould ſo preuaile againſt him,
he writeth to Rome, requiring that his caſe might be
heard there, as a place wherein greater iuſtice (ſaith he)
is to be looked for than to be found in England.
Vpon the peruſall of theſe his letters alſo, his accuſers
were called thither. But for ſo much as they appeered
not at their peremptorie times, they were excom-
municated. Such of them alſo as died before their
reconciliations were taken out of the churchyards, and
buried in the fields and doong-hilles, Vnde timor & turba
(faith my note) in Anglia. For the king inhibited the
bringing in and receipt of all proceſſes, billes, and
whatſoeuer inſtruments ſhould come from Rome; ſuch
alſo as aduentured contrarie to this prohibition to bring
them in, were either diſmembred of ſome ioint, or
hanged by the necks. Which rage ſo incenſed the
pope, that he wrote in verie vehement maner to the
king of England, threatening far greater curſes, except
he did the ſooner ſtaie the furie of the lady, reconcile
himſelf vnto the biſhop, and finallie, making him
amends for all his loſſes ſuſteined in theſe broiles.
Long it was yer the king would be brought to peace.
Neuertheleſſe, in the end he wrote to Rome about a
reconciliation to be had betweene them : but yer all
things were concluded, God himſelf did end the quarrell,
CHAP. II.] BISHO PRICS AND THEIR CIRCUIT.S.
55
[by taking awaie the biſhop. And thus much out of an
old pamphlet in effect word for word: but I haue ſome-
what framed the forme of the report after the order that
Stephan Birchington dooth deliuer it, who alſo hath the
ſame in manner as I deliuer it..]"
2 The ſee of Norwich * called in old time Epiſcopa-
tus *Donnicenſis, Dononiae, or Eastanglorum, was erected
at Felſtow or Felixſtow, where Felix of Burgundie
(ſometime ſchoolemaſter to Sigebert of the eaſt-Angles,
by whoſe perſaufion alſo the ſaid Sigebert erected the
wniuerfitie at Cambridge) being made biſhop of the
eaſt-Angles firſt placed his ſee, afterward it was re-
mooued from thence to Donwich, and thence to Helm-
ham, Anno 870, about the death of Celnothus of Cantur-
burie; thirdlie, to Theodford, or Thetford; & finallie,
after the time of the Baſtard, to Norwich. For iuriſ-
dićtion, it conteineth in our daies Norffolke and Suf-
folke onelie, whereas at the firſt it included Cam-
bridgeſhire alſo, and ſo much as laie within the king-
dome of the eaſt-Angles.” It began about the yeere
632, vnder Cerpenwald “king of the eaſt-Saxons, "who
beſtowed it vpon Felix, whome pope Honorius alſo
confirmed, and after which he held it by the ſpace of
ſeauenteene yeeres." "It paid [ſometimes] at euerie
alienation 5ooo ducats to Rome." [But in my time hir
maieſtie hath 899 pounds, 8 ſhillings 7 pence farthing,
as I haue been informed. In the ſame iuriſdićtion alſo
there were once 1563 pariſh churches, and 88 religious
houſes: but in our daies I can not heare of more
churches than 12 oo : and yet of theſe I know one con-
uerted into a barne, whileſt the people heare ſeruice
2—2 Northwich
luckily, Bishop
Stretton dies.
[* This addition
begins on p. 51.]
Mozzwich.
was founded at
Felixstow,
about 632 A.D.,
then remov’d to
Donwich, to
Helmham,
and lastly to
Norwich.
Felix was the
first Bishop.
Its value is
£899 8s. 73d. a
year.
It contains
I200 churches:
one turnd into
a barn,
*—3 domucensis, (whose sie was first at Helmeham, then at Thetforde) hath
Suffolke and Norfolke.
Kinges of the east Angles, till Ely was taken from the same, &
The circuite hereof was once all one, with that of the
* Eorpenwalde
*—" and one Felix of Burgundy, was first Bishop there, who sate seuenteene
yeares, and was placed therein by Honorius the Pope,
6 finally it
" of curraunt money as I reade
56.
the bell us’d to
hang on an oak
but that's gone
In OW.
The little chapel
on Ashley com-
mon is too small
for the parish-
ioners.
Peterborozw.
was founded by
Henry VIII.,
and yields £450
a year, less la.
. I’ve seen an old
deed of gift to
the old Monas-
tery by King
Wulfhere, &c.
†
*
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
further off vpon a greene : their bell alſo when I heard
a ſermon there preached in the greene, hanged in an
oke for want of a ſteeple. But now I vnderſtand that
the oke likewiſe is gone. There is neuertheleſſe a litle
chappellet hard by on that common, but nothing
capable of the multitude of Aſhlie towne that ſhould
come to the ſame in ſuch wiſe, if they did repaire
thither as they ought.] -
Peterborow, ſometimes a notable monaſterie, hath
Northampton and Rutland ſhires [vnder hiriuriſdićtion],
a dioceſſe erected alſo by king Henrie the eight. It
neuer paid firſt fruits to the pope before queene Maries
daies 2 (if it were then deliuered) wherof I doubt,” be-
cauſe it was 8 not recorded in his * ancient regiſter of
*tenths and fruits,” [although peraduenture the collectors
left it not vngathered, I wot not for what purpoſe; it
yeeldeth now foure hundred and fiftie pounds, one
penie abated. I haue ſeene and had an ancient iarror of
the lands of this monaſterie, which agreeth verie well
with the hiſtorie of Hugo le Blanc monke of that houſe.
In the charter alſo of donation annexed to the ſame, I
ſaw one of Wulfhere king of Mercia, ſigned with his
owne, & the marks of Sigher king of Suſſex, Sebbie of
Eſſex, with the additions of their names: the reſt of the
witneſſes alſo inſued in this order:
Ethelred brother to Wulfehere,
Kindburg and Kindſwith fiſters to Wulfhere,
Deuſdedit archbiſhop,
Ithamar biſhop of Rocheſter.
Wina biſhop of London,
Iarnman biſhop of Mearc,
Wilfride and Eoppa preeſts,
Saxulfe the abbat.
Then all the earles and eldermen of England in
order; and after all theſe, the name of pope Agatho,
1–1 but in 2–2 if ought were then demaunded
8 was a sie 4 the 5–5 hys first fruites and tenthes
CHAP. II.] BISHOPRICS AND THEIR CIRCUITS,
who confirmed the inſtrument at the ſute of Wilfride
archbiſhop of Yorke, in a councell holden at Rome 68o,
of a hundred & fiue and twentie biſhops, wherein alſo
theſe churches were appropriated to the ſaid monaſterie,
to wit, Breding, Reping, Cedenac, Swineſheued, Luſ-
gerd, Edelminglond, and Barchaing: whereby we haue
in part an euident teſtimonie how long the praćtiſe of
appropriation of benefices hath beene vſed to the hin-
derance of the goſpell, and maintenance of idle moonks,
an humane inuention grounded vpon hypocriſie.]
Briſtow hath Dorſetſhire ſometime belonging to
Saliſburie, a ſee [alſo] latelie erected by king Henrie the
eight, who tooke no ſmall care for the church of
Chriſt, and therefore eaſed a number of ancient ſees
of ſome part of their huge and ouer-large" circuits,
and beſtowed 2 thoſe portions dedućted,” vpon ſuch other
[ere&tions] as he had appointed for the better regiment
and feeding of the flocke: [the value thereof is three
hundred foure ſcore and three pounds, eight ſhillings,
and foure pence (as I haue beene informed.)]
Lincolne of all other * of late times * was the great-
eſt; * and albeit * that out of it were taken the ſees" of
Oxford and Peterborow, yet it "ſtill reteineth 6 Lin-
colne, Leiceſter, Huntingdon, Bedford, Buckingham
ſhires, and the reſt of Hertford; ſo that it extendeth 7
from the Thames vinto the Humber, and paid vnto the
pope" fiue thouſand ducats (as appeereth by 9 his
note”) at euerie alienation. [In my time, and by rea-
ſon of hir diminution it yeeldeth a tribute to whom
tribute belongeth, of the valuation of eight hundred
ninetie and nine pounds, eight ſhillings, ſeauen
pence farthing.] It began [ſince the conqueſt,
19 about the beginning of William Rufus, by one Re-
migius, who remooued his ſee **from Dorcheſter to
Churches appro-
priated to the
Monastery of
Peterborough in
old time,
to keep idle
monks.
Pristow.
yearly value,
£383 8s. 4d.
A, incolne.
The see
stretches from
the Thames to
the Humber.
Its yearly value
is £899 8s. 7#d.
[10 p. 145]
1–1 theyr superfluous *—3 the same *—3 in times past
4–4 for although * Bishoprijckes 6–8 reteineth still
7 extended
8 for the whole 9–9 record *—” to Lincolne from Dorchester
58
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Lincolne” (not without licence well paid for vnto the
king.)" And thus much of the * biſhopriks which *
lie within Lhoegres or England, as it was left vnto
Locrinus. Now it followeth that [I] proceed with Wales.
Landaffe. Landaffe, or the church of Taw * hath eccleſiaſticall
iuriſdićtion in * Glamorgan, Monmouth, Brechnoch,
and Radnor ſhires. And [although it] paid” ſeuen
hundred ducats" at euerie exchange of prelat; [yet is it
ſcarſelie worth one hundred fiftie and fiue pounds by
the yeare (as I haue heard reported.) Certes it is a
A pººr poore biſhoprike, & (as I haue heard) the late incum-
Bishop said. bent thereof being called for not long fince by the
lord prefident in open court made anſwer: “The daffe
is here, but the land is gone.” What he meant by it
I can not well tell; but I hope, that in the ſeed time
and the free planting of the goſpell, the meate of the
labourer ſhall not be diminiſhed and withdrawen.]
S. Dauids. S. Dauids hath Penbroke and Caermardine ſhires,
whoſe liuerie or firſt fruits to the ſee of Rome was
one thouſand and fiue hundred ducats, at the hardeſt
(as I thinke.) [For if record be of anie ſufficient
credit, it is little aboue the value of foure hundred
fiftie and ſeauen pounds, one ſhilling, and ten pence
farthing, in our time, and ſo it paieth vnto hir maieſties
coffers; but in time paſt I thinke it was farre better.
Its Bishop The preſent biſhop miſliketh verie much of the cold
doesn’t like the e º
tººl, fituation of his cathedral church; and therfore he
*...** would gladlie pull it downe, and ſet it in a warmer
place : but it would firſt be learned what fuertie he
would put in to ſee it well performed : of the reſt I
ſpeake not.]
Bangor. Bangor is in north-Wales, and hath Caernarvon,
Angleſeie, and Merioneth ſhires vinder hir iuriſdićtion.
It paid 7 to Rome 126 ducats”: [which is verie much.
1 as Math. Westminster doth report 2 such 3 as *—4 contayneth
* paid to Rome 6 as I reade 7 also
8 or florence, as their bowkes doe yet declare
CHAP. II.] BISHO PRICS AND THEIR CIRCUIT 3.
59
For of all the biſhoprikes in England it is now the
leaſt for reuenues, and not woorth aboue one hundred
and one and thirtie pounds, and ſixteene pence to hir
maieſties coffers at euerie alienation (as appeereth by
the tenths, which amount to much leſſe than thoſe o
ſome good benefice) for it yeeldeth not yeerelie aboue
thirteene pounds, three ſhillings, and ſeauen pence
halfe penie, as by that court is manifeſt.]
S. Aſaphes hath Preſtholme and part of Denbigh
and Flintſhires [vnder hir iuriſdićtion in cauſes eccleſi-
aſticall,) which being laid togither doo amount to little
more than one good countie, and therefore 'in reſpect
of circuit the leaſt ! that is to be found in * Wales,
neuertheleſſe * it paid to Rome 470 ducates 4 at euerie
[In my time the firſt fruits of this biſhop-
rike came vnto 187 pounds eleuen ſhillings ſix pence,
wherby it ſeemeth to be ſomewhat better than Landaffe
~. There is one Howell a
alienation.*
or Bangor laſt remembred.
gentleman of Flintſhire in the compaſſe of this iuriſ-
dićtion, who is bound to giue an harpe of ſiluer
yearelie to the beſt harper in Wales: but did anie
biſhop thinke you deſerue that in the popiſh time
Howell or Aphowell in Engliſh is all one (as I haue
heard) and ſignifie ſo much as Hugo or Hugh.]
* Hitherto of the prouince [of] Canturburie, for ſo much
therof as [now] lieth * within the compaſſe of 6 this
Iland. Now it reſteth that I proceed with the 7 cur-
tailed archbiſhoprike of Yorke : I ſaie curtailed, becauſe
all Scotland is cut from his iuriſdićtion and obedience.7
The ſee of Yorke *was reſtored 8 about the yeare of
Grace 625, * which after the comming of the Saxons
laie deſolate and neglected, howbeit at the ſaid time 9
Juſtus [archbiſhop of Canturburie” ordeined Paulinus
Bangor is the
poorest Bishop.
ric of all.
S. Asaffhes.
Its Firstfruits
are £187 lls. 6d.
l—" iustly supposed to be ye lest Bishoprijcke
*—4 except my memory doth fayle
7–7 other of Yorke in such order as I may.
9–9 under
5 And
10 Who
* within
Mr Howell of
Flintshire is
bound to give a
silver harp
yearly to the
best harper
in Wales.
Now for the
Archbishopric of
York.
Porée.
* yet
6 in
*—” beganme
Óo
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
* to be firſt biſhop there, in the time of Eadwijn "king
of Northumberland.” [This Paulinus ſate fix yeares
yer he was driuen from thence, & after whoſe expul-
fion that ſeat was void long time, wherby Lindeſfarne
grew into credit, and ſo remained vntill the daies of
Oſwie of Northumberland, who ſent Wilfred the prieſt
ouer into France, there to be conſecrated archbiſhop of
Yorke : but whileſt he taried ouer long in thoſe parts,
Oſwie, impatient of delaie, preferred Ceadda or Chad to
that roome, who held it three yeares, which being
expired, Wilfred recouered his roome, and held it as he
might, vntill it was ſeuered in two, to wit, Yorke,
Hagulſtade, or Lindeſfarne, where Eata was placed,
at which time alſo Egfride was made biſhop of Lin-
colne or Lindfie in that part of Mercia which he had
goten from Woolfhere.] Of it ſelfe it hath [now]
iuriſdićtion ouer Yorkeſhire, Notinghamſhire [(whoſe
ſhire towne—I meane the new part thereof with the
bridge—was builded by king Edward the firſt ſurnamed
the elder before the conqueſt)] and the reſt of Lan-
caſterſhire [onelie] not ſubie&t to the ſee of Cheſter;
and when the pope bare authoritie in this realme,
it paid vnto his ſee Iooo ducates, beſide * 50oo for
the pall of the new eleēt, which was more than he
could well ſpare [of late, confidering the [curtailing
&] diminution of his ſee, “thorough 4 the erection of a
new metropolitane in Scotland,” [but in my time it
yeeldeth 1609 pounds nineteene ſhillings two pence to
hir maieſtie, whom God long preſerue vnto vs to his
glorie, hir comfort, and our welfares.]
Cheſter [vpon Dee, otherwiſe called Weſtcheſter,
hath [vnder hir iuriſdićtion in cauſes eccleſiaſticall,
Cheſterſhire, Darbiſhire, the moſt part of Lancaſter-
ſhire [(to wit] vnto the Ribell) Richmond and a part
The Archbishop-
ric of York.
Wilfrid ap-
pointed to it,
but Chad held
it three years
first.
Cut into two,
York and
Durham.
Edward I. built;
the new town of
Nottingham.
The First fruits
of York are
#81609 198. 2d.
God save the
Queen 1
Chester.
1—1 the
2 of king Northumberland 8 beside also
4–4 by meanes of * as I haue shewed else where
CHAP. II.] BISHO PRICS AND THE IR CIRCUIT.S.
6ſ
of Flint & Denbigh ſhires in Wales, " It was made a
biſhoprike by king H. 8. anno regni 33. Iulij 16, and
ſo hath continued fince that time, being valued 420
pounds by the yeare beſide od twentie pence (a ſtreičt
reckoning) as the record declareth."
Durham hath the countie of Durham ” and North-
umberland [with the Dales onelie vnder hir iuriſdic-
tion, and hereof * the biſhops “haue ſometimes beene 4
earles palantines, & ruled the roſt vnder the name
of the biſhoprike [and ſucceſſion of S. Cuthbert. It
was] a ſee (in mine opinion) more profitable [of late
wnto hir maieſties coffers by 22 I pounds eighteene
ſhillings ten pence farthing,j and [yet] of leſſe coun-
tenance than hir" prouinciall, [neuertheles the funne-
ſhine thereof (as I heare) is now ſomewhat eclipſed,
and not likelie to recouer the light, for this is not a
time wherein the church may looke to increaſe in hir
eſtate. I heare alſo that ſome other flitches haue for-
gone the like collops, but let ſuch maters be ſcanned
by men of more diſcretion. Capgraue ſaith how that
the firſt biſhop of this ſee was called biſhop of Lind-
ſeie (or Lincolne) & that Ceadda laie in Liechfield
of the Percians in a manſion houſe neere the church.
But this is more worthie to be remembred, that
Cuthred of the Northumbers, and Alfred of the Weſt-
ſaxons, beſtowed all the land betweene the Theſe &
the Tine now called the biſhoprike, vpon S. Cuth-
bert, beſide whatſoeuer belonged to the ſee of Hagul-
ſtade. Edgar of Scotland alſo in the time of the
Baſtard gaue Coldingham and Berwike with all their
appurtenances to that houſe; but whether theſe dona-
tions be extant or no as yet, I cannot tell. Yet I
thinke not but that Lland had a fight of them, from
Bishopric of
Chester founded
by Henry VIII.
Dzzºhame.
[or Lindesfazºle
£221 18s, 10#d.
Capgrave says
its first Bishop
was calld Bishop
of Lindsey or
Lincoln.
Donations to it
(from Leland).
l—l In the old popish tyme there was no Bishoprijck called by that name
(although the Byshop of Leechfielde had sometime his Sie pitched in that place, and
therefore of some was called Bishop of Chester) sith king Henry the eight was the
first, that erected any there. * onely 3 whereof
* beene sometimes
5 his
62
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. |Book II.
Bishopric of
Durham.
[7 p. 146]
Caerleill.
ſts present
valuation is
#531 14s, 11%d.
Carlisle was
sackt by the
Danes, and
replanted with
Southerners by
William Rufus.
-
whome I had this ground.] But whatſoeuer this
biſhoprike be now, in externall [& outward] appar-
ance, ſure it is that it paid [in old time]* 9ooo ducates”
at euerie alienation*[to Rome], as the record" expreſſeth.
Aidan a Scot [or Iriſhman] was the firſt biſhop of this
ſee, who held himſelfe (as did " manie of his ſucceſ.
ſors) ſat. Colcheſter and in Lindeſfarne Ile, till one
came that remooued it to Durham. [And now iudge
"you whether the allegation of Capgraue be of anie
accompt or not.] -
Caerleill [was] erected 1132 by Henrie the firſt,
and *hereof one * Ethelwoolfe confeſſor to Oſmond
biſhop of Sarum was made 9 the firſt 9 biſhop, hauing 19
Cumberland & Weſtmerland [affigned to his ſhare;
of]", the deaneries and number [of] * pariſh churches 1%
conteined in the ſame as yet I haue no knowledge,
Howbeit hereof * I am
ſure, that [notwithſtanding the preſent valuation be
more than of manie 18 other.
riſen to 531 pounds foureteene ſhillings eleuen pence
halfe penie,1 the pope receiued out of it" [but]
Iooo florens, 1% and 1% might haue ſpared much more, as
an aduerſarie thereto confeſſed ſometime euen be-
fore the pope himſelfe, ſuppoſing no leſſe than" to haue
gained by his tale, [and ſo peraduenture ſhould haue
doone, if his platforme had taken place. But as wiſe
men oft eſpie the praćtiſes of flatteries, ſo the pope
ſaw to what end this profitable ſpeach was vttered.
As touching Caerleill it ſelfe it was ſometime ſacked
by the Danes, and eftſoones repared by William Rufus,
& planted with a colonie of ſoutherne men. I ſup-
poſe that in old time it was called Cairdoill. For in
an ancient booke which I haue ſeene, and yet haue,
intituled, Liber formularum literarum curiae Romance,
1–1 it be for
5 yet expresseth
9–9 original
14 of this
2 to Rome 3 or Florenes * chaunge
6 also manie 8–8 whereof
. 10 hath 11 as for 12—12 parishes 13 of the other
15 at euery chaunge of Byshop 16 albeit that it 17 but
-º- .*-i-
chAP. II.] BISHO PRICS AND THEIR CIRCUITS,
63
oćto capitulorum, epiſcopatus Cardocenſis. And thus
much generallie of the names and numbers of our
biſhoprikes of England, whoſe tenths in old time
yearelie amounting vnto 2 I I I I pounds, twelue ſhillings
one penie halfe penie farthing, of currant monie in
thoſe daies, doo euidentlie declare, what ſtore of coine
was tranſported out of the land vnto the papall vſes, in
that behalfe onelie.
Certes I take this not to be one quarter of his
gaines gotten by England in thoſe daies, for ſuch
commodities were raiſed by his courts holden here,
ſo plentifullie gat he by his perquiſits, as elections,
procurations, appeales, pluralities, tot
quots, trialities, tollerations, legitimations, bulles, ſeales,
preeſts, concubines, eating of fleſh and white meats,
diſpenſations for mariages, & times of celebration, Peter
pence, and ſuch like faculties, that not ſo little as
12ooooo pounds went yearelie from hence to Rome.
And therefore no maruell though he ſeeke much in
theſe daies to reduce vs to his obedience. But what
are the tenths of England (you will ſaie) in compariſon
of all thoſe of Europe. For notwithſtanding that
manie gyod biſhoprikes, latelie erected, be left out of
his old bookes of record, which I alſo haue ſeene, yet
I find neuertheles that the whole ſum of them amounted
to not aboue 6152 I pounds as monie went 200 yeare
preuentions,
before my time, of which portion poore ſaint Peter did
neuer heare, of ſo much as one graie grote. Marke
therfore, I praie you, whether England were not fullie
anſwerable to a third part of the reſt of his tenths ouer
all Europe; and therevpon tell me whether our Iland
was one of the beſt paire of bellowes or not, that blue
the fire in his kitchen, wherewith to make his pot
feeth, beſide all other commodities.]
Beſide all theſe, we haue another biſhoprike yet in
England * almoſt ſlipped out of my remembrance, be-
1—l but
The tenths of
the English
Bishoprics,
£21,111 128. Iłd.,
show what the
Pope got out of
England.
*he got more
y nis per-
quisites:
surely more
than £120,000 a
year went to
Rome,
England was the
best pair of
bellows that,
blew the Pope's
kitchen fire, and
made his pot
boil.
Mars.
64
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II .
The Bishopric of
Sodor and Man,
The gift of it
lies in the Earls
of Derby,
I’ve thus done
my duty in
giving an
account of our
Bishoprics.
Our present
Bishops are, for
the most part,
the learnedest
in Europe.
Other old
Bishoprics.
*—” because
5–5 And thus much
cauſe it is verie obſcure, * for that” the biſhop thereof
hath not wherewith to mainteine his countenance
ſufficientlie, and that is the ſee of Mona or Man,
ſomtime named Epiſcopatus Sodorenſis, whereof one
Wimundus was ordeined the firſt biſhop, and John the
ſecond, in the * troubleſome time” of king Stephan.
The gift of this prelacie reſteth in the earles of Darbie,
who nominate * ſuch a one from time to time therto
as to them dooth ſeeme conuenient. Howbeit, if
that ſee [did know and might reape hir owne com-
modities, [and diſcerne them from other mens poſ.
ſeſſions (for it is ſuppoſed that the mother hath deubured
the daughter), I doubt not but the ſtate of hir biſhop
would quicklie be amended. * Hauing therefore called
this later ſee after this maner vnto mind, I ſuppoſe
that I haue ſufficientlie diſcharged my dutie concern-
ing the ſtate” of our biſhoprike[s]," and maner how the
cceleſiaſticall iuriſdićtion of the church of England is
diuided among the ſhires and counties of this realme.
Whoſe biſhops, as they haue beene heretofore of [leſſe
learning, and yet of] greater port & dooings in the
common-wealth, than at this preſent, ſo are they now
for the moſt part the beſt learned that are to be found
in anie countrie of Europe, fith neither high parentage,
nor great riches (as in other countries) but onelie
learning and vertue [commended ſomewhat by freend-
ſhip] doo bring them to this honour.
I might here haue ſpoken [more at large] of
diuerſe other biſhopriks, ſometime in this part of the
Iland, as of that of Caerlheon [tofore ouerthrowen
Dy Edelfred in the behalfe of Auguſtine the moonke
(as Malmeſburie ſaith)] where Dubritius gouerned,
which was afterward tranſlated to S. Dauids, and
taken for an archbiſhoprike: ſecondlie of the biſhop-
rike of Leirceſter [called Legerenſis, whoſe fourth
*—s reign 4 nominateth
° bishoprijcks
cHAP. II.] BISHO PRICS AND THEIR CIRCUITS.
65
biſhop" (Unwon) went to Rome with Offa king of
Mercia: thirdlie of Ramſbirie or Wiltun, and of
Gloceſter (of which you ſhall read in Matth. Weſtm.
489) where the biſhop was called Eldad : alſo of Ha-
gulſtade, one of the * members whereinto the ſee of
Yorke was diuided after the expulſion of Wilfrid.
For (as I read) when Egfrid the king had driuen him
awaie, he diuided his ſee into * two parts,” making
Boſa ouer the Deiranes that held his ſee at Hagul-
ſtade [or Lindfarne : and Eatta ouer the Bernicians,
who ſate at Yorke : and [thereto placing] Edhedus
ouer Lindſeie [(as is afore noted)] whoſe ſucceſſors
were Ethelwine, Edgar, and Kinibert, notwithſtanding
that one Sexulfus was ouer Lindſeie 4 before Edhedus,
who was biſhop of the Mercians and middle England,
till he was baniſhed from Lindſeie,” and came into
thoſe" quarters to ſeeke his refuge and ſuccour.
I could likewiſe intreat of the biſhops of White-
herne, or Ad Candidam Caſam, [an houſe, with the
countrie wherein it ſtood, belonging to the prouince
of Northumberland, but] now a parcell of Scotland;
* alſo of the erection of the late ſee at Weſtminſter
by Henrie the eight. But as the one, ſo the other, is
ceaſed; and the lands of this later, either ſo diuided or
exchanged for worſe tenures, that except a man ſhould
ſee it with his eies, & point out with his finger where
euerie parcell of them is beſtowed, but a few men
would beleeue what is become of the ſame. I might
likewiſe, and with like eaſe alſo, haue added the ſuc-
ceſſors of the biſhops of euerie ſee to this diſcourſe of
their cathedrall churches and places of abode, but it
would haue extended this treatiſe to an vnprofitable
length. Neuertheleſſe I will remember the fame of
1 bishop called * the three
* Lindfarre ° Lindisse
Glocester a
zerie ancient
bishopriée.
Old bishoprics
of Lindisfarne
and Lindsey.
I could treat of
the former see
of Whiteherne
in Northum-
berland,
and of
Westminster,
founded by
Henry VIII.,
'but it 'd make
my book too
long.
*—" three partes
6 these
"—" and of diuers chaunges and alterations hapning in these sies from time to time,
but sith my purpose is to touch only the estate of thinges present it may suffice to
haue Sayde thus much of them though altogither beside mine intended purpose.
HARRISON. 5
66 THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book 11.
º
I'll only men- London my natiue citie, after I haue added one word
tion London,
jº.gº. more of the houſe called Ad Candidam Caſam, in
Wiś, Engliſh Whiteherne, which taketh denomin-
ation of the white ſtone wherwith it
was builded, and was ſeene far
off as ſtanding vpon an
hill to ſuch as did
In See note p. 65.] behold it."
ºa. "[* The names and ſucceſſions of ,
ditions end at e g
top of p. 70.] ſo manie archbiſhops and biſhops
*::::::::::: of of London, as are extant, and to
London, be had, from the faith
jirſt receiued.
Archbiſhops.
Theon. Y (Tadwinus alias Theodwi-
Eluanus. nus, ſome doo write him
Cadocus. Tacwinus & Tatwinus.
Ouinus. Tidredus aliás Theodred.
Conanus. Hilarius.
Palladius. >< Faſtidius liued Anno
Stephanus. Dom. 430.
Iltutus. Vodinus, ſlaine by the Sax-
Reſtitutus, who liued OllS.
35o of grace. J U Theonus.
The ſee void manie yeares.
i.º.º. Auguſtine the moonke, ſent ouer by Gregorie the great,
to Canterbury. till he remooued his ſee to Canturburie, to the intent
he might the ſooner flee, if perſecution ſhould be
raiſed by the infidels, or heare from, or ſend more
ſpeedilie vnto Rome, without anie great feare of the
interception of his letters.
**
CHAP. A1.] BISH OF RICS AND THEIR CIRCUITS• 67
Biſhops.
Melitus.
The ſee void for a ſeaſon.
Wina. Y ſ Cernulphus. :::::::::, .
Erkenwaldus. Suiduiphus.
Waldherus. * Eadſtanus.
Ingaldus. Wulfſinus.
Egulphus. Ethelwaldus. .
Wigotus. Elſtanus.
Eadbricus. Brithelmus. Anglo-Saxon
Edgarus. > < Dunſtanus.
Kiniwalchus. Tidricus.
Eadbaldus. Alwijnus.
Eadbertus. º | Elſwoldus.
Oſwinus. Robertus a Norman. and Norman.
Ethelnothus. Wilhelmus a Norman.
Cedbertus. S | \- Hugo a Norman.
I read alſo of a biſhop of London called Elſward, or
Allward, who was abbat at Eoueſham, and biſhop of
London at one time, and buried at length in Ramſeie ;
howbeit, in what order of ſucceſſion he liued, I can not
tell, more than of diuerſe other aboue remembred, but
in this order doo I find them.
The ſee void twelve yeares.
I Mauricius. 8 Wilhelmus de ſanéta Later Arch-
* * e bishops of
2 Richardus Beaumis. Maria. Canterbury.
3 Gilbertus vniuerſalis: a 9 Euſtathius Falconberg.
notable man for three Io Rogerus Niger.
things, auarice, riches, II Fulco Bafoet
and learning. 12 Henricus Wingham.
4 Robertus de Sigillo. Richardus Talbotele&tus.
5 Richardus Beaumis. I5 Richard. Graueſend.
6 Gilbertus Folioth. I6 Radulfus Gandacenſis.
7 Richardus. 17 Gilbertus Segraue.
68
[Book 11.
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND,
Archbishops of
Canterbury.
Baldoc,
(2) Bonner,
(2) Ridley,
(2) Grindall,
(2) Sandys.
INow for the
Deans of St
Paul's, and my
old Master at
Westminster
School,
Alexander
Now EL, now
living, in 1586,
(He died in
1602.)
18 Richardus de
port.
19 Stephanus Graueſend.
Qo Richard. Bintworth.
2 I Radulfus Baldoc, who
made the tables hang-
ing in the veſterie of
Paules.
22 Michael.
23 Simon.
New-
24 Robertus.
25 Thomas.
26 Richardus.
27 Thomas Sauagius.
28 Wilhelmus.
29 Wilhelm. Warham.
3o Wilhelmus Barnes.
31 Cuthbertus Tunſtall.
32 Iohannes Stokeſleie.
33 Richardus fitz Iames.
34 Edmundus Boner, re-
mooued, impriſoned.
35 Nicholas Ridleie re-
mooued and burned.
Edm. Boner, reſtored,
remooued, & impri-
ſoned.
36 Edmundus Grindall.
37 Edwinus Sandes.
38 Iohannes Elmer.
Hauing gotten and ſet downe thus much of the biſhops,
I will deliuer in like ſort the names of the deanes,
wntill I come to the time of mine old maſter now
liuing in this preſent yeare 1586, who is none of the
leaſt ornaments that haue beene in that ſeat.
Deanes.
I Wulmannus, who made
a diſtribution of the
pſalmes conteined in
the whole pſalter, and
the
dailie to be read a-
apointed ſame
mongſt the prebend-
aries.
2 Radulfus de
whoſe noble hiſtorie is
Diceto,
yet extant in their lib-
rarie.
3 Alardus Bucham.
4 Robertus Watford.
5 Martinus Patteſhull
6 Hugo de Marinis.
7 Radulfus Langfort.
8 Galfridus de Berie.
9 Wilhelmus Stamman.
Io Henricus Cornell.
I I Walterus de Salerne.
I2 Robertus Barton.
13 Petrus de Newport.
14 Richardus Talbot.
15 Galfredus de Fering,
I6 Iohannes Chiſhull
17 Herueus de Boreham.
18 Thomas Egleſthorpe.
CHAP. II.] BISHOPRICS AND THEIR CIRCUITS-
69
19 Rogerus de Lalleie.
20 Wilhelmus * de Mont-
fort.
21 Radulfus de Baldoc
poſtea epiſcopus.
de Cantilup,
Leſeux. ;
34 Leonardus de Bath.
35 Wilhelmus Saie.
36 Rogerus Ratcliffe.
37 Thom. Winterburne.
38 Wilhelmus Wolſeie.
39 Robert Sherebroke.
4o Iohannes Collet, found-
er of Paules ſchoole.
Richardus Paceus.
22 Alanus
poſtea cardinalis.
Iohan. Sandulfe electus.
Richardus de Newport
electus.
23 Magiſter Vitalis.
24. Iohannes Eueriſdon.
25 Wilhelmus Brewer,
26 Richardus Kilmingdon.
27 Thomas Trullocke.
28 Iohannes Appulbie.
Richardus Sampſon.
Iohannes Incent.
Wilhelmus Maius
nauit.
reſig-
Iohannes Fakenham aliás
29 Thomas Euer. Howman reſignauit.
3o Thomas Stow. Henricus Colus, remooued,
31 Thomas More.
32 Reginaldus Kenton.
impriſoned.
Wilhelmus Maius, reſtored.
Alexander Nouellus.
And thus much of the archbiſhops, biſhops, and
deanes of that honorable ſee. I call it honorable, be-
cauſe it hath had a ſucceſſion for the moſt part of
learned and wiſe men, albeit that otherwiſe it be the
moſt troubleſome ſeat in England, not onelie for that it
is neere vnto checke, but alſo the prelats thereof are
much troubled with futors, and no leſſe ſubie&t to the
reproches of the common ſort, whoſe mouthes are
alwaies wide open vnto reprehenſion, and eies readie to
eſpie anie thing that they may reprooue and carpe at.
I would haue doone ſo much for euerie ſee in England,
if I had not had conſideration of the greatneſſe of the
volume, and ſmall benefit riſing by the ſame, vnto the
commoditie of the readers : neuertheleſſe I haue re-
* orig. Wilhelmns
33 Thomas Lifieux aliás
John Colet.
&
Richard Pace.
Alexander
Nowel.
The see of
Canterbury
is the most
troublesome
in England.
The common
sort are always
ready to carp
at Prelates.
7o THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
ſerued them vnto the publication of my great chrono-
[... 66.] logie, if (while I liue) it happen to come abrode."]
[? p. 148] *Of Wniuerſities.
(An interesting
chapter, Har-
rison was at
both uni- Chap • 3.
versities.)
Unani, ºnieri. I Here haue beene heretofore, and at fundrie
#;" Z% times, diuerſe famous vniuerſities in this
Iland, and thoſe euen in my daies not alto-
Bangor, gither forgotten, as one at Bangor, erected by Lucius,
and afterward conuerted into a monaſterie, not by Con-
gellus (as ſome write) but by Pelagius the monke. The
Caerleon, ſecond at Carlheon vpon Uſke, neere to the place where
the riuer dooth fall into the Seuerne, founded by king
Thetford, Arthur. The third at Theodford, wherein were 6oo
ſtudents, in the time of one Rond ſometime king of that
Stamford, region. The fourth at Stanford, ſuppreſſed by Auguſ-
tine the monke, and likewiſe other in other places, as
Salisbury, &c. Saliſburie, Eridon or Criclade, Lachlade, Reading, and
Northampton; albeit that the two laſt rehearſed were
not authoriſed, but onelie aroſe to that name by the
departure of the ſtudents from Oxford, in time of ciuill
diſſention, vnto the ſaid townes, where alſo they con-
Salisbury tinued but for a little ſeaſon. When that of Saliſburie
flourisht º -
hºnry began, I can not tell; but that it flouriſhed moſt vinder
Edward I. Henrie the third, and Edward the firſt, I find good teſ-
timonie by the writers, as alſo by the diſcord which fell
1278, betweene the chancellor for the ſcholers there on
the one part, and William the archdeacon on the other,
whereof you ſhall ſee more in the chronologie here
[Three #: following.] *In my time there are three noble vniuer-
ties in England.] e
fities in England, to wit, one at Oxford, the ſecond at
3–3 There are within the realme of England two noble and famous Uniuersi-
ties, wherein are
CHAP. III.] UNIVERSITIES.
7:
Cambridge, and the third in London; of which, the
firſt two are the moſt famous, I meane Cambridge and
Oxford, for that in them the vſe of the tocngs, philo-
ſophie, and the liberall ſciences, beſides the profound
ſtudies of the ciuil law, phyſicke, and theologie, a e
dailie taught and had : whereas in the later, the laws of
the realme are onlie read and learned, by ſuch as giue
their minds vnto the knowledge of the ſame. In the
firſt there are *notronelie diuerſe goodlie houſes builded
foure ſquare for the moſt part of hard freeſtone [or
bric el, with great numbers of lodgings and chambers
in the ſame for ſtudents, after a ſumptuous ſort,' through
the exceeding liberalitie of kings, queenes, biſhops,
noblemen and ladies of the land: but alſo large liuings
and great reuenues beſtowed vpon them (the like
whereof is not to be ſeene in anie other region, as Peter
Martyr did oft affirme) to the maintenance onelie of
ſuch conuenient numbers of poore mens ſonnes as the
ſeuerall ſtipends beſtowed vpon the ſaid houſes are able
to ſupport.
[When theſe two ſchooles ſhould be firſt builded, &
who were their originall founders, as yet it is vncerteine:
neuertheleſſe, as there is great likelihood that Cam-
bridge was begun by one Cantaber a Spaniard (as I
haue noted in my chronologie) ſo Alfred is ſaid to be
the firſt beginner of the vniuerſitie at Oxford, albeit that
I cannot warrant the ſame to be ſo yong, fith I find by
good authoritie, that John of Beuerleie ſtudied in the
vniuerſitie hall at Oxford, which was long before Alfred
was either borne or gotten. Some are of the opinion
that Cantabrigia was not ſo called of Cantaber, but Cair
Grant, of the finiſher of the worke, or at the leaſtwiſe of
the riuer that runneth by the ſame, and afterward by
the Saxons ‘ Grantceſter.” An other ſort affirme that the
riuer is better written Canta than Granta, &c.; but whie
then is not the towne called Canta, Cantium, or Canto-
* maner
At 1. Oxford,
2. Cambridge,
3. London
In Oxford are
goodly stone
houses,
endowd with
great revenues,
for the support
of poor men's
SOIUS.
[Where the zyzzz-
zeerszzzes zveze
&acilded zºncer-
teine.]
Cambridge was
probably begun
by Cantaber,
a Spaniard,
and was not
calld after
Grant.
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Cantaber came
from Biscay
to England,
and founded
the University
of Cambridge.
[Oxford fiftie
77/7/es from Lort-
stands most
pleasantly,
ringd with
woods on hills,
and waterd
with rivers in
the vales.
[Cambridge six
and forête miles
from Londone.]
stands well,
but is too near
the fens,
which poison
the air.
But it’s well
suppli’d with
fish,
though wood
is very scarce,
and is brought
from Essex,
with charcoal.
Gall and sea-
coal are burnt
too.
dunum, according to the ſame : All this is ſaid onlie (as
I thinke) to deface the memorie of Cantaber, who
comming from the Brigants, or out of Biſcaie, called
the ſaid towne after his owne and the name of the
region from whence he came. Neither hath it beene a
rare thing for the Spaniards heretofore to come firſt into
Ireland, and from thenſe ouer into England, fith the
chronologie ſhall declare that it hath beene often ſeene,
and that out of Britaine, they haue gotten ouer alſo into
Scithia, and contrariwiſe: coaſting ſtill through Yorke-
ſhire, which of them alſo was called Brigantium, as by
good teſtimonie appeareth.] - f
Of theſe two, that of Oxford (which lieth weſt and
by north from London) ſtandeth moſt pleaſantlie," being
inuironed in maner round about with * woods on the
hilles aloft, and goodlie riuers in the *bottoms and vallies”
beneath, whoſe courſes would breed no ſmall commo-
ditie to that citie [and countrie about, if ſuch impedi-
ments were remooued as greatlie annoie the ſame, [and
hinder the cariage which might be made thither alſo
from London.] That of Cambridge is diſtant from
London about fortie and ſix miles north and by eaſt,
and ſtandeth verie well, ſauing that it is ſomewhat
neereº vnto the fens, whereby the wholeſomeneſſe of the
aire there is not a litle corrupted. It is excellentlie well
ſerued with all kinds of prouiſion, but eſpeciallie of
freſhwater fiſh and wildfoule, by reaſon of [the riuer
that paſſeth thereby; and thereto] the Ile of Elie, which
is ſo neere at hand. Onlie wood is "the cheefe want"
to ſuch as ſtudie there, wherefore this kind of prouiſion
is brought them either from Eſſex, and other places
thereabouts, as is alſo their cole; or otherwiſe the neceſ-
fitie thereof is ſupplied with gall [(a baſtard kind of
Mirtus as I take it)] and ſeacole, whereof they haue
great plentie led thither by the Grant. Moreouer it
* ple: saunt 3–8 medowes
5–5 one of the cheefe wants
1 pleasauntly of both
* scnew hut lov and neere
CHAP. III.] UNIVERSITIES.
73
hath not ſuch ſtore of medow ground as may ſuffice for
the ordinarie expenſes of the towne and vniuerſitie,
wherefore 1 the inhabitants” are inforced in like fort to
prouide their haie from other villages about, which
miniſter the ſame vnto them in verie great aboundance.
Oxford is ſuppoſed to conteine in longitude eighteene
degrees and eight and twentie minuts, and in latitude
one and fiftie degrees and fiftie minuts; whereas that of
Cambridge ſtanding more northerlie, hath twentie
degrees and twentie minuts in longitude, and therevnto
fiftie and two degrees and fifteene minuts in latitude, as
by exact ſupputation is eaſie to be found.
The colleges of Oxford, for curious workemanſhip
and priuat commodities, are much more ſtatelie, mag-
nificent, & commodious than thoſe of Cambridge :
and therevnto the ſtreets of the towne for the moſt part
more large and comelie. But for vniformitie of build-
ing, orderlie compačtion, and [politike] regiment, the
towne of Cambridge, [as the newer workmanſhip,)
exceedeth that of Oxford (which otherwiſe is, and hath
beene, the greater of the two) by manie a fold [(as I
geſſe)] although I know diuerſe that are of the Čontrarie
[This alſo is certeine, that whatſoeuer the dif-
ference be in building of the towne ſtreets, the townes-
opinion.
men of both are glad when they may match and annoie
the ſtudents, by incroching vpon their liberties, and
keepe them bare by extreame ſale of their wares, where-
by manie of them become rich for a time, but afterward
fall againe into pouertie, bicauſe that goods euill gotten
doo ſeldome long indure.]
Caſtels alſo they haue both, and in my iudgement
is hard to be ſaid, whether of them would be the
ſtronger, if ech” were accordinglie repared : howbeit
that of Cambridge is the higher, both for maner of
building and ſituation of ground, fith Oxford caſtell
*ſtandeth low and is not ſo apparant “to our “fight. [*That
1—l they 2 both 4–4 in
Cambridge
hasn’t enough
In ea CiOWS,
[Zongitude &
latztude of both.]
The Oxford
colleges and
streets are
better than the
Cambridge,
tho' for uni-
formity and
close-lyingness,
[Cambridge
&termed not long
since.]
Cambridge
exceeds the
bigger Oxford.
The Townsfolk
of both places
like to annoy
the Students,
and charge 'em
high prices.
But ill-gotten
goods don’t
last.
Cambridge
Castle is higher
than Oxford
Castle.
[3 p. 149]
[” Addition ends on p. 75.]
74
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
Cambridge
Castle built by
Gurguntius;
Oxford Castle
by Robert de
Oilie, whose
wife began the
Abbey of
Oseney.
Some Imagpies
annoyd her
with their
chattering.
Her chaplain
said they were
souls in Purga-
tory.
She entreated
her husband ;
and they both
began Oseney
Abbey, in
ll.20 A.D.
Oxford and
Cambridge
both have a St
Mary's Church,
where
[of Cambridge was builded (as they ſaie) by Gur-
guintus, ſometime king of Britaine, but the other by
the lord Robert de Oilie, a noble man which came in
with the conqueror, whoſe wife Editha, a woman giuen
to no leſſe ſuperſtition than credulitie, began alſo the
abbeie of Oſeneie neere vnto the ſame, vpon a fond
(but yet a rare) occaſion, which we will heere remem-
ber, though it be beſide my purpoſe, to the end that
the reader may ſee how readie the firmple people of
that time were to be abuſed by the pračtiſe of the
cleargie. It happened on a time as this ladie walked
about the fields, neere vnto the aforeſaid caſtell, to re-
create hir ſelfe with certeine of hir maidens, that a
number of pies ſat chattering vpon the elmes, which
had beene planted in the hedgerowes, and in fine ſo
troubled hir with their noiſe, that ſhe wiſhed them
all further off, or elſe hir ſelfe at home againe, and
this happened diuerſe times. In the end being wearie
of hir walke, ſhe demanded of hir chapleine the cauſe
wherfore theſe pies did ſo moleſt & vexe hir. “Oh ma-
dam ” (ſaith he) the willeſt pie of all; “theſe are no piès,
but ſoules in purgatorie that craue releefe.” “And is it
ſo in deed?” quoth ſhe. “Now Depardieux, if old Robert
will giue me leaue, I will doo what I can to bring
theſe ſoules to reſt.” Herevpon ſhe conſulted, craued,
wept, and became ſo importunate with hir huſband,
that he ioined with hir, and they both began that ſy-
nagog II2O, which afterward prooued to be a notable
den. In that church alſo lieth this ladie buried with
hir image, hauing an heart in hir hand couched vpon
the ſame, in the habit of a voweſſe, and yet to be ſeene,
except the weather haue worne out the memoriall.
But to proceed with my purpoſe.
In each of theſe vniuerſities alſo is likewiſe a
church dedicated to the virgin Marie, wherein once
in the yeare, to wit, in Julie, the ſcholers are holden,
and in which ſuch as haue beene called to anie degree
CHAP. III.] UNIVERSITIES,
[in the yeare precedent, doo there receiue the accom-
pliſhment of the ſame, in ſolemne and ſumptuous
maner. In Oxford this ſolemnitie is called an Aćt,
but in Cambridge they vſe the French word Com-
menſement; and ſuch reſort is made yearelie vnto
the ſame from all parts of the land, by the freends of
thoſe which doo proceed, that all the towne is hardlie
able to receiue and lodge thoſe geſts. When, and by
whome, the churches aforeſaid were builded, I haue
That of Oxford alſo was
repared in the time of Edward the fourth, and Henrie
elſewhere made relation.
the ſeuenth, when doćtor Fitz James, a great helper
in that worke, was warden of Merton college; but
yer long after it was finiſhed, one tempeſt in a night
ſo defaced the ſame, that it left few pinacles ſtanding
about the church and ſteeple, which fince that time
haue neuer beene repared. There were ſometime foure
and twentie pariſh churches in the towne and ſuburbes,
but now there are ſcarſelie ſixteene. There haue beene
alſo 1200 burgeſſes, of which 4oo dwelled in the
ſuburbes, and ſo manie ſtudents were there in the
time of Henrie the third, that he allowed them twentie
miles compaſſe about the towne, for their prouiſion of
vittels."]
The common ſchooles of Cambridge alſo are farre
more beautifull than thoſe of Oxford, onelie the diui-
nitie ſchoole at Oxford excepted, which for fine and
excellent workemanſhip, commeth next the moold
of the kings chappell in Cambridge, than the which Th
two with the chappell that king Henrie the ſeauenth
did build at Weſtminſter, there are not (in mine
opinion) made of lime & ſtone three more notable piles
within the compaſſe of Europe.
In all other things there is ſo great equalitie be-
tweene theſe two vniuerſities, as no man can imagin
how to ſet downe any greater; ſo that they ſeeme
to be the bodie of one well ordered common wealth,
scholars take
their degrees,
at an “Act” in
Oxford, at
* Commence-
ment 'in
Canubridge.
Many folk come
to witness it.
Oxford once
had 24 parish
churches.
Now it has
hardly 16.
[l Insertion
began on p. 73.]
The Cambridge
schools are
far finer than
those of Oxford,
except the
Divinity school.
8.D.
King's Chapel,
Cambridge,
and Henry
VII.'s at West-
minster, none
in the world
are finer.
76
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
|Both Oxford
and Cambridge
are dear to me,
their pupil.
English Uni-
versity life is
not like the
foreign,
without dis-
cipline.
Our Colleges
are under such
strict rule that
Erasmus
declar'd no
old monks
could be
stricter.
Students are
kept by the
Colleges,
or their rich
friends.
Some Colleges
have 200
scholars,
Some less.
onlie diuided by diſtance of place, and not in freendlie
conſent [and orders]. In ſpeaking therefore of the
one, I can not but deſcribe the other; and in commend-
ation of the firſt, I can not but extoll the latter; and
ſo much the rather, for that they are both ſo deere
wnto me, as that I can not readilie tell vnto whether of
them I owe the moſt good will. Would to God my
knowledge were ſuch, as that neither of them might
haue cauſe to be aſhamed of their pupill; or my power
ſo great, that I might woorthilie requite them both
for thoſe manifold kindneſſes that I haue receiued
of them. But to leaue theſe things, and proceed with
other more conuenient for my purpoſe. The manner
to litue in theſe vniuerſities, is not as in ſome other of
forren countries we ſee dailie to happen, where the
ſtudents are inforced for want of ſuch houſes, to dwell
in common innes, and tauerns, without all order or
diſcipline. But in theſe our colleges we liue in ſuch
exačt order, and vnder ſo preciſe rules of gouernement,
[as] that the famous learned man Eraſmus of Rotero-
dame being here among vs 50 yeres paſſed, did not let
to compare the trades in liuing of ſtudents in * theſe
two places, euen with the verie rules and orders of the
ancient moonks : affirming moreouer in flat words, our
orders to be ſuch as not onlie came neere vnto, but
rather far exceeded all the monaſtical inſtitutions that
euer were deuiſed.
In moſt of our colleges there are alſo great num-
bers of ſtudents, of which manie are found by the
reuenues of the houſes, and other by the purueiances
and helpe of their rich freends; whereby in ſome one
college you ſhall haue two hundred ſcholers, in others
an hundred and fiftie, in diuerſe a hundred and fortie,
and in * the reſt” lefſe numbers; as the capacitie of
ſo that at this
preſent, of one ſort and other, there are about three
1 of 2 of 3–3 diuers
the ſaid houſes is able to receiue:
CHAP. III.] UNIVERSITIES. [college ABUses.]
77
thouſand ſtudents nouriſhed in them both (as by a
late ſurueie it manifeſtlie appeared.) [They were
erected by their founders at the firſt, onelie for poore
mens ſons, whoſe parents were not able to bring them
vp vnto learning: but now they haue the leaſt benefit
of them, by reaſon the rich doo ſo incroch vpon them.
And ſo farre hath this inconuenience ſpread it ſelfe,
that it is in my time an hard matter for a poore mans
child to come by a felowſhip (though he be neuer ſo
good a ſcholer, & woorthie of that roome.) Such
packing alſo is vſed at ele&tions, that not he which
beſt deſerueth, but he that hath moſt friends, though
he be the woorſt ſcholer, is alwaies ſureſt to ſpeed;
which will turne in the end to the ouerthrow of learn-
ing. That ſome gentlemen alſo, whoſe friends haue
beene in times paſt benefactors to certeine of thoſe
houſes, doo intrude into the diſpoſition of their eſtates,
without all reſpect of order or eſtatutes deuiſed by the
founders, onelie thereby to place whome they thinke
good (and not without ſome hope of gaine), the caſe
is too too euident: and their attempt would ſoone take
place, if their ſuperiors did not prouide to bridle their
indeuors. In ſome grammar ſchooles likewiſe, which
ſend ſcholers to theſe viniuerſities, it is lamentable to
ſee what briberie is vſed; for yer the ſcholer can be
preferred, ſuch bribage is made, that poore mens chil-
dren are commonlie ſhut out, and the richer ſort
receiued (who in time paſt thought it diſhonor to litue
as it were vpon almes) and yet being placed, moſt of
them ſtudie little other than hiſtories, tables, dice,
and trifles, as men that make not the liuing by their
ſtudie the end of their purpoſes, which is a lamentable
hearing. Beſide this, being for the moſt part either
gentlemen, or rich mens ſonnes, they oft bring the
vniuerſities into much ſlander. For, ſtanding vpon their
reputation and libertie, they ruffle and roiſt it out,
exceeding in apparell, and ban"ting riotous companie
There are now
3000 students
in Oxford and
Cambridge.
But unluckily
poor men's sons
are being
scroug'd out by
the rich,
It's a hard job
now for a pool
man's son to
get a fellowship.
The elections
are packt.
Learning 'll
be upset by
this.
In Grammar
Schools too,
Bribery pre-
Vails,
so that poor
Imen's children
don’t get sent
to the Uni-
Versities.
Rich ones get
the scholar-
ships, and
then read
stories,
gamble, and
disgrace the
universities.
[, p. 150]
78
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book 11.
Rich men's
Sons riot ;
and excuse it
by saying
they're ‘gentle-
men’l
Readers 27t
fºriuat houses.
College tutors
teach their
students.
Publike readers
mzaizzteined by
the £7-ince.
Studie of the
guadriuials and
£erspectiues 7teg-
&ected.
Each university
pays its Pro-
fessors.
The Professors
have sole
control over."
the Exercises
for Degrees, &c.
(which draweth them from their bookes vnto an other
trade.) And for excuſe, when they are charged with
breach of all good order, thinke it ſufficient to ſaie, that
they be gentlemen, which greeueth manie not a litle.
But to proceed with the reſt.]
Euerie one of theſe colleges haue in like maner
their profeſſors or readers of the toongs and ſeuerall
ſciences, as they call them, which dailie trade vp the
youth there abiding priuatlie in their halles, to the end
they may be able afterward (when their turne commeth
about, [which is after twelue termes]) to ſhew them-
felues abroad, by going from thence into the common
ſchooles and publike diſputations (as it were 1. In
aream") there to trie their ſkilles, and declare how
they haue profited ſince their comming thither.
Moreouer, in the publike ſchooles of both the vni-
uerſities, there are found at the princes charge (and
that verie largelie) fiue profeſſors and readers, that is
to ſaie, of diuinitie, of the ciuill law, phyſicke, the
Hebrue, and the Greeke toongs. And for the other
le&tures,” as of philoſophie, logike, rhetorike, and the
quadriuials, although the latter (I meane arethmetike,
muſike, geometrie, and aſtronomie, and with them all
ſkill in the perſpectiues,” are now ſmallie regarded in
either of them) the vniuerſities themſelues doo allow
competent ſtipends to ſuch as reade the ſame, whereby
they are ſufficientlie prouided for, touching the main-
tenance of their eſtates, and no leſſe incoraged to be
diligent in their functions.
Theſe profeſſors in like ſort haue all the rule of
diſputations and other ſchoole exerciſes, which are
dailie vſed in common ſchooles ſeuerallie aſſigned to
ech of them, and ſuch of their hearers, as by their ſkill
ſhewed in the ſaid diſputations, are thought to haue
atteined [to] anie conuenient ripeneſſe of knowleledge,
according to the cuſtome of other vniuerſities, although
1–1 into the playne battaile 2 publicke lectures ° perfectiues
CHAP. III.] UNIVERSITIES,
not in like order, are permitted ſolemnlie to take their
deſerued degrees of ſchoole in the ſame ſcience and
facultie wherein they haue ſpent their trauell. From
that time forward alſo, they vſe ſuch difference in
apparell as becommeth their callings, tendeth vnto
grauitie, and maketh them knowne to be called to
ſome countenance.
The firſt degree,” is that of the generall ſophiſters,
from whence, when they haue learned more ſufficientlie
the rules of logike, rhetorike, and obteined thereto
competent ſkill in philoſophie, and in the mathe-
maticals, they aſcend higher vnto the eſtate of
batchelers of art, [after foure yeares of their entrance
into their ſophiſtrie..] From thence alſo giuing their
minds to more perfect knowledge in ſome or all the
other liberall ſciences, & the toongs, they riſe at the
laſt [(to wit, after other three or foure yeeres)] to be
called maſters of art, ech of them being at that time
reputed for a doćtor in his facultie, if he profeſſe but
one of the ſaid ſciences (beſide philoſophie) or for his
generall 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
diuinitie, law, or phyſike; ſo that being once maſters
of art, the next degree, if they follow phyſike, is the
doćtorſhip belonging to that profeſſion; and likewiſe
in the ſtudie of the law, if they bend their minds to
the knowledge of the ſame. But if they meane to go
forward with diuinitie, this is the order vſed in that
profeſſion. Firſt, after they haue neceſſarilie proceeded
maſters of art, they preach one ſermon to the people
in Engliſh, and another to the vniuerſitie in Latine.
They anſwer all commers alſo in their owne perſons
wnto two feuerall queſtions of diuinitie in the open
ſchooles, at one time, for the ſpace of two hours; and
afterward replie twiſe againſt ſome other man vpon a
1 degree of all
Graduates wear
a distinctive
dress.
University
Degrees.
Sophisters,
Batchelers of
art.
Masters of azt,
M.-Aes then
take to
Divinity,
Law, or
Physic.
The course for
Divinity.
8o
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II,
Ratcheler ºf
detainitie.
Doctor,
3 years after
B.D.
John of
Beverley the
first Oxford
D.D. ; Bede
the first Cam-
bridge one.
From entry as
a student, to
D.D., takes 18
or 20 years.
After 40, stu-
dents turn into
Drone Bees,
live on the
fat of the
Colleges,
and keep better
wits from their
places.
like number, and on two ſeuerall dates in the ſame
place: which being doone with commendation, he
receiueth the fourth degree, that is, batchleler of
diuinitie, but not before he hath beene maſter of
art by the ſpace of ſeauen yeeres, according to their
ſtatutes.
The next and laſt degree of all, is the doćtorſhip,
after other three yeares, for the which he muſt once
againe performe all ſuch exerciſes and acts as are
afore remembred; and then is he reputed able to
gouerne and teach others, & likewiſe taken for a doćtor.
[I haue read that John of Beuerleie was the firſt
doćtor that euer was in Oxford, as Beda was in Cam-
bridge. But I ſuppoſe herein that the word ‘doćtor'
is not ſo ſtrićtlie to be taken in this report as it is now
vſed, fith euerie teacher is in Latine called by that
name, as alſo ſuch in the primitiue church as kept
ſchooles of catechiſts, wherein they were trained vp
in the rudiments and principles of religion, either
before they were admitted vnto baptiſme, or anie office
in the church.]
Thus we ſee, that from our entrance into the vni-
uerſitie vnto the laſt degree receiued, is commonlie
eighteene or [peraduenture] twentie yeeres, in which
time if a ſtudent hath not obteined ſufficient learning,
thereby to ſerue his owne turne, and benefit his com-
mon wealth, let him neuer looke, by tarieng longer, to
come by anie more. [For after this time & 40 yeeres
of age, the moſt part of ſtudents doo commonlie giue
ouer their woonted diligence, & liue like drone bees
on the fat of colleges, withholding better wits from
the poſſeſſion of their places, & yet dooing litle good
in their own vocation & calling. I could rehearſe a
number (if I liſted) of this ſort, aſwell in the one vni-
But this ſhall ſuffice in ſted of a
larger report, that long continuance in thoſe places is
uerſitie as the other.
either a ſigne of lacke of friends, or of learning, or of
cHAP. III.] UNIVERSITIES.
good and vpright life, as biſhop Fox ſometime noted,
who thought it ſacrilege for a man to tarrie anie longer
at Oxford than he had a deſire to profit.]
A man may (if he will) begin his ſtudie with the
law, or phyſike [(of which this giueth wealth, the other
honor)] ſo ſoone as he commeth to the vniuerſitie, if
his knowledge in the toongs and ripeneſſe of iudge-
ment ſerue therefore : which if he doo, then his firſt
degree is bacheler of law, or phyſicke, and for the ſame
he muſt performe ſuch ačts in his owne ſcience, as the
bachelers or doćtors of diuinitie, doo for their parts, the
onelie ſermons except, which belong” not to his call-
* Finallie, this will I ſaie, that the profeſſors of
either of thoſe faculties come to ſuch perfeótion in
both vniuerſities, as the beſt ſtudents beyond the ſea
doo in their owne or elſe where.
ing.
One thing onlie I
miſlike in them, and that is their vſuall going into
Italie, from whenſe verie few without ſpeciall grace
doo returne good men, whatſoeuer they pretend of
conference or pračtiſe, chiefelie the phyſicians, who,
vnder pretenſe of ſeeking of forreine fimples, doo often-
times learne the framing of ſuch compoſitions as were
better Vnknowen than pračtiſed, as I haue heard oft
alledged, and therefore it is moſt true that doćtor
Turner ſaid; Italie is not to be ſeene without a guide,
that is, without ſpeciall grace giuen from God, bicauſe
of the licentious and corrupt behauiour of the people.2
There is moreouer in euerie houſe a maiſter [or
proudft,] who hath vnder him a preſident, & certeine
cenſors or deanes, appointed to looke to the behaiour
and maners of the ſtudents there, whom they puniſh stud
verie ſeuerelie if they make anie default, according
[And
theſe are the vſuall names of gouernours in Cam-
1 belongeth
to the quantitie and qualitie of their treſpaſſes.
[This For
builded Cozºzas
Christi college
in Oxford.]
A competent
Student, ma
begin with law
or physic,
and take an
L.L.B. or M.B.
at once.
Our Professors
are as good
as the best
Continental
ones, but they
should not go
to Italy like
they do, ſp. 162,
col. 2,
Ascham]
and get
corrupted.
[So much also
may be inferred
of lazviers.]
Dr Turner
In every College,
a Master,
a President,’
and Censors
or Deans,
look after the
ents. .
*—” but as these are not matters of such importance as may deserue any further
tractation, I so will leaue them & go in hande with the rest.
HARRISON. 6
82
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II,
[l p. 151]
Every College
has one or
more Bursars
to look to its
business.
Each University
has a Chancellor,
Vice-Chancellor,
Proctors, &c
I, William
Harrison,
have a degree
from both
Oxford and
Cambridge.
I think that
the University
authorities
ought to have
the sole power
of appointing to
Church livings.
This ’d stop
Simony, and do
folk good.
London.
A University
for law-
students.
bridge. Howbeit in Oxford the heads of houſes are
* now and then called prefidents in reſpect of ſuch
biſhops as are their viſitors & founders. In ech of theſe
alſo they haue one or moe threſurers whom they call
Burſarios or Burſers beſide other officers, whoſe charge
is to ſee vnto the welfare and maintenance of theſe
houſes.] Ouer each vniuerſitie alſo there is a ſeuerall
chancelor, whoſe offices are perpetuall, howbeit their
ſubſtitutes, whom we call vicechancelors, are changed
euerie yeare, as are alſo the proëtors, taſkers, maiſters of
the ſtreates and other officers, for the better mainte-
nance of their policie and eſtate.
And thus much at this time of * our [two vniuer-
fities [in each of which I haue receiued ſuch degree
as they haue vouchſafed—rather of their fauour than
my deſert—to yeeld and beſtow vpon me, and vnto
whoſe ſtudents ‘I wiſh one thing, the execution whereof
cannot be preiudiciall to anie that meaneth well, as I
am reſolutelie perſuaded, and the caſe now ſtandeth in
theſe our daies. When anie benefice therefore becom-
meth void, it were good that the patrone did ſignifie
the vacation therof to the biſhop, and the biſhop the
aćt of the patrone to one of the vniuerſities, with re-
queſt that the vicechancellor with his aſſiſtents might
prouide ſome ſuch able man to ſucceed in the place, as
ſhould by their iudgement be meet to take the charge
vpon him. Certes if this order were taken, then ſhould
the church be prouided of good paſtors, by whome God
fhould be glorified, the vniuerfities better ſtored, the
fimoniacall pračtiſes of a number of patrons vtterlie
aboliſhed, and the people better trained to liue in obe-
dience toward God and their prince, which were an
happie eſtate.]
To theſe two alſo we may in like ſort ad the third,
which is at London (ſeruing onelie for ſuch as ſtudie
the lawes of the realme) where there are fundrie
2 of both
chap. III.] UNIVERSITIES,
83
famous houſes, of which three are called by the name
of Ins of the court, the reſt of the chancerie, and all
builded before time for the furtherance and commoditie
of ſuch as applie their minds 1 to our" common lawes.
Out of theſe alſo come [manie] ſcholers of great fame,
whereof the moſt part haue heretofore beene brought
vp in one of the aforeſaid vniuerfities, and prooue ſuch
commonlie as in proceſſe of time, riſe vp (onelie
through their profound ſkill) to great honor in the
common-wealth of England. They haue alſo degrees
of learning among themſelues, and rules of diſcipline,
vnder which they liue moſt ciuilie in their houſes,
albeit that the yoonger ſort of them abroad in the
ſtreats are ſcarſe able to be bridled by anie good order
at all. Certes this errour was woont alſo greatlie to
reigne in Cambridge and Oxford, [betweene” the ſtu-
dents and the burgeſſes :] but as it is well left in theſe
two places, ſo in forreine counteies it cannot yet be
ſuppreſſed. Beſides theſe vniuerſities, alſo there are
great number of Grammer ſchooles through out the
realme, and thoſe verie liberallie indued, for the better
reliefe of poore ſcholers, ſo that there are not manie
corporat townes now vnder the queenes dominion,” that
hain * not one Gramar ſchoole at the leaſt, with a
ſufficient liuing for a maiſter and vſher appointed to the
fame.
There are in like maner diuerſe collegiat churches
as Windſor, Winceſter, Eaton, Weſtminſter [(in which
I was ſometime an vnprofitable Grammarian vnder the
reuerend father maſter Nowell, now deane of Paules)]
and in" thoſe a great number of poore ſcholers, dailie
mainteened by the liberalitie of the founders, with meat,
bookes, and apparell, from whence after they haue beene
well entered in the knowledge of the Latine and
Greeke toongs, and rules of verſifieng [(the triall whereof
*—" unto the * orig. domiuion
5 the latter three of
* orig. detweene
4 hath
London Uni-
versity has 3
Inns of Court,
and others of
Chancery,
where the
students are
under dis-
cipline, tho’
in the streets
they can’t be
kept in order.
[Grazºtzſta”
schooles.]
in almost all
corporate towns.
Wºzza'sor.
Wºzzchester.
Aatont.
Westmezzaster.
(I was at
Westminster.
Poor scholars
are kept and
educated there.
84 THE DES CRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book 11.
Yearly examina- is made by certeine - * , , º ę
tions are held, y ne appoſers yearelie appointed to ex
and the scholars amine them)] they are ſent to certeine eſpeciall houſes in
tº the h vniuerſitie, wh e 1 + -a;
© • -
tº each vnuerſtie, where they are receiued the trained vp,
in the points of higher knowledge in their priuat hals,
till they be adiudged meet to ſhew their faces in the
ſchooles, as I haue ſaid alreadie. And thus much haue
I thought good to note of our vniuerſities, and like-
I'll now give wiſe of colleges in the ſame, whoſe names I will alſo
a table of the
Colleges in ſet downe here, with thoſe” of their founders, to the
Cambridge and
Öxford, with end the zeale which they bare vnto learning may
their Founders. * º
appeare, and their remembrance neuer periſh from
among the wiſe and learned.
1 and 2 also
[No blank in the original.]
5.;
&
Of the
Yeares of the
foundations. Colleges.
1546 || 1 Trinitie college.
1441 || 2 The kings college.
151 I 3 S. Iohns.
1505 || 4 Chriſtes college,
1446 The queenes college.
1496 || 6 Ieſus college.
1342 || 7 Bennet college.
1343 || 8 Pembroke hall.
1256 9 Peter college.
1348 Io Gundeuill and
I557 Caius college.
1354 II Trinitie hall.
1326 12 Clare hall.
1459 13 Catharine hall.
1519 || 14 Magdalen college.
[1585
15 Emanuell college.
colleges in Cambridge [with
their founders.]
Founders.
i ſ King Henrie 8.
K. Henrie 6. Edward 4. Henrie 7. and Henrie 8.
L. Margaret, grandmother to Henrie 8.
K. Henrie 6. and the ladie Margaret aforeſaid.
Ladie Margaret, wife to king Henrie 6.
Iohn Alcocke, biſhop of Elie. (Christi.
[by] { Maria de Valentia, counteſſe of Pembroke.
Hugh Balſham, biſhop of Elie. s
Edmund Gundeuill, parſon of Terrington, and Iohn
Caius doćtor] of phyſicke.
William Bateman, biſhop of Norwich.
Richard Badow, chancellor of Cambridge.
Robert Woodlarke, doćtor] of diuinitie,
Edw. duke of Buckingham, & Thom. lord Awdlie.
2 [Sir Water Mildmaie, &c.]
* orig. Hentie
The brethren of a popiſh guild called Corporis
Yeares.
I 539
I459
1375
1276
I437
1516
I43O
I 323
I 340
1263
I 557
I556
I316
I5 I3
873
Colleges.
I Chriſtes church.
2 Magdalen college.
3 New college.
4 Merton college.
5 All ſoules college.
6 Corpus Chriſti college.
7 Lincolne college.
8 Auriell college. *
9 The queenes college.
Io Balioll college.
II S. Iohns.
12 Trinitie college.
13 Exceſter college.
14 Braſen noſe.
15 Vniuerſitie college.
16 Gloceſter college.
17 S. Marie college.
18 Ieſus college now in hand.
| |
J l
} [by] º
"Of colleges in Oxford. [* p. 152]
Founders.
King 'Henrie 8.
William Wainflet,” [firſt fellow of Merton college [He ſounded
then ſcholer at] Wincheſter, [and afterward biſhop #:#.
there.] * g #free schole
William Wickham, biſhop] of Wincheſter. jº.
Walter Merton, biſhop] of Rocheſter. borne.]
Henrie Chicheleie, archbiſhop of Canturburie.
Richard Fox, biſhop of Wincheſter.
Richard Fleming, biſhop] of Lincolne.
Adam Browne, almoner to Edward 2.
R. Eglesfeld, chapleine to Philip queene of England,
wife to Edward 3.
Iohn Balioll, king of Scotland.
Sir Thomas White, knight.
Sir Thomus Pope, knight.
Walter Stapleton, biſhop of Exceſter.
William Smith, biſhop of Lincolne.
William, archdeacon of Durefine.
[Iohn Gifford, who made it a cell for thirteene
moonks.]
[Hugh ap Rice, doćtor of the ciuill law.]
2 B. of *
g
Fi-
cHAP. III.] UNIVERSITIES.
8;
There are alſo in Oxford certeine hoſtels or hals,
which may right well be called by the names of colleges,
if it were not that there is more libertie in them than
is to be ſeen in the other. In mine opinion the liuers”
in theſe are verie like to thoſe that are of Ins" in the
chancerie, [their names alſo are theſe ſo farre as I now
remember.]
Brodegates. S. Marie hall.
Hart hall. White hall. sº
Magdalen hall. New In.
Alburne hall. Edmond hall.
Poſtminſter hall.
[The ſtudents alſo that remaine in them, are called
hoſtelers or halliers. Hereof it came of late to paſſe,
that the right reuerend father in God, Thomas late arch-
biſhop of Canturburie, being brought vp in ſuch an
houſe at Cambridge, was of the ignorant ſort of Lon-
doners called an ‘hoſteler,’ ſuppoſing that he had ſerued
with ſome inholder in the ſtable, and therfore, in
deſpite, diuerſe hanged vp bottles of haie at his gate,
when he began to preach the goſpell, wheras in deed
he was a gentleman borne of an ancient houſe, & in the
end a faithfull witneſſe of Jeſus Chriſt, in whoſe quarrell
he refuſed not to ſhed his bloud, and yeeld vp his life,
wnto the furie of his aduerſaries.]
Beſides these,” there is mention and record of
diuerſe other hals or hoſtels, that haue beene there in
times paſt, as Beefe hall, Mutton hall, &c.; whoſe
ruines yet appeere: ſo that if antiquitie be to be iudged
by the ſhew of ancient buildings, which is verie plenti-
full in Oxford to be ſeene, it ſhould be an eaſie matter
to conclude that Oxford is the elder vniuerſitie. Therin
are alſo manie dwelling houſes of ſtone yet ſtanding,
that haue beene hals for ſtudents, of verie antike worke-
manſhip, beſide the old wals of fundrie other, whoſe
Hostels or Halls
in Oxford,
which have
more liberty
than Colleges,
and whose
students are
calld Hostlers
or Halliers.
Hence some
ignorant Lon-
doners calld
Archbishop
Cranmer,
an Hostler,
and hung
trusses of hay
at his gate
when he began
to preach.
* those 2 Studentes * the Innes of 4 which
Old Halls
at Oxford
Beef Hall,
Mutton Hall,
&c.
Erection of
colleges in
Oxford the
ozzerthrow of
Aals
88
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II
Law-students’
Inns in London.
There are
Greedy Gripers
gaping wide for
College Lands,
haters of
learning, and
spendthrifts.
Henry VIII.
told such folk,
‘The Abbey-
lands have
flesht you;
you want the
College-lands;
Now abbeies be
gozze, ozº” .
ding thrifts
Arie after
church and
college fosses-
sions.
but I’ll not
take a penny
from any one
College.”
plots haue beene conuerted into gardens, fince colleges
were erected.
In London alſo the houſes of ſtudents at
the Common law are theſe.
Sergeants In. Furniuals In.
Graies In. Cliffords In.
The Temple. Clements In.
Lincolnes In. Lions In.
Dauids In. Barnards In.
Staple In. New In.
[And thus much in generall of our noble vniuer-
fities, whoſe lands ſome greedie gripers doo gape wide
for, and of late haue (as I heare) propounded ſundrie
reaſons, whereby they ſuppoſed to haue preuailed in
But who are thoſe that haue attempted
this ſute, other than ſuch as either hate learning, pietie,
their purpoſes.
and wiſedome; or elſe haue ſpent all their owne, and
know not otherwiſe than by incroching vpon other
When ſuch a
motion was made by ſome vnto king Henrie the eight,
men how to mainteine thenſelues 2
he could anſwer them in this maner; “Ah firha, I per-
ceiue the abbeie lands haue fleſhed you and ſet your
teeth on edge, to aſke alſo thoſe colleges. And whereas
we had a regard onelie to pull downe finne by defacing
the monaſteries, you haue a deſire alſo to ouerthrow
all goodneſſe by ſubuerfion of colleges. I tell you, firs,
that I iudge no land in England better beſtowed than
that which is giuen to our vniuerſities; for by their
maintenance our realme ſhall be well gouerned when
we be dead and rotten. As you loue your welfares
therfore, follow no more this veine, but content your
ſelues with that you haue alreadie, or elſe ſeeke honeſt
In ealheS whereby to increaſe your liuelods, for I loue not
learning ſo ill, that I will impaire the reuenues of anie
one houſe by a penie, whereby it may be vpholden.”
In king Edwards daies likewiſe the ſame fute was once
cHAP. III.] IJNIVER3 ITIES,
89
againe attempted (as I haue heard), but in vaine; for,
ſaith the duke of Summerſet among other ſpeeches
tending to that end,-who alſo made anſwer there vnto
in the kings preſence by his aſſignation;–“If lerning
decaie, which of wild men maketh ciuill, of blockiſh and
raſh perſons wiſe and godlie counſellors, of obſtinat
rebels obedient ſubjećts, and of euill men good and god-
lie chriſtians; what ſhall we looke for elſe but bar-
bariſme and tumult? For when the lands of colleges
be gone, it ſhall be hard to ſaie, whoſe ſtaffe ſhall ſtand
next the doore; for then I doubt not but the ſtate of
biſhops, rich farmers, merchants, and the nobilitie, ſhall
be aſſailed, by ſuch as liue to ſpend all, and thinke that
what ſo euer another man hath is more meet for them,
and to be at their commandement, than for the proper
owner that hath ſweat and laboured for it.” In queene
Maries daies the weather was too warme for anie
ſuch courſe to be taken in hand; but in the time of our
*gratious queene Elizabeth, I heare that it was after
a ſort in talke the third time, but without ſucceſſe
as mooued alſo out of ſeaſon; and ſo I hope it ſhall
For what comfort ſhould it be for
anie good man to ſee his countrie brought into the
eſtate of the old Gothes & Vandals, who made lawes
againſt learning, and would not ſuffer anie ſkilfull
continue for euer.
man to come into their councell houſe; by meanes
whereof thoſe people became ſauage, tyrants, and
mercileſſe helhounds, till they reſtored learning againe,
and thereby fell to ciuilitie.]
Later, the Duke
of Somerset
refus’d to seize
the College
nds.
If they went,
then all private
property 'd
go too.
the weather
was too warm
for the Gripers.
[l p. 153]
I hope it always
will be so.
Who wants
Englishmen
turnd into
Hellhounds?
90
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Names of
former tribes
settlá in
England.
I don’t mean
to guess at
their localities,
or speak of the
Roman divisions
of our country.
* Of the partition of England into
Jhires and counties."
Chap. 4.”
3 N reding of ancient writers, as Caſar, Tacitus,
and others, we find mention of fundrie regions
to haue beene ſometime in this Iland, as “the
Nouantae, Selgouac, Dannonij, Gadeni, Oradeni, Epdij,
Cerones, Carnonacaº, Careni, Cornabij, Caledonij, De-
cantae, Logi, Mertae, Wacomagi, Venicontes, Terali or
polij, Denani, Elgoui, Brigantes pariſ, Ordouici alias
Ordoluci, Cornauj, Coritaui, Catieuchlani, Simeni,
Trinouantes, Demetoe, Cangi, Silures, Dobuni, Atter-
batij, Cantij, Regni, Belgae, Durotriges, Dumnonij,
Giruj, Murotriges, Seueriani, Iceni, Tegenes, Caſij,
Canimagni, Segontiaci, Ancalites, Bibroci, &c.:* and
Kentiſhmen, and ſuch like. But ſith the ſeuerall
places where moſt of them laie, are not [yet verie]
perfeótlie knowne vnto the learned of theſe daies, I
doo not meane to pronounce my iudgement * vpon
ſuch doubtfull caſes, leaſt that in ſo dooing I ſhould
but increaſe coniećtures, and, leading peraduenture the
reader from the more probable, intangle "his mind" in
the end with ſuch as are of leſſe value, and [things]
nothing ſo likelie to be true, as thoſe which other men
haue [remembred and ſet downe before me. [Neither
will I ſpeake oughts of the Romane partitions, & limits
of their legions, whoſe number and place of abode,
except of the Vićtorian and Auguſtane, is to me vtterlie
vnknowne.]
1—l Of the deuision of Englande, as it is now generally named, into Shyres.
* This chapter in the 1577 ed. precedes that on the Church and Bishops, and
follows that on Rivers falling into the sea between the Humber and the Thames.—F.
* (Side heading) Trinobantes, Ordolukes, Tegenes, Silures, Brigantes, Canks,
Canges.
*—” As of the Trinobantes, Ordolukes, Tegenes, Silures, Icenes, Brigantes
Canges.
* judgement also 6–6 him
CHAP. Iv.] PARTITION OF ENGLAND INTO SHIRE8.
9:
It ſhall ſuffice therfore to begin with ſuch a ground
as from whence ſome better certeintie of things may
be deriued, and that is, with the eſtate of our Iland in
the time of Alfred, who firſt diuided England into
ſhires, which before his daies,” and ſince the comming
of the Saxons, was limited out by families and hide-
lands; as * the Britons did the ſame in their time,” by
hundreds of townes, which then were called cantreds ;
as old * records doo” witneſſe.
Into how manie ſhires the ſaid Alfred did firſt
make this partition of the Iland, it is not yet found
out; howbeit, if my coniećture be anie thing at all, I
ſuppoſe that he left not vinder eight and thirtie, fith
we find by no good author, that aboue fifteene haue
beene added by anie of his ſucceſſours, ſince the time
of his deceaſe. This prince therefore hauing made
the generall partition of his kingdome into ſhires,
or ſhares, he diuided againe the ſame into lathes, as
lathes into hundreds, and hundreds into tithings, or
denaries, as diuers haue written; and maiſter 4 Lam-
bert, following their authorities, hath alſo giuen out,
ſaieng almoſt after this maner in his deſcription of
Kent; “The Danes (ſaith he) both before, & in the time
“ of king Alfred, had flocked by the ſea coaſts of this
“Iland in great numbers, ſometimes waſting and
“ſpoiling with ſword and fire, whereſoeuer they might
“arriue, and ſomtime taking great booties with them
“to their ſhips, without dooing anie further hurt or
“ damage to the countrie. This inconuenience con-
“tinuing for manie yeeres togither, cauſed our huſ-
“bandmen to abandon their tillage, and gaue occaſion
“ and hardineſſe" to euill diſpoſed perſons, to fall to the
“like pillage, as pračtifing to follow the Danes in theſe
“ their thefts and robberies. And the better to cloake
“ their miſcheefe withall, they feigned themſelues to
Alfred brought
Angland into
shires, which
the Britozzis
aftecided by
cautred's, and
the [ſºzst] Sax-
ons by families.
2–3 Wales hath also been 3–3 recorde doth
* tyme
4 M. 5 hardness
Alfred made
not less than
38 shires.
Shºre aztd share
all onte.
I. Shires;
2. Lathes :
3. Hundreds ;
4. Tithings.
Lambarde's
account of
the Danish
* Perambulation
of Kent.”
Bnglishmeeze
zzozsozºte to
#heir ownte
cozzzzzzze.
92
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
“be Daniſh pirats, and would ſometime come a land
“in one port, and ſometime in another, driuing dailie
“great ſpoiles (as the Danes had doone) vnto their
“ſhips before them. The good king Alfred therefore
“ (who had maruellouſlie trauelled in repelling" the
“barbarous Danes), eſpieng this outrage, and think-
“ing it no leſſe the part of a politike prince, to root out .
“the noiſome ſubječt, than to hold out the forren ad-
“uerſarie: by the aduiſe of his nobilitie, and the
“example of Moſes” (who followed the counſell of
“Iethro his father in law to the like effect), diuided
“ the whole realme into certeine parts or ſe&tions,
“which (of the Saxon word Schyran, ſignifieng to cut)
“he termed ſhires, or as we yet ſpeake, ſhares, or por-
“tions, 3 of which ſome one hath fortie miles in length
“ (as Eſſex) and almoſt ſo manie broad, Hereford
“foure & twentie in length, and twentie in breadth,
“ and Warwike fix and thirtie in length, &c.; and ſome
“ of them alſo conteine ten, twelue, thirteene, ſixteene, .
“ twentie, or thirtie hundreds, more or leſſe, as ſome
“hundreds doo ſixteene, twentie, thirtie, fortie, fiftie
“ or ſixtie townes, out of which the king was alwaies
“ to receiue an hundred able men to ſerue him in the
“warres, or a hundred men able to be pledges; and
“ouer each of the portions he appointed either * an earle
“ or alderman, or both, to whome he committed the
“gouernement of the ſame. Theſe ſhires alſo he brake
“into leſſer parts, whereof ſome were called ‘lathes’, of
“the word Gelathian, which is to aſſemble togither;
“other, ‘hundreds', for that they enioied 4 iuriſdićtion
“ouer an hundred pledges; and other ‘tithings’, bicauſe
“ there were in each of them to the number of ten 5
“ perſons, whereof euerie one from time to time was
“ſuertie for others good abearing. He prouided alſo
“ that euerie man ſhould procure himſelfe to be re-
Lambarde's
account of
red's
purpose in
dividing Eng-
land into
Shires,
having over
each, one or
both of
Earle and
aldermant.
The Shires
were split into
1. Lathes;
2. Hundreds;
3. Tithings.
* repulsing
2 Exod. 18, 13.−F.
*—” and appointed ouer euery such one shire
4 coined
* 6. Coke, 77. Bullen's case.—F.
cHAP. Iv.] PARTITION OF ENGLAND INTO SHIRES.
93
“ceiued into ſome tithing, to the end, that if anie
“were found of ſo ſmal, and baſe a credit, that no
“man would become pledge or ſuertie for him, he
“ſhould foorthwith be committed to priſon, leaſt other-
“wiſe he might happen to doo more harme abroad.”
Hitherto maſter 1 Lambert. By whoſe words we may
gather verie much of the ſtate of this Iland in the
time of Alfred, whoſe inſtitution continued after a
ſort vntill the comming of the Normans, who changed
the gouernement of the realme in ſuch wiſe (by bring-
ing in of new officers and offices, after the maner of
their countries), that verie little of the old regiment
remained more than the bare” names of ſome officers
(except peraduenture in Kent), ſo that in theſe daies it
is hard to ſet downe anie great certeintie of things as
they ſtood in Alfreds time, more than is remembred
and touched at this preſent.
Some, as it were roming or rouing at the name
Lath, [doo ſaie that it is deriued of a barne, which is
called in old Engliſh a ‘lath', as they coniećture. From
which ſpeech, in like ſort, ſome deriue the word Laiſtow,
as if it ſhould be trulie written Lathſtow, a place
wherein to laie vp or laie on things, of whatſoeuer con-
dition. But hereof as yet I cannot abſolutelie be
ſatiſfied, although peraduenture ſome likelihood in
their iudgements may ſeeme to be therein. Other,
vpon ſome further confideration,] affirme that they
were certeine circuits in euerie countie or ſhire con-
teining an appointed number of townes, whoſe inhabit-
ants alwaies aſſembled to know and vinderſtand of
matters touching their portions, in to ſome * one ap-
pointed place or other within their limits, eſpeciallie
whileſt the cauſes were ſuch as required not the aid
or aſſiſtance of the whole countie. Of theſe lathes
alſo (as they ſaie) ſome ſhires had more, ſome leſſe, as
they were of greatneſſe. And M. Lambert ſeemeth to
I M. 2 bares
If a män
couldn't get
a Surety,
he was put
in prison.
The Normans
chang'd Alfred's
plans.
What a lath is.
I’m not sure.
[8 p. 154]
JCeetes,
94.
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book 11.
Our present
Leets are a
shadow of
Alfred's Laths,
Fºundred dº
wafterltake.
the same,
Denarie of
tº thing,
Tithing mam
in Latine
JDecitrio.
Borsholder.
Azazºrozy.
Alfred made
every free man
'belong to a
tithing of
some hundred.
be of the opinion, that the leets of our time (wherein
theſe pledges be yet called Franci plegij, of the word
Free burgh), doo yeeld ſome ſhadow of that politike
inſtitution of Alfred. But fith my ſkill is ſo ſmall in
theſe caſes that I dare not iudge anie thing at all as
of mine owne knowledge, I will not ſet downe anie
thing more than I read, [leaſt I ſhould roue at randon
in our obſcure antiquities;] and reading no more of
lathes, my next talke ſhall be of hundreds.
The hundred and the wapentake is all one, [as I
read in ſome, and by this diuifion not a name apperti-
nent to a ſet number of townes (for then all hundreds".
ſhould be of equall quantitie) but a limited iuriſdićtion,
within the compaſſe whereof were an hundred perſons
called pledges [(as I ſaid)] or ten denaries, or tithings
of men, of which ech one was bound for others good
abering, and laudable behauiour in the common-wealth
of the realme. The chiefe man likewiſe of euerie
denarie or tithing was in thoſe daies called a tithing
man, in Latine Decurio, but now in moſt places a
borſholder [or burgholder], as in Kent; where euerie
tithing is moreouer named a [burgh or] burrow, al-
though that in the Weſt countrie he be ſtill called a
tithing man, and his circuit a tithing, as [I] haue heard
at large. I read furthermore (and it is partlie afore
noted) that the ſaid Alfred cauſed ech man of free
condition (for the better maintenance of his peace) to
be aſcribed into ſome hundred by placing himſelfe in
one denarie or other, where he might alwais haue ſuch
as ſhould ſweare or ſaie vpon their certeine knowledge
for his honeſt behauior and ciuill conuerſation if it
ſhould happen at anie time, that his credit ſhould come
in queſtion. In like ſort I gather out of Leland and
other, that if anie ſmall matter did fall out worthie
to be diſcuſſed, the tithing man or borſholder (now
officers, at the commandement of the [high] conſtable
1 hundrede
CHAP. Iv.j PARTITION OF ENGLAND INTO SHIRES,
95
[of which euerie hundred hath one at the leaſt]) ſhould
decide the ſame in their leetes, whereas the great"
cauſes were referred to the hundreds, the greater to
the lathes, and the greateſt of all to the ſhire daies,
where the earles or aldermen did ſet themſelues, &
make finall ends of the ſame, according vnto iuſtice.
For this purpoſe likewiſe in euerie hundred were
twelue men choſen of good age and wiſedome, and
thoſe ſworne to giue their ſentences without reſpect
of perſon, and in this manner (as they gather) were
things handeled in thoſe daies. [Which waie the
word wapentake came in vſe, as yet I cannot tell;
howbeit the ſignification of the ſame declareth (as I
conceiue) that at the chiefe towne the ſoldiers which
were to ſerue in that hundred did meet, fetch their
weapons, & go togither from thence to the field, or
place of ſeruice by an ordinarie cuſtome, then generallie
knowen amongſt them. It is ſuppoſed alſo that the
word Rape commeth a Rapiendo, as it were of catch-
ing and ſnatching, bicauſe the tenants of the hundred
or wapentakes met vpon one or ſundrie daies & made
quicke diſpatch of their lords harueſt at once and in
great haſt. But whether it be a true imagination or
not as yet I am vncerteine, and therefore it lieth not
in me to determine anie thing thereof: wherefore it
ſhall ſuffice to haue touched them in this maner.]
In my time there are found to be in England
fourtie ſhires, and likewiſe thirteene in Wales, and
theſe latter erected of late yeares by king Henrie
the eight, who made the Britons or Welſhmen equall
in all reſpects vnto the Engliſh, and brought to paſſe
that both nations ſhould indifferentlie be gouerned by
one law, which in times paſt were ordred by diuerſe,
and thoſe far diſcrepant and diſagreing one from
another: as by the ſeuerall view of the ſame is yet
eaſie to be diſcerned. The names of the ſhires in
1 greatest
Small disputes
settlá in the
Leets, great in
the Hundreds,
greater in
the Lathes,
greatest in
the Shire-
courts.
Twelve men.
‘Wapentake
80 calld
from soldiers
taking their
Weapons;
"Rape’ said to
come from
the Latin
‘Rapiendo.”
Put I’m not
SUll’O.
Foºtie shires
Żzz Englazed
thirteente int
Wales.
96
[Book II.
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. w
Names of
the Shires in
England.
10 Southern,
16 Midland,
6 Western,
England are theſe, whereof the firſt ten lie betweene
the Britiſh ſea and the Thames, [as Polydor alſo dooth
ſet them downe.] *
Kent. Wilſhire.
ſº Dorſetſhire.
Surreie. Summerſet.
lººr Deuon.
Barkeſhire. Cornewall.
There are moreouer on the northſide of the Thames,
and betweene the ſame and the riuer Trent, which
paſſeth through the middeſt of England (as Polydor
ſaith) fixteene other ſhires, whereof fix lie toward the
eaſt, the reſt toward the weſt, more into the middeſt”
of the countrie.
r Eſſex [ſomtime ſ Huntington [wher
all forreſt ſaue in are foure hun-
one hundred.] dreds.]
Middleſex. Buckingham.
Hartfordſhire. Oxford.
* Suffolke. } { Northampton.
Norffolke. Rutland.
Cambrigeſhire Leirceſterſhire.
[in which are Notinghamſhire.
12 hundreds.] Warwike.
U Bedford. | U Lincolne.
We haue fix alſo that haue their place weſtward to-
wards Wales, whoſe names inſue.
Gloceſter. Shropſhire.
Hereford. Stafford.
Worceſter. Cheſterſhire.
And theſe are the thirtie two ſhires which lie by ſouth
of the Trent. Beyond the ſame riuer we haue in like
ſort other eight, as
1 orig. mddest
CHAP. Iv.] PARTITION OF ENGLAND INTO SHIRES.
97
Darbie. \ ſ it is accompted
Yorke. as parcell of
Lancaſter. Yorkeſhire (out
Cumberland. of which it is
{ Weſtmerland. } { taken) then is it #
Richemond, reputed for the
[wherein are whole Riding.]
fiue wapen- Durham.
taxes, & when J U Northumberland.
So that in the portion ſometime called Lhoegres, there
are now fortie ſhires. In Wales furthermore are thir-
teene, whereof ſeuen are in Southwales:
^ Cardigan, or Y ſ hundreds or Y
Cereticon. commots.]
4 Penmoroke, or 4 Glamorgan. }.
Penbrooke. } Monmouth.
Caermardine, Breckenocke.
Q [wherein are 9 J U Radnor. J
In Northwales likewiſe are ſix, that is to ſaie
Angleſeie. Denbigh.
Carnaruon. Flint.
Merioneth. Montgomerie.
Which being added to thoſe of England, yeeld fiftie
and three ſhires or counties, ſo that wnder the queenes
Maieſtie are ſo manie counties, whereby it is eaſilie
diſcerned, that hir power farre exceedeth that of Offa,
who of old time was highlie honored for that he had
ſo much of Britaine vnder his ſubie&tion as afterward
conteined thirtie nine ſhires, when the diuiſion was
made, whereof I ſpake before.
8 Northern
shires.
Welsh shires.
7 in South
Wales.
6 in North
Wales.
In all, 53 shires
under Queen
Elizabeth.
This is moreouer to be noted in our diuiſion of Odžarcels of
fhires, that they be not alwaies counted or laid to-
gither in one parcell, whereof I haue great maruell.
But fith the occaſion hath growen (as I take it) either
by priuilege or ſome like occaſion, it is better briefelie
HARRISON. 7
shires.
98
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAN ID. [Book II.
[l p. 155]
In Buckingham-
shire is a bit of
IHertfordshire.
In Berkshire, a
bit of Wiltshire.
In Northamp-
tonshire, a bit
of Oxfordshire.
Jn Oxfordshire,
2 bits of Glo'ster-
shire,
and one of
Wo'stershire.
In Berkshire,
2 bits of Wilt-
shire.
to ſet downe how ſome of theſe parts lie, than to
ſpend the time in ſeeking a juſt cauſe of this their od
* diuifion. Firſt therefore I note that in the part of
Buckinghamſhire betweene Amondeſham, & Beconſ.
field, there is a peece of Hartfordſhire to be found,
inuironed round about with the countie of Bucking-
ham, and yet this patch is not aboue three miles in
length, and two in breadth, at the verie moſt. In
Barkeſhire alſo, betweene Ruſcombe and Okingham is
a peece of Wilſhire, one mile in breadth and foure
miles in length, whereof one fide lieth on the Loden
riuer. In the borders of Northamptonſhire dire&tlie
ouer againſt Luffeld a towne in Buckinghamſhire, I
find a parcell of Oxfordſhire not paſſing two miles in
compaſſe.
With Oxfordſhire diuerſe doo participate, in ſo
much that a peece of Gloceſterſhire, lieth halfe in
Warwikeſhire & halfe in Oxfordſhire, not verie far from
Horneton. Such another patch is there, of Gloceſter-
fhire not far from long Compton, but lieng in Oxford
countie: & a * peece of Worceſterſhire, direétlie be-
tweene it & Gloceſterſhire. Gloceſter hath the third
peece vpon the north ſide of the Winruſh neere Fal-
brocke, as Barkeſhire hath one parcell alſo vpon the
ſelfe ſide of the ſame water, in the verie edge of Glo-
ceſterſhire : likewiſe an other in Oxfordſhire, not verie
farre from Burford : and the third ouer againſt Lach-
lade, which is parted from the main countie of Barke-
ſhire, by a little ſtrake of Oxfordſhire. Who would
thinke that two fragments of Wilſhire were to be ſeene
in Barkeſhire vpon the Loden, and the riuer that falleth
into it : whereof and the like, fith there are verie manie,
I thinke good to giue this briefe admonition. For
although I haue not preſentlie gone thorough with them
all, yet theſe may ſuffice to giue notice of this thing,
wherof moſt readers (as I perſuademy ſelfe) are ignorant.
2 also
CHAP. Iv.] PARTITION OF ENGLAND INTO SHIRES.
99
But to proceed with our purpoſe. Ouer ech of theſe
ſhires in time of neceſſitie is a ſeuerall lieutenant choſen
vnder the prince, who being a noble man of calling,
hath almoſt regall authoritie ouer the ſame for the
time being in manie caſes which doo concerne his
office: otherwiſe it is gouerned by a ſhiriffe [(a word
deriued of Schire and Greue, and pronounced as Shire
and Reue) whoſe office is to gather vp and bring his
accounts into the excheker, of the profits of his countie
receiued, whereof he is or may be called Quaſior comi-
tatus or Prouincia. This officer] is" reſident and dwell-
ing ſomewhere within the ſame countie, *and called
alſo.” a vicount, [Quaſi vicarius comitis or Procomes, in
reſpect of the earle (or as they called him in time paſt
the alderman) that beareth his name of the countie,
although it be ſeldome ſeene in England, that the earle
County-officers;
Lietztenazzès.
Sheriffes.
The Sheriff
lives in his
shire, and is
calld a Vis-
count.
hath anie great ſtore of poſſeſſions, or oughts to doo
in the ſhire * whereof he taketh his name, more than is
allowed to him, through his perſonall refiance, if he
happen to dwell and be reſident in the ſame.
In the election alſo of theſe magiſtrates, diuerſe able
perſons aſwell for wealth as wiſedome are named by the
commons, at a time and place appointed for their choiſe,
whoſe names being deliuered to the prince, he foorth-
with pricketh ſome ſuch one of them, as he pleaſeth to
aſſigne vnto that office, to whome he committeth the
charge of the countie, and who herevpon is ſhiriffe of
that ſhire for one whole yeare, or vntill a new be
choſen. The ſhiriffe alſo hath his vnder ſhiriffe, that
ruleth & holdeth the ſhire courts and law daies vnder
him, vpon ſufficient caution vnto the high ſhiriffe for
his true execution of iuſtice, [preſeruation from im-
peachment, and yeelding of accompt when he ſhall be
therevnto called. There are likewiſe vnder him
certeine bailiffes, whoſe office is to ſerue and returne
ſuch writs and proceſſes as are dire&ted vnto them from
1 who is *—” whom they call * County
Out of a list
namd by the
Commons,
the Sovereign
pricks the
Sheriffs.
Undershir:ffes.
who hold the
shire-courts
and law-days.
Aailiffes.
ICO
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAN D, [Book II,
the high ſhiriffe : to make ſeiſure of the goods and cat-
tels, and arreſt the bodies, of ſuch as doo offend, pre-
ſenting either their perſons vinto him, or at the leaſtwiſe
taking ſufficient bond, or other aſſurance of them for
their dutifull appearance at an appointed time, when
the ſhiriffe by order of law ought to preſent them to the
iudges according to his charge. In euerie hundred alſo
are one or more high conſtables according to the quan-
title ºthereof.” who receiuing [the] writs and iniumćtions
from the high ſhiriffe vnder his ſeale, [or from anie other
officers of the prince, either for the prouiſion of vittels
or for other cauſes, or priuat purueiance of cates for thé
maintenance of the roiall familie] doo forthwith charge
the petie conſtables of euerie towne within their limits,
with the execution of the ſame.
In each countie likewiſe are ſundrie law daies
holden at their appointed ſeaſons, of which ſome retaine
the old Saxon name, and are called Motelagh, [of the
word motes and law.] They haue alſo an other called
the ſhiriffes turne, which they hold twiſe in their times,
in euerie hundred, [according to.the old order appointed
by king Edgar (as king Edward reduced the folkmote
ordeined by king Arthur to be held yearelie on the firſt
of Maie, vntill the firſt of euerie moneth)] and in theſe
two latter ſuch ſmall matters as oft ariſe amongſt the
inferior ſort of people, are heard and well determined.
They haue finallie their quarter ſeſſions, wherein they
are affiſted by the iuſtices and gentlemen of the
countrie, & twiſe in the yeare gaile deliuerie, at which
time the iudges ride about in their circuits, into euerie
feuerall countie (where the nobilitie and gentlemen
with the iuſtices there refiant aſſociat them) & miniſter
the lawes of the realme, with great ſolemnitie & iuſtice.
Howbeit, in dooing of theſe things, they reteine ſtill the
old order of the land in vſe before the conqueſt. For
Duties of
County-Bailiffs,
Figh constables.
Their duties,
Fetie constables.
Shire law-days.
Motelagh.
Shiriffès turne.
A court in which
poor folks' small
matters are
heard.
Quarter-
Sessions.
Gaile deliuerie or
great assises.
when the
Judges go
circuit, and
the gentry and
justices accom-
pany them.
they commit the full examination of all cauſes there to
1 due % of the same
CHAP. Iv.] PARTITION OF ENGLAND INTO SHIRES.
I O I
be heard, to the conſideration of twelue ſober, graue,
and wiſe men, choſen out of the ſame countie : [and
foure of them of neceſſitie out of the hundred where the
aćtion lieth, or the defendant inhabiteth] (which
number they call an inqueſt) & of theſe inqueſts there
are more or leſſe impanneled at euerie aſſiſe, as the
number of caſes there to be handled dooth craue and
require, albeit that ſome one inqueſt hath often diuerſe
[matters] to conſider of. And when they haue (to
their vttermoſt power) conſulted and debated of ſuch
things as they are charged withall, they returne againe
to the place of iuſtice, with their verdićt in writing,
according wherevnto the Iudge dooth pronounce his
ſentence, be it for life or death, or anie other matter
what ſoeuer is brought before him. [It is alſo verie
often ſeene, that ſuch as are nominated to be of theſe
inqueſts, doo, after their charge receiued, ſeldome or
neuer eat or drinke, vntill they haue agreed vpon their
verdićt, and yeelded it vp vnto the iudge of whome
they receiued the charge; by meanes whereof ſome-
times it commeth to paſſe that diuerſe of the inqueſt
haue beene welneere famiſhed, or at leaſt taken ſuch a
ſickeneſſe thereby, as they haue hardlie auoided. And
this commeth by pračtiſe, when the one fide feareth
the ſequele, and therefore conueieth ſome one or more
into the iurie, that will in his behalfe neuer yeeld vnto
the reſt, but of ſet purpoſe put them to this trouble.
Certes it is a common praćtiſe (if the vnder ſhiriffe
be not the better man) for the craftier or ſtronger fide
to procure and packe ſuch a queſt, as he himſelfe ſhall
like of, whereby he is ſure of the iſſue before the charge
be giuen : and beſide this, if the matter doo iuſtlie pro-
ceed againſt him, it is a world to ſee now and then how
the honeſt yeomen that haue Bona fide diſcharged their
conſciences ſhall be ſued of an attein&t, & bound to
appeere at the Starre chamber, with what rigor they
ſhall be caried from place to "place, countie to countie,
All causes are
tried by a jury
of 12, of whom
4 must be of
the defendant's
hundred.
These juries are
calld
Izzyztests.
When the
inquests end
their inquiry,
they give their
verdict in
writing, and
the Judge
pronounces
sentence.
The jurors
mayn't eat or
drink till
they've given
their verdict,
and some get
nearly starvd,
or ill,
when one or
more partisans
have been put
in the inquest.
[Afteinct.]
[] p. 156]
I O2
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book 11.
yea and ſometime in carts, which hath and dooth cauſe
a great number of them to abſteine from the affiſes, &
yeeld to paie their iſſues, rather than they would for
their good meaning be thus diſturbed & dealt withall.
Sometimes alſo they bribe the bailiffes to be kept at
home, whervpon poore men, not hauing in their
purſes wherewith to beare their coſtes, are impanelled
Vpon iuries, who verie often haue neither reaſon nor
iudgement to performe the charge they come for.
Neither was this kind of ſeruice at anie time halfe ſo
painefull as at this preſent: for vntill of late yeares (that
the number of lawiers and atturneies hath ſo exceeding-
lie increaſed, that ſome ſhifts muſt needs be found and
matters ſought out, whereby they may be ſet on worke)
a man ſhould not haue heard at one affiſe of more than
two or three Niſ, prizes, but verie ſeldome of an attein&t,
wheras now an hundred & more of the firſt and one or
two of the later are verie often perceiued, and ſome of
them for a cauſe ariſing of fix pence or tweluepence.
Which declareth that men are growen to be farre more
contentious than they haue beene in time paſt, and
readier to reuenge their quarels of ſmall importance,
whereof the lawiers complaine not. But to my purpoſe,
from whence I haue now digreſſed.]
Beſide theſe officers afore mentioned, there are
ſundrie other in euerie countie, as crowners, whoſe
dutie is to inquire of ſuch as come to their death by
violence, to attach & preſent the plees of the crowne,
to make inquirie of treaſure found, &c. There are
diuerſe alſo of the beſt learned of the law, beſide ſun-
drie gentlemen, where the number of lawiers will' not
ſuffice (and whoſe reuenues doo amount to aboue
twentie pounds by the yeare) appointed by eſpeciall
commiſſion from the prince, to looke vnto the good
gouernement of hir ſubječts, in the counties where
they dwell. And of theſe the leaſt ſkilfull in the law
Great abuses
in the Inquest
or Jury system.
Rich men bribe
the Bailiffs to
let them off,
and make poor
Ine]]. Serve On
juries.
And now
there's so
much to do,
for the lawyers
have so increast,
that 100 Nisi
Prius cases,
and 1 or 2
attaints, often
have to be
heard.
Coroners,
and their duties.
Şustices of £ear
& Quorizºnt.
Gentlemen
having above
£20 a year.
1 doe
CHAP. Iv.]
Io9
PARTITION OF ENGLAND INTO SHIRES.
are of the peace, the other both of the peace and quorum,
otherwiſe called of Oier and Determiner, ſo that the
firſt haue authoritie onelie to heare, the other to heare
and determine ſuch matters as are brought Vnto their
preſence. Theſe alſo doo direct their warrants to the
keepers of the gailes within' their limitations, for the
ſafe keeping of ſuch offendors as they ſhall iudge
worthie to [commit vnto their cuſtodie there to] be
kept vnder ward, vntill the great aſſiſes, to the end
their cauſes may be further examined before the reſidue
of the countie, & theſe officers were firſt deuiſed about”
the eighteene yeare of Edward the third, as I haue
beene informed.
They meeting” alſo & togither with the ſhiriffes, doo
hold their [aforeſaid] ſeſſions at foure times in the
yeare, whereof they are called quarter ſeſſions, and
herein they inquire of [fundrie treſpaſſes, and the
common annoiances of the kings liege people, and
*diuerſe other things,” determining vpon them as iuſtice
dooth require. There are alſo a third kind of ſeſſions
holden by the high conſtables and bailiffes afore men-
tioned, called petie ſeſſions, wherein the weights and
meaſures are peruſed by the clarke of the market for
the countie, who fitteth with them. At theſe meetings
alſo vittellers, and in like ſort ſeruants labourers, roges,
and runnagates, are often reformed for their exceſſes,
although the burning of vagabounds through their eare"
be referred to the quarter ſeſſions or higher courts of
affiſe, where they are * iudged either" to death, if they be
taken the third time, & haue not ſince their ſecond
apprehenſion applied themſelues to labour, [or elſe to
be ſet perpetuallie to worke in an houſe erected in euerie
ſhire for that purpoſe, of which puniſhment they ſtand
in greateſt feare.
I might here deliuer a diſcourſe of fundrie rare
3 meete
*—6 adjudged also
2 in
* eares
1 which in
*—4 sundrie other trespasses
The most
skilful are of
the Quorum.
Justices of the
Peace can only
hear causes :
those of the
Quorum can
determine
them too.
Justices first
appointed about
1344 A.D.
The Justices
and Sheriffs
hold
Quarter sessions.
High Constables
and Bailiffs
hold
Pette sessions.
to punish
victuallers,
labourers,
rogues, &c.
Vagabonds can
only be burnt
through the
€3r
(under 14 Eliz.
cap. 5),
put to
death, or sent
to the Work-
house
(under 18 Eliz.
cap. 3, A.D.
1575–6);
which they
dread, by higher
courts.
IO4.
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Courts Baron.
Some of the
customs of
Courts Baron
are beastly,–
first devis'd by
bad women in
contempt of
their tenants,<-
but now turnd
into money
rents.
No custom is
more absurd
than that of
King's Hill
in Rochford,
Essex.
The tenants
being in an
alehouse,
the Steward
holds his
court on King's
s
, and if
the tenants
can’t rush
up to him
when he calls
their names
they get fin'd.
(See Blount's
Tenures, p. 260,
ed. 1874.)
This is because
the Raleigh
tenants once
rebelld against
their lord.
See Camden's
escription of
Essex,)
[cuſtomes and courts, ſurnamed barons, yet mainteined
and holden in England; but forſomuch as ſome of the
firſt are beaſtlie, and therefore by the lords of the ſoiles
now liuing conuerted into monie, being for the moſt
part deuiſed in the beginning either by malicious or
licentious women, in meere contempt and ſlauiſh abuſe
of their tenants, vnder pretenſe of ſome puniſhment due
for their exceſſes, I paſſe ouer to bring them vnto light,
as alſo the remembrance of fundrie courts baron like-
wiſe holden in ſtrange maner; yet none more abſurd
and far from law than are kept yearlie at Kings hill in
Rochford, and therfore may well be called a lawleſſe
court, as moſt are that were deuiſed vpon ſuch occa-
fions. This court is kept vpon wedneſdaie inſuing after
Michaelmaſſe daie after midnight, ſo that it is begun
When the
tenants alſo are altogither in an alehouſe, the ſteward
ſecretlie ſtealeth from them with a lanterne vnder his
cloke, and goeth to the Kings hill, where ſitting on a
molehill he calleth them with a verie ſoft voice, writing
their appeerance vpon a peece of paper with a cole,
hauing none other light than that which is incloſed
in the lanterne : ſo ſoone as the tenants alſo doo miſſe
the ſteward, they runne to the hill with all their might,
and there anſwer all at once, “Here here,” wherby they
eſcape their amercements: which they ſhould not doo
if he could haue called ouer his bill of names before
they had miſſed him in the alehouſe. And this is the
verie forme of the court deuiſed at the firſt (as the voice
and ended before the riſing of the ſunne.
goeth) vpon a rebellion made by the tenants of the
honour of Raibie againſt their lord, in perpetuall
memorie of their diſobedience ſhewed. I could beſide
this ſpeake alſo of ſome other, but fith one hath taken
vpon him to colle&t a number of them into a particular
treatiſe, I thinke it ſufficient for me to haue ſaid ſo
much of both.]
And thus much haue I thought good to ſet downe
CHAP. v.] DEGREEs of people IN ENGLAND.
Io;
generallie of the ſaid counties and their maner of go-
uernance, although not in ſo perfect order as the cauſe
requireth, bicauſe that of all the reſt there is nothing
wherewith I am leſſe acquainted than with our tempo-
rall regiment, which (to ſaie truth) ſmallie concerneth
my calling. [What elſe is to be added after the ſeuerall
ſhires of England with their ancient limits (as they
agreed with the diuiſion of the land in the time of
Ptolomie and the Romans) and commodities yet extant,
I reſerue vnto that excellent treatiſe of my freend W.
Cambden, who hath trauelled therein verie farre, &
whoſe worke written in Latine ſhall in ſhort time (I
hope) be publiſhed, to the no ſmall benefit of ſuch as
will read and peruſe the ſame.]
~
Of degrees of people in the common-
wealth of England.
Chap. 5.1
E in England diuide our people com-
monlie into foure ſorts, as gentlemen,”
citizens or burgeſſes, yeomen, and * artifi-
cers, or laborers. Of gentlemen the firſt and cheefe
(next the king) be the prince, dukes, marqueſſes, earls,
1 In the 1577 ed. this chapter is the 4th of the Third Book.-F
For other
county par-
ticulars, see
my friend
Camden’s
forthcoming
* Britannia.
(publ. 1586.)
Four Sorts :
1. Gentlemen.
2. Citizens.
3. Yeomen.
4. Artificers or
Labourers.
* See “The English Courtier, and the Cwntrey-gentleman : A pleasaunt and
learned Disputation betweene them both: very profitable and necessarie to be read
of all Nobilitie and Gentlemen. Wherein is discoursed, what order of lyfe best
beseemeth a Gentleman, (aswell for education as the course of his whole life) to
make him a person fytte for the publique seruice of his Prince and Countrey,”
1586; and “The Court and Country, or A briefe Discourse Dialogue-wise set
downe betweene a Courtier and a Country-man. Contayning the manner and
condition of their liues, with many Delectable and Pithy Sayings
worthy observ-
ation. Also, necessary Notes for a Courtier. Written by N. B. Gent. [Nicholas
Breton], 1618.” Both reprinted in Mr W. C. Hazlitt's Roxburghe Library:
“Ined. Tracts,’ 1868,-F. * for “and”, ed. 1586 reads wrongly “which are.”—F.
Ioé
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Lords and
Noblemen,
Knights,
Esquires,
Gentlemen.
Prince.
[? p. 157]
The title
loelongs only
to the King's
eldest son,
the Prince of
Wales.
His younger
sons are only
gentlemen till
they’re created
nobles; they are
calld Lord
Henry, Lord
Edward, &c.
Duke.
formerly a
name of military
office,
but now only
of honour.
Marquesse.]
viſcounts, and barons: and theſe are called 'gentlemen
of the greater ſort, or (as our common vſage of ſpeech
is) lords and noblemen ; and next vnto them be knights,
eſquiers, and laſt of all they that are fimplie called
gentlemen; ſo that in effect our gentlemen are diuided
into their conditions, whereof in this chapiter I will
make particular rehearſall."
* The title of prince dooth peculiarlie belong [with
vs] to the kings eldeſt ſonne, who is called prince of
Wales, and is the heire apparant to the crowne; as
in France the kings eldeſt ſonne hath the title of
Dolphine, and is named peculiarlie Monſieur. So that
the prince is ſo termed of the Latine word *Princeps,
fith he is (as I may call him) the cheefe or principall
next the king.” The kings yoonger ſonnes be but gen-
tlemen by birth (till they haue receiued creation [or
donation from their father] of higher eſtate, [as] to be
either viſconts, earles, or dukes) and called after their
names, as lord Henrie, or lord Edward, with the
addition of the word Grace, properlie aſſigned to the
king and prince, and [now alſo] by cuſtome conueied
to dukes, [archbiſhops, and (as ſome ſaie) to] marqueſſes
and their wiues.
The title of duke commeth alſo of the Latine word
Dur, d ducendo, bicauſe of his valor and power ouer the
armie: in times paſt a name of office due to the [em-
perour, conſull, or cheeſe gouernour of the whole
armie in the [Romane] warres : but now a name of
honor, [although periſhed in England, whoſe ground
will not long beare one duke at once ; but if there were
manie as in time paſt, or as there be now earles, I doo
not thinke but that they would floriſh and proſper well
inough..]
In old time he onelie was called marqueſſe, Qui
1_1 the Nobilitie, they are also named Lordes and noble men, and next to
them be Knightes and Esquires, and simple gentlemen.
3–3 quia est principalis post Regem.
CHAP, v.] DEGREES OF PEOPLE IN ENGLAND,
Ioy
habuit terram limitaneam, a marching prouince vpon
the enimies countries, [and thereby bound to keepe
and defend the frontiers.] But that alſo is changed in
common vſe, and reputed for a name of great honor
next [wnto] the duke, euen ouer counties, and ſome-
times ſmall cities, as the prince is pleaſed to beſtow it.
The name of earle likewiſe was among the Romans
a name of office, who had Comites ſacri palatij, comites
aerarij, comites ſtabuli, [comites patrimonij, largitionum,
* But at the
firſt they were called Comites, which were ioined in
ſcholarum, commerciorum, and ſuch like.
commiſſion with the proconſull, legate, or iudges for
counſell and aids ſake in each of thoſe ſeuerall charges.
As Cicero epiſtola ad Quintum fratrem remembreth,
where he ſaith; Atque inter hos quos tibi comites, &
adiutores negotiorum publicorum dedit ipſa reſpublica
duntarat finibus his praeſtabis, quos ante praeſcripſ, &c.
After this I read alſo that euerie preſident in his charge
was called Comes, but our Engliſh Saxons vſed the
word Hertoch and earle for Comes, and indifferentlie
as I geſſe, fith the name of duke was not in vſe before
the conqueſt. Goropius ſaith, that Comes and Graue is
all one, to wit” the viſcont, called either Procomes, or
Vicecomes ; and * in time paſt gouerned in the countie
vnder the earle, but * now without anie ſuch ſeruice or
office, it “is alſo “become a name of dignitie next after
[His releefe
alſo by the great charter is one hundred pounds, as that
the earle, and in degree before the baron.
of a baronie a hundred marks, and of a knight fine
at the moſt for euerie fee.]
The baron [whoſe degree anſwered to the dignitie
of a ſenator in Rome,) is ſuch a free lord as hath a lord-
A Marquess
formerly had a
frontier pro-
vince, which he
defended.
Azazºle,
The Roman
* Comites.”
Our English
Saxons us'd
Hertoch or Earl
for ‘Comes.’
Vzscozzt.
does not now
rule a county
under its Earl.
Barone.
*— howbeit it appeareth that with us it hath the next place to ye Marquise,
*
and he that beareth it is called peradventure Comes à
ducere comitiuam in bello.
the Duke in the warres And he hath his follower
* who in 8 and
*—4 also is
comitiua, quia dignus est
Or else because he is Comes Ducis a companion of
Io8
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Of the Baron,
held knights or
freeholders,
doing war-
service,
The derivation
of ‘Baron.”
Most likely
Baro = Filius.
The King's sons
were the first,
Barons.
The common
sort call their
children
“barnes,” usually
in the North,
sometimes in
the South.
ſhip or baronie, whereof he beareth his name, & 'hath
diuerſe knights or freeholders holding of him, who with
him did ſerue the king in his * wars, and held their
tenures” in Baronia, 4 that is, for performance of 4 such
seruice. Theſe Braćton (a learned writer of the lawes
of England in king Henrie the thirds time) tearmeth
Barones, quqſ, robur belli. The word Baro [indeed] is
older than that it may eaſilie be found from whence it
came : for euen in the oldeſt hiſtories both of the Ger-
mans and Frenchmen, [written fince the conqueſt, we
read of barons, and thoſe are at this daie called among
the Germans Liberi vel Ingenui, [or Freihers in the
Germane toong] as ſome men doo conie&ture, [or (as
one ſaith) the citizens and burgeſſes of good townes and
cities were called Barones. Neuertheleſſe by diligent
inquiſition it is imagined, if not abſolutelie found, that
the word Baro and Filius in the old Scithian or Ger-
mane language are all one ; ſo that the kings children
are properlie called Barones, from whome alſo it was
firſt tranſlated to their kindred, and then to the nobilitie
and officers of greateſt honour indifferentlie. That
Baro and Filius fignifieth one thing, it yet remaineth
to be ſeene, although with ſome corruption : for to
this daie, euen the common ſort doo call their male
children ‘barnes' here in England, eſpeciallie in the north
countrie, where that word is yet accuſtomablie in vſe.
And it is alſo growne into a prouerbe in the ſouth,
when anie man ſuſteineth a great hinderance, to ſaie, “I
am beggered, and all my barnes.” In the Hebrue toong
(as ſome affirme) it ſignifieth Filij ſolis : and what are
the nobilitie in euerie kingdome but Filij or ſerui
regum ? But this is farre fetched, wherefore I con-
clude, that from henſefoorth the originall of the word
Baro ſhall not be anie more to ſeeke: and the firſt time
that euer I red thereof in anie Engliſh hiſtorie, is in the
1–1 holding of him diuers knightes & free holders: who were wont to
2 the
3 landes 4—" for doing
CHAP. v.] DEGREES OF PEOPLE IN ENGLAND,
io9
reigne of Canutus, who called his nobilitie and head
officers to a councell holden at Cirneceſter, by that
name, Togo, as I haue elſe-where remembred. How-
beit the word Baro dooth not alwaies fignifie or is
attributed to a noble man by birth or creation, for now
and then it is a title giuen vnto one or other with his
office, as the cheefe or high tribune of the excheker is
of cuſtome called lord cheefe baron, who is as it were
the great or principall receiuer of accounts next vinto
the lord treaſuror, as they are vnder him are called
Tribuni aerarij, & rationales. Hervnto I may ad ſo
much of the word lord, which is an addition going not
ſeldome and in like ſort with fundrie offices, and to
continue ſo long as he or they doo execute the ſame,
and no longer.]
Vnto this place I alſo referre our biſhops, who are
accounted honourable, [called lords, and hold the ſame
roome in the parlement houſe with the barons, albeit
for honour ſake the right hand of the prince is giuen
wnto them, and whoſe countenances in time paſt were
much more glorious than at this preſent it is, bicauſe
thoſe luſtie prelats ſought after earthlie eſtimation and
authoritie with farre more diligence than after the loſt
ſheepe of Chriſt, % of which * they had ſmall regard, as
men being otherwiſe occupied and void of leiſure to
attend vpon * the ſame. Howbeit in theſe daies their
eſtate remaineth 4 no leſſe reuerend than * before, and
the more vertuous they are that be of this calling, the
better are they eſteemed with high and low. [They
reteine alſo the ancient name (lord) ſtill, although it be
not a little" impugned by ſuch as loue either to heare of
change of all things, or can abide no ſuperiours. For
notwithſtanding it be true, that in reſpect of function,
the office of the elderſhip is equallie diſtributed be-
tweene the biſhop and the miniſter, yet for ciuill
gouernements ſake, the firſt haue more authoritie giuen
* Baro’ first us’d
A. D. 1030.
Iord Chief
Baron of the
Exchequer.
* Lord” is a title
held only during
office.
Bishops.
are calld Lords,
and sit in the
House of
Lords.
The more ver-
tuous they are,
the better are
they esteemd.
(A cut at Dis-
senters.)
[I. Sam. by 5.
1. Reg. *7.]
1 was 2–2 whereof 8 unto 4–4 still honourable as
5 orig. littie
I [O
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
A defence of
Bishops and
Uniformity
against the
Calvinists, &c.
You can’t make
a perfect
Church,
[* p. 158]
The Clergy are
now lovd for
their hard work,
except by some
hungry-belli’d
patrons,
who always ask
* therefore
wnto them by kings and princes, to the end that the reſt
maie thereby be with more eaſe reteined within a
limited compaſſe of vniformitie, than otherwiſe they
would be, if ech one were ſuffered to walke in his
owne courſe. This alſo is more to be maruelled at,
that verie manie call for an alteration of their eſtate,
crieng to haue the word lord aboliſhed, their ciuill
authoritie taken from them, and the preſent condition
of the church in other things reformed; whereas to ſaie
trulie, few of them doo agree vpon forme of diſcipline
and gouernement of the church ſuccedent: wherein
they reſemble the Capuans, of whome Liuie dooth
ſpeake, in the ſlaughter of their ſenat. Neither is it
poſſible to frame a whole monarchie after the patterne
of one towne or citie, or to ſtirre Vp ſuch an exquiſite
face of the church as we imagine or deſire, fith our
corruption is ſuch that it will neuer yeeld to ſo great
perfeótion: for that which is not able to be performed
in a priuat houſe, will much leſſe be brought to paſſe
in a common-wealth and kingdome, before ſuch a
prince be found as Xenophon deſcribeth, or ſuch an
orator as Tullie hath deuiſed. But whither am I
digreſſed from my diſcourſe of biſhops, whoſe eſtates
doo daily decaie, & ſuffer ſome diminution ?] Herein
neuertheleſſe” their caſe is growne to be much better
than before, for whereas in times paſt the cleargie men
were feared bicauſe of their authoritie and ſeuere
gouernment vnder the prince, now are they beloued
generallie? for their painefull diligence [dailie] ſhewed
in their [functions and callings, “except peraduenture
of ſome hungrie wombes, that couet to plucke & ſnatch
at the looſe ends of their beſt commodities; with whom
it is (as the report goeth) a common guiſe, when a man
is to be preferred to an eccleſiaſticall liuing, what part
3 (except peraduenture of a few hungrie wolves that couet to pluck and snatch at
their lose endes)
4–4 and vertuous conversation
CHAP. v.] DEGREES OF PEOPLE IN ENGLAND's
I I I
thereof he will firſt forgo and part with to their vſe.”
Finallie, how it ſtandeth with the reſt of the clergie
[for their places of eſtate, I neither can tell, nor
greatlie care to know. Neuertheleſſe, with what degrees
of honour and worſhip they haue beene matched in
times paſt, Iohannes Bohemus in his De omnium gentium
moribus, and others doo expreſſe ; [and this alſo found
beſide their reports, that in time paſt, euerie biſhop,
abbat, and pelting prior were placed before the earles
and barons in moſt ſtatutes, charters, and records made
by the prince, as maie alſo appeare in the great charter,
and ſundrie yeares of Henrie the third, wherein no
duke was heard of..] But as a number of their odious'
compariſons and ambitious titles are now decaied and
worthilie ſhroonke in the wetting, ſo giuing ouer in
theſe daies to mainteine ſuch pompous vanitie, they [doo)
thinke it ſufficient for them to preach the word, &
hold their liuings to their ſees [(ſo long as they ſhall be
able)] from the hands of ſuch as indeuour [for their
OWIle preferrement] to [fleece and diminiſh 2 the ſame.”
This furthermore will I adde generallie in commenda-
tion of the cleargie of England, that they are for their
knowlege * reputed in France, Portingale, Spaine, Ger-
manie and Polonia, to be the moſt learned diuines,
[although they like not anie thing at all of their
religion :] and thereto [they are in deed] ſo ſkilfull in
the two principall toongs, that it is accounted a maime in
anie one of them, not to be exactlie ſeene in the Greeke
and Hebrue, much more then to be vtterlie ignorant or
nothing conuerſant in them. As for the Latine toong
it is not wanting in anie [of the miniſterie], eſpeciallie
in ſuch as haue beene made within this twelue or
fourteene yeares, whereas before there was ſmall choiſe,
and manie cures were left vnſerued, bicauſe they had
none at all. [And to ſaie truth, our aduerſaries were
the onelie cauſers hereof. For whileft they made no
l—l these *—3 them * learning
what the man
they present 'll
give imp to then1.
[De Asia, caft.
12.]
In old times
Bishops and
Abbots took
precedence of
Earls and
Barons.
But now the
Clergy are con-
tent to preach
God’s word,
and fight for
their livings
against plun-
derers.
Our Clergy
are held by
foreigners as the
most learned
divines.
Almost all
Know Greek
and Hebrew,
[No Greekc,
zzo grace.]
and every one
knows Iatin:
at least, those
appointed since
1563 or 1565,
II 2
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
[Berte con, be-
zze cafe, berte
le.] (This in my
copy, but not in
Brit. Mus. copy,
of 1586 ed.)
Ignorance of the
clergy in Mary's
and Hen, VIII.'s
days,
Duke, [mar-
guesse, earle,
viscozzi.]
Younger sons of
nobles are only
‘esquires,” yet
all but Wiscounts’
and Barons' sons
are by courtesy
calld ‘lords.”
- [Barons.]
English ones
must have
#1000 a year,
Baron is the
lowest rank of
nobles.
further accompt of their prieſthood, than to conſtrue,
fing, read their ſeruice and their porteſſe, it came to
paſſe that vpon examination had, few made in queene
Maries daies, and the later end of king Henrie, were
able to doo' anie more, and verie hardlie ſo much, ſo
void were they of further ſkill, and ſo vnapt to ſerue at
all.]
Dukes, marqueſſes, earles, viſconts, and barons,
either be created of the prince, or come to that honor
by being the eldeſt ſonnes or higheſt in ſucceſſion to
their parents. For the eldeſt ſonne of a duke during
his fathers life is an erle, the eldeſt ſonne of an erlei
is a baron, or ſometimes a viſcont, according as the
creation is. The creation I call the original donation
and condition of the honour giuen by the prince for *
good ſeruice doone by the firſt anceſtor, with ſome
aduancement, which, with the title of that honour, is
alwaies giuen to him and his heires males onelie. The
reſt of the ſonnes of the nobilitie by the rigor of the law
be but eſquiers : yet in common ſpeech all dukes and
marqueſſes ſonnes, and earles eldeſt ſonnes be called
lords, the which name commonlie dooth agree to none
of lower degree than barons, yet by law and vſe theſe
be not eſteemed barons.
The baronie or degree of lords dooth anſwer to the
degree of ſenators of Rome [(as I ſaid)] and the title of
nobilitie (as we vſe to call it in England) to the Ro-
mane Patricij. Alſo in England no man is [com-
monlie] created baron, except he maie diſpend of
yearelie reuenues [a thouſand pounds, or ſo much as
maie fullie mainteine & beare out his countenance and
port. But viſconts, erles, marqueſſes, and dukes exceed
them according to the proportion of their degree &
honour. But though by chance he or his ſonne haue
leſſe, yet he keepeth this degree: but if the decaie be
exceſſiue and not able to mainteine the honour, as
1 orig. (my copy, but not Brit. Mus, one) to to doo 2 for the
CHAP. v.] DEGREES OF PEOPLE IN ENGLAND.
II.3
Senatores Romani were amotid ſenatu' : ſo ſometimes
they are not admitted to the vpper houſe in the parle-
ment although they keepe the name of lord ſtill, which
can not be taken from them vpon anie ſuch occaſion.
[The moſt of theſe names haue deſcended from the
French inuention, in whoſe hiſtories we ſhall read of
them eight hundred yeares paſſed.
This alſo is worthie the remembrance, that Otto the
firſt emperour of that name, indeuouring to repare the
decaied eſtate of Italie vnto ſome part of hir priſtinate
magnificence, did after the French example giue Dig-
nitates & praedia to ſuch knights and ſouldiers as had
ſerued him in the warres, whom he alſo adorned with
the names of dukes, marqueſſes, earles, valuaſors or
capteins, and valuafines.
His Prædia in like maner were tributes, tolles,
portage, bankage, ſtackage, coinage, profits by ſaltpits,
milles, water-courſes (and whatſoeuer emoluments grew
by them) & ſuch like. But at that preſent I read not
that the word Baro was brought into thoſe parts. And
as for the valuaſors, it was a denomination applied vnto
all degrees of honor vnder the firſt three (which are
properlie named the kings capteins) ſo that they are
called Maiores, minores, & minimi valuaſores. This
alſo is to be noted, that the word capteine hath two
relations, either as the poſſeſſor therof hath it from the
prince, or from ſome duke, marqueſſe, or earle, for
each had capteins vnder them. If from the prince,
then are they called Maiores valuqſores, if from anie of
his three peeres, then were they Minores valuaſores :
but if anie of theſe Valuqſors doo ſubſtitute a deputie,
thoſe are called Minimi valuqſores, and their deputies
alſo Valuaſini, without regard vnto which degree the
valuaſor dooth apperteine: but the word Valuaſor is
now growne out of vſe, wherefore it ſufficeth to haue
ſaid thus much of that function.]
*—l moti Senatu
HARRISON.
[Of the second
degree of gem-
tlezºzemz.]
[Praedia.]
There are
3 kinds of
Valvasors or
under-vassals:
greater, less,
and least.
[Palatasores.]
The deputies of
the least are
Valvasines.
*Walvasor’ is
gone out of use.
II.4.
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
A nights
are made, not
born.
[Miliţes.]
Aquites aurači.
[3 p. 159]
Some gentle-
men, tho' calld,
refuse to be
Knights, and
pay a fine for it.
Knights be not borne, neither is anie man a knight
by ſucceſſion, no, not the king or prince: but they are
made either before the battell, to incourage them the
more to aduenture & trie their manhood; or after [the
battell ended, as an aduancement for their courage
and proweſſe alreadie ſhewed [(& then are they called
Milites;)] or out of the warres for ſome great ſeruice
doone, or for the fingular vertues which doo appeare in
them, [and then are they named Equites aurati, as com-
mon cuſtome intendeth..] They are made either by the
king himſelfe, or by his commiſſion and roiall au-
thoritie giuen for the ſame purpoſe: or by his lieu-
tenant in the warres. This order ſeemeth to anſwer
in part to that which the Romans called Equitum Ro-
manorum. For as Equites Romani were choſen Ew cen-
Ju, that is, according to their ſubſtance and riches;
fo be knights in England moſt commonlie accord-
ing to their yearelie reuenues or 4 aboundance of 1
riches, wherewith to mainteine their º eſtates. Yet all
* that had Equéſirem cenſum, were not choſen to be
knights, [and] no more be all made knights in Eng-
land that may ſpend a knights lands, but they onelie
whome the prince will honour. [Sometime diuerſe
ancient gentlemen, burgeſſes, and lawiers, are called
wnto knighthood by the prince, and neuertheleſſe refuſe
to take that ſtate vpon them, for which they are of
cuſtome puniſhed by a fine, that redoundeth vnto his
cofers, and to ſaie truth, is oftentimes more profit-
able vnto him than otherwiſe their ſeruice ſhould be,
if they did yeeld vnto knighthood. And this alſo is
a cauſe, wherfore there be manie in England able to
diſpend a knights liuing, which neuer come vnto that
countenance, and by their owne conſents.] The num-
ber of the knights in Rome was [alſo] vncerteine:
and ſo is it of knights [likewiſe] with vs, as at the
pleaſure of the prince. [And whereas the Equites
1–1 substance and 2 the
CHAP. v.] DEGREES OF PEOPLE IN ENGLAND.
II 5
Romani had Equum publicum of cuſtome beſtowed vpon
them, the knights of England haue not ſo, but beare
their owne charges in that alſo, as in other kind of
furniture, as armorie meet for their defenſe and ſer-
uice. This neuertheleſſe is certeine, that who ſo may
diſpend 40 pounds by the yeare of free land, either at
the coronation of the king, or mariage of his daughter,
or time of his dubbing, may be inforced vnto the
taking of that degree, or otherwiſe paie the reuenues
of his land for one yeare, which is onelie fortie pounds
by an old proportion, and ſo for a time be acquited
of that title.] We name" him knight in Engliſh that
the French calleth Cheualier, and the Latins Equitem,
or Equeſtris ordinis virum. And when any man is
made a knight, he kneeling downe is ſtriken of the
king” or his ſubſtitute with his ſword naked vpon
the [backe or] ſhoulder, the prince, &c.; ſaieng, Soyes
cheualier au nom de Dieu. And when he riſeth vp the
king * ſaith Aduances bon cheualier. This is the maner
of dubbing knights at this preſent, and the tearme
(dubbing) is the old tearme for that purpoſe and not
creation, [howbeit in our time the word (making) is
moſt in vſe among the common ſort.]
At the coronation of a king or queene, there be
[other] knights made with longer and more curious
ceremonies, called “knights of the bath.” But how
ſoeuer one be dubbed or made knight, his wife is by
and by called madame or ladie, ſo well as the barons
wife; he himſelfe hauing added to his name in com-
mon appellation this ſyllable Sir, which is the title
whereby we call our knights * in England. [His wife
alſo of courtefie ſo long as ſhe liueth is called my ladie,
although ſhe happen to marie with a gentleman or
man of meane calling, albeit that by the common law
ſhe hath no ſuch prerogatiue. If hir firſt huſband alſo
be of better birth than hir ſecond, though this later
I We call 2 the Prince 3 the Prince 4 knights here
English Knights
pay for their
own horses and
fºr IYAOUllr,
Any freeholder
worth £40 a.
year in land
may be forc’t to
become a Knight
or pay £40.
The manner of
dubbing a
Knight.
A nights of the
ãath.
A Knight's wife
is calld ‘Madam
or Lady,’
and he “Sir.”
She keeps her
title, by court-
esy, tho’ she
Imarries a com-
In OneI.
I 16
THE DES CRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book Ii.
Knights of the
garter.
Edward III.
invented this
Society, and
chose for it the
best Knights of
all Christendom.
The King or
Queen is head of
the Order,
and it has 26
brethren.
[Round table.]
likewiſe be a knight, yet in that ine pretendeth a
priuilege to looſe no honor through courtefie yeelded
to hir ſex, ſhe will be named after the moſt honorable
or worſhipfull of both, which is not ſeene elſewhere.]
The other order of knighthood in England, and
the moſt honorable is that of the garter, inſtituted by
king Edward the third, who—after he had gained
manie notable victories, taken king John of France,
and king James of Scotland (and kept them both
priſoners in the Tower of London at one time) ex-
pelled king Henrie of Caſtile the baſtard out of his
realme, and reſtored Don Petro vnto it (by the helpe
of the prince of Wales and duke of Aquitaine his
eldeſt ſonne called the Blacke prince) he-then in-
uented this ſocietie of honour, and made a choiſe out
of his owne realme and dominions, and throughout
all chriſtendome of the beſt, moſt excellent and re-
nowmed perſons in all vertues and honour, and adorned
them with that" title to be knights of his order, giuing
them a garter garniſhed with gold and pretious ſtones,
to weare dailie on the left leg onlie ; alſo a kirtle,
gowne, cloke, chaperon, collar, and other ſolemne and
magnificent apparell, both of ſtuffe and faſhion ex-
quiſite & heroicall to weare at high feaſts, [&] as to ſo
high and princelie an order apperteineth. Of this
companie alſo he and his ſucceſſors, kings and queenes
of England, be the ſouereignes, and the reſt by cer-
teine ſtatutes and lawes amongſt themſelues be taken
as brethren and fellowes in that order, to the number
of ſix and twentie, as I find in a certeine treatiſe
written of the ſame, an example whereof I haue here
inſerted word for word, as it was deliuered vnto me,
beginning after this maner.
I might at this preſent make a long tractation
of the round table, and eſtate * of the knights thereof,
erected ſometimes by Arthur the great monarch of
1 yt 2 order
cHAP. v.] DE GREES OF PEOPLE IN ENGLAND.
I 17
this Iland;
his knights, and ceremonies belonging to the order,
but I thinke in ſo dooing that I ſhould rather ſet
downe the latter inuentions of other men, than a
true deſcription of ſuch ancient actions as were per-
formed in deed. I could furthermore with more
facilitie deſcribe the roialtie of Charles the great & his
twelue peeres, with their ſolemne rites and vſages:
but vnto this alſo I haue no great deuotion, conſider-
ing the truth hereof is now ſo ſtained with errours
and fables inſerted into the ſame by the lewd religious
ſort, that except a man ſhould profeſſe to lie with them
for companie, there is little ſound knowledge to be
gathered hereof worthie the remembrance. In like
maner diuerſe aſwell ſubjećts as princes haue attempted
to reſtore againe a round table in this land [(as for
example Roger lord Mortimer at Killingworth)] but
ſuch were the exceſſiue charges apperteining therevnto
(as they did make allowance) and ſo great moleſtation
dailie inſued therevpon, beſide the breeding of ſundrie
quarrels among the knights, and ſuch as reſorted
hitherto from forreine countries (as it was firſt vſed)
that in fine they gaue it ouer, and ſuffered their whole
inuentions to periſh and decaie, till | Edward the third
deuiſed an other order not ſo much peſtered with mil-
titude of knights as the round table, but much more
honorable for princelie port and countenance, as ſhall
appeare hereafter.
The order of the garter therefore was deuiſed in the
time of king Edward the third, and (as ſome write)
vpon this occaſion. The queenes maieſtie then liuing,
being departed from his preſence the next waie toward
hir lodging, he following ſoone after happened to find
hir garter, which ſlacked by chance and ſo fell from hir
leg, [wneſpied in the throng by ſuch as attended vpon
hir.] His groomes & gentlemen [alſo] paſſed by it,” diſ.
and therevnto intreat of the number of I won't describe
1 untill * it, as
from fancy the
making of King
Arthur's
Knights,
or the royalty of
Charles the
Great and his
Twelvo Peers,
as I should have
to lie with ‘th 3
lewd religious
sort.”
The later Round
Table of
[Roger Mort:-
zyzer.]
which led to
such nuisances
that it had to be
given up.
[The occasion of
£he derezse]
of Edward III.'s
Order of the
Garter.
II 8
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book Il.
Edward III.'s
founding the
Order of the
Garter.
Peraduenture?
&zet a blue ričáenz
He held a royal
feast at Wind-
SOI".
[4 p. 160]
daining to ſtoope and take vp ſuch a trifle : but he
knowing the owner, commanded one of them to ſtaie
and reach” it vp [to him.] “Why, and like your grace
(ſaieth a gentleman), it is but ſome womans garter that
hath fallen from hir as ſhe followed the queenes maieſ-
tie.” “Whatſoeuer it be (quoth the king) take it vp and
giue it me.” So when he had receiued the garter, he
ſaid to ſuch as ſtood about him : “You my maiſters doo
make ſmall account of this blue garter here (and there-
with held it out), but if God lend me life for a few
moneths, I will make the proudeſt of you all to reuerence
the like.” And euen vpon this ſlender occaſion he gaue
himſelfe to the deuiſing of this order. Certes I haue ºt
read of anie thing, that hauing had ſo fimple a begining
hath growne in the end to ſo great honour and eſtima-
tion. But to proceed. After he had ſtudied awhile
about the performance of his deuiſe, and had ſet downe
ſuch orders as he himſelfe” inuented concerning the
ſame, he proclamed a roiall feaſt to be holden at
Windſore, whither all his nobilitie reſorted with their
ladies, where he publiſhed his inſtitution, and “foorthwith
inueſted an appointed number into the afore ſaid
fellowſhip, whoſe names inſue, himſelfe being the ſoue-
reigne and principall of that companie. Next vnto him-
ſelfe alſo he placed
- Edward prince of Y ſ Sir Iohn Liſle.
Wales. Sir Bartholomew
Henrie duke of Lan- Burwaſh.
caſter. N. ſonne of ſir" Iohn
4 N. earle of Warw. * { Beauchamp. }.
N. capt. de Bouche. Sir N. de Mahun.
N. earle of Stafford. Sir] Hugh Courtneie.
N. earle of Sarum. Sir]Thomas Holland.
l N. lord Mortimer. J l Sir] [ohn Graie. |
The first
Knights of the
Garter
1 take 2 Peraduenture it was 6 S 3 himselfe had
6 L. !-> *
CHAP, v.] DEGREES OF PEOPLE IN ENGLAND.
I [9
ſ Sir Rich. Fitzſimon. Sir] Otho Holland.
Sſir] Miles Stapleton. S[ir] Henrie Eme.
S[ir] Thomas Wale. Sir Sanchet Dambri-
| Sir] Hugh Wroteſley. COUrt.
Sir Walter Pannell
alias Paganell.
S[ir] Neale Lording.
Sir] Iohn Chandos.
| Sir] Iames Dawdleie.
What order of eleētion, and what eſtatutes were
preſcribed vnto the elected at this firſt inſtitution, as yet
I can not exačtlie vnderſtand; neither can I learne
what euerie prince afterward added therevnto before
the fix and thirtith yeare of king Henrie the eight, and
third of king Edward the fixt: wherefore of neceſſitie
I muſt reſort vnto the eſtate of the ſaid order as it is at
this preſent, which I will ſet downe ſo brieflie as I may.
When anie man therefore is to be elected (vpon a
roome found void for his admiſſion) into this fellowſhip,
the king direéteth his letters vnto him, notwithſtanding
that he before hand be "nominated to" the ſame, to this
effect.
well, aſſerteining you, that in confideration aſwell of
“Right truſtie and welbeloued, we greete you
your approoued truth and fidelitie, as alſo of your
couragious and valiant ačts of knighthood, with other
your probable merits knowne by experience in ſundrie
parties and behalfes : we, with the companions of the
noble order of the Garter, aſſembled at the ele&tion
holden this daie within our manour of N., haue ele&ted
and choſen you amongſt other to be one of the com-
panions of the ſaid Order, as your deſerts doo con-
Wherefore we will that? with con-
uenient diligence vpon the fight herof, you repaire vnto
dignelie require.
our preſence, there to receiue ſuch things as to the ſaid
order apperteineth. Dated vnder our fignet at our
maner of N. &c.”* Theſe letters [are the exemplification
of certeine, which] (as it ſhould ſeeme) were written
1–1 nominate unto 2 yt * Grenewich the 24 of April
The first,
Knights of the
Garter.
[Election.]
The present
state of the
Order of the
Garter.
Before admis-
sion the King
by letter notifies
to the Knight
Elect
that he has been
elected into the
Order,
and appoints a
place for his
reception.
I2O
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, |Book II.
King Edward
VI.'s summons
of Apr. 24, 1549,
to Lord Cob-
ham's father.
Signers of Ed-
ward VI.'s
SUlDOIn On SeS.
An. 3. Edwardi ſerti [at Greenewich Aprilis 24] writo
the earle of Huntingdon, & the lord George Cobham
your lordſhips honorable father, at ſuch time as they
I find alſo
were called vnto the aforeſaid companie.
theſe names ſubſcribed vnto the ſame.
| Edward duke of ſ L. Ruſſell lord priuie
Summerſet, wh- ſeale.
cle to the king. L. S. Iohn Iſord] great
The marq. of North- maſter.
+ hampton. { Sir Iohn Gage. >
Earle of Arundell L. S. Anthonie Wing- ;
Chamberleine. field.
Earle of Shreweſ- Sir William Paget.
l burie. * l 2
Being elected, preparation is made for his inſtall-
ing at Windſore (the place appointed alwaies for
this purpoſe) whereat it is required that his banner be
ſet vp, of two yardes and a quarter in length, and
three quarters in bredth, beſides the fringe. Secondlie
his ſword, of whatſoeuer length him ſeemeth good.
Thirdlie his helme, which from the charnell vpwards
ought to be of three inches at the leaſt. Fourthlie the
creſt, with mantels to the helme belonging, of ſuch
conuenient ſtuffe and bigneſſe, as it ſhall pleaſe him to
appoint.
Item a plate of armes at the backe of his ſtall, and
creſt with mantels and beaſts ſupportant, to be grauen
in [the] mettall.
Item lodging ſcutcheons of his armes, *inuironned
with a *garter, *and painted in paper or cloth of buck-
ram, which when he trauelleth by the waie are to be
fixed in the common Ins where he dooth lodge, as a
teſtimonie of his preſence and ſtaies from time to time
as he did trauell.”
Item two mantels, one to * remaine in the college
[Admission]
of a Knight of
the Garter.
In St George's
Chapel, Wind-
sor, are set up
his Banner,
Sword, Helm,
Crest,
a plate of Arms
at the back of
his stall in the
Chapel
Lodging-
Scutcheons
to be fixt in the
imms at which he
stays.
Two Mantles.
1 at
2–2 in the 3–3 be occupyed by the way 4 to the
CHAP. v.] D E GREES OF PEOPLE IN ENGLAND.
I 2 I
at Windſore, the other to vſe at his pleaſure, with the
ſcutcheon of the armes of S. George in the garter
with laces, taſſelets, and knops of blue ſilke and gold
belonging to the ſame.
Item a ſurcote or gowne of red or crimofine veluet,
with a whood of the ſame, lined with white ſarcenet or
damaſke.
Item a collar of the garter of thirtie ounces of gold
Troie weight.
Item a tablet of S. George, richlie garniſhed with
precious ſtones or otherwiſe.
Item a garter for his (left) leg, hauing the buckle
and pendant garniſhed with gold.
Item a booke of the ſtatutes of the ſaid order.
Item a ſcutcheon of the armes of S. George in the
garter to ſet vpon the mantell. And this furniture is to
be prouided againſt his inſtallation.
When anie knight is to be inſtalled, he hath with
his former letters, a garter ſent vnto him, and when
he commeth to be inſtalled, he is brought into the
chapter houſe, where incontinentlie his commiſſion
is read before the ſouereigne, or his deputie, and the
aſſemblie preſent : from hence he is lead by two knights
of the ſaid order, accompanied with the other of the
nobilitie, and officers toward the chappell, hauing his
mantell borne before him, either by a knight of the order,
or elſe the king at armes, to whome it ſecondarilie
apperteineth to beare it. This mantell ſhall be deliuered
wnto him for his habit, after his oth taken before his
ſtall, and not before : which doone, he ſhall returne
wnto the chapter houſe, where the ſouereigne, or his
deputie, ſhall deliuer him his collar, and ſo he ſhall
haue the full poſſeſſion of his habit. As for his ſtall, it
is not giuen according vnto the calling and countenance
of the receiuer, but as the place is that happeneth to be
void, ſo that each one called vnto this knighthood (the
ſouereigne, and emperours, and kings, and princes
One to be left
at Windsor; the
other us’d by
himself.
Surcoat of red
velvet.
Collar of the
Garter.
Tablet of St.
George.
Garter for the
left leg.
Book of
Statutes.
Scutcheon of the
arms of St
George.
[/rºstallation.]
From the
Chapter-House
he is led to
St George's
Chapel,
has a .
[Mazzfel/.]
deliverd to
him, takes the
Oath, goes back
to the Chapter-
House, and gets
his Collar.
[Stall.]
l 22
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Each Knight of
the Garter takes
his predecessor's
stall.
The dress of the
Enights of the
Garter.
The King's
dress.
A timzöer cont-
zezzzeż% yozºze
skirts, [Éeltes, or
Jelles.]
[' p. 161]
The Chaplain's
dress.
alwaies excepted) ſhall haue the ſame ſeat, which
became void by the death of his predeceſſor, how-
ſoeuer it fall out : wherby a knight onlie oftentimes
dooth fit before a duke, without anie murmuring or
grudging at his roome, except it pleaſe the ſouereigne,
once in his life [onelie] to make a generall alteration
of thoſe ſeats, and to ſet each one according to his
degree.
Now as touching the apparell of theſe knights, it
remaineth ſuch as king Edward, the firſt deuiſer of this
order, left it, that is to ſaie, euerie yeare one of the
colours, that is to ſay, ſcarlet, ſanguine in grain, blue
and white. In like ſort the kings grace hath at his
pleaſure the content of cloth for his gowne and whood,
lined with white ſatine or damaſke, and multitude of
garters with letters of gold.
The prince hath fiue yardes of cloth for his gowne
and whood, and garters with letters of gold at his plea-
ſure, beſide fiue timber of the fineſt mineuer.
A duke hath fiue yardes of woollen cloth, fiue tim-
ber of mineuer, I2O garters with title of gold.
A marques hath fiue yards of woollen cloth, fiue
timber of mineuer, I fo garters of filke.
An earle fiue yardes of woollen cloth, fiue timber
of mineuer, and Ioo garters of filke.
A viſcount fiue yardes of woollen cloth, fiue tim"ber
of mineuer, 9o garters of ſilke.
A baron fiue yardes of woollen cloth, three timber
of mineuer greſle, 8o garters of filke.
A banneret fiue yards of woollen cloth, three
timber of mineuer, 7o garters of ſilke.
A knight five yards of woollen cloth, three timber
of mineuer, 6o garters of ſilke.
The biſhop of Wincheſter chapleine of the garter,
hath eight and twentie timber of mineuer pure, nine-
teene timber” gr[eſle, three timber and a halfe of
2 timber of
CHAP. v.] DEGREEs of PEoPLE IN ENGLAND.
123
the beſt, and foure & twentie yards of woollen
cloth.
The chancellor of the order fiue yards of woollen
cloth, three timber of mineuer pure.
The regiſter of the order fiue yardes of woollen
cloth, three timber of mineuer pure. And this order
to be holden generallie among the knights of this
companie, which are ſix and twentie in. number, and
whoſe patrone in time of ſuperſtition was ſuppoſed to be
S. George, of whome they were alſo called S. Georges
knights, as I haue heard reported. [Would to God
they might be called knights of honor, or by ſome
other name, for the title of ſaint George argueth a
wrong patrone.]
Furthermore at his inſtallation he is ſolemnelie
ſworne, the maner whereof I haue thought good alſo
to annex, in this maner. “You being choſen to be
one of the honorable companie of the order of the
Garter, ſhall promiſe and ſweare vpon the holie euan-
gelies by you bodilie touched, to be faithfull and true
to the kings maieſtie, and to obſerue and keepe all the
points of the ſtatutes of the ſaid order, and euerie
article in them conteined, the ſame being agreeable
and not repugnant to the kings highneſſe other godlie
proceedings, ſo far as to you belongeth & apperteineth,
as God you helpe, &c.” And thus much haue I thought
good to note touching the premiſſes.
As touching the eſtatutes belonging to this order
they are manie, and therefore not to be touched here.
Howbeit if anie doubt doo ariſe aboue the interpreta-
tion of them, the king, who is the perpetuall ſouereigne
of that order, hath to determine and reſolue the ſame.
Neither are anie choſen therevnto vnder the degree of
a knight, and that is not a gentelman of bloud and of
ſound eſtimation.
And for the better vnderſtanding what is meant by
a gentleman of bloud, he is defined to deſcend of three
The Order of the
Garter.
The Registrar's
dress.
St George is a
wrong patron
for the Order.
[Installation.]
The Oath of a
Knight of the
Garter.
[Estatutes.]
[Gentleman of
&lored.]
I24
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
The Order of
the Garter
[Degrees of
regroch] that
stop men enter-
ing the Order.
[Apparell.]
The Knights
wear the dress
of the Order
when in St
George's Chapel,
or on the busi-
ness of the
Order, and on
St George's Eve,
and St George's
Day.
The 13 Canons
and 26 poor
Rnights of St
George's Chapel,
Windsor, have
mantles of the
Order.
Sicke or absent.
deſcents of nobleneſſe, that is to ſaie, of name and of
armes both by father and mother.
There are alſo foure degrees of reproch, which
may inhibit from the entrance into this order: of
which the firſt is herefie lawfullie prooued, the ſecond
high treaſon, the third is flight from the battell, the
fourth riot and prodigall exceſſe of expenſes, whereby
he is not likelie to hold out, and mainteine the port of
knight of this order, according to the dignitie thereof.
Moreouer, touching the wearing of their aforeſaid
apparell, it is their cuſtome to weare the ſame, when
they enter into the chappell of S. George or be in the
chapter houſe of their order, or finallie doo go about
anie thing apperteining to that companie. In like
ſort they weare alſo their mantels vpon the euen of
S. George, and go with the ſouereigne, or his deputie
in the ſame in maner of proceſſion from the kings
great chamber vnto the chappell, or vnto the college,
and likewiſe backe againe vnto the aforſaid place, not
putting it from them, vntill ſupper be ended, and the
The next daie they reſort vinto the
chappell alſo in the like order, & from thence vnto
auoid doone.
diner, wearing afterward their ſaid apparell vnto euen-
ing praier, and likewiſe all the ſupper time, Vntill the
auoid be finiſhed. In the ſolemnitie likewiſe of theſe
feaſts, the thirteene chanons there, and fix and twentie
poore knights haue mantels of the order, whereof
thoſe for the chanons are of Murreie with a roundell
of the armes of S. George, the other of red, with a
ſcutcheon onelie of the ſaid armes.
If anie knight of this order be abſent from this
ſolemnitie vpon the euen and, daie of S. George, and
be inforced not to be preſent either through bodilie
fickeneſſe, or his abſence out of the land: he dooth in
the church, chappell, or chamber where he is remain-
ing, prouide an honorable ſtall for the kings maieſtie
in the right hand of the place with a cloth of eſtat,
CHAP. v.] DEGREES OF PEOPLE IN ENGLAND.
I2.5
and cuſhions, and ſcutchion of the garter, and therein
the armes of the order. Alſo his owne ſtall of which
ſide ſoeuer it be diſtant from the kings or the emperours
in his owne place, appointed ſo nigh as he can, after the
maner and ſituation of his ſtall at Windſore, there to
remaine, the firſt euening praier on the euen of
S. George, or three of the clocke, and likewiſe the
next daie during the time of the diuine ſeruice, vintill
the morning praier, and the reſt of the ſeruice be
ended : and to weare in the meane time his mantell
onelie, with the George and the lace, without either
whood, collar, or ſurcete." Or if he be ſo ſicke that
he doo keepe his bed, he dooth vſe to haue that habit
laid vpon him during the times of diuine ſeruice
aforeſaid.
At the ſeruice time alſo vpon the morrow after
S. George, two of the chiefe knights (ſauing the de-
putie of the ſouereigne if he himſelfe be abſent) ſhall
offer the kings banner of armes, then other two the
ſword with the hilts forwards, which being doone, the
firſt two ſhall returne againe, and offer the helme and
creſt, hauing at each time two heralds of armes going
before, according to the ſtatutes. The lord deputie
or lieutenant vnto the kings grace, for the time being,
alone and aſſiſted with one of the chiefe lords, dooth
deliuer at his offering a peece of gold, and hauing all
the king of armes and heralds going before him, he
When he hath thus
offered for the prince, he returneth with like ſolemnitie
wnto his ſtall, and next of all goeth againe with one
herald to offer for himſelfe, whoſe oblation being made,
euerie knight according to their ſtals, with an herald
before him proceedeth to the offering.
What ſolemnitie is vſed at the buriall of anie knight
of the Garter, it is but in vaine to declare: wherefore
ſo proceedeth to the offering.
I will ſhew generallie what is doone at the diſgrading
* surcote
The Order of the
Garter.
A Knight sick or
absent on St
George's Day
If he's in bed,
his mantle
and George are
to be laid on
him at service-
time.
Offering.
in St George's
Chapel.
The Lord
Deputy offers a
piece of gold for
the King.
Burialſ.
126
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II,
of one of theſe knights, if through anie grieuous offenſe
he be ſeparated from this companie. Whereas other-
wiſe the figne of the order is neuer taken from him
wntill death doo end & finiſh vp his daies. Therfore
when anie ſuch thing' is doone, promulgation is made
therof after this maner inſuing.
Be it knowne vnto all men that N. N. knight of
the moſt noble order of the Garter, is found giltie of
the abhominable and deteſtable crime of high treaſon,
for he hath moſt traitorouſie conſpired againſt our
moſt high and mightie prince ſouereigne of the ſaid
order, contrarie to all right, his dutie, and the faithfull
oth, which he hath ſworne and taken. For which
cauſes therefore he hath deſerued to be depoſed from
this noble order, and fellowſhip of the Garter. For
it may not be ſuffered that ſuch a traitor and diſloiall
member remaine among the faithfull knights of re-
nowmed” ſtomach & bountifull prowes, or that his
armes ſhould be mingled with thoſe of noble chiualrie.
Wherefore our moſt excellent prince and ſupreme of
this 8 moſt honorable 8 order, by the aduiſe and counſell
of his collegues, willeth and commandeth that his
armes which he before time hath deſerued ſhall be
from hencefoorth [be] taken awaie and throwne downe:
and he himſelfe cleane cut off from the ſocietie of this
renowmed order, and neuer from this daie reputed anie
more for a member of the ſame, that all other by his
example may hereafter beware how they commit the
like treſpaſſe, or fall in to ſuch notorious infamie" and
rebuke. This notice being giuen, there reſorteth vnto
the partie to be diſgraded certeine officers with diuerſe
of his late fellowes appointed, which take from him his
George, and other inueſtiture, after a ſolemne maner.
And hitherto 6 of this moſt honorable order, hoping
that no man will be offended with me, in vttering
The Order of the
Garter,
Disgradung
of a Knight for
treason.
'Tis insufferabie
that a traitor
should remain
amongst such
faithful
JKnights.
["p. 162.]
Officers and
Knights so-
lemnly take
away his George.
[Cp. Talbot's
tearing the
garter off Fas-
tolfe’s leg in
I Hem. VI. IV. i.
15.] -
1 is to be
* shame
2 noble 3–8 noble
* thus much
CHAP. v.] DEGREES OF PEOPLE IN ENGLAND.
I27
thus much. For fith the noble order of the Toiſon
Dor or golden fleeſe, with the ceremonies appertein-
ing vnto the creation and inueſtiture of the fix and
thirtie knights thereof: and likewiſe that of ſaint
Michaell and his one and thirtie knights, are diſcourſed
vpon at large by the hiſtoriographers of their owne'
countries, without reprehenſion or checke, [eſpeciallie by
Vincentius Lupan, lib. I. de Mag. Franc. cap. de equitiºus
ordinis, where he calleth them Cheualliers ſans reproche,
and thereto addeth that their chaine is commonlie of
two hundred crownes at the leaſt, and honour thereof
ſo great, that it is not lawfull for them to ſell, giue, or
laie the ſame to morgage (would to God they might
once brooke their name, Sans reproche, but their gen-
erall deling in our time with all men, will not ſuffer
ſome of the beſt of their owne countries to haue that
opinion of them), I truſt I haue not giuen anie cauſe
of diſpleaſure, briefelie to ſet foorth thoſe things that
apperteine vnto our renowmed order of the Garter, in
whoſe compaſſe is written commonlie, * Honi ſoit qui
mal y penſe, which is ſo much to ſaie, as, ‘Euill come
to him that euill thinketh ';
and yet ſuch as is not contrarie to the word, which
a verie ſharpe imprecation,
promiſeth like meaſure to the meter, as he dooth mete
to others.
There is yet an other order of knights in Eng-
land called knights Bannerets, who are made in the
field with the ceremonie of cutting awaie” the point
of his penant of armes, and making it as it were a
banner, * ſo that being before but a bacheler knight,
he * is now of an higher degree, and allowed to diſplaie
Howbeit theſe
knights are neuer made but in the warres, the kings
ſtandard being vnfolded.
Eſquire (which we call commonlie ſquire) is a
his armes in a banner, as barrons doo.
French word, and ſo much in Latine as Scutiger vel
* those * of *—" He being before a Bachelor knight
As the cere-
monies of the
Orders of the
Golden Fleece,
and St Michael,
are given by
other writers,
I hope f’m justi-
fied in giving
those of our
Order of the
Garter.
* Sozze whº
that this zºſas
the answer of
the queeze, zwhent
the Žing asked
zwhat arten
zuould thinke of
hir, in losing
the gaztez-
after such a
2%.2262”.
I(nights
Aazzzzerets.
are made only
in War-time.
Esquire.
I 28
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
Who an Esquire
is,
Gerztlement.
We think now
only of Norman
ancestors ; no-
thing of Saxon;
rmuch less of
British.
Lawlers stat-
dezzi's in zyzzz-
zeersities.
Physicians.
Ca/ºteins,
Any one who
can live without
hand work, can
be a gentleman,
and buy a coat
of arms,
armiger, and ſuch are all thoſe which beare armes, or
armoires, teſtimonies of their race from whence they
be deſcended. They were at the firſt coſterels or "
bearers of the armes of barons, or knights, & thereby
being inſtrućted in * martiall knowledge,” had that
name for a dignitie giuen to diſtinguiſh them from
common ſouldiers [called Gregarij milites] when they
were togither in the field.
Gentlemen be thoſe whome their race and bloud,
[or at the leaſt their vertues] doo * make noble and
knowne. The Latines call them Nobiles & generoſos,
as the French do Nobles [or Gentlehommes]. The
etymologie of the name expoundeth the efficacie of
the word : for as Gems in Latine betokeneth the race
and ſurname: ſo the Romans had Cornelios, Sergios,
Appios, [Curios, Papyrios, Scipiones, Fabios, AEmilios,
Iulios, Brutos, &c. of which, who were Agnati, and
therefore kept the name, were alſo called Gentiles,
gentlemen of that or that houſe and race.
[Moreouer] as the king 4 dooth dubbe knights, and
createth the barons and higher degrees, ſo gentlemen
whoſe anceſtors are not knowen to come in with
William duke of Normandie [(for of the Saxon races
yet remaining we now make none accompt, much
leſſe of the Britiſh iſſue)] doo take their beginning
in England, after this maner in our times. Who
ſoeuer ſtudieth the lawes of the realme, who ſo *abideth *
in the vniuerſitie [giuing his mind to his booke, or
profeſſeth phyſicke and the liberall ſciences, or beſide
his ſeruice in the roome of a capteine in the warres, [or
good counſell giuen at home, whereby his common-
wealth is benefited, can liue" without manuell labour,
and thereto is able and will beare the port, charge, and
countenance of a gentleman, he ſhall [for monie haue
a cote and armes beſtowed vpon him by heralds (who
in the charter of the ſame doo of cuſtome pretend
* or the 2–2 Armes 3 doth 4 King or Queene 5 studieth 6 ydlely and
cHAP. V.] DEGREES OF PEOPLE IN ENGLAND.
I29
antiquitie and ſeruice, and manie gaie things) and
therevnto being made ſo good cheape] be called maſter,
which is the title that men giue to eſquiers and gentle-
men, and reputed for a gentleman ſeuer after.] Which
is ſo much the leſſe to be diſalowed of, for" that the
prince dooth looſe nothing by it, the gentleman being
ſo much ſubie&t to taxes and publike painments as is the
yeoman or huſbandman, which he likewiſe” dooth
beare the gladlier for the ſauing of his reputation.
Being called [alſo] to the warres [(for with the gouern-
ment of the common-wealth he medleth litle)] what
ſoeuer it coſt him, he will both arraie & arme himſelfe fit
accordinglie, and ſhew the more manly courage, and
all the tokens of the perſon which he repreſenteth.
No man hath hurt by it but himſelfe, who peraduenture
will [go in wider buſkens than his legs will beare, or as
our prouerbe ſaith, now and then beare a bigger ſaile
than his boat is able to ſuſteine.
[Certes the making of new gentlemen bred great
ſtrife ſometimes amongſt the Romans, I meane when
thoſe which were Noui homines, were more allowed
of for their vertues newlie ſeene and ſhewed, than
the old ſmell of ancient race, latelie defaced by the
cowardiſe & euill life of their nephues & defendants
could make the other to be. But as enuie hath no
affinitie with iuſtice and equitie, ſo it forceth not what
language the malicious doo giue out, againſt ſuch as
are exalted for their wiſdomes. This neuertheleſſe is
generallie to be reprehended in all eſtates of gentilitie,
and which in ſhort time will turne to the great ruine
of our countrie, and that is, the vſuall ſending of noble-
mens & meane gentlemens ſonnes into Italie, from
whence they bring home nothing but meere atheiſme,
infidelitie, vicious conuerſation, & ambitious and proud
behauiour, wherby it commeth to paſſe that they re-
turne far worſe men than they went out.
* also
and be call’d
* Master,’ and
reputed a gen-
tleman.
The gentleman,
when call'd to
the wars, pays
for his own out-
A gentle-
* as
IHARRISON. 9
Eſis title hurts
no one but him-
self.
Yet our nobles
and gentles do
foolishly in
sending their
sons into Italy,
whence they
bring home
Atheism, Vice,
and Pride.
I3o
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
Disgraceful
opinions of Ital-
ianate English-
In en
‘Keep faith only
when you’ll not
lose by it :
Forgive when
you're revengd:
Believe no re-
ligion :
A martyr’s a
fool:
Never mind
God ; obey the
King.’
These Italian-
ates too keep
Pages for
sodomy.
Citizens [and
&largesses.]
[, p. 163]
man at this preſent is newlie come out of Italie, who
went thither an earneſt proteſtant, but comming home
he could ſaie after this maner: “Faith & truth is to be
kept, where no loſſe or hinderance of a further purpoſe
is ſuſteined by holding of the ſame; and forgiueneſſe
onelie to be ſhewed when full reuenge is made.”
Another no leſſe forward than he, at his returne from
thence could ad thus much; “He is a foole that maketh
accompt of any religion, but more foole that will looſe
anie part of his wealth, or will come in trouble for con-
ſtant leaning to anie: but if he yeeld to looſe his life
for his poſſeſſion, he is ſtark mad, and worthie to be * *
taken for moſt foole of all the reſt.” This gaie bootie
gate theſe gentlemen by going into Italie, and hereby
a man may ſee what fruit is afterward to be looked for
where ſuch bloſſoms doo appeere. “I care not (ſaith a
third) what you talke to me of God, ſo as I may haue
the prince & the lawes of the realme on my fide.”
Such men as this laſt, are eaſilie knowen ; for they
haue learned in Italie, to go vp and downe alſo in
England, with pages at their heeles finelie apparelled,
whoſe face and countenance ſhall be ſuch as ſheweth
the maſter not to be blind in his choiſe. But leaſt I
ſhould offend too much, I paſſe ouer to ſaie anie more
of theſe Italionates and their demeanor, which alas is
too open and manifeſt to the world, and yet not called
into queſtion.]
Citizens and burgeſſes haue next place to gentle-
men, who be thoſe that are free within the cities, and
are of ſome [likelie] ſubſtance to beare office in the
ſame. But theſe citizens or burgeſſes are to ſerue
1 the commonwealth in their cities and boroughs, or
And in the
common aſſemblie of the realme * wherein our lawes
in corporat townes where they dwell.
are made, for in the counties they beare but little ſwaie
(which aſſemblie is? called the [high court of] par-
have little
power in
counties.
2—2 to make lawes
CHAP. v.] DEGREES OF PEOPLE IN ENGLAND.
I 31
lement) the ancient cities appoint foure, and the
boroughs two burgeſſes to haue voices in it, and * giue
their conſent or diſſent vnto ſuch things as paſſe or
ſtaie there in the name of the citie or borow, for which
they are appointed.
In this place alſo are our merchants to be inſtalled,
as amongſt the citizens [(although they often change
eſtate with gentlemen, as gentlemen doo with them, by
a mutuall conuerſion of the one into the other)] whoſe
number is ſo increaſed in theſe our daies, that their
onelie maintenance is the cauſe of the exceeding prices
of forreine wares, which otherwiſe when euerie” nation
was permitted to bring in hir owne commodities, were
farre better cheape and more plentifullie to be had. [Of
the want of our commodities here at home, by their
great tranſportation of them into other countries, I
ſpeake not, fith the matter will eaſilie bewraie it ſelfe.
Certes] among the Lacedemonians it was found out,
that great numbers of merchants were nothing to the
furtherance of the ſtate of the commonwealth : where-
fore it is to be wiſhed that the [huge] heape of them
were ſomewhat reſtreiued, [as alſo of our lawiers] ſo
ſhould the reſt liue more eaſilie vpon their owne, and
few honeſt chapmen be brought to decaie, by breaking
of the bankerupt. I doo not denie but that the nauie
of the land is in part mainteined by their traffike, and
ſo are the high prices of wares * kept vp, now they haue
gotten the onelie ſale of things, [vpon pretenſe of better
furtherance of the common-wealth] into their [owne]
hands : whereas in times paſt when the ſtrange bottoms
were ſuffered to come in, we had ſugar for foure pence
the pound, that now [at the writing of this treatiſe] is
[well] worth halfe a crowne, raiſons * or corints * for a
penie that now are holden at fix pence, and ſometime
at eight pence and ten pence the pound: nutmegs at
two pence halfe penie the ounce : ginger at a penie an
1 and to * eache * thinges
Ancient Cities
have 4 M.P.s ;
Boroughs, 2.
Merchazzfs.
are greatly in-
creast of late.
And yet too
many of them,
and of lawyers,
are but a clog on
the common- .
wealth.
Merchants keep
up prices.
In Free-Trade
days sugar was
6d. a pound.
Now it’s 2s. 6d. :
raisins were la: ;
and are now 6d.
to 10d.
4 of Corinth
I32
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
How Merchants
bave raisd the
prices of gro-
ceries.
The wares they
export from
England.
And not content
with their old
European trade,
they now go to
the Indies,
China, Tartary,
&c.
But prices keep
up.
And every trade
strives to get all
profit for itself.
Peomeent.
ounce, prunes at halfe penie farding : great raiſons three
pound for a penie, cinamon at foure pence the ounce,
cloues at two pence, and pepper at twelue, and fixteene
pence the pound. Whereby we may ſee the ſequele of
things not alwaies [but verie ſeldome] to be ſuch as is
pretended in the beginning. The wares that they carrie
out of the realme, are for the moſt part brode clothes
and carſies of all colours, likewiſe cottons, freeſes, rugs,
tin, wooll, [our beſt beere, baies, buſtian, mockadoes
tufted and plaine, raſh, lead, fells, &c.; which being
ſhipped at fundrie ports of our coaſts, are borne from
thence into all quarters of the world, and there either
exchanged for other wares or readie monie : to the
great gaine and commoditie of our merchants. And
whereas in times paſt their cheefe trade was into
Spaine, Portingall, France, Flanders, Danſke, Norwaie,
Scotland, and Iſeland onelie: now * in theſe daies, as
men not contented with theſe * iournies, they haue
ſought out the eaſt and weſt Indies, and made [now
and then ſuſpicious] voiages, not onelie vnto the
Canaries, and new Spaine, but likewiſe into Cathaia,
Moſcouia, Tartaria, and the regions thereabout, from
whence (as they ſaie “) they bring home great com-
modities. "[But alas I ſee not by all their trauell that
the prices of things are anie whit abated. Certes this
enormitie (for ſo I doo accompt of it) was ſufficientlie
prouided for, An. 9 Edward 3. by a noble eſtatute made
in that behalfe, but vpon what occaſion the generall
execution thereof is ſtaied or not called on, in good
footh I cannot tell. This onelie I know, that euerie
funétion and ſeuerall vocation ſtriueth with other,
which of them ſhould haue all the water of commoditie
run into hir owne ceſterne.]
Yeomen" are thoſe, which by our 7 law 7 are called
1 our 2 so * those 4 pretende
* (side note) Not sene in a batement of price of thinges
6 Our Yeomen 7–7 lawyers
cHAP. v.] DEGREES OF PEOPLE IN ENGLAND.
Legales homines, free men borne Engliſh," and may
diſpend of their owne free land in yearelie reuenue, to
the ſumme of fortie ſhillings ſterling, [or ſix pounds as
monie goeth in our times. Some are of the opinion by
Cap. 2. Rich. 2. an. 20. that they are the ſame which
the French men call varlets, but as that phraſe is vſed
The truth is
that the word is deriued from the Saxon terme Zeoman
or Geoman, which ſignifieth (as I haue read) a ſettled
or ſtaid man, ſuch I meane as being maried and of ſome
yeares, betaketh himſelfe to ſtaie in the place of his
abode for the better maintenance of himſelfe and his
familie, whereof the ſingle ſort haue no regard, but are
likelie to be ſtill fleeting now hither now thither, which
argueth want of ſtabilitie in determination and reſolu-
in my time it is farre vnlikelie to be ſo.
tion of iudgement, for the execution of things of anie
importance.] This ſort of people haue a certeine pre-
heminence, and more eſtimation than labourers & [the
common ſort of] artificers, & [theſe] commonlie liue
wealthilie, keepe good houſes, and trauell to get riches.
They are alſo for the moſt part farmers to gentlemen
[(in old time called Pagani, & opponuntur militibus,
and therfore Perſus calleth himſelfe Semipaganus) or
at the leaſtwiſe artificers, & with grafing, frequent-
ing of markets, and keeping of ſeruants (not idle ſeruants
as the gentlemen doo,” but ſuch as get both their owne
and part of their maſters liuing) do come to great welth,
in ſomuch that manie of them are able and doo buie
the lands of vnthriftie gentlemen, and often ſetting
their ſonnes to the ſchooles, to the vniuerſities, and to
the Ins of the court; or otherwiſe leauing them ſuf-
ficient lands wherevpon they may liue without labour,
doo make them * by thoſe * means to become gentle-
men : theſe were they that in times paſt made all
[And albeit they be not called maſter
as gentlemen are, or fir as to knights apperteineth
3 doth 4 that
Yeomen are
freemen worth
£6 a year in
land.
Yeoman means
a settl’d or staid
man, marri’d,
and not fleeting.
France afraid.
* orig. Euglish * their sayde sonnes
Yeomen live
well, and work.
They're
farmers:
and by grazing
and work
buy poor gentle-
men's lands,
educate their
sons for
professions, or
leave them
money to
become gentle-
Inleil.
These men made
France afraid.
I 34
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. |Book II.
Yeomen are not
calld Master,
but John,
Thomas, &c,
[Englishment ont
foot and French-
men on horsse-
backe best.]
[Capite censi
or Proletariff
Day labourers
and Artificers,
JVo slazzes zeor
bondment in
England.
[Not true as to
bondmen.]
Foreign slaves
become free so
soon as they set
foot on English
soil.
Labourers have
no voice in the
Commonwealth,
but are to be
ruled :
yet sometimes
they're put on
inquests, and
made church-
wardens, &c.
[8 p. 164]
Swarms of idle
Serving Men.
but onelie John and Thomas, &c.; yet haue they beene
found to haue doone verie good ſeruice :] and the
kings of England in foughten battels, were woont
to remaine among them (who were their footmen)
as the French kings did amongſt their horſemen :
the prince thereby ſhewing where his chiefe ſtrength
did conſiſt. g
The fourth and laſt ſort of people in England are
daie labourers, poore buſbandmen, and ſome retailers
(which haue no free land) copie holders, and all arti-
ficers, as tailers, ſhomakers, carpenters, brickmakers,
maſons, &c. As for ſlaues and bondmen we haue
none, ſnaie ſuch is the priuilege of our countrie by the
eſpeciall grace of God, and bountie of our princes, that
if anie come hither from other realms, ſo ſoone as they
ſet foot on land they become ſo free of condition as
their maſters, whereby all note of ſeruile bondage is
vtterlie remooued from them, wherein we reſemble
(not the Germans who had ſlaues alſo, though ſuch as
in reſpect of the ſlaues of other countries might well be
reputed free, but) the old Indians and the Taprobanes,
who ſuppoſed it a great iniurie to nature to make or
ſuffer them to be bond, whome ſhe in hir woonted
courſe dooth produćt and bring foorth free.] This 2
[fourth and laſt ſort of people] therefore haue neither
voice nor authoritie in the common wealth, but are to
be ruled, and not to rule other: yet they are not alto-
gither negle&ted, for in cities and corporat townes, for
default of yeomen, they are faine to make vp their
inqueſts of ſuch maner of people. And in villages
they are commonlie made churchwardens, fidemen,
aleconners, [now and then] conſtables, and manie times
inioie the name * of hedboroughes. [Vnto this ſort alſo
may our great ſwarmes of idle, 1eruing men be referred,
of whome there runneth a prouerbe; Yoong ſeruing
men, old beggers: bicauſe ſeruice is none heritage.
1 these yeomen 2 These
CHAP. v.] IDEGREES OF PEOPLE IN ENGLAND.
I 35
Theſe men are profitable to none, for if their condition
be well peruſed, they are enimies to their maſters, to
their freends, and to themſelues: for by them often-
times their maſters are incouraged vnto vnlawfull
exactions of their tenants, their freends brought vnto
pouertie by their rents inhanced, and they themſelues
brought to confuſion by their owne prodigalitie and
errors, as men that, hauing not wherewith of their
owne to mainteine their exceſſes, doo ſearch in high
waies, budgets, cofers, males, and ſtables, which way
to ſupplie their wants. How diuerſe of them alſo,
coueting to beare an high ſaile, doo inſinuate them-
ſelues with yoong gentlemen and noble men newlie
come to their lands, the caſe is too much apparant,
whereby the good natures of the parties are not onelie a
little impaired, but alſo their liuelihoods and reuenues
ſo waſted and conſumed, that if at all, yet not in manie
yeares, they ſhall be able to recouer themſelues. It
were verie good therefore that the ſuperfluous heapes
of them were in part diminiſhed. And fith neceſſitie
inforceth to haue ſome, yet let wiſdome moderate their
numbers, ſo ſhall their maſters be rid of Vnneceſſarie
charge, and the common wealth of manie theeues. No
nation cheriſheth ſuch ſtore of them as we doo here in
England, in hope of which maintenance manie giue
themſelues to idleneſſe, that otherwiſe would be brought
to labour, and liue in order like ſubieóts. Of their
whoredomes I will not ſpeake anie thing at all, more
than of their ſwearing, yet is it found that ſome of them
doo make the firſt a cheefe piller of their building, con-
ſuming not onlie the goods but alſo the health & wel-
fare of manie honeſt gentlemen, citizens, wealthie
yeomen, &c.; by ſuch vnlawfull dealings. But how
farre haue I waded in this point, or how farre may I
ſaile in ſuch a large ſea I will therefore now ſtaie to
ſpeake anie more of thoſe kind of men. In returning
therefore to my matter, this furthermore among other
Theidle Serving-
men are evil to
every one.
They turn
highway robbers
too
2
and waste
young gentle-
men's estates.
Their number
should be
lessend.
England keeps
more of them
than any other
Ination does.
These Serving-
Inen too
practise whore-
dom and swear-
ing.
I36
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
things I haue to ſaie of our huſbandmen and artificers,
that they were neuer ſo excellent in their trades as at
this preſent. But as the workemanſhip of the later ſort
was neuer more fine and curious to the eie, ſo was it
neuer leſſe ſtrong and ſubſtantiall for continuance and
benefit of the buiers. * Neither is there anie thing” that
hurteth [the common ſort of] our artificers more than
haſt, and a barbarous or ſlauiſh deſire [to turne the
penie, and by ridding their worke to make ſpeedie
vtterance of their wares: which inforceth them to
bungle vp and diſpatch manie things they care not how
ſo they be out of their hands, whereby the buier is often
fore defrauded, and findeth to his coſt, that haſt maketh
waſt, according to the prouerbe.
[Oh how manie trades and handicrafts are now in
England, whereof the common wealth hath no need
how manie needfull commodities haue we which are
perfected with great coſt, &c.; and yet may with farre
more eaſe and leſſe coſt be prouided from other coun-
tries if we could vſe the meanes. I will not ſpeake of
iron, glaſſe, and ſuch like, which ſpoile much wood, and
yet are brought from other countries better cheepe than
we can make them here at home; I could exemplifie
alſo in manie other.] But to leaue theſe things and
proceed with our purpoſe, and herein (as occaſion
ſerueth) generallie [by waie of concluſion] to ſpeake of
the common-wealth of England, I find that it is gouerned
and mainteined by three ſorts of perſons.
1 The prince, monarch, and head gouernour, which
is called the king, or (if the crowne fall to the woman)
the queene: in whoſe name and by whoſe authoritie
all things are adminiſtred.
2 The gentlemen, which be diuided into two ſorts,”
as the baronie or eſtate 8 of lords (which conteineth
barons and all aboue that degree) and alſo thoſe that be
no lords, as knights, eſquiers, & fimple gentlemen, “as I
4–4 &c
Our husband-
men and arti-
ficers were
Inever better
tradesmen than
they are now,
though some
scamp their
work,
and bungle it
Ulp.
How many
needless trades
have we l
And how many
needful things
do we pay dear
for, that we
could get
cheaper from
abroad 1
The Common-
wealth is
governd by
1. King,
2. Gentlemen :
Lords and
no Lords:
1—1 Certes there is nothing
* parts 3 estates
CHAP. v.] DEGREES OF PEOPLE IN ENGLAND.
I37
haue noted alreadie. Out of theſe alſo are the great
deputies and high prefidents choſen, of which one
ſerueth in Ireland, as another did ſometime in Calis,
and the capteine now at Berwike; as one lord preſi-
dent dooth gouerne in Wales, and the other the north
parts of this Iland, which later with certeine councellors
and iudges were erected by king Henrie the eight.
But forſomuch as I haue touched their conditions
elſewhere,” it ſhall be inough to haue remembred them
at this time.
3 The third and laſt ſort is named the yeomanrie,
of whom & their ſequele, the labourers and artificers,
[Whereto I ad that
they be not called maſters and gentlemen, but good-
I haue ſaid ſomewhat euen now.
men, as goodman Smith, goodman Coot, goodman
Cornell, goodman Maſcall, goodman Cockſwet, &c : &
in matters of law theſe and the like are called thus,
Giles Iewd yeoman, Edward Mountford yeoman, Iames
Cocke yeoman, Herrie Butcher yeoman, &c.; by which
addition they are exempt from the vulgar and common
ſorts. Cato calleth them Aratores & optimos ciues rei
publicae, of whom alſo you may read more in the booke
of common wealth which fir Thomas Smith ſometime
penned of this land.]
Of gentlemen” alſo ſome are by the prince choſen,
and called to great offices in the common wealth, of
which [ſaid] offices diuerſe concerne the whole realme;
ſome be more priuat and peculiar to the kings houſe.
And they haue their places and degrees, preſcribed by
an act of parlement made An. 31 HDenr]. očiaui, after
this maner inſuing.
Theſe foure the lord Chancellor, the lord Treaſuror
[(who is Supremus acrarij Anglici quaestor or Tribunus
arrarius maximus)] the lord Preſident of the councell,
and the lord Priuie feale, being perſons of the degree of
a baron or aboue, are in the ſame ačt appointed to fit in
* these
(From the
gentlemen are
chosen the
Deputies and
Lords Presi-
dent.
3. Yeomen,
who are calld,
not ‘Master,’
but ‘Goodman,”
Cockswet, &c.
Gentlemen are
chosen for high
offices by the
King.
The Lord Chan-
cellor and 3
other Officials
sit above all
Dukes, &c. not
of the blood
royal.
138
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAN D. [Book II.
The 6 Lord-
officers who're
entitled to sit
first, each in his
own rank.
The King’s
Secretary sits
above all of his
own rank.
No duke tº
Fngland.
{Earles.]
[* p. 165]
the parlement and in all aſſemblies or councell aboue
all dukes, not being of the bloud roiall, Widelicet the
kings brother, whole, or nephue.
And theſe fix, the lord 1 great Chamberleine of Eng-
land: the lord” high Conſtable of England: the lord
Marſhall of England : the lord Admirall of England:
the lord great maſter or Steward of the kings houſe:
and the lord 3 Chamberleine: by that ačt are to be
placed in all aſſemblies of councell, after the lord
priuie ſeale, according to their degrees and eſtats: ſo
that if he be a baron, then ſhe is] to fit aboue all barons:
or an earle, aboue all earles.
And ſo likewiſe the kings ſecretarie, being a baron
of the parlement, hath place aboue all barons, and if he
be a man of higher degree, he ſhall fit and be placed
according therevnto.
[The rehearſall of the temporall nobili-
tie of England, according to the anciencie
of their creations, or firſt calling
to their degrees, [as they are to be
found at this preſent.]
The Marquiſe of Wincheſter.
The earle of Arundell.
The earle of Oxford.
The earle of Northumberland.
The earle of Shreweſburie.
The earle of Kent.
The earle of Derbie.
The earle of Worceſter.
4 The earle of Rutland.
The earle of Cumberland.
The earle of Suſſex.
The earle of Huntingdon.
1 L, 2 L. 3 or Kings
CHAP. v.] DEGREES OF PEOPLE IN ENGLAND. I39
The earle of Bath. #;" of
The earle of Warwike.
The earle of Southampton.
The earle of Bedford.
The earle of Penbrooke.
The earle of Hertford.
The earle of Leiceſter.
The earle of Eſſex.
The earle of Lincolne.
The viſcont Montague. { Prºconuts.]
The viſcont Bindon.
The lord of Abergeuennie. [Barons.]
The lord Awdeleie.
The lord Zouch.
* The lord Barkeleie.
The lord Morleie.
The lord Dacres of the ſouth.
The lord Cobham.
* The lord Stafford.
The lord Greie of Wilton.
The lord Scroope.
The lord Dudleie.
The lord Latimer.
The lord Stourton.
The lord Lumleie.
The lord Mountioie.
The lord Ogle,
The lord Darcie of the north.
The lord Mountegle.
The lord Sands.
The lord Vaulx.
The lord Windſore.
* The 1577 ed. had besides, ‘The Lorde Straunge,' [? of Knokyn, the Earl of
Derby's eldest son: Nicolas, ii. 614] and “The Lorde Talbot,” both here cut out,
The Baronies of Strange [of Blackmere] and Talbot were mergd in the Earl of
Shrewsbury's titles: Nicolas, ii. 615.-F.
I4O
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
The Barons of
England.
Archbishops
and Bishops as
they sat in
Parliament in
1564.
[Cleazgie.]
The lord Wentwoorth.
The lord Borough.
The lord Mordaunt.
The lord Cromwell.
The lord Euers.
The lord Wharton.
The lord Rich.
The lord Willowbie.
The lord Sheffeld.
The lord Paget.
The lord Darcie of Chicheſſter.]
The lord Howard of Effingham.”
The lord North.
The lord Chaundos.
The lord of Hunſdon.
The lord ſaint John of Bletſo.
The lord of Buckhirſt.
The lord Delaware.
The lord Burghleie.
The lord Compton.
The lord Cheineie.
The lord Norreis.
Biſhops in their anciencie, as they
fat in parlement, in the fift of the
Queenes maieſties reigne”
[that now is.]
The archbiſhop of Canturburie.
| The archbiſhop of Yorke.
London.
Durham.
Wincheſter.
The reſt had their places in ſenioritie of conſe-
cration.
1 Hawarde of Offingham * * the reigne
CHAP, v1.] FOOD AND DIET OF THE ENGLISH. I4 I
Chicheſter, ſ Bath and Welles. fºLior.
Landaffe. Couentrie and
Hereford. Lichfield.
Elie. Exceſter."
< Worceſter. - Norwich. 2.
Bangor. Peterborough.
Lincolne. Carleill.
Saliſburie. Cheſter.
S. Dauids. S. Aſſaph.
| Rocheſter. | Gloceſter. J
[And this for their placing in the parlement houſe. In his prºvincial
- assembly, the
& t wº Archbishop of
Howbeit, when the archbiſhop of Canturburie fiteth &ºis
& * & g * * & the Archbishop
in his prouinciall aſſemblie, he hath on his right hand º.º.
the archbiſhop of Yorke, and next vinto him the biſhop ..."
chester on his
of Wincheſter, on the left hand the biſhop of London : #. the
but if it fall out that the archbiſhop of Canturburie be ..."”
not there by the vacation of his ſee, then the arch-
biſhop of Yorke is to take his place, who admitteth
the biſhop of London to his right hand, and the prelat
of Wincheſter to his left, the reſt fitting alwaies as
afore, that is to ſaie, as they are elders by conſe-
cration, which I thought good alſo to note out of an
ancient preſident.]
Of the food and diet of
the Engliſh.”
Chap. 6.8
He fituation of our region, lieng neere vnto As England is
cold, English
the north, dooth cauſe the heate of our stomachs want
ſtomaches “to be of ſomewhat * greater
1 Exceter
* See Andrew Boorde's Dyetary of Helth, 1542, E. E. Text Soc. 1870, for a
description of how to build houses, and manage them and men's income, and what
food folk should eat.
3 In the 1577 ed., this chapter forms the 1st of the third book.
4–4 somewhat to increase and become of
I42.
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND's [Book II.
rºore food than
ºthern folk
O.
Our tables have
always been
better furnisht
than those of
other nations,
The late ſm-
provement in
Scotchmen’s
diet.
They gorman-
dize so that
they’re fit for
nothing but
stuffing.
Bector Boece
and Bishop
Wardlaw rebuke
them for it.
force : therefore our bodies doo craue * a little” more
ample nouriſhment, than the inhabitants of the hotter
regions are accuſtomed withall, whoſe digeſtiue force
is not altogither ſo vehement, bicauſe their internall
heat is not ſo ſtrong as ours, which is kept in by the
coldneſſe of the aire, that from time to time (ſpeciallie
in winter) dooth enuiron our bodies.
It is no maruell therefore that our tables are often-
times more plentifullie garniſhed than thoſe of other
nations, and this trade hath continued with vs euen
fince the verie beginning. For before the Romans
found out and knew the waie vnto our countrie, our
predeceſſors fed largelie vpon fleſh and milke, whereof
there was great aboundance in this Ile, bicauſe they
applied their cheefe ſtudies vnto paſturage and feeding.
After this maner alſo did our Welſh Britons order
themſelues in their diet ſo long as they liued of them-
ſelues, but after they became to be vinited and made
equall with the Engliſh, they framed their appetites to
liue after our maner, ſo that at this daie there is verie.
little difference betweene vs in our diets.
[In Scotland likewiſe they haue given themſelues
(of late yeares to ſpeake of) vnto verie ample and
large diet, wherein as for ſome reſpect nature dooth
make them equall with vs : ſo otherwiſe they far
exceed vs in ouer much and diſtemperate gormandize,
and ſo ingroſſe their bodies that diuerſe of them doo
oft become vnapt to anie other purpoſe than to ſpend
Againſt
this pampering of their carcaſſes dooth Hebtor Boetius
in his deſcription of the countrie verie ſharpelie inueigh
in the firſt chapter of that treatiſe. Henrie Wardlaw
alſo biſhop of S. Andrewes, noting their vehement
their times in large tabling and bellie cheere.
alteration from competent frugalitie into exceſſiue glut-
tonie, to be brought out of England with Iames the
firſt (who had beene long time priſoner there vnder the
1 wherefore 2–4 somewhat
cHAP. VI.] FOOD AND DIET OF THE ENGLISH.
I43
fourth & fift Henries, and at his returne caried diuerſe
Engliſh gentlemen into his countrie with him, whome
he verie honorablie preferred there) dooth vehementlie
exclame againſt the ſame in open parlement holden
at Perth 1433, before the three eſtats, and ſo bringeth
his purpoſe to paſſe in the end by force of his learned
perſuaſions, that a law was preſentlie made there for
the reſtreint of ſuperfluous diet, amongeſt other things
baked meats (diſhes neuer before this mans daies ſeene
in Scotland) were generallie ſo prouided for by vertue
of this ačt, that it was not lawfull for anie to eat of the
ſame vnder the degree of a gentleman, and thoſe onelie
but on high and feſtiuall daies; but alas it was ſoone
forgotten.]
In old time theſe” north Britons did giue them-
ſelues whiuerſallie” to great abſtinence, and in time
of warres their ſouldiers would often feed but once
or twiſe at the moſt in two or three daies (eſpeciallie
if they held themſelues in ſecret, or could haue no
iſſue out of their bogges and mariſes, through the pre-
ſence of the enimie) [and] in this diſtreſſe” they vſed
to ſeat a certeine kind of confection, whereof ſo much
as a beane would qualifie their hunger aboue common
expe&tation. In woods moreouer they liued with
hearbes and rootes, or if theſe ſhifts ſerued not tho-
rough want of ſuch prouiſion at hand, then vſed they]
to creepe into the water or [ſaid] mooriſh plots vp vnto
the chins, and there remaine a long time, onelie to
qualifie the heats of their ſtomachs by violence, which
otherwiſe would haue wrought and beene readie to
In
thoſe daies likewiſe it was taken for a great offenſe
oppreſſe them for hunger and want of ſuſtinance.
* ouer all,” to eat either gooſe, hare, or henne, bicauſe of
a certeine ſuperſtitious opinion which they had con-
ceiued of thoſe three creatures, howbeit after that the
Romans [(I ſaie)] had once found an entrance into this
* the 8 generally
* penurye also "-" amongst them
1 p. 145]
In 1433, Bishop
Wardlaw got a
law made that
bak’t meats
were to be eaten
only by gentle-
IGGIls
Morth Britons
in old times
liv'd on very
little ;
when in
trouble, on a
bit of concen-
trated food only
as big as a beam,
or on herbs and
roots,
or a good soak
in a marsh.
And they never
eat goose, hare,
or hen.
I 44
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
The English eat
all they can buy,
Ş. On In OD-
esh days ;)
Iland, it was not long yer” open ſhipwracke was made
of this religious obſeruation, ſo that in proceſſe of time,
ſo well the [north and ſouth] Britons as the Romans,
gaue ouer to make” ſuch difference in meats, as they
had doone before.”
From thencefoorth alſo vnto our daies, and euen
in this ſeaſon wherein we liue, there is no reſtreint of
anie meat, either for religions ſake or publike order
[in England, but it is lawfull for euerie man to feed
vpon what ſoeuer he is able to purchaſe, except it be
vpon thoſe daies whereon eating of fleſh is eſpeciallie
forbidden by the lawes of the realme, which order is
taken onelie to the end our numbers of cattell may
be the better increaſed, & that aboundance of fiſh
which the ſea yeeldeth, more generallie receiued.
Beſide this, there is great conſideration had in making
of this law for the preſeruation of the nauie, and main-
tenance of conuenient numbers of ſea faring men, both
which would otherwiſe greatlie decaie, if ſome meanes
were not found whereby they might be increaſed. But
how ſoeuer this caſe ſtandeth, white meats,4 milke,
butter & cheeſe, which were [neuer ſo deere as in my
time, and woont to be accounted of as one of the
chiefe ſtaies throughout the Iland, are now reputed as
food appertinent onelie to the inferiour ſort, whileſt
ſuch as are more wealthie, doo feed vpon the fleſh of
all kinds of cattell accuſtomed to be eaten, all ſorts of
fiſh taken vpon our coaſts and in our freſh riuers, and
ſuch diuerſitie of wild and tame foules as are either
bred in our Iland or brought ouer vnto vs from other
countries of the maine.
In number of diſhes and change of meat, the no-
bilitie of England [(whoſe cookes are for the moſt part
muſicall-headed Frenchmen and ſtrangers)] doo moſt
exceed, fith there is no daie in maner that paſſeth
but white meat,
milk, butter,
cheese, tho'very
dear, are eaten
only by the poor.
The rich folk eat
brown meat,
fish,
and fowl wild
and tame, home-
'bred and
foreign.
Noblemen have
musical-headed
French cooks.
ouer their heads, wherein they haue not onelie beefe,
! ere * make any 3 before time * meats as
chap. VI.] FOOD AND DIET OF THE ENGLISH.
I45
mutton, veale, lambe, kid, porke, conie, capon, pig, or
to manie of theſe as the ſeaſon yeeldeth : but alſo
fome portion of the red or fallow deere, beſide great
varietie of fiſh and wild foule, and thereto ſundrie
other delicates wherein the ſweet hand of the [ſea-
faring] Portingale is not wanting: ſo that for a man
to dine with one of them, and to taſt of euerie diſh
that ſtandeth before him (which few vſe to doo, 1 but ech
one feedeth vpon that [meat] him beſt liketh for the
time: [the beginning of euerie diſh notwithſtanding
being reſerued vnto the greateſt perſonage that fit-
teth at the table, to whome it is drawen vp ſtill by the
waiters, as order requireth, and from whome it de-
ſcendeth againe euen to the lower end, whereby each
one may taſt thereof)] is rather to yeeld vnto a con-
ſpiracie with a great deale of meat for the ſpeedie ſup-
preſſion of naturall health, then [the vſe of a neceſſarie
meane] to ſatiſfie himſelfe with a competent repaſt, to
ſuſteine his bodie” withall. But as this large feeding
is not ſeene in their geſts, no more is it in their owne
perſons, for fith they haue dailie much reſort vnto
their tables (and manie times vnlooked for), and thereto
reteine great numbers of ſeruants, it is verie requiſit
[& expedient] for them to be ſomewhat plentifull in
this behalfe.
The chiefe part likewiſe of their dailie prouiſion
is brought in before them [(commonlie in filuer veſ.
ſell if they be of the degree of barons, biſhops, and
vpwards)] and placed on their tables, wherof when
they haue taken what it pleaſeth them, the reſt is re-
ſerued, and afterward ſent downe to their ſeruing men
and waiters, who feed * thereon in like ſort with con-
uenient moderation, their reuerſion alſo being be-
ſtowed vpon the poore, which lie readie at their gates
in great numbers to receiue the ſame. This is ſpoken
of the principall * tables whereat the nobleman, his
1–1 but to feede 2 lyfe * fed * chiefe
H A RRTSON . 10 .
Nobili
(see Boorde in
Babees Book ;
and Stubs).
Dinners of the
ty
Delicacies
brought by the
Portuguese.
Every dish is
taken first to the
greatest person-
age at the table.
But Noblemen
and their Guests
don’t stuff.
Their food is
servd in silver
vessels.
What they leave,
goes to their
Serving-men,
and the serving-
men's leavings
go to the poor,
146
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
Separate allow-
ance for the
officers and
household of
Noblemen, with
whom the
inferior guests
feed,
often 40 or 60
folk.
Drink is serwd
in silver jugs,
&c., and in fine
Venice glasses
or earthen pots,
garnisht with
silver
Each man calls
for a cup,
drinks, and
hands it to his
neighbour, who
empties it, and
puts the cup on
the cupboard.
If fuſl pots stood
at every one's
elbow, the
tippling 'd be
great.
ladie and gueſtes, are accuſtomed to fit; beſide which,
they haue a certeine ordinarie allowance dailie ap-
pointed for their hals, where the chiefe officers and
houſehold ſeruants (for all are not permitted [by
cuſtome] to wait vpon their maſter) and with them
ſuch inferiour gueſtes, doo feed, as are not of call-
ing to aſſociat the noble man himſelfe; (ſo that be-
fides thoſe afore mentioned, which are called to the
principall table, there are commonlie fortie or three
ſcore perſons fed in thoſe hals, to the great reliefe of
ſuch [poore ſutors and] ſtrangers [alſo] as oft be par-
takers thereof, [and otherwiſe like to dine hardlie..] As
for drinke, it is [vſuallie filled in pots, gobblets, iugs,
bols of ſiluer in noble mens houſes, alſo in fine
Venice glaſſes of all formes, and for want of theſe
elſewhere, in pots of earth of fundrie colours and moulds,
whereof manie are garniſhed with filuer,) or at the
leaſtwiſe in pewter; all which notwithſtanding are]
1 ſeldome ſet on the table; but each one, as neceſſitie
vrgeth, calleth for a cup of ſuch drinke as him liſteth
to haue: 1 ſo that when he hath taſted of it, he de-
liuered the cup againe to ſome one of the ſtanders by,
who making it cleane [by pouring out the drinke that
remaineth, reſtoreth it to the cupbord” from whence
he fetched the ſame. By this deuiſe “[(a thing brought
vp at the firſt by Mneſteus of Athens, in conſeruation
of the honour of Oreſtes, who had not yet made
expiation for the death of his adulterous parents Egiſtus
and Clitemneſira), much idle tippling is furthermore
cut off, for if 4 the full pots ſhould continuallie ſtand
[at the elbow or neere the trencher, diuerſe would
alwaies be dealing with them, whereas now they
drinke ſeldome, " and onelie when neceſſitie vrgeth,
and ſo 5 auoid the note of great drinking,” or often
1_1 not usually set on the table in pottes or Cruses, but each one calleth for a
cup of such as he listeth to haue or as necessitie urgeth him
2 cubborne
8 occasion 4 for whereas *-* only to 6 drinkers
:
cHAP. VI.] FOOD AND DIET OF THE ENGLISH.
I47
troubling of the ſeruitours [with filling of their bols.]
Neuertheleſſe, in the noble mens hals, this order is
not vſed, neither in anie mans houſe commonlie
vnder the degree of a knight or eſquire * of *great
reuenues. [It is a world to ſee in theſe our daies,
wherin gold and filuer moſt aboundeth, how that our
gentilitie as lothing thoſe mettals (bicauſe of the plentie)
do now generallie chooſe rather the Venice glaſſes, both
for our wine and beere, than anie of thoſe mettals or
ſtone wherein before time we haue beene accuſtomed
to drinke; but ſuch is the nature of man generallie, that
it moſt coueteth things difficult to be atteined; & ſuch
is the eſtimation of this ſtuffe, that manie become rich
onelie with their new trade vnto Murana (a towne
neere to Venice ſituat on the Adriatike ſea), from whence
the verie beſt are dailie to be had, and ſuch as for
beautie doo well neere match the chriſtall or the
ancient Murrhina vaſa, whereof now no man hath
knowledge. And as this is ſeene in the gentilitie, ſo in
the wealthie communaltie the like defire of glaſſe is not
negle&ted, whereby the gaine gotten by their purchaſe
is yet much more increaſed to the benefit of the mer-
chant. The pooreſt alſo will haue glaſſe if they may ;
but fith the Venecian is ſomewhat too deere for them,
they content themſelues with ſuch as are made at home
of ferne and burned ſtone; but in fine, all go one waie,
that is, to ſhards at the laſt, ſo that our great expenſes
in glaſſes (beſide that they breed much ſtrife toward
ſuch as haue the charge of them) are worſt of all be-
ſtowed in mine opinion, bicauſe their peeces doo turne
wnto no profit. If the philoſophers ſtone were once
found, and one part hereof mixed with fortie of molten
glaſſe, it would induce ſuch a mettallicall toughneſſe
therevnto, that a fall ſhould nothing hurt it in ſuch
maner; yet it might peraduenture bunch or batter it;
neuertheleſſe, that inconuenience were quickelie to be
1 Squire
[2 p. 167]
But it is a
wonder to see
our Nobles
prefer
Venice Glass
to silver.
The new trade
in this Venice
Glass from
Murano
has enricht
many.
Our poorest folk
will have glass
too, but home-
made, of fern
and burnt Stone.
But all goes to
bits at last.
A fortieth of the
Philosopher's
Stone in it 'ud
make it tough,
and hammer-
able.
[Ro. Bacon.]
I48
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
redreſſed by the hammer. But whither am I ſlipped J
The gentlemen and merchants' keepe much about
one rate, and each of them contenteth himſelfe with
foure,” fiue, or fix diſhes, when they haue but ſmall
reſort, or peraduenture with one, or two, or three at
the moſt, when they haue no ſtrangers to accompanie
them at their tables.” And yet their ſeruants haue
their ordinarie diet aſſigned, beſide ſuch as is left at
their maſters boordes, & not appointed to be brought
thither the ſecond time, which [neuertheleſſe] is often
ſeene generallie in veniſon, [lambe, or ſome eſpeciall''
diſh, whereon the merchant man himſelfe liketh to
feed when it is cold, or peraduenture [for ſundrie cauſes
incident to the feeder] is better ſo, than if it were
warme or hot. To be ſhort, at ſuch time as the mer-
chants doo make their ordinarie or voluntarie feaſts, it
is a world to ſee what great prouiſion is made of all
maner of delicat meats, from euerie quarter of the
countrie, wherein, beſide that they are often comparable
herein to the nobilitie of the land, they will ſeldome
regard anie thing that the butcher vſuallie killeth, but
reie&t the ſame as not worthie to come in place. In
ſuch caſes alſo geliffes [of all colours, mixed with a
varietie in the repreſentation of ſundrie floures, herbs,
trees, formes of beaſts, fiſh, foules and fruits, and there-
wnto marchpaine wrought with no ſmall curioſitie, tarts
of diuerſe hewes and fundrie denominations,] conſerues
[of old fruits forren and home-bred, ſuckets, codinacs,
marmilats, marchpaine, “ſugerbread,” gingerbread,
florentines, wild foule, veniſon of all ſorts, and [ſundrie
outlandiſh confections; [altogither ſeaſoned with ſuger
(which Plinie calleth Mel ea arundinibus, a deuiſe not
common nor greatlie vſed in old time at the table, but
onelie in medicine, although it grew in Arabia, India
& Sicilia)] doo generallie beare the ſwaie, beſides"
infinit deuiſes of our owne, not poſſible for me to
Gentlefolk and
Merchants keep
much the same
table,
4 to 6 dishes,
or 1 to 3 when
they're alone,
with separate
diet for their
servants.
But at their
feasts, their
food equals that
of Nobles.
They have
besides, Jellies,
Marchpaine,
Tarts,
Conserves,
(Fr. ‘ Codigmat,)
Marmalade of
Quinces,’
Florentimes,
Sugard con-
fections.
1 merchant
2 four or * owne table 4–4 sugred bread “with other
CHAP. v1.] FO OD AND HDIET OF THE ENGLISH.
remember. [Of the potato and ſuch venerous roots as
are brought out of Spaine, Portingale, and the Indies
to furniſh vp our bankets, I ſpeake not, wherin our
Mures of no leſſe force, and to be had about Croſbie
Rauenſwath, doo now begin to haue place.]
But among all theſe, the kind of meat which is
obteined with moſt difficultie [and coſt], is commonlie
taken for the moſt delicat, and therevpon each gueſt
will ſooneſt deſire to feed. And as all eſtats doo exceed
herin, I meane for [ſtrangeneſſe and number of coſtlie
diſhes, ſo theſe forget not to vſe the like exceſſe in
wine, in ſomuch as there is no kind to be had (neither
anie where more ſtore of all ſorts than in England,
[although we haue none growing with vs but yearelie
to the proportion of 20000 or 3oooo tun and vpwards,
notwithſtanding the dailie reſtrein&ts of the ſame
brought ouer vnto vs, wherof at' great meetings there
is not ſome * ſtore to be had.” [Neither doo I meane
this of ſmall wines onlie, as Claret, White, Red, French,
&c.; which amount to about fiftie fix ſorts, according
to the number of regions from whence they come : but
alſo of the thirtie kinds of Italian, Grecian, Spaniſh,
Canarian, &c.: whereof Vernage, Cate pument, Raſpis,
Muſcadell, Romnie, Baſtard Lire, Oſeie, Caprike,
Clareie & Malmeſeie, are not leaſt of all accompted of,
bicauſe of their ſtrength and valure. For as I haue ſaid
in meat, ſo, the ſtronger the wine is, the more it is
deſired; by means wherof in old time, the beſt was
called Theologicum, bicauſe it was had from the cleargie
and religious men, vnto whoſe houſes manie of the
laitie would often ſend for bottels filled with the ſame,
being ſure that they would neither drinke nor be ſerued
of the worſt, or ſuch as was anie waies mingled or
brued by the vintener: naie, the merchant would haue
thought that his ſoule ſhould haue gone ſtreightwaie
to the diuell, if he ſhould haue ſerued them with other
1 at such *—” portion prouided
Pofato.
Mulberry?
Dearest food the
most desir’d.
Excess in wine.'
Of home-grown
wine, only
25,000 tun a
year.
56 kinds of
light wine;
30 of strong
wine (see Babees
Book Index).
Wine, the
stronger, the
more desir'd.
In old time
Theologicwm was
the best wine.
The wine-
merchant feard
he’d go to the
devil if he
didn’t give the
I5o
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
than the beft.] Furthermore, when theſe haue had
their courſe which nature yeeldeth, ſundrie ſorts of
artificiall ſtuffe [as ypocras & wormewood wine] muſt
in like maner ſucceed in their turnes, befide [ſtale] ale
and [ſtrong] beere, which neuertheleſſe beare the great-
eft brunt in drinking, and are of ſo manie ſorts and
ages as it pleaſeth the bruer to make them.
The beere that is vſed at noble mens tables [in their
fixed and ſtanding houſes] is commonlie of a yeare old,
or peraduenture of two yeares tunning or more, but
this is not generall. It is alſo brued in March, and
therefore called March beere; but for the houſehold,
it is vſuallie not vinder a moneths age, ech one couet-
ing to haue the ſame ſtale as he may, ſo that it be not
ſowre, and his bread new as is poſſible, ſo that it be not
hot.
The artificer and huſbandman make greateſt ac-
compt of ſuch meat as they may ſooneſt come by, and
haue it quicklieſt readie, [except it be in London when
the companies of euery trade doo meet on their quarter
daies, at which time they be nothing inferiour to the
nobilitie.] Their food alſo confifteth principallie in
beefe, and ſuch meat as the butcher ſelleth, that is to
ſaie, mutton, veale, lambe, porke, &c.; whereof he'
findeth great ſtore in the markets adioining, beſide
ſouſe, brawne, bacon, fruit, pies of fruit, foules of fun-
drie ſorts, cheeſe, butter, egs, &c.; as the other wanteth
it not at home, by his owne prouiſion, which is at the
beſt hand, and commonlie leaſt charge. In feaſting
alſo, this latter ſort, [I meane the huſbandmen, doo
exceed after their maner: eſpeciallie at bridales, puri-
fications of women, and ſuch" od meetings, where it
is incredible to tell what meat is conſumed & ſpent, ech
one bringing ſuch a diſh, or ſo manie [with him], as his
wife & he doo conſult vpon, but alwaies with this con-
fideration, that the leefer freend ſhall haue the 3 better
clerics the best
wine.
Artificial wines,
Ypocras and
Wormwood
wine.
[Beere.]
1 or 2 years old.
March beer.
Stale beer, but
new bread.
[Artificers'
and husband-
men's food.
London Com-
panies' Feasts on
Quarter-Days.
Working-men
eat butcher's
meat,
souse (pickl’d
pork), fruit
pies, &c.
Husbandmen’s
feasting, at
Bridales, Purifi-
cations, &c.
The Guests
bring their own
provisions.
(, the Artificer) 2 such like 3–8 best intertainement
CHAP. VI.] FOOD AND DIET OF THE ENGLISH.
I5 I
prouiſion.” This alſo is commonlie ſeene at theſe
bankets, that the good man of the houſe is not charged
with anything ſauing bread, drink, [ſauce, houſe'roome
and fire. But the artificers in cities and good townes
doo deale far otherwiſe ; for albeit that ſome of them
doo ſuffer their iawes to go oft before their clawes, and
diuerſe of them, by making good cheere, doo hinder
themſelues and other men : yet the wiſer ſort can
handle the matter well inough in theſe iunkettings,
and therfore their frugalitie deſerueth commendation.
To conclude, both the artificer and the huſbandman
are ſufficientlie liberall, & verie freendlie at their tables;
and when they meet, they are ſo merie without malice,
and plaine without inward [Italian or French] craft
and ſubtiltie, that it would doo a man good to be in
companie among them. Herein onelie are the inferiour
ſort [ſomewhat] to be blamed, that being thus aſſem-
bled, their talke is now and then ſuch as ſauoureth of
ſcurrilitie and ribaldrie, a thing naturallie incident to
Carters and clownes, who thinke themſelues not to be
merie & welcome, if their fooliſh veines in this behalfe
be neuer ſo little reſtreined. This is moreouer to be
added in theſe meetings,” that if they happen to ſtumble
Vpon a peece of veniſon, and a cup of wine or verie
ſtrong beere or ale (which latter they commonlie pro-
uide againſt their appointed daies) they thinke their
cheere ſo great, and themſelues to haue fared ſo well, as
the lord Maior of London, with whome, when their
bellies be full, they will [not] often [ſticke to] make
compariſon, [becauſe that of a ſubječt there is no publike
officer of anie citie in Europe, that may compare in
port and countenance with him during the time of his
office.]
I might here talke ſomewhat of the great filence
that is vſed at the tables of the honorable and wiſer
fort, generallie ouer all the realme [(albeit that too
* assembles
The good-man
finds only drink
and house-room.
[, p. 168]
The town
workmen are
more frugal in
feasting than
the country
ODeS.
Both artificers
and husband-
men are such
very friendly
folk, that it does
a man good to
be with 'em,
tho’ now and
then their talk
is Scurrilous and
ribald.
When they get
hold of a bit of
Venison and a
cup of wine,
they say,
A hazee dºned so
zwell as my lord!
zzzazoº.
with whom no
City Officer in
Europe can
Compare.
Silence at the
tables of the
Wiser sort.
I 52
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
much deſerueth no commendation, for it belongeth to
geſts neither to be muti nor loquaces)] likewiſe of the
moderate eating and drinking that is dailie ſeene, and
finallie of the regard that each one hath to keepe him-
ſelfe from the note of ſurffetting and dronkenneſſe, (for
which cauſe ſalt meat, except beefe, bacon, and porke
are not anie whit eſteemed, and yet theſe three may not
be much powdered;) but as in rehearſall thereof I ſhould
commend the noble man, merchant, and frugall arti-
ficer, ſo I could not cleare the meaner ſort of huſband-
men, and countrie inhabitants, of verie much babbling
(except it be here and there ſome od yeoman') [with
whome, he is thought to be the merieſt, that talketh of
moſt ribaldrie, or the wiſeſt man that ſpeaketh faſteſt
among them], & now and then ſurffetting and dronken-
neſſe, which they rather fall into for want of heed
taking, than wilfullie following or delighting in thoſe
errours of ſet mind and purpoſe. [It may be that
diuers of them liuing at home, with hard and pinching
diet, ſmall drinke, and ſome of them hauing ſcarſe
inough of that, are ſooneſt ouertaken when they come
wnto ſuch bankets; howbeit, they take it generallie as no
ſmall diſgrace if they happen to be cupſhotten, ſo that
it is a greefe vnto them, though now ſans remedie, fith
the thing is doone and paſt. If the freends alſo of the
wealthier ſort come to their houſes from farre, they
are commonlie ſo welcome till they depart, as vpon the
firſt daie of their comming; wheras in good townes and
cities, as London, &c.; men oftentimes complaine of
little roome; and in reward of a fat capon or plentie of
beefe and mutton, largelie beſtowed vpon them in the
countrie, a cup of wine or beere with a napkin to wipe
their lips, and an “You are hartelie welcome" is
thought to be great interteinement; and therefore the
old countrie clearkes haue framed this ſaieng in that
behalfe, I meane vpon the interteinment of towneſmens
No man of
position will
stuff or get
drunk.
But the poorer
husbandmen
and country
folk do babble,
and get drunk
now and then.
Their home fare
is hard,
so they’re soon
upset. But
they feel
drunkenness is
a disgrace.
Wealthy
countrymen
make their
friends welcome
however long
they stay ;
but Londoners
! man
cHAP. VI.] FOOD AND DIET OF THE ENGLISH.
I 53
and Londoners after the daies of their aboad in this
In 2116 r :
Primus iucundus, tollerabilis eſtgue ſecundus,
Tertius eſt vanus, ſed fetet quatriduanus.]
The bread through out the land is made of ſuch
graine as the ſoile yeeldeth, neuertheleſſe the gentilitie
commonlie prouide themſelues ſufficientlie of wheat
for their owne tables, whileſt their houſehold and poore
neighbours [in ſome ſhires] are inforced to content
themſelues with rie, or barleie, yea, and in time of
dearth, [manie] with bread made either of beans, peaſon,
or otes, or of altogither [and ſome acornes among,) of
which ſcourge the pooreſt doo ſooneſt taſt, fith they are
leaſt able to prouide themſelues of better. I will not
ſaie that this extremitie is oft ſo well to be ſeene in time
of plentie as of dearth, but if I ſhould, I could eaſilie
bring my triall. For albeit that there be much more
ground eared now almoſt in euerie place, than hath
beene of late yeares, yet ſuch a price of corne con-
tinueth in each towne and market without any iuſt cauſe
[(except it be that landlords doo get licences to carie
corne out of the land onelie to keepe vp the peeces” for
their owne priuate gaines and ruine of the common-
wealth)] that the artificer and poore laboring man, is
not able to reach vnto it, but is driuen to content him-
ſelfe with horſſecorne, I meane, beanes, peaſon, otes,
tares, and lintels: and theerfore it is a true prouerbe,
and neuer ſo well verified as now, that “hunger ſetteth
his firſt foot into the horſe manger.' If the world laſt
a while after this rate, wheate and rie will be no graine
for poore men to feed on; and ſome catterpillers there
are, that can ſaie ſo much alreadie.
Of bread made of wheat, we haue fundrie ſorts,
dailie brought to the table, whereof the firſt and moſt
excellent is the mainchet,” which we commonlie call
wish 'em at the
devil after
4 days.
[Bread.]
The Gentry eat
bread of wheat ;
the poor of rye
or barley; and
even of beans,
oats, and acorns
And this even
in times of
plenty, as
corn is so dear.
A fameine at
Jazz is Ž2s:
seezze in the
Åorsse meazzger
when #he Žoore
alooſa/2 to horsse-
CO7·72é.
Two-leggd
caterpillars.
1 ? prices—F. * manchet
4 kinds of
wheat-bread:
1, Manchet.
I 54
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II,
white bread, in Latine Primarius panis, wherof Budeus
alſo ſpeaketh, in his firſt booke De affe; [and our good
workemen deliuer commonlie ſuch proportion, that of
the flower of one buſhell with another, they make fortie
caſt of manchet, of which euerie lofe weigheth eight
ounces into the ouen, and fix ounces out, as I haue
beene informed.] The ſecond is the cheat or wheaton
bread, ſo named bicauſe the colour therof reſembleth
the graie [or yellowiſh] wheat [being cleane and well
dreſſed, and out of this is the courſeſt of the bran 1
(vſuallie called gurgeons or pollard) taken. The raueled ,
is a kind of cheat bread alſo, but it reteineth more of
the groſſe, and leſſe of the pure ſubſtance of the wheat:
and this being more ſleightlie wrought vp, is vſed in the
halles” of the nobilitie, and gentrie onelie, whereas the
other [either] is [or ſhould be] baked in cities & good
townes of an appointed fize (according to ſuch price as
the corne dooth beare) [and] by a ſtatute prouided [by
king John] in that behalfe. [The raueled cheat ther-
fore is generallie ſo made, that out of one buſhell of
meale, after two and twentie pounds of bran be fifted
and taken from it (wherevnto they ad the gurgeons that
riſe from the manchet), they make thirtie caſt, euerie
lofe weighing eighteene ounces into the ouen, and ſix-
teene ounces out: and beſide this they ſo handle the
matter, that to euerie buſhell of meale they ad onelie
two and twentie, or three and twentie, pound of water,
waſhing alſo (in ſome houſes) there corne before it go to
the mill, whereby their manchet bread is more excel-
lent in colour, and pleaſing to the eie, than otherwiſe it
would be..] The next ſort is named browne bread, of
the colour, of which we haue two ſorts, one baked Vp
as it cometh from the mill, ſo that neither the bran”
nor the floure are anie whit diminiſhed : this, Celſus
called Autopirus panis, lib. 2. and putteth it in the
ſecond place of nouriſhment. The other hath little or
Prºzzarºtes
£anis.
Kinds of
wheat-bread.
2. [Cheat bread.]
3, [Razzelled
&read.]
The size of bread
is zerie ill kept
or not at all
looked zyzzzo Zzz
the cozezztrze
tozºmes and
markets.
4. [Brozwne
&read...]
a. of whole meal,
unsifted,
1 brennes 2 houses 3 brennes
CHAP. vi.] FOOD AND DIET OF THE ENGLISH.
I 55
no floure left therein at all, howbeit he calleth’ it Panem
Cibarium, and it is not onlie the woorſt and weakeſt of
all the other ſorts, but alſo appointed in old time for
ſeruants [ſlaues] and the inferiour kind of people [to feed
* vpon..] Herewnto likewiſe, bicauſe it is drie and brickle
in the working (for it will hardlie be made vp hand-
ſomelie into loaues), ſome adde a portion of rie meale
[in our time], whereby the rough drineſſe or drie rough-
nes therof is ſomwhat qualified, & then it is named
miſcelin,” that is, bread made of mingled corne, albeit
that diuerſe doo [ſow or] mingle wheat & rie of [ſet]
purpoſe at the mill, [or before it come there] and ſell
the ſame at the markets vnder the aforeſaid name.
In champeigne countries, much rie and barleie bread
is eaten, but eſpeciallie where wheat is ſcant and geſon.
As for the difference that is betweene the ſummer and
winter wheat, moſt huſbandmen know it not, fith they
are neither acquainted with ſummer wheat, nor winter
barleie: yet here and there I find of both ſorts, [ſpecial-
lie in the north, and about Kendall, where they call it
March wheat, and alſo of ſummer rie], but in ſo ſmall
quantities as that I dare not pronounce them to be
greatlie' common among vs.
Our drinke, whoſe force and continuance is partlie
touched alreadie, is made of barleie, water, and hops,
ſodden and mingled togither, by the induſtrie of our
bruers, in a certeine exačt proportion. But before our
barleie doo come vnto their hands, it ſuſteineth great
alteration, and is conuerted into malt, the making
whereof I will here ſet downe in ſuch order as my
ſkill therein may extend vnto (for I am ſcarſe a good
malſter), chiefeliefor that forreine writers haue attempted
to deſcribe the ſame, and the making of our beere,
wherein they haue ſhot ſo farre wide, as the quantitie
of ground was betweene themſelues & their marke. In
the meane time beare with me, gentle reader (I beſeech
9 misselen
+ orig. callech * any thing
Pazzis Cabazines.
b. pollard or
brown bread,
[? p. 169]
with a little
rye meal, and
calld
Miscelin or
Meslin.
Jazmamzerzwheat
azza! winter bar-
2eze zrezze raze
in England.
Drinke,
made of barley,
Water and hops,
the barley being
malted.
Malt.
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAN ID. [Book II.
thee), that lead thee from the deſcription of the plenti-
full diet of our countrie, vnto the fond report of a
ſeruile trade, or rather, from a table delicatelie furniſhed,
into a muftie malthouſe : but ſuch is now thy hap,
wherfore I praie thee be contented.
Our malt is made [all the yeare long in ſome great
townes, but in gentlemens and yeomens houſes, who
commonlie make ſufficient for their owne expenſes
onelie, the winter halfe is thought moſt meet for that
commoditie: howbeit, the malt that is made when the
willow dooth bud, is commonlie worſt of all; neuerthe-
leſſe, each one indeuoureth to make it] of the beſt barleie,
which is ſteeped in a ceſterne, in greater or leſſe
quantitie, by the ſpace of three daies and three nights,
wntill it be throughlie ſoked. This being doone, the
water is drained from it by little and little, till it be
quite gone. Afterward they take it out, and laieng it
vpon the cleane floore on a round heape, it reſteth ſo
wntill it be readie to ſhoote at the root end, which
maltſters call Comming. When it beginneth therefore
to ſhoot in this maner, they ſaie it is come, and then
foorthwith they ſpread it abroad, firſt thicke, and after-
ward thinner and thinner vpon the ſaid floore (as it
commeth), and there it lieth (with turning euerie daie
foure or fiue times) by the ſpace of one and twentie
daies at the leaſt, the workeman not ſuffering it in anie
wiſe to take anie heat, whereby the bud end ſhould
ſpire, that bringeth foorth the blade, and by which
ouerfight [or hurt of the ſtuffe it ſelfel the malt would
be ſpoiled, and *turne ſmall commoditie to the bruer.”
When it hath gone, or beene turned, ſo long vpon the
floore, they carrie it to a kill couered with haire cloth,
where they giue it gentle heats (after they haue ſpread
it there verie thin abroad) till it be drie, & in the meane
while they turne it often, that it may be vniformelie
dried. For the more it be dried [(yet muſt if be
Making of
zrtalt.*
Barley is steept
3 days and
3 nights,
draind,
left, till it’s
* Comming’
and “Come’—
till it shoots—
then left on the
floor for 21 days,
and lastly,
gently heated
in a kiln till
it's dry.
* maultes 2–2 come to small comoditie
CHAP. v1.] FOOD AND DIET OF THE ENGLI3 H.
doone with ſoft fire)] the [ſweeter andj better the malt
is, and the longer it will continue, whereas if it be not
dried downe (as they call it), but ſlackelie handled, it
will breed a kind of worme, called a wituell, which
groweth in the floure of the corne, and in proceſſe of
time will ſo eat out itſelfe, that nothing ſhall remaine of
the graine but euen the [verie] rind or huſke.
The beſt malt is tried by the hardneſſe & colour, for
if it [looke freſh with a yellow hew, & thereto] will
write like a peece of chalke, after you haue bitten a
kirnell in ſunder in the middeſt, then you may aſſure
your ſelfe that it is dried downe. In ſome places it is
dried [at leiſure] with wood alone, or ſtrawe alone, in
other with wood and ſtrawe togither; but of all, the
ſtrawe dried is the moſt excellent. For the wood
dried malt when it is brued, beſide that "the drinke" is
higher of colour, it dooth hurt and annoie the head of
him that is not vſed thereto, bicauſe of the ſmoake.
Such alſo as vſe both indifferentlie, doo [barke, cleaue,
and drie their wood [in an ouen, thereby] to remooue
all moiſture that ſhuld procure the fume,” and this malt
is in the ſecond place, & with the ſame likewiſe, that
which is made with dried firze, broome, &c.; whereas
if they alſo be occupied greene, they are in maner ſo
preiudiciall to the corne, as [is] the moiſt wood. And
thus much of our malts, in bruing whereof ſome * grinde
the ſame ſomewhat groſelie, and in ſeething well the
liquor that ſhall be put vnto it, they adde to euerie nine
quarters of mault one of headcorne, which conſiſteth of
ſundrie graine, as wheate [and] otes” [groond]. ” But
what haue I to doo with this matter, or rather ſo great
a quantitie, wherewith I am not acquainted Neuer-
theleſſe, fith I haue taken occaſion to ſpeake of bruing,
* they
1–1 it 2 smoke
If not quite
dried, the
malt 'll breed
Weevils.
When rightly
dried, and
bitten thro’,
it'll write like a
bit of chalk,
Straw-dried
Malt is the best.
Bruing of beeze.
Some folk add
a ninth of corn
to it.
* Peason, &c.
"—" They seeth theyr woort also twise, that is once before they mashe or mire
it with the mault and once after after, adding furthermore unto this later seething,
a certeine number of englishe hops (for the outlandish are founde nowe to be the
woorst) according to whose quantitie, the continuance of the drinke is determined.
158
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, ſBook II.
This is how my
wife and her
maids brew
Beer.
* Goes to p. 160
They grind
8 bushels of
malt, add
# bushel of
wheat meal, and
# of oat meal.
Pour On it
80 gallons of
boiling water,
and run that off;
then another
80 gallons;
while in 71 or 72
of the first 80,
two lbs of hops
are boild for
2 hours,
[Chazzwoo?"t.]
the other 8 or 9
of the first 80
gallons being
jugd off as
Brackwort, or
Charwort.
I will exemplifie in ſuch a proportion as I am beſt
ſkilled in, bicauſe it is the vſuall rate for mine owne
familie, and once in a moneth pračtiſed by my wife &
hir maid ſeruants, who proceed withall after this maner,
as ſhe hath oft informed me.”
* [Hauing therefore groond eight buſhels of good
malt vpon our querne, where the toll is ſaued, ſhe
addeth vnto it halfe a buſhell of wheat meale, and ſo
much of otes ſmall groond, and ſo tempereth or mixeth
them with the malt, that you cannot eaſilie diſcerne
the one from the other, otherwiſe theſe later would
clunter, fall into lumps, and thereby become vinprofit-
able. The firſt liquor—which is full eightie gallons,
according to the proportion of our furnace,—ſhe maketh
boiling hot, and then powreth it ſoftlie into the malt,
where it reſteth (but without ſtirring) vntill hir ſecond
liquor be almoſt readie to boile. This doone, ſhe letteth
hir maſh run till the malt be left without liquor, or at
the leaſtwiſe the greateſt part of the moiſture, which
ſhe perceiueth by the ſtaie and ſoft iſſue thereof; and by
this time hir ſecond liquor in the furnace is ready to
ſeeth, which is put alſo to the malt, as the firſt woort
alſo againe into the furnace, wherevnto ſhe addeth two
pounds of the beſt Engliſh hops, and ſo letteth them
ſeeth togither by the ſpace of two houres in ſummer, or
an houre and an halfe in winter, whereby it getteth an
excellent colour, and continuance without impeach-
ment, or anie ſuperfluous tartneſſe. But before ſhe
putteth hir firſt woort into the furnace, or mingleth it
with the hops, ſhe taketh out a veſſell full, of eight or
nine gallons, which ſhe ſhutteth vp cloſe, and ſuffereth
no aire to come into it till it become yellow, and this
ſhe reſerueth by it ſelfe vnto further vſe, as ſhall appeare
herafter, calling it Brackwoort or Charwoort, and as
ſhe ſaith, it addeth alſo to the colour of the drinke,
whereby it yeeldeth not vnto amber, or fine gold, in hew
wnto the eie. By this time alſo hir ſecond woort is let
.HAP. VI.] FOOD AND DIET OF THE ENGLISH.
I59
runne; and the firſt being taken out of the furnace, and
placed to coole, ſhe returneth the middle woort vnto
the furnace, where it is ſtriken ouer, or from whence it
is taken againe, when it beginneth to boile, and maſhed
the ſecond time, whileſt the third liquor is heat (for
there are three liquors) and 1 this laſt put into the fur-
nace, when the ſecond is maſhed againe. When ſhe
hath maſhed alſo the laſt liquor (and ſet the ſecond to
coole by the firſt), ſhe letteth it runne, and then ſeetheth
it againe with a pound and an halfe of new hops, or
peraduenture two pounds, as ſhe ſeeth cauſe by the
goodneſſe or baſeneſſe of the hops; & when it hath
ſodden, in ſummer two houres, & in winter an houre &
an halfe, ſhe ſtriketh it alſo, and reſerueth it vnto
mixture with the reſt when time dooth ſerue therefore.
Finallie, when ſhe ſetteth hir drinke togither, ſhe addeth
to hir brackwoort or charwoort halfe an ounce of arras,
and halfe a quarterne of an ounce of baiberries finelie
powdered, and then putting the ſame into hir woort,
with an handfull of wheat flowre, ſhe proceedeth in
ſuch vſuall order as common bruing requireth. Some,
in ſteed of arras & baies, adde ſo much long pepper onelie,
but, in hir opinion and my liking, it is not ſo good as the
firſt, and hereof we make three hoggeſheads of good
beere, ſuch (I meane) as is meet for poore men as I am,
to liue withall, whoſe ſmall maintenance (for what
great thing is fortie pounds a yeare, Computatis compu-
tandis, able to performe?) may indure no deeper cut, the
charges whereof groweth in this manner. I value my
malt at ten ſhillings, my wood at foure ſhillings (which
I buie), my hops at twentie pence, the ſpice at two
pence, ſeruants wages two ſhillings fix pence, with meat
and drinke, and the wearing of my veſſell at twentie
pence, ſo that for my twentie ſhillings I haue ten ſcore
gallons of beere or more, notwithſtanding the loſſe in
ſeething, which ſome being loth to forgo, doo not
obſerue the time, and therefore ſpeed thereafter in their
Then the second
80 gallons is
masht again ;
and a third 80 is
1 p. 170]
Boild with 1% or
21bs of fresh
hops
for 2 hours.
Then all 3 lots
are mixt, 3 oz. of
arras, &c., being
added to the
Brackwort.
This makes us
3 hogsheads of
Beer, fit for
poor men like
me who’ve only
£40 a year;
and my 200
gallons cost me
only 20s.
I6o
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
ſucceſſe, and worthilie. The continuance of the drinke
is alwaie determined after the quantitie of the hops, ſo
that being well hopped it laſteth longer.”] For it feed-
eth vpon the hop, and "holdeth out" ſo long as the
force of the ſame continueth, which being extinguiſhed,
the drinke [muſt be ſpent, or elſe it] dieth, and becom-
meth of no value.
In this trade alſo our bruers obſerue verie diligentlie
the nature of the water, which they dailie occupie; [and
foile through which it paſſeth, for all waters are not of
like goodneſſe, [fith the fatteſt ſtanding water is alwaies
the beſt: for although the waters that run by chalke or
cledgie ſoiles be good, and next vnto the Thames water
which is the moſt excellent, yet the water that ſtandeth
in either of theſe is the beſt for vs that dwell in the
countrie, as whereon the ſunne lieth longeſt, and fatteſt
fiſh is bred. But of all other, the fennie and moriſh is
the worſt, and the cleereſt ſpring water next vnto it.]
In this buſines therfore” the ſkilfull " workeman dooth
redeeme the iniquitie of that element, by changing of
his proportions, which trouble in ale (ſometime our
onelie, but now taken with manie” for old and fick-
mens drinke) is neuer ſeene nor heard of. Howbeit, as
the beere well "ſodden in the bruing,” and ſtale, is cleere
and well coloured as muſcadell or malueſeie, [or rather,
yellow as the gold noble, as our potknights call it :] ſo
our ale, which is not at all or verie little ſodden, and
without hops, is more thicke, fulſome, and of no ſuch
continuance, which are three notable things to be con-
ſidered in that liquor. But what for that * Certes I
know ſome aleknights ſo much addićted therevnto, that
they will not ceaſe from morow vntill euen to viſit the
ſame, clenſing houſe after houſe, till they defile them-
ſelues, [and either fall quite vnder the boord, or elſe not
daring to ſtirre from their ſtooles, fit ſtill pinking with
their narrow eies as halfe ſleeping, till the fume of their
The better beer
is hopt, the
longer it lasts.
(* Insertion
began on p. 158.)
Brewers look
well to the
water they use.
Thames water's
the best for
brewing.
Fen and marsh
water the worst,
and clear spring
water the next
worst.
Well brewd
peer's as yellow
as a gold Noble.
Ale isn’t hopt,
is thick, and
soon turns;
and yet some
Ale-knights’ll
drink it all day
long.
1–4 lasteth
2 wherefore 8 diligent 4 manie only 5–5 brued
CHAP. VI.] FOOD AND DIET OF THE ENGLIS He
aduerſarie be digeſted that he may go to it afreſh.] Such
ſlights alſo haue the alewiues for the vtterance of this
drinke, that they will mixe it with roſen and ſalt: but
if you heat a knife red hot, and quench it in the ale ſo
neere the bottome of the pot as you can put it, you
ſhall ſee the roſen [come foorth] hanging on the knife.
As for the force of ſalt, it is well knowne by the effect,
for the more the drinker tipleth, the more he may, and
ſo dooth he carrie [off] a drie dronken noll” to bed
with him, except his lucke be the better. But to my
purpoſe.
In ſome places of England, there is a kind of drinke
made of apples, which they call cider or pomage, but
that of peares is named pirrie, [and both are groond and
preſſed in preſſes made for the nonce.] Certes theſe
two are verie common in [Suſſex,] Kent, Worceſter,
and other ſteeds, where theſe ſorts” of fruits doo abound,
howbeit they are not their onelie drinke at all times, but
referred vnto the delicate ſorts of drinke, as metheglin
is in Wales, whereof the Welſhmen make no leſſe
accompt [and not without cauſe if it be well handled)]
than the Greekes did of their Ambroſia or Nečtar,
which for the pleaſantneſſe thereof, was ſuppoſed to be
ſuch as the gods” themſelues did 4 delite in.” There is a
kind of ſwiſh ſwaſh made alſo in Eſſex, and diuerſe
other places, with honicombs" and water, which the
[homelie] countrie wiues, putting ſome pepper and a
little other ſpice among, call mead, verie good in mine
opinion for ſuch as loue to be looſe bodied [at large, or
a little eaſed of the cough, otherwiſe it differeth ſo
much from the true metheglin, as chalke" from cheeſe.
Trulie it is nothing elſe but the waſhing of the combes,
when the honie is wroong out, and one of the beſt
things that I know belonging thereto is, that they ſpend
but litle labour, and leſſe coſt, in making of the ſame,
and therefore no great loſſe if it were neuer occupied.
1 soule 2 kindes 5 Hony
HARRISON.
* goddesse 4–4 use
II
6
Alewives’
tricks: they
mix rosin and
salt in their ale.
Cider.
Perrie.
Metheglize.
A kind of
Swish-Swash
calld
Mead,
no more like
Metheglin than
chalk is like
cheese.
[Hydrozzel.]
chalke doth
I 62
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Hitherto of the diet of my countrimen, & ſomewhat
more at large peraduenture than manie men will like
of, wherefore I thinke good now to finiſh this tract-
ation," and ſo will I, when I haue added a few other
things incident vnto that which goeth before, whereby
the whole proceſſe of the ſame ſhall fullie be deliuered,
& my promiſe to my freend in this behalfe performed.
Heretofore there hath beene much more time ſpent
in eating and drinking than commonlie is in theſe daies,
for whereas of old we had breakefaſts in the forenoone,
beuerages, or nuntions after dinner, and thereto reare
ſuppers generallie when it was time to go to reſt (a toie
brought ° into England” by hardie" Canutus [and a
cuſtome whereof Athenaeus alſo ſpeaketh lib. I, albeit
Hippocrates ſpeake but of twiſe at the moſt lib. 2. De
rat vić, in feb.ac.]) Now theſe od repaſts—thanked be
God—are verie well left, and ech one in maner (except
here and there ſome yoong hungrie ſtomach * that can-
not faſt till dinner time) contenteth himſelfe with din-
ner & ſupper onelie. The Normans miſliking the
gormandiſe of Canutus, ordeined after their arriuall, that
no table ſhould be couered aboue Once in the daie,
which Huntingdon imputeth to their auarice: but in the
end, either waxing wearie of their owne frugalitie, or
ſuffering the cockle of old cuſtome to ouergrow the
good corne of their new conſtitution, they fell to ſuch
libertie, that in often feeding they ſurmounted Canutus
ſurnamed the hardie. For whereas he couered his table
but three or foure times in the daie, theſe * ſpred their
clothes fiue or ſix times, and in ſuch wiſe as I before
rehearſed. They brought in alſo the cuſtome of long
and ſtatelie fitting at meat, "whereby their feaſts reſem"
bled thoſe ancient pontificall bankets whereof Ma-
crobius ſpeaketh lib. 3. cap. 13. and Plin. lib. Io. cap.
Io. and which for ſumptuouſneſſe of fare, long fitting,
So much for our
folks' diet; but
. I’ve promist my
friend to add
II].OT6.
Lesse timze
spent in eating
than heretofore.
Formerly
4 meals a day:
1. breakfast,
2. dinner,
3. beverages or
Inuntions,
4. late suppers;
now only 2,
dinner and
Supper.
Canutus a
glutton, but
#he Noryzazzs
at the last ex-
ceeded /time int
z/af z/ice.
Had 5 or 6 meals
a day, and sat
long at them.
3 hard 4 stomacke * they
6–6 which is not yet left
1 chapter 2–2 in
cHAP. VI.] FOOD AND DIET OF THE ENGLISH.
and curioſitie ſhewed in the ſame, exceeded all other
mens feaſting; which fondneſſe is not yet left with
vs, notwithſtanding that it proueth verie beneficiall
for the phyſicians, who moſt abound, where moſt ex-
ceſſe and miſgouernement of our bodies doo appeere."
1 although it be a great expenſe of time, and worthie
[of] reprehenſion. For the nobilitie, gentlemen, and
merchantmen, eſpeciallie at great meetings, doo fit
commonlie till two or three of the clocke at after-
noone, ſo that with manie is an hard matter, to riſe
from the table to go to euening praier, and returne
from thence to come time inough to ſupper. For my
part, I am perſuaded that the purpoſe of the Normans
at the firſt was to reduce the ancient Roman order [or
Daniſh cuſtome] in feeding once in the daie, and
toward the euening, as I haue red and noted. [And]
indeed the Romans had ſuch a cuſtome, and likewiſe
the Grecians,” as may appeere by the words of Socrates,
who ſaid vnto the Atheniens, Oriente ſole conflium,
occidente conuiuium eſt cogitandum, [although a little
ſomething was allowed in the morning to yoong chil-
dren which we now call a breakefaſt.] Plato called
the Siciliens monſters, for 8 that they vſed to eat twiſe
in the daie. Among the Perſians onelie the king dined
when the ſunne was at the higheſt, and ſhadow of the
ſtile at the ſhorteſt: the reſt (as it is reported) went
alwaies [but once] to meat when * their ſtomachs craued
it, [as the Canariens and Indians doo in my time (who,
if appetite ſerue, refuſe not to go to meat at anie houre
of the night), and likewiſe the ancient Caſpians.
Arhianus noteth it as a rare thing, li. 4. cap. 16. that
the Tyrhenians had taken vp an ill cuſtome to feed
twiſe in a daie.] Howbeit at the laſt they fell generallie
to allow of ſuppers toward the ſetting of the ſunne [in
all places, bicauſe they would haue their whole"
familie to go to meat togither, and wherevnto they
2 Gretians 3 in * as 5–5 all their
Yet h
This folly still
keeps-on, for
doctors' good.
[l p. 171]
Nobles and rich
men still sit at
table till 2 or
3 P.M., having
only just time
for Prayers,
Long sitting
zefºrehended.
and then home
to supper.
The Normans
wisht at first to
bring back the
old Roman
custom of 1 meal
a day.
The Gree.As
allowd young
children a
Breakfast.
The Canarians
and Indians eat
Once a day,
when they're
ungry.
I64
| THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Plutarch says
that any one
who eat before
Sunset was
thought a
glutton.
Dining wasn’t
much us’d in
Christ's time.
*Thał Żs of
three of the
clocke at after-
2200/£62.
The later
Romans workt
only 6 hours a
day, and eat and
drank the
Other 6.
would appoint their gueſts to come at a certeine length
of the ſhadow, to be perceiued in their dials. [And
this is more to be noted of antiquitie, that if anie man
(as Plutarch ſaith) did feed before that time, he incur-
red a note of reprehenſion as if he had beene glutton-
ous and giuen vnto the bellie, 8. Sympoſ. 6..] Their
ſlaues in like ſort were glad, when it grew to the
tenth foot, for then were they ſure ſoone after to go to
meat. In the ſcripture we read of manie ſuppers &
few dinners, onelie for that dining was not greatlie
vſed in Chriſts time, but taken as a thing latelie
sproong vp, when pampering of the bellie began to
take hold, occaſioned by idlenes and great abundance
of riches. It is pretie to note in Iuuenal, how he
taunteth Marius for that he gaue himſelfe to drinke”
before the *ninth houre of the daie : for thinking three
houres to be too little for the filling of his bellie, he
began commonlie at eight, which was an houre too
ſoone. Afterwards [when gurmandiſe increaſed yet
more amongſt the Romans, and from them was diſ-
perſed vnto all nations vnder their ſubjećtion, it came
to paſſe that] fix houres onlie were appointed to worke
and conſult in, and the other ſix of the daie to feed
and drinke in, as the verſe ſaith:
Sea horae tantium * rebus tribuantur agendis,"
Viuere poſt illas, littera zetha monet.
[Wherevnto Marimus Planudes (except my me-
morie faile me) addeth this ſcholie after his maner,
ſaieng that from morning vnto noone (which is fix of
the clocke after the vnequall accompt) each one dooth
trauell about his neceſſarie affaires, that being doone,
he betaketh himſelfe to the refreſhing of his bodie,
which is noted and ſet downe by the Greeke letters of
the diall (wherewith the Romane horologies were
marked, as ours be with their numerall letters) whereby
8 tanto * agendus
* grewed 2 drinking
CHAP. VI.] FOOD AND DIET OF THE ENGLISH. 165
the time is deſcribed; for thoſe which point 7, 8, 9,
and Io are written with 8 m 0 t, and being ioined yeeld
&nów, which in Engliſh ſignifieth ſo much as ‘liue, as if
they ſhould meane, eat that thou maiſt liue.] But how
Martial diuided his daie, and with him the whole Martial's diyi.
sion of his day :
troope of the learned & wiſer ſort, theſe verſes follow-
ing doo more euidentlie declare :
Prima ſalutantes, atque altera continet horas, Li. 4. efig. 8.
Exercet raucos tertia cauſdicos.
In quintam varios extendit Roma labores,
Serta quies laſſis, ſeptima finis erit.
Sufficit in nonam nitidis oëtaua paleſiris,
Imperat extruſios frangere nona thoros.
Hora libellorum decima eſt Eupheme meorum,
Temperat Ambroſias cum tua cura dapes. he didn't eat
Et bonus aethereo laratur Nečiare Caeſar, sº
Ingentſque tenet pocula parcamanu.
Tunc admitte iocos : greſſit timet ire licenti,
Ad matutinum noſtra Thaleia Iouem.
Thus we ſee how the ancient maner of the Gentils
was to feed but once in the daie, and that toward night,
till gluttonie grew on and altered this" good cuſtome.
[I might here remember alſo their maner in pulling The Romans
pulld off their
off their ſhooes when they ſat downe to meat, whereof *...*.*hey
S3,5 CiOWEl ÚO
Martial ſaith : meat.
Depoſui ſoleas, affertur protinus ingens
Inter lačiucas oxygarmumque liber, &c.
And Tullie alſo remembreth where he ſaith Seruum d
pedibus ad te miſ, which office grew of the ſaid
cuſtome, as Seruus ad limina did of keeping the doore,
though in moſt houſes both theſe were commonlie
one mans office, alſo Ad pocula of attending on the
cup. But bicauſe the good writers of our time haue
obſerued theſe phraſes and ſuch like with their cauſes
and deſcriptions, in their infinite and ſeuerall trea-
1 that,
I66
THF DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Nobles and
gentlefolk dine
at 11 A.M. and
Sup at 5.
Merchants at 12,
and 6 P.M.
Husbandmen at
12, and 7 or 8.
Scholars dine
at 10.
The poor when
they can.
We begin with
butter and eggs
on fish-days.
We eat the
coarsest food
first, the most
delicate last ;
and drink our
mildest wines
first, the hottest
last.
tiſes, I ſhall not need to diſcourſe anie farther vpon
them.] With vs the nobilitie, gentrie, and ſtudents,
doo ordinarilie go to dinner at eleuen before noone,
and to ſupper at fiue, or betweene fiue and fix at after-
noone. The merchants dine and ſup ſeldome before
twelue at noone, and ſix at night eſpeciallie in Lon-
don. The huſbandmen dine alſo at high noone as
they call it, and ſup at ſeuen or eight: but out of the
tearme in our vniuerſities the ſcholers dine at ten.
As for the pooreſt ſort they generallie dine and ſup
when they may, ſo that to talke of their order of
repaſt, it were but [a] needleſſe matter. [I might
here take occaſion alſo to ſet downe the varietie vſed
by antiquitie in their beginnings of their diets, wherin
almoſt euerie nation had a ſeuerall faſhion, ſome begin-
ning of cuſtome (as we doo in ſummer time) with
ſalets at ſupper, and ſome ending with lettice, ſome
making their entrie with egs, and ſhutting vp their
tables with mulberies, as we doo with fruit and con-
ceits of all ſorts. Diuerſe (as the old Romans) began
with a few crops of rue, as the Venetians did with
the fiſh called Gobius, the Belgies with butter (or as
we doo yet alſo) with butter and egs vpon fiſh daies.
But whereas we commonlie begin with the moſt
groſſe food, and end with the moſt delicate, the Scot
thinking much to leaue the beſt for his meniall ſer-
uants maketh his entrance at the beſt, ſo that he is
ſure therby to leaue the worſt. We vſe also our wines
by degrees, ſo that the hoteſt commeth laſt to the
table: but to ſtand vpon ſuch toies would ſpend much
time, and turne to ſmall profit, wherfore I will deale
with other things more neceſſarie for this turne.]
CHAP. vii.] APPAREL AND ATTIRE of THE ENGLISH. 167
Of their" apparell and attire.
Chap. 7.”
N Engliſhman, indeuoring ſometime to write Andrew Boorde
e g ... tried to describe
of our attire, made ſundrie platformes for his our English
dress,
purpoſe, ſuppoſing by ſome of them to find
out one ſtedfaſt ground whereon to build the ſumme of
his diſcourſe. But in the end (like an oratour long
without exerciſe) when he ſaw what “a difficult peece [* p. 172]
of worke he had taken in hand, he gaue ouer his ºut Yººt to
e * draw only a
trauell, and onelie drue the pićture of a naked man,” naked **
77 ed. this is Chap. 2, Book III.
--- -- sº ºr ºf . . . .
1 our 2 In
4. *:::: º, :-º-º:- ºº:: *.*.*.*.*. . 2. . ... . . . . ''.... ." … 3-, . . . . . . . . . "
-
::~|
T I am an English man, and naked I wyl were that;
stand here, - Now I wyl were I cannot tel what.
Musyng in my mynde what rayment I All new fashyons be plesaunt to me;
shal were ; I wyl haue them, whether I thryue or
For now I wyll were thys, and now I thee.
From Andrew Boorde's Introduction (1547) and Dyetary (1542), ed. F. J. F. for
- Nº ºn
* -es , "...º.º. ºº-º-' ſº er-sº-sº ... - ºr , . " --...sº





I68 THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. |Book II.
sº vnto whome he gaue a paire of ſheares in the one hand,
piece of cloth, and a peece of cloth in the other, to the end he ſhould
ſhape his apparell after ſuch faſhion as himſelfe liked,
fith he could find no kind of garment that could pleaſe
Andrew Boord him anie while togither; and this he called an Engliſh-
man. Certes this writer (otherwiſe being a lewd
[popiſh hypocrite] and vngratious prieſt") ſhewed him-
hit the right , ſelfe herein not to be [altogether] void of iudgement,
nail on the head & * e
here, for our ſith the phantaſticall follie of our nation, ſeuen from
ºtoly in the courtier to the carter] is ſuch, that no forme of
astonishing. 2
apparell liketh vs longer than the firſt garment is in the
wearing, if it continue ſo long, and be not laid aſide to
receiue ſome other trinket newlie deuiſed by the fickle
headed tailors, who couet to haue ſeuerall trickes in
cutting, thereby to draw fond cuſtomers to more ex-
[Strange cuts.] penſe of monie. For my part I can tell better how to
I can't describe inueigh againſt this enormitie, than deſcribe [anie cer-
º * tentie of] our attire: fithence ſuch is our mutabilitie,
spanish; then that to daie there is none to the Spaniſh guiſe, to
French; then morrow the French toies are moſt fine and dele&t-
able, yer” long no ſuch apparell as that which is after
§: i. the high Alman 8 faſhion, by and by the Turkiſh
* maner is generallie beſt liked of, otherwiſe the Mo-
Barbary-an : riſco gowns, the 4 Barbarian ſleeues [the mandilion
worne to Collie weſton ward, and the ſhort French
breches] make ſuch a comelie veſture, that except it
they look as were a dog in a doublet, you ſhall not ſee anie ſo diſ-
bsurd as a do sº g
*...* guiſed, as are my countrie men of England.” And as
theſe faſhions are diuerſe, ſo likewiſe it is a world to
ſee the coſtlineſſe and the curioſitie: the exceſſe and
E. E. Text Soc., 1870, p. 116. (A most quaint and interesting volume, though I
say so.)—F.
1 This is too harsh a character of Boorde: for a juster one, as I hope, * *y
Preface to his Introduction, p. 105-F.
2 ere 3 Almaine [see Halle, p. 516, 527, 4 and the
5 See Wynkyn de Worde's Treatyse of this Galaunt (? ab. 1520 A.D.) in my
Ballads from Manuscripts (1520–54), Vol. i. p. 438-453 (Ballad Soc., 1868 and
1872), a satire on the Gallant or vicious Dandy of the day.—F.
*
CHAP, v11.] APPAREL AND ATT IRE OF THE ENGLIS He
169
the vanitie: the pompe and the brauerie: the change
and the varietie: and finallie the fickleneſſe and the
follie, that is in all degrees: in ſomuch that nothing is
more conſtant in England than inconſtancie of attire.
[Oh how much coſt is beſtowed now adaies vpon our
bodies and how little vpon our ſoules how manie
futes of apparell hath the one, and how little furniture
hath the other? how long time is aſked in decking vp
of the firſt, and how little ſpace left wherin to feed
the later how curious, how nice alſo, are a number
of men and women, and how hardlie can the tailor
pleaſe them in making it fit for their bodies? how
manie times muſt it be ſent backe againe to him that
made it? what chafing, what fretting, what reprochfull
language doth the poore workeman beare awaie 2 and
manie times when he dooth nothing to it at all, yet
when it is brought home againe it is verie fit and hand-
ſome ; then muſt we put it on, then muſt the long
ſeames of our hoſe be ſet by a plumb-line, then we
puffe, then we blow, and finallie ſweat till we drop,
that our clothes may ſtand well vpon vs. I will ſaie
nothing of our heads, which ſometimes are polled,
ſometimes curled, or ſuffered to grow at length like
womans lockes, manie times cut off, aboue or vnder the
eares, round as by a woodden diſh. Neither will I
meddle with our varietie of beards, of which ſome are
ſhauen from the chin like thoſe of Turks, not a few
cut ſhort like to the beard of marques Otto, ſome made
round like a rubbing bruſh, other with a pique de vant
(O fine faſhion () or now and then ſuffered to grow
long, the barbers being growen to be ſo cunning in
this behalfe as the tailors. And therfore if a man
haue a leane and ſtreight face, a marqueſſe Ottons cut
will make it broad and large; if it be platter like, a
long ſlender beard will make it ſeeme the narrower; if
he be weſell becked, then much heare left on the
cheekes will make the owner looke big like a bowdled
Fickleness and
folly of the
Englishin dress.
[Much cost vºort
the bodie, a
&zttle zºoze the
soule.]
How men and
women worry
the tailor,
and abuse him l
Then the
trying-on 1
We sweat till we
drop, to make
our clothes fit.
Our hair we
poll, or curl;
wear long or
cropt.
[Beards.]
Different kinds
of beards for lean
faces, platter
Ones, weasel-
beakt ones.
17o
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Some courtiers
wear rings in
their ears, to
improve God’s
work.
Men spend most
on their arses,
and women on
their heads.
[Excesse Zaz
zvojzzezz.]
Women are far
worse than men.
Whores' dress is
worn by sober
matrons.
They’ve cod-
pieces on their
breasts, galli-
gaskins on their
bums,
and many-
colourd
stockings.
Of some in
London, I
couldn’t tell
hen, and ſo grim as a gooſe, if Cornelis of Chelmereſ.
ford ſaie true: manie old men doo weare no beards at
all. Some luſtie courtiers alſo and gentlemen of cour-
age, doo weare either rings of gold, ſtones, or pearle
in their eares, whereby they imagine the workeman-
ſhip of God not to be a little amended. But herein
they rather diſgrace than adorne their perſons, as by
their niceneſſe in apparell, 1 for which I ſaie moſt
nations doo not vniuſtlie deride vs, as alſo for that we
doo ſeeme to imitate all nations round about vs,
wherein we be like to the Polypus or Chameleon; and
therevnto' beſtow moſt coſt vpon our arſes, & much
more than vpon all the reſt of our bodies, as women
doo likewiſe vpon their heads and ſhoulders. In
women alſo it is moſt to be lamented, that they doo
now farre exceed the lightneſſe of our men (who
neuertheleſſe are tranſformed from the cap euen to the
verie ſhoo) and ſuch ſtaring attire as in time paſt was
ſuppoſed meet for none but light houſewitues onelie,” is
now become an habit for chaſt and ſober matrones.
What ſhould I ſaie of their doublets with pendant
codpeeſes on the breſt full of iags & cuts, and ſleeues
of ſundrie colours ? their galligaſcons [to beare out
their bums & make their attire to fit plum round (as
they terme it) about them 2 their fardingals, and di-
uerſlie] coloured nether ſtocks [of filke, ierdſeie, and
ſuch like, whereby their bodies are rather deformed
than commended ? I haue met with ſome of * theſe
trulles” in London” ſo “diſguiſed, that it hath paſſed my
1–1 Neither can we be more iustly burdened with any reproche, then inordinate
behauiour in apparrell, for which most nations deride us as also for that we men do
seeme to
2—2 them
8 See Robert Crowley's Epigram “Of Nice rogues” in his One and thyrtye
Epigrammes, 1550 (E. E. T. Soc., 1871):
What shold we thynk of the women Were neuer in Jewyshe whores
tnat in London we se? then in London wyues thys daye.
For more wanton lokes And if gate and garmentes
I dare boldely saye, do shewe any thynge,
* So but
CHAP. v1.1.] APPAREL AND ATTIRE OF THE ENGLISH.
I
7
I
ſkill to diſcerne whether they were men or women.
Thus it is now come to paſſe, that women are
become men, and men tranſformed ' into monſters:
and thoſe good gifts which almightie God hath giuen
wnto vs to releeue our neceſſities withall [(as a nation
turning altogither the grace of God into wanton-
neſſe, for
Luxuriant animi rebus plerunque ſecundis)]
not otherwiſe beſtowed than * in all exceſſe, as if we
wiſt not otherwiſe how to conſume and waſt them.
I praie God that in this behalſe our finne be not like
wnto that of Sodoma and Gomorha, whoſe errors
were pride, exceſſe of diet, and abuſe of Gods bene-
fits aboundantlie beſtowed vpon them, beſide want
of charitie toward the poore, and certeine other points
which the prophet ſhutteth vp in filence. Certes the
common-wealth cannot be ſaid to floriſh where theſe
abuſes reigne, but is rather oppreſſed by vnreaſon-
able exa&tions made vpon [rich] farmers, and [of poore]
tenants, wherewith to mainteine the ſame. Neither
Our wiues do passe their whoris Hyr face faire paynted
in whorelyke deckynge.
I thynk the abbominable
whores of the Stews,
Dyd neuer more whorelyke
attyrementes vse.
The cappe on hyr heade
is lyke a Sowes mawe :
Hyr mydle braced in,
as smal as a wande ;
whether they
Were men. Or
WOIOOleIl.
God’s good gifts
are turnd into
wantonness.
Azeah. 16.
These abuses too
cause exactions
from poor
tenants.
to make it shyne bryght,
And hyr bosome all bare,
and most whorelyke dight.
And some by wastes of wyre
at the paste wyfes hand.
Such an other facion
I thynk neuer Jewe sawe.
Then fyne geare on the foreheade
settle after the new trycke,
Though it coste a crowne or two,
What then they may not stycke.
If theyr heyre wyl not take colour,
then must they by newe;
And laye it oute in tussockis :
this thynge is to true.
At each syde a tussocke
as bygge as a ball.
A very fayre syght
for a fornicator bestiall.
A bumbe lyke a barrell,
with whoopes at the skyrte,
Byr shoes of such stuffe
that may touche no dyrte.
Wpon hyr whyte fyngers
manye rynges of golde
Wyth j #:
as are most dearlye solde.
I haue tolde them but trueth,
let them saye what they wyll;
I haue Sayde they be whorelike,
and so I saye still.
Shakspere complains of women painting their faces, and wearing sham hair, in
Loves Labours Lost, IV. iii., and of the locks from ‘the skull that bred them in the
sepulchre”, in The Merchant, III. ii.—F.
1 turned * them
172
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Dress in old
times.
[Attire of
merchazzts.]
They still keep
to the old
gravity befitting
burgesses.
Hut their young
wives are worse
than women of
higher state.
Fashionable
colours in Eliza-
beth’s time :
goose-turd green
Victorian ‘eau
e Nile'), Devil
in the Hedge,
&c.
[4 p. 177]
1 then
* Ver d'oye.
was it euer merier with England, than 4 when an
Engliſhman was knowne [abroad] by his owne cloth,
and contented himſelfe [at home] with his fine carſie
hoſen, and a meane ſlop; his coat, gowne, and cloake
of browne blue or puke, with ſome pretie fur-
niture of veluet or furre, and a doublet of ſad tawnie,
or blacke veluet, or other comelie filke, without ſuch
[cuts and gawriſh colours as are worne in theſe
daies, and neuer brought in but by the conſent of the
French, who thinke themſelues the gaieſt men, when
they haue moſt diuerſitieſs of iagges, and change of
colours, about them. [Certes of all eſtates our mer-
chants doo leaſt alter their attire, and therefore are
moſt to be commended : for albeit that which they
weare be verie fine and coſtlie, yet in forme and
colour it repreſenteth a great peece of the ancient
grauitie apperteining to citizens and burgeſſes, albeit
the yoonger ſort of their wiues both in attire and
coſtlie houſekeeping can not tell when and how to
make an end, as being women in deed in whome all
kind of curioſitie is to be found and ſeene, and in farre
greater meaſure than in women of higher calling.]
I might here name a ſort of hewes deuiſed for the
nonce, wherewith to pleaſe phantaſticall heads, as
gooſeturd greene,” [peaſe porrige tawnie, popingaie
blue,” luſtie gallant, the diuell in the head (I ſhould
ſaie the hedge) and ſuch like: but I paſſe them ouer
4 thinking it ſufficient to haue ſaid thus much of ap-
parell generallie, when nothing can particularlie be
ſpoken of anie conſtancie thereof.
Goose-turd greene; a greenish yellow ; or a colour which is be-
tweene a greene and a yellow.—Cotgrave.
* Verd gay.
A Popiniay greene.—Cotgrave.
[For Chaucer's complaints of the men's and women's dress of his day, see his
Parson's Tale, Pt. 2, of Confession, De Superbia. For a ballad on the fantastic
dresses of Charles I.'s time, see Roxb. Coll. I. 476, Ballad Soc. reprint ii. 117, and
97. And on the point generally, see the Percy Society’s “Poems on Costume.’l
CHAP. VIII.] THE HIGH courT of PARLIAMENT.
17 3
[Of the high court of parlement, and
authoritie of the ſame.
Chap. 8.1
N ſpeaking of parlement lawe, I haue in the
chapiter precedent ſaid ſomewhat of this high
and moſt honorable court. Wherefore it ſhall
not need to remember ought heere that is there touched :
I will onelie ſpeake of other things therefore concerning
the eſtate of aſſemblie, whereby the magnificence
thereof ſhall be in ſome part better knowne vnto ſuch
as ſhall come after vs. This houſe hath the moſt high
and abſolute power of the realme, for thereby kings
and mightie princes haue from time to time beene
depoſed from their thrones, lawes either ena&ted or
abrogated, offendors of all ſorts puniſhed, and corrupted
religion either diſſanulled or reformed, which com-
monlie is diuided into two houſes or parts, the higher or
vpper houſe conſiſting of the nobilitie, including all
euen vnto the baron and biſhop : the lower called the
nether houſe of knights, ſquires, gentlemen, and bur-
geſſes of the commons, with whome alſo the inferior
members of the cleargie are ioined, albeit they fit in
diuerſe places, and theſe haue to deale onelie in matters
of religion, till it come that they ioine with the reſt in
confirmation of all ſuch ačts as are to paſſe in the ſame.
For without the conſent of the three eſtates, that is, of
the nobilitie, cleargie, and laietie, fildome anie thing is
ſaid to be concluded vpon, and brought vnto the prince
for his conſent and allowance. To be ſhort, whatſo-
euer the people of Rome did in their Centuriatis or
Tribunitijs comitijs, the ſame is and may be doone by
authoritie of our parlement houſe, which is the head
and bodie of all the realme, and the place wherein
Parliament is
the highest
power in the
realm, and has
depos'd kings.
[The Aazlement
Aouse dizzideth
the estate of the
2ea/27te zzzzo
zzobilitie and
the commons.]
The Upper
House, and
Nether House.
The lower Clergy
sit with the
Commons to
confirm all Acts.
Consent of the
Three Estates,
Nobility, Clergy,
and Laity,+
before bills, etc.,
go to the King.
* Excepting the list of members of Parliament at the end, this chapter does not
appear at all in the 1577 ed.
I 74
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
All men to obey
Parliament,
[Time of
sommons.]
40 days,
Writs to Sheriffs
of Counties to
choose 2
Knights,
and to Towns
to choose
Burgesses.
Electors in shire
and town.
[Of the zººger
house.] -
House of Lords
tapestri’d.
[Places of the
Aeezes.]
Spiritual Lords
on the King's
right: Temporal
Ilords on his left.
Between, the
Judges, &c., on
woolsacks.
euerie particular perſon is intended to be preſent, if not
by himſelfe, yet by his aduocate or atturneie. For this
cauſe alſo any thing ther ena&ted is not to be miſliked,
but obeied of all men without contradićtion or grudge.
By the ſpace of fortie dais, before this aſſemblie be
begun, the prince ſendeth his writs vnto all his nobilitie
particularlie, ſummoning them to appeare at the ſaid
court. The like he doth to the ſhiriffe of euerie countie;
with commandement to chooſe two knights within ech
of their counties, to giue their aduiſe in the name of the
ſhire; likewiſe to euerie citie and towne, that they may
chooſe their burgeſſes, which commonlie are men beſt
fkilled in the ſtate of their citie or towne, either for the
declaration of ſuch benefits as they want, or to ſhew
which waie to reforme ſuch enormities as thorough the
pračtiſes of ill members are pračtiſed and creptin among
them : the firſt being choſen by the gentlemen of the
ſhire, the other by the citizens and burgeſſes of euerie
citie and towne, whereby that court is furniſhed. The
firſt daie of the parlement being come, the lords of the
vpper houſe, as well eccleſiaſticall as temporall, doo
attend vpon the prince, who rideth thither in perſon, as
it were to open the doore of their authoritie; and being
come into the place, after praiers made, and cauſes
ſhewed, wherefore ſome not preſent are inforced to be
abſent, each man taketh his place according to his
degree. The houſe it ſelfe is curiouſlie furniſhed with
tapiſterie, and the king being ſet in his throne, the
ſpirituall lords take vp the fide of the houſe which is on
the right hand of the prince, and the temporall lords the
left, I meane, ſo well dukes and earles, as viſcounts and
barons, as I before remembred. In the middeſt and a
pretie diſtance from the prince, lie certeine ſackes
ſtuffed with wooll or haire, wheron the iudges of the
realme, the maſter of the rols, and ſecretaries of eſtate
doo fit. Howbeit theſe iudges haue no voice in the
houſe, but onelie ſhew what their opinion is of ſuch &
CHAP. v1.11.] THE HIGH court of PARLIAMENT.
ſuch matters as come in queſtion among the lords, if
they be commanded ſo to doo : as the ſecretaries are to
anſwer ſuch letters or things paſſed in the councell,
whereof they haue the cuſtodie & knowledge. Finallie,
the conſent of this houſe is giuen by each man ſeuerallie,
firſt for himſelfe being preſent, then ſeuerallie for ſo
manie as he hath letters & proxies direéted vnto him,
ſaieng onlie; Content or Not content, without any
further debating. Of the number aſſembled in the
lower houſe, I haue alreadie made a generall report in
the chapter precedent, and their particulars ſhall follow
here at hand. Theſe therefore being called ouer by
name, do chooſe a ſpeaker, who is as it were their mouth,
and him they preſent vnto the prince, in whom it is
either to refuſe or admit him by the lord chancellor,
who in the princes name dooth anſwer vnto his oration,
made at his firſt entrance & preſentation into the houſe,
wherein he declareth the good liking that the king hath
conceiued of his choiſe vnto that office & funètion.
Being admitted, he maketh fiue requeſts vnto that hon-
orable aſſemblie, firſt that the houſe may (as in times
paſt) inioy hir former liberties and priuileges: ſecondlie,
that the congregates may frankelie ſhew their minds
vpon ſuch matters as are to come in queſtion : thirdlie,
that if anie of the lower houſe doo giue anie cauſe of
offenſe during the continuance of this aſſemblie, that
the ſame may inflićt ſuch puniſhment vpon the partie
culpable, as to the ſaid aſſemblie ſhall be thought con-
uenient: fourthlie, if anie doubt ſhould ariſe among
them of the lower houſe, that he in their name might
haue free acceſſe and recourſe vnto his maieſtie & lords
of the higher houſe, to be further inſtructed and reſolued
in the ſame : fiftlie and laſt, he craueth pardon for
himſelfe, if in his going to and fro betweene the houſes,
he forget or miſtake anie thing, requiring that he may
returne and be better informed in ſuch things as he did
faile in without offenſe: vnto which petitions the lord
The Upper
House.
Peers vote in
person, or by
proxy, without
debating.
[Of the lower
Aouse.
Sáeaker, J
the Mouth of
the House.
The King can
refuse or admit
him.
JFive
[Petitions of
the speaker]
to the Lord
Chancellor, for,
1. the House's
privileges,
2. right of free
speech,
3. Of punishing
its own
offenders,
4. of access to
the Lords and
King,
5. forgiveness
for his mistakes.
176
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
[Clerke of the
Aarlement]
reads the Bills,
then the
Members speak
for or against,
and the Bills are
alterd accord-
ingly.
After the third
reading, the
Lords send
their Bills to the
Commons,
g take all this
rom Sir
T. Smith, who
took all his talk
of the different
ranks of England
from me)
[" p. 174]
chancellor dooth anſwer as apperteineth, and this is
doone on the firſt daie, or peraduenture the ſecond, if it
could not be conuenientlie performed in the firſt.
Beſide the lord chancellor there is another in the
vpper houſe called the clerke of the parlement, whoſe
office is to read the billes. For euerie thing that com-
meth in conſultation in either houſe, is firſt put in
writing in paper, which being read, he that liſteth, riſeth
vp and ſpeaketh either with it or againſt it, and ſo one
after another ſo long as they ſhall thinke good; that
doone, they go to another, and ſo to the third, &c.: the
inſtrument ſtill wholie or in part raced or reformed, as
cauſe moueth for the amendment of the ſame if the
ſubſtance be reputed neceſſarie. In the vpper houſe the
lord chancellor demandeth if they will haue it ingroſſed,
that is to ſaie, put in parchment, which doone, it is
read the third time, & after debating of the matter to
and fro, if the more part doo conclude withall, vpon the
vtterance of theſe words, Are ye contented that it be
enađed or no 2 the clerke writeth vnderneath Soit baille
aur commons, and ſo when they ſee time they ſend ſuch
billes approued, to the commons, by ſome of them that
fit on the wooll ſackes, who comming into the houſe,
& demanding licence to ſpeake, doo vſe this kind of
words or the like to the ſpeaker, as fir Thomas Smith
dooth deliuer land ſet them downe, whoſe onelie dire&tion
I vſe, and almoſt word for word in this chapter, requit-
ing him with the like borowage as he hath vſed toward
me in his diſcourſe of the fundrie degrees of eſtates in
the common-wealth of England, which (as I hope)
ſhall be no diſcredit to his trauell. “Maſter ſpeaker, my
lords of the vpper houſe haue paſſed amongſt them, and
thinke good that there ſhould been ačted by parlement,
and pray the
Commons' con-
sideration of
them.
ſuch an ačt, and ſuch an ačt (reading their titles in ſuch
ſort as he receiued them); they praie you therefore to
confider & ſhew your aduiſe vpon them.” Which doone,
they go their waie, and the doore being ſhut after them,
cHAP. VIII.] THE HIGH COURT OF PARLIAMENT.
177
the Speaker declareth what meſſage was sent vnto them,
and if they be then void of conſultation vpon anie other
bill, he preſentlie demandeth what their pleaſures are,
firſt of one, then of another, &c.; which are ſolemnelie
read, or their contents breeflie ſhewed, and then debated
vpon among them.
The ſpeaker fitteth in a chaire erected ſomewhat
higher than the reſt, that he may ſee and be ſeene of
all men; and before him on a lower ſeat fitteth his
clerke, who readeth ſuch bils as be firſt propounded in
the lower houſe, or ſent downe from the lords: for in
that point each houſe hath equall authoritie to propound
what they thinke meet, either for the abrogation of old
or making of new lawes. All bils be thriſe, and on
diuerſe daies, read and diſputed vpon before they come
to the queſtion, which is, whether they ſhall be ena&ted
or not; and in diſcourſe vpon them, verie good order is
vſed in the lower houſe, wherein he that will ſpeake
giueth notice thereof by ſtanding vp bare headed. If
manie ſtand vp at once (as now & then it happeneth)
he ſpeaketh firſt that was firſt ſeene to moue out of his
place, and telleth his tale vnto the ſpeaker, without
reherſall of his name whoſe ſpeches he meaneth to con-
fute, ſo that with a perpetuall oration, & not with alter-
cation, theſe diſcourſes are continued. But as the partie
confuted may not replie vpon that daie, ſo one man can
not ſpeake twiſe to one bill in one daie, though he would
change his opinion, but on the next he may ſpeake
againe, & yet but once as afore. No vile, ſeditious,
wnreuerent or biting words are vſed in this aſſemblie,
yet if anie happen to eſcape and be vttered, the partie is
puniſhed according to the cenſure of the aſſemblie, and
cuſtome in that behalfe. In the afternoone they fit not
except vpon ſome vrgent occaſion : neither hath the
ſpeaker anie voice in that houſe, wherewith to moue or
diſſuade the furtherance or ſtaie of anie bill, but his
office is, vpon the reading thereof, breeflie to declare the
|BIARRISON. 12
The Speaker
[Of the 7zeźer
house.]
His Clerk reads
all bills,
and they're read
and debated on
3 several days.
The first Mem-
ber who rises,
speaks first.
No one can
Speak twice in, 1
day on the Sanne
bill,
No biting words
are us’d.
Afternoon sit-
tings seldon,
held.
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
If Lords and
Commons can’t
agree, appointed
Members of each
House hold a
Conference.
No proxies
allowd in the
Lower E[ouse.
Bills decided by
cry of ‘Yea.” or
‘No,'
or if the cries
seem equal, the
Yeas sit down,
the Nos stand
up, and both are
counted.
Acts are not law
till both Houses
and the Prince
have agreed to
them.
To assent, the
Prince attends
in person,
contents. If anie bill paſſe, which commeth vnto them
from the lords, it is thus ſubſcribed, Les commons ont
affentus : ſo if the lords agree vpon anie bill ſent vinto
them from the commons, it is ſubſcribed after this
maner, Les ſeigniours ont aſſentus. If it be not agreed
on after thriſe reading, there is conference required and
had betweene the vpper and nether houſes, by certeine
appointed for that purpoſe vpon the points in queſtion,
wherevpon, if no finall agreement by the more part can
be obteined, the bill is daſhed and reiected, or (as the
ſaieng is) cleane caſt out of the doores. None of the
nether houſe can giue his voice by proxie but in his
owne perſon; and after the bill twiſe read, then ingroſ.
ſed, and the third time read againe & diſcourſed vpon,
the ſpeaker aſketh if they will go to the queſtion, wher-
wnto if they agree, he holdeth vp the bill & ſaith; So
manie as will haue this bill, go forward ſaie Yea: her-
vpon ſo manie as allow of the thing crie Yea, the other
No, & as the crie is more or leſſe on either ſide, ſo is the
bill to ſtaie or elſe go forward. If the number of
negatiue and affirmatiue voices ſeeme to be equall, ſo
manie as allow of the bill, go downe withall, the reſt fit
ſtill, and being told by the poll, the greater part doo
carrie away the matter. If ſomething be allowed and
in ſome part reie&ted, the bill is put to certeine commit-
tees to be amended, & then being brought in againe, it
is read, and paſſeth or ſtaieth, as..the voices yeeld therto.
This is the order of the paſſage of our lawes, which are
not ratified till both houſes haue agreed vnto them, and
yet not holden for law till the prince haue giuen his
aſſent. Upon the laſt daie therfore of the parlement or
ſeſſion, the prince commeth in perſon againe into the
houſe, in his robes as at the firſt. Where, after thanks
giuen to the prince, firſt in the name of the lords by the
lord chancellor, then in the name of the commons by
the ſpeaker, for his great care of the welfare of his
realme, &c.: the lord chancellor, in the princes name,
CHAP. v1.11.] THE HIGH COURT OF PARLIAMENT. I 79
giueth thanks to the lords & commons likewiſe for their
paines, with promiſe of recompenſe as opportunitie &
occaſion ſhall ſerue therefore. This doone, one readeth
the title of euerie ačt paſſed in that ſeſſion, and then it the titles of all
Acts are read,
is noted vpon them what the prince doth allow of, with and he assents
to or dissents
theſe words, Le roy veult. If the prince like not of ºº
* & 1 Acts but
them, it is written vpon them Le roy aduiſera. And ºnes are
printed.
ſo thoſe ačts are daſhed, as the other from thencefoorth
are taken and holden for law, and all imprinted except
ſuch as concerne ſome priuat perſons, which are onelie
exemplified vnder the ſeale of the parlement, as priui-
leges to his vſe. And this is the ſumme of the maner
after which our parlements in England are holden,
without which no forfaiture of life, member, or lands of
anie Engliſhman, where no law is ordeined for the ſame
before hand, is auailable or can take place amongſt vs.
And ſo much in maner out of the third chapiter of the This is all bor-
g rowd from Sir
ſecond booke of the common-wealth of England written T. Smith's
*s & º * Common-
by fir Thomas Smith : whervnto I will annex a table of rº.
tº e & * Thd, 11. C.
the counties, cities, boroughs and ports, which ſend 8.
knights, burgeſſes, and barons to the parlement houſe,
and dooth inſue as followeth.]
* The names of counties, cities, bo-
roughs, and ports, ſending knights, citi-
zens, burgeſſes, and barons to the
parlement of England.
Bedford.
Nights. 2
The borough of Bedford. 2
Buckingham.
Knights. 2
The borough of Buckingham. 2
*In the 1577 ed. this list appears as part of chap. 3, book 3. “Of the Lawes of
England.”
I8o
[Book II.
• THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND.
[? p. 175.]
The borough of Wickombe.
The borough of Aileſburie.
Barckeſhire.
Knights.
The borough of New Windſore.
The borough of Reading.
The borough of Wallingford.
The borough of Abington.
Cornewall.
Knights.
The borough of Launceſton aliás Newport.
The borough of Leſkerd.
The borough of Loſtwithiell.
The borough of Dunheuet.
The borough of Truro.
The borough of Bodmin.
The borough of Helſton.
The borough of Saltaſh.
The borough of Camelford.
The borough of Portighſam aliás Portlow.
The borough of Graunpount.
The borough of Eaſtlow.
The borough of Prurie.
The borough of Tregonie.
The borough of Trebenna aliás Boſfinnie.
The borough of S. Ies.
*The borough of Fowaie.
The borough of Germine.
The borough of Michell.
The borough of ſaint Maries.
Cumberland.
Knights.
The citie of Caerleill.
Cambridge.
Knights.
The borough of Cambridge.
1 The figure is omitted in 1587 edition.
2
2
:
1
cHAP. VIII.] THE HIGH GQURT OF PARLIAMENT.
181
Cheſter.
Knights.
The citie of Cheſter.
Darlie.
Knights.
The borough of Darbie.
Deuon.
Knights.
The citie of Exceſter.
The borough of Totnes.
The borough of Plimmouth.
The borough of Bardneſtable.
The borough of Plimton.
The borough of Taueſtocke. -
The borough of Dartmouth, Clifton, and Herdines.
Dorſetſhire.
Knights.
The borough of Poole.
The borough of Dorcheſter.
The borough of Linne.
The borough of Melcombe.
The borough of Waiemouth.
The borough of Bureport.
The borough of Shafteſburie.
The borough of Warham.
Eſſex.
Knights.
The borough of Colcheſter.
The borough of Malden.
Yorkeſhire.
Knights.
The citie of Yorke.
The borough of Kingſton vpon Hull.
The borough of Knareſborough.
The borough of Skardborough.
The borough of Rippon.
2.
2.
2.
.
182 THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book Ii.
The borough of Hudon.
The borough of Boroughbridge.
The borough of Thuſke,
The borough of Aldebrough.
The borough of Beuerleie.
Gloceſterſhire.
:
Knights.
The citie of Gloceſter.
The borough of Cirenceſter,
2.
Huntingtonſhire
Knights.
The borough of Huntingdon.
Hertfordſhire,
Knights.
The borough of ſaint Albons.
Herefordſhire,
Knights.
The citie of Hereford. 2.
The borough of Lempſter
Rent,
2
Knights.
The citie of Canturburie.
The citie of Rocheſter.
The borough of Maidſtone.
The borough of Quinborough. º
:
Lincolne,
Knights.
The citie of Lincolne.
The borough of Boſtone.
The borough of great Grineſbie,
The borough of Stamford.
The borough of Grantham.
Leiceſterſhire,
Knights. 2.
The borough of Leiceſter. 2.
Lancaſterſhire.
Knights. 2
.
*—º-º-º-º: - 1–-k
CHAP. VIII.] THE HIGH Cou RT OF PARLIAMENT,
183
The borough of Lancaſter.
The borough of Preſton in Andernes.
The borough of Liuerpoole.
The borough of Newton.
The borough of Wigan.
The borough of Clithero.
Middleſer.
Knights.
The citie of London.
The citie of Weſtminſter.
Monmouth.
Knights.
The borough of Monmouth.
Northhampton.
Knights.
The citie of Peterborough.
The borough of Northhampton.
The borough of Barkleie.
The borough of Higham Ferres.
Notingham.
Knights.
The borough of Notingham.
The borough of Eſtreatford.
Norffolke.
Knights.
The citie of Norwich.
The borough of Linne.
The borough of great Jernemouth.
The borough of Thetford.
The borough of caſtell Rifing.
Northumberland.
Knights. -
The borough of New caſtell vpon Tine.
The borough of Morpeth.
The borough of Barwike. .
Oxford.
Knights.
.
2.
.
.
.
184 THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
The citie of Oxford.
The borough of Bamburie.
The borough of Woodſtocke.
s Rutland.
Knights. 2.
Surreie.
Knights.
The borough of Southwarke.
The borough of Blechingleigh.
The borough of Rigate.
The borough of Guildford.
The borough of Gatton.
Stafford."
.
Knights.
The citie of Lichfield.
The borough of Stafford.”
g The borough of New caſtell vnder Linne.
The borough of Tamworth.
.
Salop.
Knights.
The borough of Salop.
The borough of Bruges alids Bridgenorth.
The borough of Ludlow.
The borough of Wenlocke.
.
Southhampton.
Knights.
The citie of Winton.
[3 p. 176] * The borough of Southhampton.
The borough of Porteſmouth.
The borough of Peterfield.
The borough of Stockebridge.
The borough of Chriſt church.
Suffolke.
.
Knights.
The borough of Ippeſwich. . 2
The borough of Dunwich. . 2
1 Stratford 2 Stratforde
CHAP. v1.11.] THE HIGH COURT OF PARLIAMENT.
The borough of Ortford.
The borough of Aldeborough,
The borough of Sudburie.
The borough of Eya.
Summerſet,
Knights.
The citie of Briſtow.
The citie of Bath.
The citie of Welles.
The borough of Taunton.
The borough of Bridgewater.
The borough of Minched.
Suffèt.
Knights.
The citie of Chicheſter.
The borough of Horſham.
The borough of Midhurſt.
The borough of Lewes.
The borough of Shorham.
The borough of Brember.
The borough of Stening.
The borough of Eaſtgreneſteed.
The borough of Arundell.
Weſtmerland.
Knights.
The borough of Appulbie.
- Wilton.
Knights.
The citie of New Sarum.
The borough of Wilton.
The borough of Dounton.
The borough of Hindon.
The borough of Heiteſburie.
The borough of Weſtburie.
The borough of Caine.
The borough of Deuiſes.
The borough of Chipenham.
:
[2]
.
2
I86
|Book II.
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND.
The borough of Malmeſburie,
The borough of Cricklade.
The borough of Budwin,
The borough of Ludgeſale.
The borough of Old Sarum,
The borough of Wotton Baſſet,
The borough of Marleborough,
I/orcéſier.
Knights,
The citie of Worceſter,
The borough of Withee.
Warwike. S
Knights.
The citie of Couentrie.
The borough of Warwike.
Barons of the ports.
Haſtings.
Winchelſeie.
Rie,
Rumneie.
Hithe.
Douer.
Sandwich.
Mountgomerie.
Knights.
The borough of Mountgomerie.
Flint.
Knights.
The borough of Flint,
Denbigh.
Knights.
The borough of Denbigh.
Merionneth.
Knights.
The borough of Hauerfordweſt.
.
CHAP. v1.11.] THE HIGH COURT OF PARLIAM ENT,
187
Carneruan.
Knights.
The borough of Carneruan.
Angleſeie.
Knights.
The borough of Beaumares.
Carmarden,
Enights.
The borough of new Carmarden.
Pembroke.
Knights.
The borough of Pembroke.
Cairdigan.
Knights,
The borough of Cardigan.”
~, [Brecknoch.
[Knights.
The borough of Brecknoch.
Radnor.
Knights.
The borough of Radnor.
- Glamorgan.
Knights.
The borough of Cardiffe.
* The ſumme of the foreſaid number of
the common houſe videlicet, of
Knights. 9o.
Citizens. 46.
Burgeſſes. 289.
Barons. I4.
439.
* Brecknocke
I88
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, , , [Book II.
Samothes (1)
and others of
whom we know
nothing,
Albion. (2)
Brute. (3)
Mulanetetites. (4)
[4 p. 173]
Bladudus, who
made a ridicu-
lous end.
Of the lawes of England' [ſince hir
firſt inhabitation.]
Chap. 9.”
Hat Samothes or Dis gaue the firſt lawes to
the Celtes (whoſe kingdome he erected about
the fifteenth of Nimbrote), the teſtimonie of
Beroſus is proofe ſufficient. For he not onelie affirmeth
him to publiſh the ſame in the fourth of Ninus, but
alſo addeth thereto, how there liued none in his daies of
more excellent wiſdome, nor politike inuention than *
he, whereof he was named Samothes, as ſome other do
affirme. What his lawes were, it is now altogither
vnknowne, as moſt things of this age; but that they
were altered againe at the comming of Albion, no man
can abſolutelie denie, fith new lords vſe commonlie to
giue new lawes, and conquerors aboliſh ſuch as were in
vſe before them.
The like alſo may be affirmed of our Brute, not-
withſtanding that the certeine knowledge, ſo well of the
one as of the other is periſhed, and nothing worthie
memorie left of all their dooings. Somewhat yet we
haue of Mulmutius, who not onelie ſubdued ſuch princes
as reigned in this land, but alſo brought the realme to
good order, that long before had beene torne with ciuill
diſcord. But where his lawes are to be found, and
which they be from other mens, no man liuing in theſe
daies is able to determine.
* Certes, there was neuer prince in Britaine, of
whome his ſubie&ts conceiued better hope in the begin-
ning, than of Bladudus, and yet I read of none that
made ſo ridiculous an end: in like ſort there hath not
1 On the practical evils of the Law, &c. &c., as administerd before and about
1542, see Henry Brinklow's most interesting Complaint, E. E. Text Soc., Extra
Series, 1874.
* In the 1577 edition, this chapter is the 3rd of book 3. 8 then
*- ..sº “, - **--> ~ºm *—º- *.*.* -º- - -º-º-º-º-
CHAP. IX.] THE LAWS OF ENGLAND,
189
reigned anie monarch in this Ile, whoſe waies were
more feared at the firſt, than thoſe of Dunwallon (king
Henrie the fift excepted) and yet in the end he prooued
ſuch a prince, as after his death there was in maner no
ſubie&t, that did not lament his funerals. And this
onelie for his policie in gouernance, ſeuere adminiſtra-
tion of iuſtice, and prouident framing of his lawes and
conſtitutions, [for the gouernment of his ſubjećts].
His people alſo, coueting to continue his name vnto
poſteritie, intituled thoſe his ordinances according to
their maker, calling them by the name of the lawes of
Mulmutius, which indured in execution among the
Britons, ſo long as our homelings had the dominion of
this Ile.
once obteined the ſuperioritie of the kingdom, the
Afterward, when the [comeling] Saxons had
maieſtie of thoſe' lawes fell for a time into ſuch decaie,
that although Non penitºs cecidit, tamen potuit cecidiffe
videri, as Leland ſaith; and the decrees” themſelues had
vtterlie periſhed in deed at the verie firſt brunt, had
they not beene preſerued in Wales, where they remained
amongſt the relikes of the Britons, & not onlie vntill the
comming of the Normans, but euen vntill the time of
Edward the firſt, who obteining the ſouereigntie of that
portion, indeuoured [verie earneſtlie] to extinguiſh thoſe
of Mulmutius, and to eſtabliſh his owne.
But as the Saxons at their firſt arriuall did what they
could to aboliſh the Britiſh lawes, ſo in proceſſe of time
they yeelded a little to relent, & not ſo much to abhorre
and miſlike of the lawes of Mulmutius, as to receiue 3
and imbrace the ſame, eſpeciallie at ſuch time as the
[ſaid] Saxon princes entered into amitie with the
Britiſh nobilitie,” and after that [began to] ioine in
matrimonie with the Britiſh ladies, [as the Britiſh barons
did with the Saxon frowes, both by an eſpeciall ſtatute
and decree, wherof in another treatiſe I haue made
mention at large], Heerof alſo it came to paſſe in the
1 these 2 lawes 8 re-recevue * Trinces
The Araise of
Dunwallon. (5)
His people calld
his ordinances
the Laws of
Multnutius.
They lasted
while our home-
ling Britons
held our Ile, till
the comeling
Saxons won it,
were preserv'd
in Wales till
Edward I con-
querd it,
and gradually in
part adopted by
the Saxons when
they marrid
with the
Britons,
I9o
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
as Ethelbert's,
Ina's, and Al-
fred's Laws
testify.
King Alfred
had all the Laws
of Mulmutius
translated into
Saxon.
And the Nor-
mans, tho' at
first they dis-
lik’t these laws,
yet at last took
many of them,
as St Edward’s
laws,
1 Atherbert
end, that they were contented to make a choiſe, and
inſert no ſmall numbers of them into their owne
volumes, as may be gathered by thoſe of Athelbert” the
great, ſurnamed king of Kent, Inas and Alfred, kings of
the weſt Saxons, and diuerſe other yet extant to be
ſeene. Such alſo was the lateward eſtimation of them,
that when anie of the Saxon princes went about to
make *new ordinances,” they cauſed thoſe of Mulmutius .
(which Gildas ſometime tranſlated into Latine) to be
[firſt] expounded vnto them; and in this peruſall, if they
found anie there alreadie framed, that might ſerue their
turnes, they foorthwith reuiued the ſame, and annexed
them to their owne.
But in this dealing, the diligence of Alfred is moſt
of all to be commended, who not onelie choſe out the
beſt, but gathered togither all ſuch whatſoeuer the ſaid
Mulmutius had made: and then to the end they ſhould
lie no more in corners as forlorne books, and Vnknowne
[to the learned of his kingdome, he cauſed them to be
turned into the Saxon toong, wherein they continued
long after his deceaſe.
As for the Normans, who [for a ſeaſon] neither re-
garded the Britiſh, nor cared for the Saxon ſtatutes,”
they alſo at the firſt vtterlie miſliked of them; till at the
laſt, when they had well weied that one kind of regi-
ment is not conuenient for all peoples, and that no
ſtranger, being in a forren countrie newlie brought
vnder obedience, could make ſuch equall ordinances, as
he might thereby gouerne his new common-wealth
without ſome care & 4 trouble, they fell in * with ſuch"
a defire to ſee by what rule the ſtate of the land was
gouerned in time of the Saxons, that hauing peruſed the
fame, they not onelie commended their maner of regi-
ment, but alſo admitted a great part of their lawes (now
currant vinder the name of S. Edwards lawes, and vſed
as principles and grounds), whereby they not onlie
4 of 5–5 so wyth
2–2 anye newe lawes “lawes
CHAP. IX.] THE LAWS OF ENGLAND.
I91
qualified the rigor of their owne, and mitigated their
almoſt intollerable burden of ſeruitude which they had
latelie laid vpon the ſhoulders of the Engliſh, but alſo
left vs a great number of [the old] Mulmutian lawes
whereof the moſt part are in vſe to this daie, as I
ſaid, albeit that we know not certeinlie how to diſ-
tinguiſh them from others, that are in ſtrength amongſt
WS.
After Dunwallon, the next lawgiuer was Martia,
whome Leland ſurnameth Proba; and after him Iohn
Bale alſo, who in his Centuries dooth iuſtlie confeſſe
himſelfe to haue beene holpen by the ſaid Leland, as I
my ſelfe doo likewiſe for manie things conteined in this
treatiſe. Shee was wife vnto Gutteline king of the
Britons: and being made protećtrix of the realme, after
hir huſbands deceaſe in the nonage of bir ſonne, and
ſeeing manie things dailie to grow vp among hir people
worthie reformation, ſhe deuiſed ſundrie and thoſe verie
politike lawes, for the gouernance of hir kingdome,
which hir ſubie&ts when ſhe was dead and gone, did
Who turned them into
Latine, as yet I doo not read, howbeit (as I ſaid before
of the lawes of Mulmutius) ſo the ſame Alfred cauſed
thoſe of this excellentlie well learned ladie (whome
diuerſe commend alſo for hir great knowledge in the
name the Martian ſtatutes.
Greeke toong) to be turned into his owne language;
wherevpon it came to paſſe that they were dailie exe-
cuted among his ſubieóts, afterward allowed of (among
the reſt) by the Normans, and finallie remaine in vſe in
theſe our" daies, notwithſtanding that we cannot diſſeuer
them [alſo] verie readilie from the other.
The ſeuenth alteration of lawes was pračtiſed by the
Saxons, for I ouerpaſſe the * vſe of the ciuill ordinances
vſed in Rome, finallie brought hither by the Romans, &
1 these
and many are in
use to this day.
Martia. (6)
Leland helpt
Bale, and 80 he
did me.
Martia was the
widow of King
Gutteline of
Britain,
and made very
good laws, calld
the Martian
Statutes.
These, Alfred
also translated
into Saxon ; and
they too are
still in use.
7th change of
Laws, by the
Saxons.
*—” lawes made by the Romaines, whose order do partly remaine in publike
notice
I92
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
yet in perfeót notice among the Ciuilians of our countrie,
though neuer generallie nor fullie receiued by all the
ſeuerall regions of this Iland. Certes there are great
numbers of theſe later, which yet remaine in ſound
knowledge, and are to be read, being comprehended for
the moſt part” vnder the names of the Martian and the
Saxon law. Beſide theſe alſo I read of the Dane law,
ſo that the people of middle England were ruled by the
firſt, the weſt Saxons by the ſecond ; as Eſſex, Norffolke,
Suffolke, Cambridgeſhire, and part of Hertfordſhire
were by the third, of all the reſt the moſt inequall and
intollerable. [And as in theſe daies what ſoeuer the
prince in publike aſſemblie commanded vpon the neceſ-
ſitie of his ſubie&ts, or his owne voluntarie authoritie,
was counted for law : ſo none of them had appointed
anie certeine place, wherevnto his people might repaire
at fixed times for iuſtice, but cauſed them to reſort
commonlie to their palaces, where in proper perſon they
would often determine their cauſes, and ſo make ſhort-
eſt worke, or elſe commit the ſame to the hearing of
other, and ſo diſpatch them awaie. Neither had they
any houſe appointed to aſſemble in for the making of
their ordinances, as we haue now at Weſtminſter.
Wherefore Edmund gaue lawes at London & Lincolne,
Ethelred at Habam, Alfred at Woodſtock and Wannet-
ting, Athelſtane in Exceſter, Grecklade, Feuerſham, &
Thunderſleie, Canutus at Wincheſter, &c.; other in
other places, whereof this may ſuffice.]
Among other things alſo vſed in the time of the
Saxons, it ſhall not be amiſſe to ſet downe the forme
of their Ordalian law, which they brought hither
* with them from beyond the ſeas [out of Scithia,] and
vſed onelie in the triall of guiltie and vnguiltineſſe.
Certes it conteined not an ordinarie proceeding by daies
and termes, as in the ciuill and common law we ſee
practiſed in theſe daies; but a ſhort diſpatch & triall of
Roman Civil
Law never fully
adopted here.
Martian l lazy.
Saxon law.
Dazee law
T)ane Law the
worst.
In old time the
Prince's will
was law, and
there was no
fixt place for
dispensing
justice
or making laws.
The Saxon law
of Ordeal, or
(2 p. 178]
trial by Fire or
Water
* mercian
cHAP. IX.] THE LAWS OF ENGLAND,
I93
the matter by fire or water, whereof at this preſent I
will deliuer the circumſtance, as I haue faithfullie
tranſlated it out of an ancient volume, and con-
ferred with an imprinted” copie, latelie publiſhed by
M. Lambert, [and] now extant to be read. [Neuer-
theleſſe, as the Scithians were the firſt that vſed this
praćtiſe, ſo I read that it was taken vp and occupied
alſo in France in proceſſe of time, yea and likewiſe in
Grecia, as G. Pachymerus remembreth in the firſt
booke of his hiſtorie (which beginneth with the empire
of M. Paleologus) where he noteth his owne fight and
vew in that behalfe. But what ſtand I herevpon :
The Ordalian (ſaith the aforeſaid author) was a
certeine maner of purgation vſed two waies, wherof the
one was by fire, the other by water. In the execution
of that which was doone by fire, the partie accuſed
ſhould go a certeine number of paſes, with an hot” iron
in his hand, or elſe bare footed vpon certeine plough
ſhares red hot, according to the maner. This iron was
ſometime of one pound weight, and then was it called
fingle Ordalium, ſometimes of three, and then named
treble Ordalium, and whoſoeuer did beare or tread on
the ſame without hurt of his bodie he was adiudged
giltleſſe, otherwiſe if his ſkin were ſcorched, he was
foorthwith condemned as guiltie of the treſpaſſe where-
of he was accuſed, [according to the proportion and
quantitie of the burning.]
There were in like ſort two kinds of triall by the
water, that is to ſay, either by hot or cold : and in this
triall the partie thought culpable, was either tumbled
into ſome pond or huge veſſell of cold water, wherein
if he continued for a ſeaſon, without wreſtling or ſtrug-
ling for life, he was foorthwith acquited as guiltleſſe of
the fačt wherof he was accuſed : but if he began to
plunge, and labour once for breath immediatlie vpon
his falling into that liquor, he was by and by con-
1 prynted * hote peece of
HARRISON 13
The Trial by
Ordeal I’ll
describe from
an old M.S. and
Mr Wrn
Lambard's
* APXAIONO-
MIA sive de
priscis
Anglorum
Legibus Libri.’
1568, (p. 220,
&c.) ed. 1644.
[Ozdalian lazv.]
[Fire.]
The person
accus’d held in
hand, or walkt
On, hot iron.
If scorcht, he
Was guilty.
Ordeal by
[Water.]
The accus’d
person was
tumbl’d into a
pond.
If he struggl’d
or pufft, he was
guilty.
I94.
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Trial by Ordeal
of hot Water,
Or elſe he did thruſt
his arme vp to the ſhoulder into a lead, copper, or
demned as guiltie of the crime.
caldron of ſeething water, from whence if he withdrew
the ſame without anie maner of damage, he was diſ.
charged of further moleſtation: otherwiſe he was taken
for a treſpaſſer, and puniſhed accordinglie. The fierie
maner of purgation belonged onelie to noble men and
women, and ſuch as were free borne : but the huſband-
men and villaines were tried by water. Whereof to
ſhew the vnlearned dealing and blind ignorance of thoſe
times, it ſhall not be impertinent to ſet foorth the whole
maner, which continued here in England vntill the
time of king John, who ſeeing the manifold ſubtilties
in the ſame [(by ſundrie ſorcerous and artificiall prac-
tiſes whereby the working of the ſaid elements were
reſtreined)] did extinguiſh it altogither as flat lewd-
neſſe and bouerie. The Rubrike of the treatiſe en-
tereth thus: Here beginneth the execution of iuſtice,
whereby the giltie or vngiltie are tried by hot iron. Then
it followeth : After accuſation lawfullie made, and three
daies ſpent in faſting and praier, the prieſt being clad in
all his holie veſtures, ſauing his veſtiment, ſhall take the
iron laid before the altar with a paire of tongs, and ſºng-
ing the hymne of the three children, that is to ſaie, O all
ye workes of God the Lord, and in Latine Benedicite
omnia opera, &c.; he ſhall carie it ſolemnelie to the fire
(alreadie made for that purpoſe) and firſt ſaie theſe words
ouer the place where the fire is kindled, whereby this pur-
gation ſhall be made in Latine as inſueth : Benedic
Domine Deus locum iſium, vi ſit nobis in eo ſanitas,
ſančištas, caſtitas, virtus, & vićtoria, & ſančtimonia,
humilitas, bonitas, lenitas, & plenitudo legis, & obedientia
Deo patri, & filio, & ſpiritui ſančio. Haec benedićtio
ſit ſuper hunc locum, & ſuper omnes habitantes in eo.
In Engliſh : Bleſſe thou O Lord this place, that it may
be to vs health, holineſſe, chaſtitie, vertue, and vićtorie,
pureneſſe, humilitie, goodneſſe, gentleneſſe, and fulneſſe
Nobles tried by
Fire ;
FIusbandmen
by Water.
King John
stopt it all as
flat humbug.
The Procedure
in Ordeal by
Fire :
1. Accusation,
2. Three days'
Fasting.
3. Priest takes
the iron in
tongs, sings a
bymn ;
4 carries the
iron to the fire,
and asks a
blessing on the
place;
-- - - - - - * - - *_re * - * * * *-* * * •4 * * x
cHAP. Ix.] T H E LAWS O F ENGLAND.
I95
of the law, and obedience to God the father, the fonne,
and the holie ghoft. This bleffing be vpon this place,
and all that dwell in it. Then followeth the bleffing Qf
the fire.
Domine Deus pater omnipotens, lumen indeficiens,
exaudi nos, quia tu es conditor omnium luminum. Benedic
Domine hoc lumen, quod ante fanétificatum eft, qui illu-
minqfii omnem hominem venientem in hunc mundum (vel
mundum) vt ab eo lumine accendamur igne claritatis tuæ.
Et ficut igne illuminqfii Mofen, ita nunc illumina corda
nqfira, & fenfus nqfiros, vt ad vitam æternam mereamur
peruenire, per Chrifium, &c. Lord God father al-
mightie, light euerlafting, heare vs, fith thou * art the
maker of all lights. Bleffe O Lord this light, that is
alreadie fan&ified in thy fight, which haft lightned all
men that come into the world (or the whole world) to
the end that by the fame light we may be lightned with
the fhining of thy brightneffe. As thou diddeft lighten
Mofes, fo now illuminate our hearts, and our fenfes,
that we may deferue to come to euerlafting life, through
Christ our, &c. This being ended, let him fay the Pater
nQfter, &c : then thefe words : Saluum fac feruum, &c.
Mitte ei auxilium Deus, &c. De Sion tuere eum, &c.
Dominus vobifcum, &c. That is, O Lord faue thy
feruant, &c. Send him helpe O God from thy holie
place, [&c.] Defend him out of Sion, &c. Lord heare,
&c. The Lord be with you, &c.
The praier. Benedic Domine fanéte pater, omnipotens
Deus, per inuocationem fanétìffimi nominis tui, & per
aduentum filij tui, atque per donum fpiritus paracleti, ad
manifeftandum verum iudicium tuum, hoc genus metalli,
vt fit fanétificatum, & omni dæmonum falfitate procul
remota, veritas veri iudicij tui fidelibus tuis manífefía fiat,
per eundem Dominum, &c. In Engli/h : Bleffe we
befeech thee O Lord, holie father, euerlafting God,
through the inuocation of thy moft holie name, by the
i y
Erocedure in
Ordeal by Fire.
5. asks a
blessing on the
Fire;
6. says other
Erayers;
7. prays that;
the Irom
I96
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Procedure in
Ordeal by Fire.
may manifest
God’s
judgment;
8. puts the iron
in the fire ;
9. goes to Mass,
and gives the
Host to the
accus’d man.
The Mass
Service.
Prayer for the
man accus’d.
The Gospel.
What shall I do
to possess
etermal life?
[l p. 179]
comming of thy ſonne, and gift of the holie ghoſt,
and to the manifeſtation of thy true iudgement, this
kind of mettall, that being hallowed, and all fraudulent
pračtiſes of the diuels vtterlie remoued, the manifeſt
truth of thy true iudgement may be reuealed, by the
ſame Lord Jeſus, &c.
After this, let the iron be laid into the fire, and
Jbrinkled with holie water, and whileſ; it heateth, let the
prieſt go to maſſe, and doo as order requireth : and when
he hath receiued the hoſt, he ſhall call the man that is to
be purged (as it is written hereafter) firſt adiuring him,
and then permitting him to communicate according to the
7770.716.7°. *
The office of the maſſe.
Iuſtus es Domine, &c. O Lord thou art iuſt, &c.
The Prażer.
Bſolue quaſumus Domine delićia famuli tui, vi ä
peccatorum ſuorum nearibus, quae pro ſua fragilitate
contrarit, tua benignitate liberetur, & in hoc iudicio
quoad meruit, iuſtitia tua praeueniente, ad veritatis cen-
ſuram peruenire mereatur, per Chriſtum Dominum, &c.
That is : Pardon we beſeech thee O Lord, the ſinnes of
thy ſeruant, that being deliuered from the burden of his
offenſes, wherewith he is intangled, he may be cleared
by thy benignitie, and in this his triall (ſo far as he hath
deſerued, thy mercie preuenting him) he may come to
the knowledge of the truth, by Chriſt our Lord, &c.
The Goſpell. Mar. Io.
N illo tempore, cºm egreſſus effet Ieſus in via, procur-
rens quidam genu flewo ante eum, rogabat eum dicens,
Magiſter" bone, quid faciam vt vitam acternam percipiam P
In
thoſe daies when Ieſus went foorth toward his iourneie,
Ieſus autem dirit ei, Quid me dicis bonum ? &c.
and one meeting him in the waie running, and kneeling
*—º *—t
cHAP. IX.] THE LAWS OF ENGLAND.
I97
wnto him, aſked him ſaieng: Good maſter what ſhall I
doo that I may poſſeſſe eternall life 2 Ieſus ſaid vnto
him, Whie calleſt thou" me good 2 &c. Then followeth
the ſecret, and ſo foorth all of the reſt of the maſſe. But
before the partie dooth communicate, the prieſt ſhall uſe
theſe words vnto him : Adiuro te per patrem, & filium,
& ſpiritum ſančium, & per veram chriſtianitatem quam
ſuſcepiſii, & per ſančias relliquias qua in iſta eccleſia
ſunt, & per baptiſmum quo te ſacerdos regenerauit, vt
non praeſumas vllo modo communicare, neque accedere ad
altare, ſhoc feciſii aut conſenſiſti, &c.
the father, the ſonne, and the holie Ghoſt, by the true
chriſtendome which thou haſt receiued, by the holie
relikes which are in this church, and by the baptiſme
wherewith the prieſt hath regenerated thee, that thou
preſume not by any maner of means to communicate,
nor come about the altar, if thou haſt doone or con-
ſented vnto this, whereof thou art accuſed, &c. Here
let the prieſt ſuffer him to communicate, ſaieng ; Corpus
hoc, & ſanguis Domini noſtri Ieſu Chriſti, fit tibi ad pro-
bationem hodie. This bodie & this bloud of our Lord
Ieſus Chriſt, be vnto thee a triall this daie. The praier :
Perceptis Domine Deus noſter ſacris muneribus, ſupplices
deprecamur, vt huius participatio ſacramenti & proprijs
nos reatibus expediat, & in famulo tuo veritatis ſententiam
declaret, &c. Hauing receiued O Lord God theſe holie
myſteries, we humblie beſeech thee that the participa-
tion of this ſacrament may rid vs of our guiltineſſe, and
in this thy ſeruant ſet foorth the truth. Then ſhall
follow Kyrielefon, the Letanie, and certeine Pſalmes, and
after all them Oremus : Let vs praie. Deus qui per
ignem ſigna magna oſtendens, Abraham puerum tuum de
incendio Chaldaeorum quibuſdam pereuntilus eruiſti, Deus
qui rubum ardere ante conſpecium Moſs & minimé
comburi permiſſii, Deus qui de incendio formacis Chal-
daicis pleréſue ſuccenſis, tres pueros tuos illaeſos eduariſti,
1 y
I adiure thee by
Procedure in
Ordeal by Fire.
The Mass
Service.
The Priest to
adjure the
accus’d not to
receive the
Sacrament if
he's guilty.
The cuá yet
2?? &/Se.
The last Prayer,
that the Fire
may test the
accus’d’s guilt
or innocence.
198
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Procedure in
Ordeal by Fire.
The last Prayer
Englisht,
that the Fire
may prove the
accus’d guilty
or innocent.
Deus qui incendio ignis populum Sodoma inuoluens, Loth
Jamulum tuum cum ſuis ſalute donaſti, Deus qui in ad-
wentu ſančii ſpiritus tui, illuſtratione ignis fideles tuos ab
infidelibus decreuiſti º oſtende nobis in hoc prawitatis
moſirae examine virtutem eiuſdem ſpiritus, &c : & per
ignis huius feruorem diſcernere infideles, vt d tačiu eius
cuius inquiſitio agitur, conſcius exhorreſcat, & manus eius
comburatur, innocens verb poemitus illaſus permaneat, &c.
Deus cuius noticiam nulla vnquam ſecreta effugiunt, fidei
noſtrae tua bonitate reſponde, & praeſia vt quiſguis pur-
gandi ſe gratia, hoc ignitum tulerit ferrum, vel abſoluatur
vt innocens, vel norius detegatur, &c. In Engliſh thus
O God, which in ſhewing great tokens by fire diddeſt
deliuer Abraham thy ſeruant from the burning of the
Chaldeis, whileſt other periſhed; O God which ſuf-
feredſt the buſh to burne in the fight of Moſes, and yet
not to conſume; O God which deliueredſt the three
children from bodilie harme in the fornace of the
Chaldeis, whileſt diuerſe were conſumed; O God which
by fire didſt wrap the people of Sodome in their de-
ſtrućtion, and yet ſauedſt Lot and his daughters from
perill; O God which by the ſhining of thy brightneſſe
at the comming of the holie ghoſt in likeneſſel of fire,
diddeſt ſeparate the faithfull from ſuch as beleeued not :
ſhew vnto vs in the triall of this our wickedneſſe, the
power of the ſame ſpirit, &c.; and by the heat of this
fire diſcerne the faithfull from the vnfaithfull, that the
guiltie whoſe cauſe is now in triall, by touching thereof,
may tremble and feare, and his hand be burned, or,
being innocent, that he may remaine in ſafetie, &c. O
God from whom no ſecrets are hidden, let thy good-
neſſe anſwer to our faith, and grant that whoſoeuer in
this purgation, ſhall touch and beare this iron, may
either be tried an innocent, or reuealed as an offendor,
&c. After this the prieſt ſhall ſprinkle the iron with
holie water, ſaieng : The bleſfing of God the father, the
1 likewyse
CHAP. IX.] THE LAWS OF ENGLAND.
I99
ſonne, and the holie ghoſt, be vpon this iron, to the
reuelation of the iuſt iudgement of God. And foorth-
with let him that is accuſed beare it, by the length of
nine foot, and then let his hand be wrapped and ſealed vp
for the ſpace of three daies : after this if any corruption
or raw fleſh appeare where the iron touched it, let him be
condemned as guiltie : if it be whole and ſound, let him
giue thanks to God. And thus much of the firie Ordalia,
wherevnto that of the water hath ſo preciſe relation,
that in ſetting foorth of the one, I haue alſo deſcribed
the other, wherefore it ſhall be but in vaine to deale
anie further withall.
Hitherto alſo (as I thinke) ſufficientlie of ſuch
lawes as were in vſe before the conqueſt. Now it
reſteth that I ſhould declare the order of thoſe, that haue
beene made [and receiued] fince the comming of the
Normans, [referred to the eight alteration or change of
our maner of gouernance, and therevnto doo produce
three ſcore and foure ſeuerall courts.] But for aſnuch
as I am no lawier, and therefore haue but little ſkill to
proceed in the ſame accordinglie, it ſhall ſuffice to ſet
downe ſome generall diſcourſe of ſuch as are vſed in our
daies, and ſo much as I haue gathered by report and
common heare-ſaie.
We haue therefore in England ſundrie lawes, and
firſt of all the ciuill, vſed in the chancerie, Admiraltie,
and diuerſe other courts, in ſome of which, the ſeuere
rigor of iuſtice is often ſo mitigated by conſcience, that
diuerſe things are thereby made eaſie and tollerable,
which otherwiſe would appeare to be meere iniurie and
extremitie.
We haue alſo a great part of the Canon law dailie
praćtiſed among vs, eſpeciallie in caſes of tithes, con-
tracts of matrimonie, and ſuch like, as are vſuallie to be
ſeene in the conſiſtories of our biſhops [and higher
courts of the two archbiſhops] where the exerciſe of
the ſame is verie hotlie followed. The third ſort of
Ordeal by Fire.
10. The accus’d
man to carry
the hot iron for
9 feet.
If, after 3 days,
his hand 's raw,
he's guilty
Ordeal by
[Water,l
just the same.
So much for our
Laws before the
Conquest.
Of those after it,
producing 64
Courts,
I shall only give
a general
account.
[Ciuz/2 lazv]
in the
Admiralty and
other Courts.
[Carton law]
in tithe and
marriage cases.
2 OO
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Our own laws,
which often
change.
I Lazwiers of
Bzeglazed 7zot
alwales cozz-
startt in iudg-
2reezet. J
We have 3
Laws :
1. Statute,
2. Common,
3. Customary.
Parlemezzt Jazv.
Parliament
consists of
Nobility,
Clergy, and
Commons.
The Convocation
of the Clergy is
part of
Parliament.
[? p. 180]
Iawes that we haue" are our owne, & thoſe alwaies ſo
variable, & ſubie&t to alteration and change, that oft in
one age, diuerſe iudgements doo paſſe vpon one maner
of caſe, whereby the ſaieng of the poet,
Tempora mutantur, & nos mutamur in illis,
may verie well be applied vnto ſuch ; as being vrged
with theſe words. In ſuch a yeare of the prince, this
opinion was taken for sound law; doo anſwer nothing
elſe, but that the iudgement of our lawiers is now
altered, ſo that they ſaie farre otherwiſe. The regi-
ment that we haue therefore after our owne ordinances,
dependeth vpon [three lawes, to wit, Statute law,
Common law, Cuſtomarie law, and Preſcription, ſac-
cording to the triple maner of our trials and iudgments,
which is by parlement, verdićt of twelue men at an
affiſe, or wager of battell, of which the laſt is little vſed
in our daies, as no appeale dooth hold in the firſt and
laſt rehearſed. But to returne to my purpoſe.]
The firſt is deliuered vnto vs by parlement, which
court [being for the moſt part holden at Weſtminſter
neere London, is the higheſt of all other, & confifteth
of three ſeuerall ſorts of people, that is to ſaie, the
And
thereto is not ſummoned, but vpon vrgent occaſion
nobilitie, cleargie, and commons of this realme.
when the prince dooth ſee his time, and that by ſeuerall
writs, dated commonlie full ſix weekes before it begin
to be holden.
higher houſe by the lords ſpirituall and temporall, and
in the lower houſe by the commons and bodie of the
realme (whereof the conuocation of the cleargie holden
in Powles, [or if occaſion ſo require in Weſtminſter
church], is a member) there ſpeaking by the mouth of
the knights of the ſhire and burgeſſes, remaine in the
end to be confirmed * by the prince, who commonlie
reſorteth thither [of cuſtome, vpon the firſt and laſt
1 follow
Such lawes as are agreed vpon in the
CHAP. IX.] THE LAWS OF ENGLAND.
2, O T
daies of this court, there to vnderſtand what is doone,
and giue his roîall conſent to ſuch ſtatutes as him liketh
of Comming therefore thither into the higher houſe,
and hauing taken his throne, the ſpeaker of the parle-
ment (for one is alwaies appointed to betweene the
houſes, as an indifferent mouth for both) readeth openlie
the matters there determined by the ſaid three eſtates,
and then craueth the princes conſent and [finall] con-
firmation to the ſame. The king hauing heard the
ſumme and principall points of each eſtatute brieflie
recited vnto him, anſwereth in French with great
deliberation vnto ſuch as he liketh (Il nous plaiſt) but
to the reſt Il ne plaiſt, whereby the latter are 1 made
void and fruſtrate. That alſo which his maieſtie liketh
of, is [hereby authoriſed, confirmed, &l euer after
holden for law, except it be repealed in anie the like
aſſemblie. The number of the commons aſſembled in
the lower houſe, beſide the cleargie, conſiſteth of
ninetie knights. For each ſhire of England hath two
gentlemen or knights of greateſt wiſedome and reputa-
tion, choſen out of the bodie of the ſame for that
onelie purpoſe, ſauing that for Wales one onlie is ſup-
poſed ſufficient in euerie countie, whereby the number
afore mentioned is made vp. There are likewiſe fourtie
and ſix citizens, 289 burgeſſes, and fourteene barons, ſo
that the whole aſſemblie of the laitie of the lower
houſe conſiſteth of foure hundred thirtie and nine
perſons, if the iuſt number be ſupplied. Of the lawes
here made likewiſe ſome are penall and reſtraine the
common law, and ſome againe are found to inlarge the
ſame. The one ſort of theſe alſo are for the moſt part
taken ſtrićtlie according to the letter, the other more
largelie and beneficiallie after their intendment and
meaning.
The Common law ſtandeth vpon ſundrie maximes
or principles, and yeares or termes, which doo conteine
1 are utterly
Statute Law.
The King allows
or disallows the
Bills passt by
both Houses of
Parliament,
and those
allowd become
Law.
90 Knights of
the Shire, or
County
Members.
[AWumäer of
congregates in
the Aarlement.]
Each Welsh
county has only
1 Member.
The whole
EHouse of
Commons
numbers 439.
Contmºort law.
2O2
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Common Law.
Criminal and
Civil cases.
Procedure at
Common Law.
Writ of Error.
Customtarie lazv.
As Gavelkind
in Kent.
All the male
children share
equally the
father's realty.
ſuch caſes as by great ſtudie and ſolemne argument of
the iudges [ſound pračtiſe confirmed by long experience,
fetched euen from the courſe of moſt ancient lawes
made farre before the conqueſt, and thereto the deepeſt
reach and foundations of reaſon, are ruled and adiudged
for law. Certes theſe caſes are otherwiſe called plees or
aćtion, wherof there are two ſorts, the one criminall
and the other ciuill.
to determine thoſe cauſes are our writs [or breefes,
The meanes and meſſengers alſo
whereof there are ſome originall and ſome iudiciall.
The parties plaintiffe & defendant, when they appeare,
proceed (if the caſe doo ſo require) by plaint or declara-
tion, [barre or] anſwer, replication," reioinder, and ſo [by
rebut, ſurrebut] to iſſue [and triall if occaſion ſo fall
out, the one ſide affirmatiuelie, the other negatiuelie
[as common experience teacheth.] Our trials and re-
coueries are either by verdićt and demourre, confeſſion
or default, wherein if anie negligence or treſpaſſe hath
beene committed, either in proceſſe and forme, or in
matter and iudgement, the partie grieued may haue a
writ of errour to vndoo the ſame, but not in the ſame
court where the former iudgement was giuen.
Cuſtomarie law conſiſteth of certeine laudable cuſ.
tomes vſed in ſome priuat countrie, intended firſt to
egin vpon good and reaſonable confiderations, as gauell
kind, which is all the male children [equallie] to
inherit, and continued to this daie in Kent: [where it
is onelie to my knowledge reteined, and no where elſe
in England. It was at the firſt deuiſed by the Romans,
as appeareth by Caſar in his commentaries, wherein I
find, that to breake and daunt the force of the rebel-
lious Germans, they made a law that all the male
children (or females for want of males, which holdeth
ſtill in England) ſhould haue their fathers inheritance
equallie diuided amongſt them. By this meanes alſo it
came to paſſe, that whereas before time for the ſpace
1 replication and
cHAP. IX.] THE LAWS OF ENGLAND.
2O3
of ſixtie yeares, they had put the Romans to great and
manifold troubles, within the ſpace of thirtie yeares
after this law made, their power did wax ſo feeble, and
ſuch diſcord fell out amongſt themſelues, that they
were not able to mainteine warres with the Romans,
nor raiſe anie iuſt armie againſt them. For as a riuer
runing with one ſtreame is ſwift and more plentifull of
water than when it is drained or drawne into manie
branches: ſo the lands and goods of the anceſtors being
diſperſed amongſt their iſſue males, of one ſtrong, there
were raiſed ſundrie weake, whereby the originall or
generall ſtrength to refift the aduerſarie, became in-
feebled and brought almoſt to nothing. Wis vnita (ſaith
the philoſopher) fortior eſteadem diſperſa, and one good
purſe is better than manie euill; and when euerie man
is benefited alike, each one will ſeeke to mainteine his
priuate eſtate, and few take care to prouide for publike
welfare.]
*Burrow kind, is where the yoongeſt is preferred
before the eldeſt, which is the cuſtome of manie coun-
tries of this region : [alſo the woman to haue the third
of hir huſbands poſſeſſions, the huſband that marieth an
heire to haue ſuch lands as moue by hir during his
naturall life, if he ſuruiue hir, and hath a child by hir
which hath beene heard crie thorough foure wals, &c :]
of ” ſuch like to be learned elſewhere, [and ſometimes
frequented generallie ouer all.]
Preſcription is a certeine cuſtome, which hath con-
tinued time out of minde, but it is more particular than
cuſtomarie law, as where onelie a pariſh or ſome priuat
perſon dooth preſcribe to haue common, or a waie in
another mans ſoile, or tithes to be paid after this or that
maner, I meane otherwiſe than the common courſe and
order of the law requireth, whereof let this ſuffice at
this time, in ſteed of a larger diſcourſe of our owne
lawes, leaſt I ſhould ſeeme to enter farre into that
1–1 or Burrow kind 2 and so forth of
Division of
inheritances
weakend
Kentishmen.
Dnion is
strength.
Borough-Eng-
fish.
The youngest
son is his
father's heir.
Prescription.
as of rights of
common and
Way.
THE DES CRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Courts held
quarterly, every
Terme.
Generally at
London.
Many lawsuits.
All the money
in the land
flows to the
lawyers.
And they’ll be
richer if their.
clients don’t get
Wiser.
Once, lawyers
sat in St Paul's
on stools to get
clients ; now
they want £10
to come to
Guildhall.
[3 p. 181]
whereof I haue no ſkill. For what hath the meditation
of the law of God to doo with anie preciſe knowledge
of the law of man, fith they are ſeuerall trades, and
incident to diuerſe perſons
There are alſo fundrie vſuall courts holden once in
euerie quarter of the yeare, which we commonlie call
termes, of the Latine word Terminus, wherein all con-
trouerfies are determined, that happen within the
Queenes dominions. Theſe are commonlie holden at
London, except vpon ſome great occaſion they be
tranſferred to other places. At what times alſo they
are kept [both for ſpirituall and temporall dealing, the
table inſuing ſhall eaſilie declare. Finallie, how well
they are followed by ſutors, the great wealth of lawiers
without anie trauell of mine can readilie” expreſſe.
[For as after the comming of the Normans the nobilitie
had the ſtart, and after them the cleargie: ſo now all
the wealth of the land dooth flow vnto our common
lawiers, of whome, ſome one hauing pračtiſed little
aboue thirteene or fourteene yeares is able to buie a
purchaſe of ſo manie Iooo pounds: which argueth that
they wax rich apace, and will be richer if their clients
become not the more wiſer & warie hereafter. It is not
long, ſince a ſergeant at the law (whome I could name)
was arreſted vpon an extent, for three or foure hundred
pounds, and another ſtanding by did greatlie maruell
that he could not ſpare the gaines of one terme for the
ſatiſfaction of that dutie. The time hath beene that our
lawiers did fit in Powles vpon ſtooles againſt the pillers
and walles to get clients, but now ſome of them will
not come from their chambers to the Guildhall in Lon-
don vnder ten pounds, or twentie nobles at the left.
And one being demanded why he made ſo much of
* his trauell, anſwered, that it was but follie for him to
go ſo farre, when he was aſſured to get more monie by
ſitting ſtill at home. A friend of mine alſo had a ſute
1 of our 2 easily
CHAP. IX.] THE LAWS OF ENGLAND.
2O5
of late of ſome valure, and to be ſure of counſell at his
time, he gaue vnto two lawiers (whoſe names I forbeare
to deliuer) twentie ſhillings a peece, telling them of the
daie and houre wherein his matter ſhould be called
vpon. To be ſhort, they came not vnto the barre at all,
whervpon he ſtaied for that daie. On the morrow after
he met them againe, increaſed his former gifts by ſo
much more, and told them of the time, but they once
againe ſerued him as before.
both in the verie hall doore, and after ſome timorous
reprehenſion, of their vncourteous demeanour toward
him, he beſtowed either three angels or foure more
vpon each of them, wherevpon they promiſed peremp-
torilie to ſpeake earneſtlie in his cauſe. And yet for all
this, one of them hauing not yet ſucked enough, vtterlie
deceiued him : the other in deed came in, and wagging
a ſcroll which he had in his hand before the iudge, he
ſpake not aboue three or foure words, almoſt ſo ſoone
vttered as a ‘good morrow,' and ſo went from the bar;
and this was all the poore man gat for his monie, and
the care which his counſellours did ſeeme to take of his
cauſe, then ſtanding vpon the hazard. But inough of
theſe matters, for if I ſhould ſet downe how little law
poore men can haue for their ſmall fees in theſe
daies, and the great murmurings that are on all ſides
vttered againſt their exceſſiue taking of monie (for
they can abide no ſmall gaine) I ſhould extend this
treatiſe into a farre greater volume than is conuenient
for my purpoſe. Wherfore it ſhall ſuffice to haue ſet
downe ſo much of their demeanour, and ſo much as is
euen enough to cauſe them to looke with ſomewhat
more conſcience into their dealings, except they be dull
and ſenſeleſſe.]
This furthermore is to be noted, that albeit the
princes heretofore reigning in this land haue erected
ſundrie courts, eſpeciallie of the chancerie at Yorke and
Ludlow, for the eaſe of poore men dwelling in thoſe
In the end he met them .
A friend of
mine gave 2
lawyers 20s.
each to plead
his cause.
[Deceipt..]
Neither came.
So he gave 'em
another 208.
each.
Again neither
CaLI19.
So he gave each
3 angels more.
And then one
Lawyer still
wouldn’t come,
but
the other said
3 or 4 words
for him.
[Martie of our
Zazviers stooge
zzofaz, szzza/Z
Jees.]
I hope I've said
enough of
Lawyers’ tricks
to make 'em
In Ore
conscientious.
Some provincial
Courts have
been set up, at
York, Ludlow,
&c.,
206
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book J I.
parts, yet will the pooreſt (of all men commonlie moſt
contentious) refuſe to haue his cauſe heard ſo neere
home, but indeuoureth rather to his vtter vndooing to
trauell vp to London, thinking there ſooneſt to pre-
uaile againſt his aduerſarie, though his caſe be neuer ſo
doubtfull. But in this toie our Welſhmen doo exceed
of all that euer I heard, for you ſhall here and there
haue ſome one od poore Dauid of them giuen ſo much
to contention and ſtrife, that without all reſpect of
charges he will vp to London, though he go bare
legged by the waie, and carie his hoſen on his necke (to
ſaue their feet from wearing) bicauſe he hath no change.
When he commeth there alſo, he will make ſuch im-
portunate begging of his countrimen, and hard ſhift
otherwiſe, that he will ſometimes carie downe ſix or
ſeuen writs [with him] in his purſe, wherewith to
moleſt his neighbor, though the greateſt quarrell be
ſcarſelie worth the fee" that he [hath] paid for anie one
of them. But inough of this, leaſt in reuealing the
ſuperfluous follie of a few brablers in this behalfe, I
bring no good will to my ſelſe amongſt the wiſeſt of
that nation. Certes it is a lamentable caſe to ſee
furthermore, how a number of poore men are dailie
abuſed and vtterlie vndoone, by ſundrie varlets that go
about the countrie, as [promoters or] brokers betweene
the pettie foggers of the lawe, and the common people,
onelie to kindle [and eſpiel coales of contention, whereby
the one fide may reape commoditie, and the other
[ſpend and be put to trauell. But of all that euer I
knew in Eſſex, Denis and Mainford excelled, till John
of Ludlow, aliás Maſon, came in place, vnto whome in
compariſon they two were but children : *for this laſt”
in leſſe than three or foure yeares, did bring one man
(among manie elſe-where in other places) almoſt to
extreame miſerie (if beggerie be the vttermoſt) that “
[Poore zºeeze
contferttious.]
but men will
come to London
for their law.
Welshmen's love
of law,
They'll walk
bare-legd to
London, with
their hose round
their necks, and
beg money to
sue out 6 or 7
Writs.
2 Prozygoofers
seeke matters
to se? /awiers
on worke
withall.”
3 Rascally Essex
Lawyers: Denis
and Mainford;
and John of
Ludlow, or
Mason, the
worst of the 3.
1 price 2–2 Three Warlettes worthie to be chronicled.
8–8 and babes for he 4 who
cHAP. IX.] THE LAWS OF ENGLAND.
4.
2O7
before he had the ſhauing of his beard, was valued at
two hundred pounds (I ſpeake with the leaſt") and *
finallie feeling that he had not ſufficient wherwith to
ſuſteine himſelfe and his familie, and alſo to ſatiſfie that
greedie rauenour, which ſtill called vpon him for new
fees, he went to bed, and within foure daies made an
end of his wofull life, euen with care and penſiueneſſe.
After his death alſo he ſo handled his ſonne, that there
was neuer ſheepe ſhorne in Maie, ſo neere clipped of
his fleece preſent, as he was of manie to come : ſo that
he was compelled to let awaie his *land, bicauſe his
cattell & ſtocke were conſumed, and he no longer able
to occupie the ground. But hereof let this ſuffice, & in
ſteed of theſe enormities, “a table * ſhall ” follow of the
termes conteining their beginnings and endings,” as I
haue borrowed them from * my freend Iohn Stow,
7 whoſe ſtudie is the onelie ſtore houſe of antiquities in
my time, and he worthie therefore to be had in repu-
tation and honour."
[A man would imagine that the time of the exe-
cution of our lawes, being little aboue one quarter, or
not fullie a third part of the yeare, and the appointment
of the ſame to be holden in one place onelie, to wit,
neere London in Weſtminſter, and finallie the great
expenſes emploied vpon the ſame, ſhould be no ſmall
cauſe of the ſtaie and hinderance of the adminiſtration
of iuſtice in this land; but as it falleth out, they prooue
The
reaſons of theſe are ſoone to be conceiued, for as the
broken ſleeue dooth hold the elbow backe, and paine of
trauell cauſe manie to fit at home in quiet; ſo the
ſhortneſſe of time and feare of delaie dooth driue thoſe
1 best
great occaſions and the ſtaie of much contention.
2 who 8 lease land
That scamp of
a lawyer, John
Mason, so ruind
a man I knew,
worth £200,
that he died
from grief.
Then Mason
shore his son
closer than any
sheep clipt in
May.
Now for a list
of Law–Terms,
got from my
friend JoHN
STOW.
[The times of
ozzz zezºwſzes
zzo hazzalezzzzce
to zustice.]
The broken
sleeve holds the
elbow back.
4–4 two tables
5—" insue, whereof the first shall containe the names of the Countyes, Cities,
Borowes and Portes, which send knightes, Burgeses and Barons to the Parliament
house, the other an infallible report of the beginnings and endes of euery tearme
with their returnes, according to the maner
6 of
"—" whylest this impression was in hande
208 THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
The shortness ºf oftentimes to like of peace, who otherwiſe would liue
Law–Terms and
*:::::ºf Law at, ſtrife, and quickelie be at ods. Some men deſirous
of gaines would haue the termes yet made ſhorter, that
more delaie might ingender longer ſute; other would
haue the houſes made larger, and more offices erected,
wherein to miniſter the lawes. But as the times of the
tearmes are rather too ſhort than too long by one
returne a peece: ſo if there were ſmaller roomes and
fowler waies vnto them, they would inforce manie to .
make pawſes before they did raſhlie enter into plee.
But ſith my purpoſe is not to make an ample diſcourſe
of theſe things, it ſhall ſuffice to deliuer the times
of the holding of our termes, which inſueth after this
manner.]"
#. A perfeót rule to know the begin-
gºons ning and ending of euerie terme, with
their returnes.
Hilary, Ilarie terme beginneth the three and twentith
daie of Ianuarie (if it be not ſundaie) otherwiſe
the next daie after, and *is finiſhed” the twelfe of Feb-
ruarie, it * hath foure returnes.
O&tabis Hilarij. Craftino Purific. |
Quind. Hilarij. O&tabis Purific.
Easter. * Eaſter terme beginneth ſeuenteene daies after
Eaſter,4 endeth foure daies after the Aſcenſion daie, and
hath fiue returnes.
Quind, Paſch, Menſe Quinque Paſchae. |
| Tres Paſchae. Paſchae. Craft. Aſcention.
Trinity. ‘I Trinitie terme beginneth the "fridaie after Trin-
1 In the 1577 ed. here follows the list of members of parliament given in the
preceding chapter.
2–2 endeth 8 and 4 Easter and
5–5 next daye after Corpus Christi daye
CHAP. IX.] THE LAWS OF ENGLAND
209
itie ſundaie," and endeth the wedneſdaie fortnight after,
1 in which time it” hath foure returnes.
| |
"I Michaelmaſſe terme beginneth the ninth of Oc-
tober (if it be not ſundaie) and ending” the eight and
3 twentith of Nouember, it” hath eight returnes.
O&tabis Michael. |
O&ta. Martini.
Quind. Michael.
| Quind. Martini.
Tres Michael.
Menſe Michael.
Note alſo that the eſcheker, [which is Fiſcus or
ararium publicum principis, openeth eight daies before
anie terme begin, except Trinitie terme, which openeth
but foure daies before.
* And thus much for our vſuall termes as they are
Quind. Trinitatis.
Tres Trinitatis.
Craſt. Trinitatis.
O&tabis Trinitatis.
Craft. anima.
Craft. Martini.
kept for the adminiſtration of our common lawes,
wherevnto I thinke good to adde the law.daies accuſ-
tomablie holden in * the arches and audience of Cantur-
burie, with other eccleſiaſticall and ciuill courts" thorough
the whole yeare, " or for ſomuch time as their execution
indureth (which in compariſon is ſcarſelie one halfe of
the time if it be diligentlie examined), to the end, each
one at home being called vp to anſwer, may trulie know
the time of his appearance; being ſorie in the meane
ſeaſon, that the vſe of the popiſh calendar is ſo much
reteined in the ſame, and not rather the vſuall daies of
the moneth placed in their roomes, fith moſt of them
are fixed, and palter not their place of ſtanding. How-
beit ſome of our infected lawiers will not let them go
awaie ſo eaſilie, pretending facilitie and cuſtome of
vſage, but meaning peraduenture inwardlie to keepe a
*—l and 2 endeth
5–5 And nowe followeth the lawe dayes in the Court of
Michaelmas
Term.
[3 p. 182]
The Exchequer
opens 8 days
before each
Term, exeept
Trinity Term.
I shall add the
Law-days of the
Arches and
other ecclesias-
tical and civil
Courts.
The Popish
Calendar is too
much kept in
them.
4 and
6 lawes
"—" These dayes are not chaunged except they lyght on a Sunday or holy daye,
and euery day is called a lawday, unlesse it be Sunday or holyday.
HARRISON 14
2 IO
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
Feasts in Mich-
welmas Term,
on the 1st day
- after each of
which the
Arches Court is
held in Bow
Church,
and the
Admiralty
Court in South-
Wark.
On the 2nd day
after, the Can-
terbury Au-
dience and
Prerogative
Courts are held.
commemoration of thoſe dead men whoſe names are
there remembred.”
Michaelmas terme.
S., Faith, All Soules. Y ( S. Andrew.
S. Edward. S. Martin. Conception
# S. Luke. Edmund. of 1 the virgin
Simon & Iu. Katherine. Marie."
* It is to be remembred” that the firſt daie follow-
ing euerie of theſe feaſts noted in each * terme, the
court of the arches is kept in Bow church in the fore-
noone. And the ſame firſt daie in the afternoone is the
admeraltie court for ciuill [and ſeafaring] cauſes kept in
Southwarke, [where iuſtice is miniſtred & execution
doone continuallie according to the ſame.]
The ſecond daie following euerie one of the ſaid
feaſts, the court of audience of Canturburie is kept in the
And the ſelfe 4
daie in the afternoone, in the ſame place is the preroga-
conſiſtorie in Paules in the forenoone.
tiue court of Canturburie holden.
The third day after anie ſuch feaſt in the forenoone,
the conſiſtorie court of the biſhop of London is kept in
Paules church in the [ſaid] confiſtorie, and the ſame
third daie in the afternoone is the court of the delegates,
and [the court] of the Queenes highneſſe commiſſioners
vpon appeales [is likewiſe] kept in the ſame place [on
the fourth daie.]
On the 3rd day
after, the Bp of
London's Con-
sistory Court is
held, and the
Appeal Com-
missioners’
Court.
Hilarie terme.
S. Hilarie. S. Scolaſtic. S. Chad.
S. Wolſtan. S. Valentine Perpet. & Fel.
Conuerſion Aſhwedneſ.” S. Gregorie.
of S. Paule. S. Matthie. Anniäciation
S. Blaſe. of our Ladie.
Note that the foure firſt daies of this terme be cer-
2 noted
5 Ashwednesd
1—l our Lady. 3 euery
4 same
CHAP. IX.] THE LAWS OF ENGLAND.
2. l I
teine and vnchanged. The other are altered after the
courſe of the yeare, and ſometime kept and ſometime
omitted. For if it ſo happen that one of thoſe feaſts
fall on wedneſdaie, commonlie called Aſhwedneſdaie
after the daie of S. Blaſe (ſo that the ſame law.daie after
Aſhwedneſdaie cannot be kept bicauſe the law.daie of
the other feaſt dooth light on the ſame) then the ſecond
law.daie after Aſhwedneſdaie ſhall be kept, and the
other omitted. And if the law.daie after Aſhwedneſdaie
be the next daie after the feaſt of S. Blaſe, then ſhall all
and euerie” court daies be obſerued in order, as they
may be kept conuenientlie. And marke, “that although”
Aſhwedneſdaie be put the ſeuenth in order, yet it hath
no certeine place, but is changed as the courſe of Eaſter
cauſeth it.
Eaſter terme.
The fifteenth daie after Eaſter.
S. Alphege. Gordian.
S. Marke. S. Dunſtan.
Inuention of Aſcenſion daie.
the croſſe.
‘ſ In this terme the firſt fitting is alwaie kept the
mondaie being the fifteenth daie after Eaſter, and ſo
foorth after the feaſts here noted, which next follow by
courſe of the yeare after Eaſter, and the like ſpace being
kept betweene other feaſts.
The reſt of the law.daies are kept to the third of the
Aſcenſion, which is the laſt day of this terme. And if
it happen that the feaſt of the Aſcenſion of our Lord
doo come before anie of the feaſts aforeſaid, then they
are omitted for that yeare. And likewiſe if anie of
thoſe daies come before the fifteenth of Eaſter, thoſe
daies are omitted alſo.
The 4 first days
of Hilary term
are fixt,
but the others
are changeable.
In Easter Term
the 1st sitting is
on the 15th day
after Easter.
1 that Wednesday * euery those *— although that
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
In Trinity Term
the 1st and 2nd
sittings are on
the 1st Law-days
after the Feasts
of the Trinity,
and Corpus
Christi.
All days not
Sundays or
Holy days, aro
Law-days.
The Poor are
everywhere,
and the Rich
must relieve
them.
Trinitie terme.
Trinitie ſundaie. S. Butolph. S. Swithune.
Corpus Chriſti. S. Iohn. | | S. Margaret.
Boniface biſh. S. Paule. S. Anne.
S. Barnabie. Tranſlat. Thomas.
[Here] note [alſo] that the law.daies of this terme are
altered by meane of Whitſuntide, and the firſt fitting is
kept alwaies on the firſt law.daie after the feaſt of the
holie Trinitie, and the ſecond ſeſſion is kept the firſt
law.daie after [the idolatrous and papiſticall feaſt daie
called] Corpus Chriſti, except Corpus Chriſti daie fall on
ſome day aforenamed : which chanceth ſometime, and
then the fitter daie is kept. And after the ſecond
ſeſſion, account foure daies or thereabout, and then
looke which is the next feaſt day, and the firſt law.daie
after the ſaid feaſt ſhall be the third ſeſſion. The other
law.daies follow in order, but ſo manie of them are kept,
as for the time of the yeare ſhall be thought meet.
* It is alſo generallie to be obſerued," that euerie daie
is called a law.daie that is not ſundaie or holie daie : and
that if the feaſt daie being knowne of anie court daie
in anie terme, the firſt or ſecond daie following be ſun-
daie, then the court daie is kept the daie after the ſaid
holie daie or feaſt.
Of prouiſion made for the poore.
Chap. Io.”
Here is no common-wealth at this daie in
Europe, wherin there is not great ſtore of
poore people, and thoſe neceſſarilie to be
relieued by the welthier ſort, which otherwiſe would
*—l And note generally
2 In the 1577 ed. this chapter forms the 5th of Book 3.
cHAP. X.] PROVISION MADE FOR THE POOR." 2 I 3
ſtarue and come to vtter confuſion. With vs, the poore
is commonlie diuided into three ſorts, ſo that ſome are %. sorts
O 007?.
poore by impotencie, as the fatherleſſe child, the aged, i. by impotency,
blind and lame, and the diſeaſed perſon that is iudged
to be incurable: the ſecond are poore by caſualtie, as 2. by casualty,
the wounded ſouldier, the decaied houſeholder, and the
ficke perſon viſited with grieuous and painefull" diſ-
eaſes: the third conſiſteth of thriftleſſe poore, as the 3 by thriftless-
ness (rioters,
riotour that hath conſumed all, the vagabund that will vagabonds,
abide no where, but runneth vp and downe from place
to place (as it were ſeeking worke and finding none),
and finallie the roge and ſtrumpet, which are not poſſi- rogues, and
ble to be diuided in ſunder, [but runne too and fro ouer strumpets).
all the realme, cheefelie keeping the champaine ſoiles
in ſummer, to audid the ſcorching heat, and the wood-
land grounds in winter, to eſchew the bluſtering winds.]
2 For the firſt two ſorts,” that is to ſaie, the poore by [, p. 183]
l uncurable -
3 See the interesting account in Holinshed, iii. 1081–2, of how the good young
king Edward VI., mov’d by a sermon of Bp Ridley's, talkt with him about means
for relieving the poor, and on his suggestion resolvd to begin with those of London,
and wrote to the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Richard Dobs, about it. Dobs,
Ridley, 2 aldermen, and 6 commoners, got-up a committee of 24. “And in the
end, after sundrie meetings (for by meane of the good diligence of the bishop it was
well followed,) they agreed vpon a booke that they had deuised, wherein first they
considered of nine speciall kinds and sorts of poore people, and those same they
brought in these three degrees: -
The poore by impotencie.
Three degrees of poore Poore by casualtie.
Thriftlesse poore.
1. The poore by impotencie are 1. The fatherlesse poore mans child.
• - 2. The aged, blind, and lame.
also diuided into three kinds, e - º
º } * * *OT)S
that is to saie : 3. T . diseased person, by leprosie, dropsie,
The wounded souldier.
The decaied housholder.
The visited with greeuous disease.
2. The poore by casualtie are of ſ :
6.
3. The thriftles poore are three ( 7. The riotor that consumeth all.
8.
9.
three kinds, that is to saie : l
kinds in like wise that is to The vagabond that will abide in no place.
saie : The idle person, as the strumpet and others.
For these sorts of poore were prouided three seuerall houses. First for the in-
nocent and fatherlesse, which is the beggers child, and is in deed the seed and
breeder of beggerie, they prouided the house that was late Graie friers in London
2 14
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
For the true
Poor, whom
Christ bids us
feed, weekly
collections are
made through-
out the land
impotencie, and the poore by caſualtie, which are the l
true poore in deed, and for whome the word dooth bind
vs to make ſome dailie prouiſion, there is order taken
through out euerie pariſh in the realme, that weekelie
colle&tion ſhall be made for their helpe and ſuſtentation,
to the end they ſhould not ſcatter abroad, and by beg-
ging here and there annoie both towne and countrie.
Authoritie alſo is giuen vnto the iuſtices in euerie
countie, and great penalties appointed for ſuch as make
default, to ſee that the intent of the ſtatute in this
behalfe be trulie executed, according to the purpoſe and
meaning of the ſame, ſo that theſe two ſorts are ſuf-
ficientlie prouided for : and ſuch as can liue within the
limits of their allowance, (as each one will doo that is
godlie and well diſpoſed,) may well forbeare to rome
and range about.” But if they refuſe to be ſupported
by this benefit of the law, and will rather indeuour, by
going to and fro, to mainteine their idle trades, then are
they adjudged to be parcell of the third ſort, and ſo, in
ſteed of courteous refreſhing at home, are often correóted
with ſharpe execution, and whip of iuſtice abroad.
Manie there are, which notwithſtanding the rigor of
the lawes prouided in that behalfe, yeeld rather with
this libertie (as they call it) to be dailie vnder the feare
so that they
need not roam
about.
But if they like
best to roam,
then they get
whipt.
and now is called Christes hospitall, where the poore children are trained in the
knowledge of God, and some vertuous exercise to the ouerthrowe of beggerie. For
the second degree, is prouided the hospitall of Saint Thomas in Southworke, &
saint Bartholomew in west Smithfield, where are continuallie at least two hundred
diseased persons, which are not onelie there lodged and cured, but also fed and
nourished. For the third degree, they prouided Bridewell, where the vagabond.
and idle strumpet is chastised, and compelled to labour, to the ouerthrow of the
vicious life of idlenes. They prouided also for the honest decaied housholder, that
he should be relieued at home at his house, and in the parish where he dwelled, by
a weekelie reliefe and pension. And in like manner they prouided for the lazer, to
keepe him out of the citie from clapping of dishes, and ringing of bels, to the great
trouble of the citizens, and also to the dangerous infection of manie, that they
should be relieued at home at their houses with seuerall pensions.”—Holinshed, iii.
1082. The rest of the page should be read about “blessed king’ Edward VI., and
his thanking God that He'd given him life to finish “this worke’ of relief to the
poor to the glorie of thy name’: two days after, the good young king died.”—F.
* there ye 2 abrode
CHAP. X.] PROVISION MADE FOR THE POOR.
2 I 5
and terrour of the whip, than by abiding where they
were borne or bred, to be prouided for by the "de-
uotion of the pariſhes.” I found not long ſince a note
of theſe latter ſort, the effect whereof inſueth. Idle
beggers are ſuch, either through other mens occaſion,
or through their owne default. By other mens occaſion
(as one waie, for example), when ſome couetous man,
[ſuch I meane as haue the caſt or right veine, dailie to
make beggers inough wherby to peſter the land, eſpieng
a further commoditie in their commons, holds, and
tenures, dooth find ſuch meanes as thereby to wipe
manie out of their occupiengs, and turne the ſame vnto
his * priuate gaines. Herevpon it followeth, that
although the wiſe and better minded [doo either for-
ſake the realme for altogether, and ſeeke to liue in
other countries, as France, Germanie, Barbarie, India,
Moſcouia, and verie Calecute, complaining of no roome
to be left for them at home, doo ſo behaue themſelues
that they are worthilie to be accompted among the
ſecond ſort; yet the greater part, commonlie hauing
nothing to ſtaie vpon, are wilfull; and therevpon doo
either prooue idle beggers, or elſe continue ſtarke
theeues till the gallowes doo eat them vp, [which is a
lamentable caſe. Certes in ſome mans iudgements
theſe things are but trifles, and not worthie the regard-
ing. Some alſo doo grudge at the great increaſe of
people in theſe daies, thinking a neceſſarie brood of
cattell farre better than a ſuperfluous augmentation of
mankind. But I can liken ſuch men beſt of all vnto
the pope and the diuell, who pračtiſe the hinderance of
the furniture of the number of the ele&t to their
vttermoſt, to the end the authoritie of the one vpon
earth, the deferring of the locking vp of the other in
euerlaſting chaines, and the great gaines of the firſt,
may continue and indure the longer. But if it ſhould
come to paſſe that any forren inuaſion ſhould be made,
*—l parish 2 their
Idle beggars are
made by others’
covetousness.
A thing often
Séez26.
Which turns
them out of
their holdings.
At zwhose hazd's
shall the blozed
of these men be
required?
They have either
to emigrate,
or turn idle
beggars or stark
thieves.
Some men think
this a trifle.
Others grudge
the increase
of the people,
thinking cattle
more needed
than men.
Such folk I
liken to the
Pope and the
Devil, who try
to keep down
the number of
God’s Elect.
2 (6 THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book 11.
Against inva- which the Lord God forbid for his mercies ſake —then
sion, a wall of
men is better ſhould theſe men find that a wall of men is farre
than stacks of
corn or bags of better than ſtackes of corne and bags of monie, and
money.
complaine of the want when it is too late to ſeeke
remedie. The like occaſion cauſed the Romans to
deuiſe their law Agraria: but the rich not liking of it,
and the couetous vtterlie condemning it as rigorous
and vnprofitable, neuer ceaſed to pračtiſe diſturbance
till it was quite aboliſhed. But to proceed with my
purpoſe.]
Idle beggars are Such as are idle beggers' through their owne
SO, default, are of two ſorts, and continue their eſtates
1. by casual either by caſuall or meere' voluntarie meanes: thoſe
Imeans,
that are ſuch by caſuall means, are [in the beginning]
iuſtlie to be referred either to the firſt or ſecond ſort
(having been of poore afore mentioned : but degenerating into the
respectable, and & †
then degener thriftleſſe ſort, they doo what they can to continue
ated into thrift-
less good-for their miſerie, and, with ſuch impediments as they
nothings;) &
haue, to ſtraie and wander about, as creatures abhor-
ring all labour and euerie honeſt exerciſe. Certes I
call theſe caſuall meanes, not in reſpect of the origin-
all of their pouertie, but of the continuance of the
1 objection 2, sign. e. i. “I praie you shewe me by what occasion or meanes,
this huge nomber of Beggers and Vacaboundes doe breede here in Englande. And
why you appointe twelue of them to euery Shipp : I thinke they maie carie the
Shippe awaie, & become Pirates, [Answer.] If you consider the pouerty that is
and doth remaine in the Shire tounes, and Market tounes, within this Realme of
England and Wales, which tounes, being inhabited with greate store of poore
householders, who by their pouertie are driuen to bring Vp their youth idlely; and
if they liue vntill they come to mans state, then are they past all remedie to
be brought to woorke. Therfore, at suche tyme as their Parentes fayles them, they
beginne to shifte, and acquainte them selues with some one like brought vppe, that
hath made his shifte, with dicyng, cosenyng, picking or cutting of purses, or els, if
he be of courage, plaine robbing by the waie side, which they count an honest
shift for the time; and so come they daiely to the Gallowes. Hereby growes the
greate and huge nomber of Beggers and Vacaboundes, which by no reasonable
meanes or lawes could yet be brought to woorke, being thus idely brought Vp.
Whiche perilous state and imminent daunger that they now stande in, I thought
it good to auoide, by placeyng twelue of these poore people into euery
fishyng Shippe, accordyng to this Platte.” 1580. Robert Hitchcok's Politique
Platt.—F.
CHAP. X.] PROVISION MADE FOR THE POOR.
2:7
ſame, from whence they will not be deliuered, ſuch
is their owne vngratious lewdneſſe, and froward diſ-
poſition. The voluntarie meanes proceed from out-
ward cauſes, as by making of coroſiues, and applieng
the ſame to the more fleſhie parts of their bodies: and
alſo laieng of ratſbane, ſperewort, crowfoot, and ſuch
like, vnto their whole members, thereby to raiſe
pitifull” and odious ſores, and mooue [the harts of
the goers by ſuch places where they lie, to *yerne at 3
their miſerie, and therevpon beſtow large almeſſe vpon
them. [How artificiallie they beg, what forcible ſpeech,
and how they ſelect and chooſe out words of vehem-
encie, whereby they doo in maner coniure or adiure
the goer by to pitie their caſes, I paſſe ouer to remem-
ber, as iudging the name of God and Chriſt to be
more conuerſant in the mouths of none; and yet the
preſence of the heuenlie maieſtie further off from
no men than from this vngratious companie. Which
maketh me to thinke that puniſhment is farre meeter
for them than liberalitie or almeſſe, and fith Chriſt
willeth vs cheeſlie to haue a regard to himſelfe and his
poore members.] -
Unto this neſt 4 is another ſort to be referred, more
ſturdie than the reſt, which, hauing ſound and perfeót
lims, doo yet notwithſtanding ſometime counterfeit
the poſſeſſion of all ſorts of diſeaſes. Diuerſe times
in their apparell alſo they will be like ſeruing men or
laborers: oftentimes they can plaie the mariners, and
ſeeke for ſhips which they neuer loſt. But in fine,
they are all theeues and caterpillers in the common-
wealth, and by the word of God not permitted to eat,
fith they doo but licke the ſweat from the true laborers
browes, & beereue the godlie [poore] of that which
is due vnto them, to mainteine their exceſſe, conſum-
ing the charitie of well-diſpoſed people beſtowed vpon
them, after a moſt wicked” & deteſtable maner.
*—8 lament 4 neast
*—l throw *piteous
2. by voluntary
means, making
horrible sores on
themselves,
that the goers-
by may pity
them and give
them large
alms.
God is far from
them.
They deserve
punishment
rather than
alms.
Other sturdy
beggars sham
to be
serving-men,
labourers, or
Sea Dºle In.
Thieves and
caterpillars in
the common-
wealth, who
lick the sweat
from the true
workmen’s
brows I
* wicked, horrible
2 I 8
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
This Beggar
trade began
but 60 years
ago; and now
e've 10,000 at
it.
And they’ve
invented
“Canting' and
* Pedlers' French.”
too.
Of which the *
first deviser was
hung.
Thomas
Pſarºnazz.3
A Kentish gen-
tleman, has
expos'd their
rascally tricks,
and describd.
three and
twenty sorts
of 'em.
Here are these
23 sorts of
Vagabonds.
Ép. 184]
It is not yet "full threeſcore yeares 1 fince this trade
began : but how it hath proſpered ſince that time, it is
eaſie to iudge, for they are now ſuppoſed of one ſex
and another, to amount vnto aboue Ioooo perſons; as
I haue heard reported. Moreouer, in counterfeiting
the Egyptian roges,” they haue deuiſed a language
among themſelues, which they name “Canting, but
other, ‘pedlers French,' a ſpeach compaćt thirtie yeares
fince, of Engliſh, and a great number of od words
of their owne deuiſing, without all order of reaſon :
and yet ſuch is it as none but themſelues are able
to vnderſtand. The firſt deuiſer thereof was hanged
by the necke; a iuſt reward no doubt for his deferts,
and a common end to all of that profeſſion. A gentle-
man alſo of late hath taken great paines to fearch out
the ſecret praćtiſes of this vngratious rable. And
among other things he ſetteth downe and deſcribeth
* three & twentie 4 ſorts of them, whoſe names it ſhall
not be amiſſe to remember, whereby ech one may
* take occaſion to read and know as alſo by his induſtrie"
what wicked people they are, and what villanie re-
maineth in them.
The ſeuerall diſorders and degrees amongſ;
our idle vagabonds.
I Rufflers, 7 Palliards.
2 Uprightmen. 8 Fraters.
3 Hookers or Anglers. 9 Abrams.
4 Roges. Io Freſhwater mariners,
5 Wild roges. or whipiacks.
6 Priggers "or pranſers." | 11 Dummerers.
1—l 50 yeares
2 See the earliest known specimen of the Gipsy language, the “Egyptian
roges” speech, in my edition of Andrew Boorde, E. E. T. Soc. Extra Series, 1870,
p. 218.-F.
3 See the edition of his book and Awdeley’s prior one, by Mr Wiles and myself, in
the Early English Text Society's Extra Series, 1869, No. IX. —F.
4–4 22
*—” gather 6–9 of prauncers
CHAP. X.] PRO WISION MADE FOR THE POOR.
2 I 9
I2 Drunken tinkers. 2 Baudie baſkets.
13 Swadders or pedlers. 3 Mortes.
I4 Jarkemen or patricoes. 4 Autem mortes.
5 Walking mortes.
*I. Of women kind. 6 Doxes.
7 Delles.
1 Demanders for glim- || 8 Kinching mortes.
mar or fire. 9 Kinching cooes.
Thos. Harman’s
23 sorts of
Vagabonds.
The puniſhment that is ordeined for this kind of The statutory
people is verie ſharpe, and yet it can not reſtreine
them from their gadding: wherefore the end muſt
needs be martiall law,' to be exerciſed vpon them, as
vpon theeues, robbers, deſpiſers of all lawes, and
enimies to the common-wealth & welfare of the land.
What notable roberies, pilferies, murders, rapes, and
ſtealings of [yoong] children, “burning, breaking and
diſfiguring their lims to make them pitifull in the fight
of the people,” I need not to rehearſe: but for their
idle roging about the countrie, the law ordeineth this
maner of correótion. The roge being apprehended,
committed to priſon, and tried in the next aſſiſes
(whether they be of gaole deliuerie or ſeſſions of the
peace), if he happen to be conuićted for a vagabond,
either by inqueſt of office, or the teſtimonie of two
honeſt and credible witneſſes vpon their oths, he is then
immediatlie adiudged to be greeuouſlie whipped and
burned through the griſtle of the right eare, with
an hot iron of the compaſſe of an inch about, as a
manifeſtation of his wicked life, and due puniſhment
receiued for the ſame.” And this iudgement is to
be executed vpon him, except ſome honeſt perſon
woorth fiue pounds in the queenes books in goods, or
twentie ſhillings in lands, or ſome rich houſholder to
be allowed by the iuſtices, will be bound in 4 recogniſ.
punishment of
'em, tho' sharp,
isn't sharp
enough.
* Law of the Marshal.—F.
* they doe use (which they disfigure o begg withal)
* See my Ballads from MSS. i. 121-3, Rallad Soc.—F. 4 in a
Martial law is
the only thing
for 'em.
Oh, what evils
they do I
If a rogue is
convicted of
being a
Vagabond,
the 1st time he's
whipt and burnt
thro' the right
ear with a #
inch hot iron,
unless a house-
holder 'll take
him into service
for l year.
22 O
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
On the 2nd con-
viction the
Vagabond is
whipt, bord
thro’ his other
ear, and set to
service.
If he runs away
and is caught,
he's killd.
Among Rogues,
are Proctors
with counterfeit,
licenses,
Physiognomists,
Fencers,
Players,
Minstrels,
pretended
Scholars,
and
Bear-wards.
Every harbourer
or helper of a
Rogue
is fin'd 20s., or
less.
1 Cofiners
ance to reteine him in his ſeruice for one whole yeare.
If he be taken the ſecond time, and proued to haue
forſaken his ſaid ſeruice, he ſhall then be whipped
againe, bored likewiſe through the other eare, and ſet to
ſeruice: from whence if he depart before a yeare be
expired, and happen afterward to be attached againe,
he is condemned to ſuffer paines of death as a fellon
(except before excepted) without benefit of clergie or
ſančtuarie, as by the ſtatute dooth appeare. Among
roges and idle perſons, finallie, we find to be compriſed
all proëtors that go vp and downe with counterfeit
licences, coofiners,” and ſuch as gad” about the countrie,
wfing vnlawfull games, pračtiſers of phyſiognomie and
palmeſtrie, tellers of fortunes, fenſers,” plaiers, minſtrels,
iugglers, pedlers, tinkers, [pretenſed] ſchollers, ſhip-
men, priſoners gathering for fees, and others ſo oft as
they be taken without ſufficient licence. [From among
which companie our beare wards are not excepted, and
iuſt cauſe: for I haue read that they haue either volun-
tarilie, or for want of power to maſter their ſauage
beaſts, beene occaſion of the death and deuoration of
manie children in fundrie countries by which they haue
paſſed, whoſe parents neuer knew what was become of
them. And for that cauſe there is & haue beene manie
ſharpe lawes made for bearwards in Germanie, wherof
you may read in other. But to our roges.] Each one
alſo that harboreth or aideth them with meat or monie,
is taxed and compelled to fine with the queenes
maieſtie for euerie time that he dooth * ſo ſuccour
them, as it ſhall pleaſe the iuſtices of peace to aſſigne,
ſo that the taxation exceed not twentie ſhillings, as
I haue beene informed. And thus much of the poore,
& ſuch prouiſion as is appointed for them within the
realme of England.
2 go 3 fencers, bearwards, 4 shall
o
CHAP. XI.] SUNDRY KINDS OF PUNISH MENT8. 22. I
Of ſundrie [kinds of puniſhments
appointed for malefactors.
Chap. I 1.4
[ N caſes of felonie, manſlaghter, roberie, murther, Hanging is the
º 4. & & E lish - sh-
rape, piracie, & ſuch capitall crimes as are not ;...
reputed for treaſon or hurt of the eſtate, our &c.
ſentence pronounced vpon the offendor, is, to hang till
he be dead. For of other puniſhments vſed in other
countries we haue no knowledge or vſe; and yet ſo
few greeuous crimes committed with vs as elſe where
in the world. To vſe torment alſo, or queſtion by Torture we
ſº * g don't use.
paine and torture, in theſe common caſes, with vs
is greatlie abhorred, fith we are found alwaie to be
ſuch as deſpiſe death, and yet abhorre to be tormented,
chooſing rather frankelie to open our minds, than to
yeeld our bodies vinto ſuch ſeruile halings and tearings
as are vſed in other countries. And this is one cauſe our criminals
go cheerfully
wherefore our condemned perſons doo go ſo cheere- to their deaths.
Our nation is
fullie to their deths, for our nation is free, ſtout, hautie, stout and
haughty, and
prodigall of life and bloud, as fir Thomas Smith ſaith, will not stand
being us’d as
lib. 2. cap. 25. de republica,” and therefore cannot in ºne and
Sla,VeS.
anie wiſe digeſt to be vſed as villanes and ſlaues, in
ſuffering continuallie beating, ſeruitude, and ſeruile
1 This forms chap. 6, Book III., in 1577 ed.
2 “Confession by torment is esteemed for nothing, for if hee confesse at the
iudgement, the tryall of the 12 goeth not vpon him; if hee deny the fact: that
which he said before, hindreth him not. The nature of English-men is to
neglect death, to abide no torment: and therefore hee will confesse rather to haue
done anything, yea to haue killed his owne father, than to suffer torment: for
death, our nation doth not so much esteeme as a meere torment. In no place shall
you see malefactors goe more constantly, more assuredly, and with lesse lamenta-
tion to their death than in England. . . . . The nature of our nation is free,
stout, haulty, prodigall of life and blood: but contumely, beating, servitude, and
seruile torment, and punishment; it will not abide. So in this nature & fashion,
our ancient Princes and legislatoors haue nourished them, as to make them stout-
hearted, couragious, and souldiers, not villaines and slaues; and that is the scope
almost of all our Policie.”—Sir Thomas Smith's Commonwealth of England, ed.
1621, p. 97, Book II, chap. 27 (not 25).-F.
2.2.2
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book 11.
Our most
grievous pun-
ishment is for
traitors, who're
drawn on a
hurdle, hangd
quarterd
alive,
and their limbs
hackt off and
burnt.
But when
Nobles are
traitors,
only their heads
are chopt off.
Nobles are tried
by their peers;
gentlemen by
gentlemen ;
torments." No, our gailers are guiltie of fellonie, by
an old law of the land, if they torment anie priſoner
committed to their cuſtodie, for the reuealing of his
complices.]
The greateſt and moſt greeuous puniſhment vſed in
England, for ſuch as offend againſt the ſtate, is drawing?
from the priſon to the place of execution vpon an
hardle or ſled, where they are hanged till they be halfe
dead, and then taken downe, and quartered [aliue;]
after that, their members and bowels are cut from
their bodies,” and throwne into a fire prouided neere
hand and within [their owne] fight, euen for the ſame
purpoſe. Sometimes, if the treſpaſſe be not the more
hainous, they are ſuffered to hang till they be quite
dead. And when ſoeuer anie of the nobilitie are con-
uićted of high treaſon [by their peeres, that is to ſaie,
equals, (for an inqueſt of yeomen paſſeth not vpon
them, but onelie of the lords of the parlement,)] this
maner of their death is conuerted into the loſſe of
their heads onelie, notwithſtanding that the ſentence
In triall of caſes
concerning treaſon, fellonie, or anie other greeuous
crime [not confeſſed], the partie accuſed dooth yeeld, if
he be a noble man, to be tried by [an inqueſt (as I
haue ſaid) and his peeres: if a gentleman, by gentle-
doo run after the former order.
*But see, 2 pages on, how felons who won't confess are presst to death by
heavy weights.-F.
3 A.D. H686.
2 drawne
Hol. iii. 1434, col. 2. “On the one and twentith daie of Ianuarie,
two Seminarie preests (before arreigned and condemned) were drawne to Tiburne,
and there hanged, bowelled, and quartered. Also on the same daie a wench was
burnt in Smithfield, for poisoning of hir aunt and mistresse, and also attempting to
haue doon the like to her vncle.”—F.
A.D. 1577. “The thirtith daie of Nouember, Cutbert Maine was drawne,
hanged, and quartered at Lanceston in Cornewall for preferring Romane power. . .
1577-8. The third daie of Februarie, John Nelson, for denieng the queenes
supremasie, and such other traitorous words against hir maiestie, was drawne from
Newgate to Tiburne, and there hanged, bowelled, and quartered. And on the
seuenth of the same moneth of Februarie, Thomas Sherewin was likewise drawne
from the tower of London to Tiburne, and there hanged, bowelled, and quartered for
the like offense.”—Holinshed, iii. 1271, col. 1, 1, 15, l. 47.-F.
CHAP. x 1.] 3 UNDRY KIND 3 OF PUNISH MENT 3.
223
men: and an inferiour, by God and by the countrie,
[to wit, the yeomanrie (for combat or battell is not
greatlie in vſe)] and being condemned of fellonie,
manſlaughter, &c, he is eftſoons hanged by the necke
till he be dead, and then cut downe and buried. But
if he be conuićted of wilfull murther, [doone either
vpon pretended malice, or in anie notable robberie, he
is either hanged aliue in chaines' neere the place
where the fact was committed (or elſe, [vpon compaſ-
ſion taken, firſt ſtrangled with a rope) and ſo con-
tinueth till his bones conſume to nothing. We haue
vſe neither of the wheele nor of the barre, as in other
countries; but when wilfull manſlaughter is perpe-
trated, beſide hanging, the offender hath his right hand
commonlie ſtriken off? before or neere vnto” the place
where the aët was doone, after which he is led foorth
to the place of execution, and there put to death
according to the law.
[The word fellon is deriued of the Saxon words
Fell and One, that is to ſay, an euill and wicked one,
* a one of vntamable nature, and lewdneſſe not to be
ſuffered, for feare of euill example and the corruption
of others. In like ſort in the “word fellonie are manie
greeuous crimes conteined, as breach of priſon, An. 1,
of Edward the ſecond.
liege people, An. 5. of Henrie the fourth. Hunting by
night with painted faces and viſors, An. I. of Henrie
the ſeuenth. Rape, or ſtealing of women & maidens,
An. 3. of Henrie the eight.
Diſfigurers of the princes
Conſpiracie againſt the
commoners by
the yeomanry.
Trial by battle
is not much
us'd,
Murderers are
hang'd alive in
chains, tho’
sometimes first
strang!'d with a
rope.
Wheel or Bar
is not us'd here,
A wilful man-
Slaughterer has
his right hand
cut off before
he's hung.
* Feilon” is
deriv'd from
“fell’ and ‘one.”
[3 p. 185]
Felony com-
prises many
crimes.
* A.D. 1578-9. “The seuenteenth of Februarie, an Irishman, for murdering of a
man in a garden of Stepenheth [= Stepney] parish, was hanged in chaines on the
common called Mile end greene. This common was sometimes, yea, in the memorie of
men yet liuing, a large mile long (from White chappell to Stepenheth church), and
therefore called Mile end greeme; but now at this present, by greedie (and as
seemeth to me, Vnlawfull) inclosures, and building of houses, notwithstanding hir
maiesties proclamation to the contrarie, it remaineth scarse halfe a mile in length.”—
Hol. iii. 1271, col. 2, l, 54-64.—F.
2–3 at * Under the
2 24 THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
Felony (which perſon of the prince, An, 3, of Henrie the ſeuenth.
is punisht by
º) includes Embeſilling of goods committed by the maſter to
these crimes : * e * : *
the ſeruant, aboue the value of fourtie ſhillings, An.
I7. of Henrie the eight. Carieng of horſſes or mares
into Scotland, An. 23. of Henrie the eight. Sodomie
and buggerie," An. 25, of Henrie the eight. Stealing
stealing hawks of hawkes egs, An. 31. of Henrie the eight. Coniuring,”
eggs, conjuring, º º e & -
forcerie, witchcraft, and digging vp of croſſes, An. 33.
Prºphesying on of Hen, 8.* Propheſieng vpon armes, cogniſances,
arms and
badges, names & badges, An. 33. of Hen. 8. Caſting of
ſlanderous bils, An. 37. Hen. 8. Wilfull killing by
poiſon, An. I. of Edw. the ſixt. Departure of a ſoldier
from the field, Am. 2. of Edward the fixt. Diminution
sweating coin, of coine, all offenſes within caſe of premunire, em-
beſelling of records, goods taken from dead men by
stealing, rob-
bing,
§º bing by the high waie, vpon the ſea, or of dwelling
- º *::::::: houſes, letting out of ponds, cutting of purſes, ſteal-
º Shak- ing of deere by night, counterfeitors 4 of coine,” eui-
their ſeruants, ſtealing of what ſoeuer cattell, rob-
* A.D. 1540. “The eight and twentith of Julie (as you have heard before,) the lord
Cromwell was beheaded, and likewise with him the lord Hungerford of Heitesburie,
who at the houre of his death seemed vnquiet, as manie iudged him rather in a
frensie than otherwise: he suffered for buggerie.”—Bol. iii. 952, col. 2, 1. 21. See
the rest of the column for other executions for heresy, for affirming Henry VIII.'s
marriage with his first Queen, Katherine, to be good, for treason, and for robbing
a lady.—F. * cap. 8, Record Com. Stat.
* A.D. 1580, an. Eliz. 23. “The eight and twentith daie of Nouember, were
arreigned in the kings [Queens] Bench, William Randoll for coniuring to know
where treasure was hid in the earth, and goods felloniouslie taken, were become :
Thomas Elks, Thomas Lupton, Rafe Spacie, and Christopher Waddington, for
being present, aiding and procuring the said Randoll to the coniuration aforesaid:
Randoll, Elks, Spacie, and Waddington, were found guiltie, & had iudgement to
be hanged: Randoll was executed, the other were repriued.”—Hol. iii. 1314, col.
2, l. 68. . . . A.D. 1581. “The thirteenth of Januarie, a man was drawne to saint
Thomas of Waterings, and there hanged, headed, and quartered, for begging by a
licence wherevnto the queenes hand was counterfeted.”—Hol. iii. 1315, col. 1,
1. 46.-F. 4 counterfectous
* A.D. 1569-70. “The seuen and twentith of Januarie, Philip Mestrell, a
Frenchman, and two Englishmen, were drawne from Newgate to Tiburne, and
there hanged, the Frenchman quartered, who had coined gold counterfeit : the Eng-
lishmen, the one had clipped siluer, the other, cast testons of tin.”—Hol. iii. 1211,
col. 1, 1, 65.
CHAP. XI.] SUNDRY KINDS OF PUNISHMENTS. 225
dences, charters, and writings, & diuerſe other need- Punishments.
leſſe to be remembred. [If a woman poiſon hir huſ-
band, ſhe is burned aliue; * if the ſeruant kill his
maſter he is to be executed for petie treaſon; he that
poiſoneth a man is to be boiled to death in water or Pºisºners ºf
boild to death in
lead, although the partie die not of the practiſe: in water or lead.
caſes of murther, all the acceſſaries are to ſuffer paines
of death accordinglie..] Periurie is puniſhed by the Perjurers are
burnt in the
pillorie, burning in the forehead with the letter P, fºrehead, and
lose their goods.
[the rewalting of the trees growing vpon the grounds
of the offendors, and loſſe of als his * mooueables.
Manie treſpaſſes alſo are puniſhed by the cutting of offenders lose
their ears.
one or both eares from the head of the offendor, as “”
the vtterance of ſeditious words against the magiſtrates,
fraimakers, petie robbers, &c. Roges are burned Rogues.
through the eares; scariers of ſheepe out of the land, sheepstealers.
by the loſſe of their hands; ſuch as kill by poiſon,
are either [boiled or] ſkalded to death in lead or
ſeething water. Heretikes are burned quicke; * harlots Heretics are
* & & * burnt alive.
and their mates, by carting, ducking, and dooing of Harlots are
& e duckt, and do
open penance [in ſheets, in churches and market penance.
ſteeds, are often put to rebuke. [Howbeit, as this is
counted with ſome either as no puniſhment at all
A.D. 1577-8. “The fiue and twentith of Februarie, John de Loy, a Frenchman,
and fiue English gentlemen, was conueied from the tower of London towards Nor-
wich, there to be arreigned and executed for coining of monie counterfet.”—Hol. iii.
1271, col. 1, l. 55.—F.
* See note 3, page 222. A.D. 1575. “The ninteenth of Julie, a woman was burnt
at Tunbridge in Kent for poisoning of hir husband ; and two daies before, a man
named Orleie was hanged at Maidstone, for being accessarie to the same fact.”—
Biolinshed, iii. 1262, col. 1, l. 70,-F.
A.D. 1571. “On the sixteenth of Julie, Rebecca Chamber, late wife to Thomas
Chamber of Heriettesham, was found culpable [= guilty] of poisoning the said
Thomas Chamber hir husband, at the assises holden at Maidstone in the countie of
Rent. For the which fact, she (hauing well deserued) was there burnt on the next
morrow.”—Hol. iii. 1226, col. 2, l. 30. See like instances in Stowe's Annales.—F.
2 ye
* A.D. 1583. “On the eighteenth daie of September, John Lewes, who named
himself Abdoit, an obstinate heretike, denieng the godhead of Christ, and holding
diuers other detestable heresies (much like to his predecessor Matthew Hamont)
was burned at Norwich.”—Holinshed, iii. 1354, col. 2, l. 62.—F.
HARRISON. 15
226
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
Fornicators
should be
draggd across
the Thames at
the tail of a
boat, (Cp. A.
Boorde, 261, on
, the Bakers)
as the Knight
Marshall serves
'em.
The old punish-
ment for
adultery.
I would make
adulterers and
whores, slaves
to be sold by
the persons
they'd offended.
to ſpeake of, or but ſmallie regarded of the offendors,
ſo I would wiſh adulterie and fornication to haue
ſome ſharper law. For what great ſmart is it to be
turned out of an hot ſheet into a cold, or after a little
waſhing in the water to be let loſe againe vnto their
former trades Howbeit, the dragging of ſome of
them ouer the Thames betweene Lambeth and Weſt-
minſter at the taile of a boat, is a puniſhment that
moſt terrifieth them which are condemned therto;
but this is inflićted vpon them by none other than
the knight marſhall, and that within the compaſſe of
his iuriſdićtion & limits onelie. Canutus was the firſt
that gaue authoritie to the cleargie to puniſh whore-
dome, who at that time found fault with the former
lawes as being too ſeuere in this behalfe. For before
the time of the ſaid Canutus, the adulterer forfeited
all his goods to the king, and his bodie to be at his
pleaſure; and the adultereſſe was to loſe hir eies or
noſe, or both, if the caſe were more than common :
whereby it appeereth of what eſtimation mariage
was amongſt them, fith the breakers of that holie
eſtate were ſo greeuouſlie rewarded. But afterward,
the cleargie dealt more fauourablie with them, ſhoot-
ing rather at the puniſhments of ſuch prieſts and
clearkes as were maried, than the reformation of
adulterie and fornication, wherein you ſhall find no
example that anie ſeueritie was ſhewed, except vpon
ſuch laie men as had defiled their nuns. As in theft
therfore, ſo in adulterie and whoredome, I would
wiſh the parties treſpaſſant, to be made bond or
ſlaues vnto thoſe that receiued the iniurie, to ſell and
giue where they liſted, or to be condemned to the
gallies: for that puniſhment would proue more bitter
to them than halfe an houres hanging, or than ſtanding
in a ſheet, though the weather be neuer ſo cold.
Manſlaughter, in time paſt was puniſhed by the
purſe, wherin the quantitie or qualitie of the puniſh-
cHAP. XI.] sun DRY KINDs of PUNISHMENTs.
227
ment was rated after the ſtate and calling of the
partie killed: ſo that one was valued ſometime at
And, by an
eſtatute made vnder Henrie the firſt, a citizen of
12oo, another at 6oo, or 200 ſhillings.
London at Ioo, whereof elſe-where I haue ſpoken
more at large.] Such as kill themſelues, are buried in
the field, with a ſtake driuen through their bodies.
Witches are hanged, or ſometimes burned; but
theeues are hanged 4 (as I ſaid before) + generallie [on
the gibbet or gallowes], ſauing in Halifax, where they
are beheaded after a ſtrange maner, and whereof I
find this report. There is and hath beene of ancient
time a law, or rather a cuſtome, at Halifax, that who
ſoeuer dooth commit anie fellonie, and is taken with
the ſame, or confeſſe the fact vpon examination; if it
be valued by foure conſtables to amount to the ſum
of thirteene pence halfe penie, he is foorthwith be-
headed vpon [one of] the next market daieſs] (which
fall vſuallie vpon the tueſdaies, thurſdaies, & ſaturdaies)
or elſe vpon the ſame daie that he is ſo conuićted, if
market be then holden.
execution is doone, is a ſquare blocke of wood of the
The engine wherewith the
length of foure foot and an halfe, which dooth ride vp
and downe in a ſlot, rabet, or regall betweene two
peeces of timber, that are framed and ſet vpright, of
In the neather end of the ſlid-
ing blocke is an ax, keied or faſtened with [an] iron
fiue yardes in height.
into the wood, which being drawne vp to the top of the
frame is there faſtned by * a woodden pin” (with a
notch made into the ſame after the maner of a Samſons
poſt) vnto the middeſt of which pin [alſo] there is a
long rope faſtened that commeth downe among the
people, ſo that when the offendor hath made his con-
feſſion, and hath laid his necke ouer the neathermoſt
*—l euerywhere 2 with
Self-killers are
burid with a
stake thro' 'em.
Witches are
hangd or burnt.
Thieves are
hangd, except
at Halifax,
[Halifax law.]
where
Felons, when
convicted
of stealing any-
thing worth
13%d., are
beheaded by a
kind of Guillo-
tine.
* pinne (the one ende set on a peece of woodde which goeth crosse ower ye two
rabets & the other ende being let into the blocke, holding the Axe
*
228
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
The Halifax
way of guillotin-
ing thieves.
Rogues.
Scolds.
[Mute.]
Felons who
won't answer,
are presst to
death by
weights.
Thieves who get
benefit of
clergy
[Cleargie.]
[3 p. 186]
are burnt on
the left thumb
blocke, euerie man there preſent dooth either take
hold of the rope (or putteth foorth his arme ſo neere
to the ſame as he can get, in token that he is willing
to ſee true iuſtice executed), and pulling out the pin in
this maner, the head blocke wherein the ax is faſtened
dooth fall downe with ſuch a violence, that if the
necke of the tranſgreſſor were ſo big as that of a
bull, it ſhould be cut in funder at a ſtroke, and roll
from the bodie by an huge diſtance. If it be ſo that
the offendor be apprehended for an ox, oxen, ſheepe,
kine, horſe, or anie ſuch cattell: the ſelfe beaſt, or
other of the ſame kind, [ſhall] haue the end of the rope
tied ſomewhere vnto them, ſo that they [being driuen,
doo] draw out the pin, wherby the offendor is executed.
Thus? much of Halifax law, which I ſet downe onelie
to ſhew the cuſtome of that countrie in this behalfe.
Roges and vagabonds are often ſtocked and whip-
ped; ſcolds are ducked vpon cuckingſtooles in the
water. Such fellons as ſtand mute, and ſpeake not at
their arraignement, are preſſed to death by huge
weights [laid vpon a boord, that lieth ouer their breſt,
and a ſharpe ſtone vnder their backs, and theſe com-
monlie hold their peace, thereby to ſaue their goods
wnto their witles and children, which, if they were con-
demned, ſhould be confiſcated to the prince. Theeues
that are ſaued by their bookes and cleargie, [for the firſt
3 offenſe, if they haue ſtollen nothing elſe but oxen,
ſheepe, monie, or ſuch like, which be no open robberies,
as by the high waie fide, or aſſailing of anie mans
houſe in the night, without putting him in feare of his
life, or breaking vp of his wals or doores, are burned
in the left hand, vpon the brawne of the thombe, with
an hot iron, ſo that if they be apprehended againe, that
marke bewraieth them to haue beene arraigned of
fellonie before, whereby they are ſure at that time to
haue no mercie. I doo not read that this cuſtome of
1 ox or * And thus
CHAP. XI.] S UNDRY KINDS OF PUNISHMENTS.
229
ſauing by the booke is vſed anie where elſe than in
England; neither doo I find (after much diligent in-
quirie) what Saxon prince ordeined that lawe. How-
beit, this I generallie gather thereof; that it was deuiſed"
to traine the inhabiters of this land to the loue of learn-
ing, which before contemned letters and all good know-
ledge, as men onelie giuing themſelues to huſbandrie
and the warres; the like whereof I read to haue beene
amongſt the Gothes and Vandals, who for a time would
not fuffer euen their princes to be lerned, for weaken-
ing of their courages, nor anie learned men to remaine
in the counſell houſe; but by open proclamation would
command them to auoid, [whenſoeuer anie thing touch-
ing the ſtate of the land was to be conſulted vpon..] Pirats
and robbers by ſea are condemned in the court of the
admeraltie, and hanged on the ſhore at lowe water marke,
where they are left till three tides haue ouerwaſhed
them.”
wnto the ſea, and doo ſuffer the ſame to decaie, (after
Finallie, ſuch as hauing wals and banks neere
conuenient admonition) whereby the water entereth
and drowneth vp the countrie, are by a certeine
[ancient] cuſtome apprehended, condemned, and ſtaked
in the breach, where they remaine for euer as parcell
of the foundation of the new wall that is to be made
vpon them, as I haue heard reported.
[And thus much in part of the adminiſtration of
iuſtice vſed in our countrie, wherein notwithſtanding
that we doo not often heare of horrible, merciles, and
wilfull murthers, (ſuch I meane as are not fildome
ſeene in the countries of the maine,) yet now and then
ſome manſlaughter and bloudie robberies are perpetrated
and committed, contrarie to the lawes, which be
ſeuerelie puniſhed, and in ſuch wiſe as I before re-
ported. Certes there is no greater miſcheefe doone in
Only in England
do offenders
have benefit of
clergy.
This was to en-
courage learn-
ing.
[Pirats]
are hung on the
sea-shore at low-
water mark.
(Cp. Stat. 6
Hen. VI., cap. 5,
as to punish-
ment for
defaults in
Sewers,
‘se-woers.')
Men who fail to
keep up sea-
* deuised at the first
* A.D. 1577-8. “On the ninth of March, seuen pirats were bang
walls,
are stak’t in
the breach the
water makes.
We don’t often
have bad
murders,
ed at Wapping
in the ouze, beside London.”—Holinshed, iii. 1271, col. 1, l. 59-61.—F.
23O
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II •
Robberies by
1. young gentle-
men,
2. Serving-men
who turn
highwaymen
and burglars,
or steal horses,
which they sell
at distant fairs.
The saying of
one of these
horse-thieves.
Rogues
do great
mischief.
England than by robberies, the firſt by yoong ſhifting
gentlemen, which oftentimes doo beare more port than
they are able to mainteine. Secondlie by ſeruingmen,"
whoſe wages cannot ſuffice ſo much as to find them
breeches; wherefore they are now and then con-
ſtreined, either to keepe high waies, and breake into
the wealthie mens houſes with the firſt ſort, or elſe to
walke vp and downe in gentlemens and rich farmers
paſtures, there to ſee and view which horſſes feed beſt,
whereby they manie times get ſomething, although
with hard aduenture: it hath beene knowne by their
confeſſion at the gallowes, that ſome one ſuch chapman
hath had fortie, fiftie, or fixtie ſtolne horſes at paſture
here and there abroad in the countrie at a time, which
they haue ſold at faires and markets farre off, they
themſelues in the meane ſeaſon being taken about
home for honeſt yeomen, and verie wealthie drouers,
till their dealings haue been bewraied. It is not long
ſince one of this companie was apprehended, who was
before time reputed for a verie honeſt and wealthie
towneſman; he vºtered alſo more horſſes than anie of
his trade, becauſe he ſold a reaſonable peniworth, and
was a faire ſpoken man. It was his cuſtome likewiſe to
ſaie, if anie man hucked hard with him about the price
of a gelding : “So God helpe me, gentleman or fir,
either he did coſt me ſo much, or elſe by Jeſus I ſtole
$ )
him.” Which talke was plaine inough ; and yet ſuch
was his eſtimation, that each beleeued the firſt part of
his tale, and made no account of the later, which was
the truer indeed.
Our third annoiers of the common-wealth are roges,
which doo verie great miſcheefe in all places where
1 On serving-men, see the striking passage in Sir Thomas More's Utopia, p. 27-8,
ed. 1852; and “A Health to the Gentlemanly profession of Seruing men ; or The
Seruingmans Comfort: With other thinges not impertinent to the Premisses, as well
pleasant as profitable to the courteous Reader,” 1598, reprinted in W. C. Hazlitt's
Roxburghe Library, Inedited Tracts, 1868. Also ‘The Serving Man and the Hus-
bandman,’ A Pleasaunt New Dialogue.” Roz. Ballads, Ballad Soc., 1870, i. 300.
CHAP. XI.] SUNDRY KINDS OF PUNISHMENTS.
23 I
they become. For wheras the rich onelie ſuffer iniurie
by the firſt two, theſe ſpare neither rich nor poore: but
whether it be great gaine or ſmall, all is fiſh that com-
meth to net with them; and yet I ſaie, both they and
the reſt are truſſed vp apace. For there is not one
yeare commonlie, wherein three hundred or foure
hundred of them are not deuoured and eaten vp by the
gallowes in one place and other. It appeareth by
Cardane (who writeth it vpon the report of the biſhop
of Lexouia) in the geniture of king Edward the ſixt,
how Henrie the eight, executing his lawes verie ſeuerelie
againſt ſuch idle perſons, I meane, great theeues, pettie
theeues and roges, did hang vp threeſcore and twelue
thouſand of them in his time. He ſeemed for a while
greatlie to haue terrified the reſt: but ſince his death
the number of them is ſo increaſed, yea, although we
haue had no warres, which are a great occaſion of their
breed (for it is the cuſtome of the more idle ſort, hauing
once ſerued, or but ſeene the other ſide of the ſea vinder
colour of ſeruice, to ſhake hand with labour, for euer,
thinking it a diſgrace for himſelfe to returne vnto his
former trade,) that except ſome better order be taken,
or the lawes alreadie made be better executed, ſuch as
dwell in vplandiſh townes and little villages ſhall liue
but in ſmall ſafetie and reſt. For the better appre-
henſion alſo of theeues and mankillers, there is an old
law in England verie well prouided, whereby it is
ordered, that if he that is robbed, or any man, com-
plaine and giue warning of ſlaughter or murther com-
mitted, the conſtable of the village wherevnto he com-
meth and crieth for ſuccour, is to raiſe the pariſh about
him, and to ſearch woods, groues, and all ſuſpected
houſes and places, where the treſpaſſor may be, or is
ſuppoſed to lurke; and not finding him there, he is to
giue warning vnto the next conſtable, and ſo one con-
ſtable, after ſerch made, to aduertiſe another from
pariſh to pariſh, till they come to the ſame where the
300 or 400
rogues are now
hung yearly.
Henry VIII.
hung 72,000
of 'em.
Wars breed
rogues.
Men who’ve
Once been
Soldiers, bid
good-bye to
labour.
Search for rob-
bers and mur-
derers in one
parish after
another.
232
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
If any parish
lets a thief
6Scape,
it is fin'd,
and makes good
the robol man's
loss.
I’ve known
villagers so
selfish as to
refuse help,
even when
calld on by the
constables.
offendor is harbored and found. It is alſo prouided,
that if anie pariſh in this buſineſſe doo not hir dutie,
but ſuffereth the theefe (for the auoiding of trouble
ſake) in carrieng him to the gaile, if he ſhould be ap-
prehended, or other letting of their worke, to eſcape,
the ſame pariſh is not onlie to make fine to the king,
but alſo the ſame, with the whole hundred wherein it
ſtandeth, to repaie the partie robbed his damages, and
leaue his eſtate harmleſſe. Certes this is a good law;
howbeit, I haue knowne by mine owne experience,
fellons being taken to haue eſcaped out of the ſtocks,
being reſcued by other for want of watch & gard, that
theeues haue beene let paſſe, bicauſe the couetous and
greedie pariſhoners would neither take the paines, nor
be at the charge, to carrie them to priſon, if it were far
off; that when hue and crie haue beene made euen to
the faces of ſome conſtables, they haue ſaid; “God re-
ſtore your loſſe ! I haue other buſineſſe at this time.”
And by ſuch meanes, the meaning of manie a good
law is left vnexecuted, malefactors imboldened, and
manie a poore man turned out of that which he hath
ſwet and taken great paines for, toward
the maintenance of himſelfe
and his poore children
and familie.]
C HAP. XII.] THE BUILDING AND FURNITURE OF OUR HOUSES. 233
* Of the maner of building and
furniture of our houſes.”
Chap. 12.”
He greateſt part of our building in the cities
and good townes of England, conſiſteth
onelie of timber, for as yet few of the houſes
of the communaltie (except here & there in the Weſt
countrie townes) are made of ſtone, although they may
(in my opinion) in diuerſe other places be builded ſo
good cheape of the one as of the other. In old time
the houſes of the Britons were ſlightlie ſet vp with a few
poſts & many radels, [with ſtable and all offices vnder
one roofe, the like whereof almoſt is to be ſeene in the
fennie countries [and northerne parts] vnto this daie,
where for lacke of wood they are inforced to continue
this ancient maner of building.
therefore in ſpeaking of building to make a diſtinétion
betweene the plaine and wooddie ſoiles : * for as in
theſe, our houſes are commonlie ſtrong and well tim-
bered,—ſo that in manie places, there are not aboue
[foure, fix, or nine inches betweene ſtud and ſtud, ſo
in the open champaine countries" they are inforced for
want of ſtuffe to vſe no ſtuds at all, but onlie [franke
poſts, raiſins, [beames, prickepoſts, groundſels, [ſum-
mers (or dormants)] tranſoms, and ſuch " principals,
with here and 7 there a girding," whervnto they faſter,
their ſplints or radels, and then caſt it all ouer with
[thicke] claie to keepe out the wind, which other-
wiſe would annoie them. [Certes this rude kind of
[1 p. 187]
Most of our
houses are of
timber,
few of stone.
In the fen
country and the
North, they're
of posts and
hurdles or
panels.
It is not in vaine
On woody soils,
the houses are
well timberd;
*
*
but in the open
country they've
only a few
upright and
Cross posts,
with clay-
coverd panels
between.
* See Andrew Boorde's Dyetary of Helth, 1542, E. E. Text Soc. 1870, for a
description of how to build houses, and manage them and men's income, and what
food folk should eat.—F.
* In the 1577 ed., this chapter is chap. 10 of the 2nd Book.
* countrie * & champaine soyles
"—" there an owerthwart post in their walles
* upright
234
the description OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Spaniards' as-
tonishment at
the Large Diet
of Englishmen,
and the wretch-
edness of their
houses.
Our houses are
in stories,
divided into
rooms, and
coverd with
Straw or slate.
Clay for panels
of houses is
white, red (or
loam), or blue.
Asbestos or
White Lime,
slackt, is us'd
for lime-whit-
ing the clay.
When chalk
can’t be had,
lime is made
from shells, &c.
building made the Spaniards in queene Maries daies to
woonder, but cheeſlie when they ſaw what large diet
was vſed in manie of theſe ſo homelie cottages; in ſo
much that one of no ſmall reputation amongſt them
ſaid after this maner: “Theſe Engliſh (quoth he) haue
their houſes made of ſticks and durt, but they fare com-
monlie ſo well as the king.” Whereby it appeareth
that he liked better of our good fare in ſuch courſe
cabins, than of their owne thin diet in their princelike
habitations and palaces.] In like ſort as euerie countrie
houſe is thus apparelled on the out fide, ſo is it inwardlie
diuided into ſundrie roomes aboue and beneath ; and
where plentie of wood is, they couer them with tiles,
otherwiſe with ſtraw, ſedge, or reed," except ſome
quarrie of ſlate be neere hand, from whence they haue,
for their monie, ſo much as may ſuffice them.
The claie wherewith our houſes are impanelled,
is either white, red, or blue ; and of theſe, the firſt dooth
participat verie much with the nature of our chalke;
the ſecond is called lome; but the third eftſoones
changeth colour ſo ſoone as it is wrought, notwithſtand-
ing that it looke blue when it is throwne out of the pit.
Of chalke alſo we haue our excellent [Aſbeſtos or]
white lime, made in moſt places, wherewith [being
quenched, we ſtrike ouer our claie workes and ſtone
wals, in cities, good townes, rich farmers and gentle-
mens houſes : otherwiſe, in ſteed of chalke, (where it
wanteth, for it is ſo ſcant that in ſome places it is ſold
by the pound,) they are compelled to burne a certeine
kind of red ſtone, as in Wales, and elſe where other
ſtones, [and ſhels of oiſters and like fiſh found vpon the
ſea coaſt, which being comuerted into lime, doth
naturallie (as the other) abhorre and eſchew water,
whereby it is diſſolued, and neuertheleſſe deſire oile,
wherewith it is eaſilie mixed, as I haue ſeene by ex-
perience. Within their doores alſo, ſuch as are of
1 moss, in the Gawthorp Accounts.-F.
CHAP. XII.] THE BUILDING AND FURNITU RE OF OUR HOUSES.
235
abilitie doo oft make their floores” and parget of fine
alabaſter burned, which they call plaſter of Paris,
whereof in ſome places we haue great plentie, and that
verie profitable againſt the rage of fire.
In plaſtering likewiſe of our faireſt houſes ouer our
heads, we vſe to laie firſt a laine” or two of white
morter tempered with haire, vpon laths, which are
nailed one by another, (or ſometimes vpon reed or
wickers more dangerous for fire, and made faſt here
and there with ſaplaths, for falling downe,) and finallie
couer all with the aforeſaid plaſter, which beſide the
dele&table whiteneſſe of the ſtuffe it ſelfe, is laied on ſo
euen and ſmoothlie, as nothing in my iudgment can be
doone with more exactneſſe. [The wals of our houſes
on the inner ſides in like ſort be either hanged with
tapiſterie, arras worke, or painted cloths, wherin either
diuerſe hiſtories, or hearbes, beaſts, knots, and ſuch like .
are ſtained, or elſe they are ſeeled with oke of our
owne, or waineſcot brought hither out of the eaſt
countries, whereby the roomes are not a little com-
mended, made warme, and much more cloſe than other-
wiſe they would be. As for ſtooues, we haue not
hitherto vſed them greatlie, yet doo they now begin to
be made in diuerſe houſes of the gentrie and wealthie
citizens, who build them not to worke and feed in, as
in Germanie and elſe where, but now and then to
ſweat in, as occaſion and need ſhall require it..] This
alſo hath beene common in England, contrarie to the
cuſtomes of all other nations, and yet to be ſeene, (for
example in moſt ſtreets of London,) that many of our
greateſt houſes haue outwardlie beene verie fimple and
plaine to fight, which inwardlie haue beene able to
receiue a duke with his whole traine, and lodge them
at their eaſe. Hereby moreouer it is come to paſſe,
that the fronts of our ſtreets haue not beene ſo vniforme
and orderlie builded as thoſe of forreine cities, where (to
1 flowers * Laire
Plaster of Paris.
Ceilings of
Mortar,
coverd with
Plaster of Paris.
Our inner walls
are either
tapestri’d or
wainscoted.
Stoves are
beginning to be
used by rich
men,
to sweat in.
Houses
(specially in
London) are
plain outside,
fine inside,
and not built all
like one an-
other.
236
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Formerly, in the
country, lattise
was us'd for
glass,
and horn was so
us’d too, but is
not at present,
as glass is
plentiful now.
The Specular
stone, or
Selenites, was
formerly us’d
for glass.
How glass is
said to have
been first
discoverd.
ſaie truth) the vtterfide of their manſions and dwellings
haue oft more coſt beſtowed vpon them, than all the
reſt of the houſe, which are often verie fimple and
wneaſie within, as experience dooth confirme. Of old
time, our countrie houſes, in ſteed of glaſſe, did vſe
much lattiſe, and that made either of wicker or fine
rifts of oke in chekerwiſe. I read alſo that ſome of the
better ſort, in and before the times of the Saxons [(who
notwithſtanding vſed ſome glaſſe alſo, fince the time of
Benedićt Biſcop, the moonke that brought the feat of
glaſing firſt into this land)] did make panels of horne
in ſteed of glaſſe, & fix them in woodden calmes. But
as horne [in windows] is [now] quite laid downe in euerie
place, ſo our lattiſes are alſo growne into leſſe vſe, bicauſe
glaſſe is come to be ſo plentifull, and within a verie
little ſo good cheape [if not better] then the other.
II find obſcure mention of the ſpecular ſtone alſo
to haue beene found and applied to this vſe in England,
but in ſuch doubtfull ſort as I dare not affirme it for
certeine. Neuertheleſſe, certeine it is, that antiquitie
vſed it before glaſſe was knowen, vnder the name of
Selenites. And how glaſſe was firſt found I care not
greatlie to remember, euen at this preſent, although it
be dire&tlie beſide my purpoſed matter. In Syria
phenices which bordereth vpon Iurie, & neere to the
foot of mount Carmell, there is a moore or marris,
wherout riſeth a brooke called ſomtime Belus, and
falleth into the ſea neere to Ptolemais. This riuer was
fondlie aſcribed vnto Baall, and alſo honored vnder that
name by the infidels, long time before there was anie
king in Iſraell. It came to paſſe alſo as a certeine
merchant ſailed that waie, loden with Nitrum, the
paſſengers went to land for to repoſe themſelues, and
to take in ſome ſtore of freſh water into their veſſell.
Being alſo on the ſhore, they kindled a fire, and made
prouiſion for their dinner, but bicauſe they wanted
as
^ CHAP. XII.] THE BUILDING AND FURNITURE OF OUR HOUSES.
237
treuets or ſtones whereon 1 to ſet their kettels on, ran by
chance into the ſhip, and brought great peeces of
Nitrum with him, which ſerued their turne for that
To be ſhort, the ſaid ſubſtance being hot, and
beginning to melt, it mixed by chance with the grauell
that laie vnder it; and ſo brought foorth that ſhining
ſubſtance which now is called glaſſe, and about the
preſent.
time of Semiramis. When the companie ſaw this, they
made no ſmall accompt of their ſucceſſe, and foorthwith
began to practiſe the like in other mixtures, whereby
great varietie of the ſaid ſtuffe did alſo inſue. Certes
for the time this hiſtorie may well be true : for I read
of glaſſe in Iob ; but for the reſt, I refer me to the
common opinion conceiued by writers. Now to turne
againe to our windowes.] Heretofore alſo the houſes
of our princes and noble men were often glaſed with
Berill (an example whereof is yet to be ſeene in Sudleie
caſtell) and in diuerſe other places with fine chriſtall,
but this eſpeciallie in the time of the Romans, wherof
alſo ſome fragments haue beene taken vp in old ruines.
But now theſe are not in vſe, ſo that onelie the cleareſt
glaſſe is moſt eſteemed : for we haue diuerſe ſorts, ſome
brought out of Burgundie, ſome out of Normandie,
much out of Flanders, beſide that which is made in
England, [which would be] ſo good as the beſt, [if we
were diligent and carefull to beſtow more coſt vpon it,
and [yet as it is] each one that may, will haue it for his
building. Moreouer the manſion houſes of our countrie
townes and villages (which in champaine ground ſtand
altogither by ſtreets, & ioining one to an other, but in
woodland ſoiles diſperſed here and there, each one vpon
the ſeuerall grounds of their owners) are builded in ſuch
ſort generallie, as that they haue neither dairie, ſtable,
nor bruehouſe annexed vnto them vnder the ſame roofe
(as in manie places beyond the ſea [& ſome of the
north parts of our countrie,)] but all ſeparate from the
firſt, and one of them from an other. And yet for all
[1 p. 188]
The first dis-
covery of Glass.
Noblemen's
houses formerly
had beryl for
glass, as at
Sudley Castle.
Now we have
clear glass, from
Burgundy,
Normandy,
Flanders, and
England.
Our country
dwelling-
houses
have their
dairy, stables,
&c. in out-
houses.
238
THE DES CRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
Gentlemen's
mansions and
houses are
mostly of
timber ;
tho' those lately
built are of
brick or stone.
So are the noble-
men’s houses ;
and so fine, that
the worst is like
a Prince's of old.
Our builders are
the best in the
world, but
charge so dear
that cheaper
strangers are
often preferrd
to them.
As to furniture,
our nobles'
houses have’.
rich hangings,
alld
4S1000 or £2000
worth of plate
this, they are not ſo farre diſtant in ſunder, but that the
goodman lieng in his bed may lightlie heare what is
doone in each of them with eaſe, and call quicklie vnto
his meinie' if anie danger ſhould attach him.
The ancient manours and houſes of our gentlemen
are yet, and for the moſt part, of ſtrong timber, [in
framing whereof our carpenters haue beene and are
worthilie preferred before thoſe of like ſcience among
all other nations.] Howbeit ſuch as be latelie builded,
are comonlie either of bricke or hard ſtone, [or both ;]
their roomes large and comelie,” and houſes of office
further diſtant from their lodgings. Thoſe of the
nobilitie are likewiſe wrought with bricke and hard
ſtone, as prouiſion may beſt be made: but ſo magni-
ficent and ſtatelie, as the baſeſt houſe of a baron dooth
often match [in our daies] with ſome honours of
princes in old time. So that if euer curious building
did floriſh in England, it is in theſe our yeares,” wherin
our workemen excell, and are in maner comparable in
ſkill with old Pitruuius, [Leo Baptiſta,] and Serlo.
[Neuertheleſſe, their eſtimation more than their greedie
and ſeruile couetouſneſſe, ioined with a lingering
humour, cauſeth them often to be reie&ted, & ſtrangers
preferred to greater bargaines, who are more reaſonable
in their takings, and leſſe waſters of time by a great
deale than our owne.]
The furniture of our houſes alſo exceedeth, and is
growne in maner euen to paſſing delicacie : and herein
I doo not ſpeake of the nobilitie and gentrie onelie, but
likewiſe 4 of the loweſt ſort [in moſt places of our ſouth
countrie, that haue anie thing at all to take to. Certes,
in noble mens houſes it is not rare to ſee abundance of
Arras, rich hangings of tapiſtrie, ſiluer veſſell, and ſo
much other plate, as may furniſh ſundrie cupbords, to
the ſumme oftentimes of a thouſand or two thouſand
pounds at the leaſt: whereby the value of this and the
1 meney 2 stately 3 dayes * euen
CHAP. XII.] THE BUILDING AND FURNITURE OF OUR HOUSES.
239
reſt of their ſtuffe dooth grow to be [almoſt] ineſtimable.
Likewiſe in the houſes of knights, gentlemen, mer-
chantmen, and ſome other wealthie citizens, it is not
geſon to behold generallie their great prouiſion of
tapiſtrie, Turkie worke, pewter, braſſe, fine linen, and
thereto coſtlie cupbords of plate, worth fiue or ſix hun-
dred [or a thouſand] pounds, to be deemed by eſtima-
tion. But as herein all theſe ſorts doo far exceed their
elders and predeceſſors, [and in neatneſſe and curioſitie,
the merchant all other;] ſo in time paſt, the coſtlie
furniture ſtaied there, whereas now it is deſcended yet
lower, euen vnto the inferiour artificers and maniel
farmers, who [by vertue of their old and not of their
new leaſes] haue [for the moſt part] learned alſo to
garniſh their cupbords with plate, their [ioined] beds
with tapiſtrie and filke hangings, and their tables with
[carpets & fine naperie, whereby the wealth of our
countrie [(God be praiſed therefore, and giue vs grace
to imploie it well)] dooth infinitelie appeare. Neither
doo I ſpeake this in reproch of anie man, God is my
iudge, but to ſhew that I do reioiſe rather, to ſee how
God hath bleſſed vs with his good gifts; and * whileſt
I” behold how that in a time wherein all things are
growen to moſt exceſſiue prices, [& what commoditie
ſo euer is to be had, is dailie plucked from the com-
munaltie by ſuch as looke into euerie trade, we doo yet
find the means to obtein & atchiue ſuch furniture as
herotofore hath beene vnpoſſible. There are old men
yet dwelling in the village where I remaine, which
haue noted three things to be maruellouſlie altred in
England within their ſound remembrance; [& other
three things too too much increaſed.] One is, the multi-
tude of chimnies latelie erected, wheras in their yoong
daies there were not aboue two or three, if ſo manie, in
moſt vplandiſh townes of the realme (the religious
houſes, & manour places of their lords alwaies excepted,
1 most 2—3 to
Our gentry's
houses
have tapestry,
Turkey-work,
&c., and from
4500 to £1000
worth of plate.
Artisans and
Farmers too
have
cupboards with
plate, silk
hanging, fine
table linen, &c.
God be thankt
for his good
gifts :
And all this
notwithstand-
ing the great
rise in prices.
Three things
greatlie
amended in
Frtgland.
I.
Chimnzes.
Of old, not
above 2 or 3 in
a town.
24o
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
Men made their
fires against a
reredos in the
hall.
II.
Improv’d bed-
ding, instead of
e old
Aard lodging.
A good round
log for a pillow.
7 years after
marriage, a
mattress, and a
sack of chaff for
a pillow,
as in Bedford-
shire now.
Pillows
fit only for
lying-in women.
Servants’ beds:
Straws prickt
their hardend
hides.
III.
Furniture of
Aousehold.
Pewter platters,
and silver or tin
spoons now.
In old time,
farmers had
hardly any
pewter vessels.
This was ºt the
time of generall
3/dlenesse.
[3 p. 189]
and peraduenture ſome great perſonages) but ech one
made his fire againſt a reredoſſe in the hall, where he
dined and dreſſed his meat.
The ſecond is the great [(although not generall)]
amendment of lodging, for (ſaid they) our fathers [(yea]
and we our ſelues [alſo)] haue lien full oft vpon ſtraw
pallets, [on rough mats] couered onelie with a ſheet,
vnder couerlets made of dagſwain or hopharlots (I vſe
their owne termes,) and a good round log vnder their
heads in ſteed of a bolſter [or pillow.] If it were ſo
that our fathers or the good man of the houſe, had
[within ſeuen yeares after his mariage purchaſed] a mat-
teres or flockebed, and thereto a ſacke of chaffe to reſt
his head vpon, he thought himſelfe to be as well lodged
as the lord of the towne, [that peraduenture laie ſeldome
in a bed of downe or whole fethers;1 ſo well were they
contented, [and with ſuch baſe kind of furniture: which
alſo is not verie much amended as yet in ſome parts of
Bedfordſhire, and elſewhere further off from our
ſoutherne parts.] Pillowes (ſaid they) were thought
meet onelie for women in childbed. As for ſeruants,
if they had anie ſheet aboue them, it was well, for ſel-
dome had they anie vnder their bodies, to keepe them
from the pricking ſtraws that ran oft through the can-
uas [of the pallet, and raſed their hardened hides.
The third thing they tell of, is the exchange of [veſ-
ſell, as of treene platters into pewter, and woodden
ſpoones into filuer or tin. For ſo common were all
ſorts of treene ſtuffe in old time, that a man ſhould
hardlie find foure peeces of pewter (of which one was
peraduenture a ſalt) in a good farmers houſe, and yet
for all this frugalitie, (if it may ſo be iuſtly called) they
were ſcarſe able to liue and paie their rents at their
daies without ſelling of a cow, or an * horſe, or more,
although they paid but foure pounds at the vtter"moſt
Such alſo was their pouertie, that if
2 a.
by the yeare.
1 vesselles
CHAP, XII.] THE BUILDING AND FURNITURE OF OUR HO USES.
24. I
* ſome one od 1 farmer or huſbandman had beene at the
alehouſe, a thing greatlie vſed in thoſe daies, amongſt
ſix or ſeuen of his neighbours, and there in a brauerie
to ſhew what ſtore he had, did caſt” downe his purſe,
and therein a noble or ſix ſhillings in filuer vnto them
[(for few ſuch men then cared for gold, bicauſe it was
not ſo readie painment, and they were oft inforced to
giue a penie for the exchange of an angell)] it was
verie likelie that all the reſt could not laie downe ſo
much againſt it: whereas in my time, although perad-
uenture foure pounds of old rent be improued to fortie,”
fiftie, [or an hundred] pounds, yet will the farmer [as
another palme or date tree] thinke his gaines verie ſmall
toward the end * of his terme, if he haue not ſix or
ſeuen yeares rent lieng by him, therewith to purchaſe a
new leaſe, beſide a faire garniſh of pewter on his cup-
bord, [with ſo much more in od veſſell going about the
houſe,] three or foure featherbeds, ſo manie couerlids
and carpets of tapiſtrie, a filuer ſalt, a bowle for wine
(if not an whole neaſt) and a dozzen of ſpoones to
furniſh vp the ſute. ,This alſo he taketh to be his owne
cleere; for what ſtocke of monie ſoeuer he gathereth [&
laieth vp] in all his yeares, it is often ſeene, that the
landlord will take ſuch order with him for the ſame,
when he renueth his leaſe, which is commonlie eight or
fix" yeares before * the old * be expired (fith it is now
growen almoſt to a cuſtome, that if he come not to his
lord ſo long before, another ſhall ſtep in for a reuerſion,
and ſo defeat him out right) that it ſhall neuer trouble
him more than the haire of his beard, when the barber
hath waſhed and ſhaued" it from his chin. [And as they
commend theſe, ſo (beſide the decaie of houſe-keeping
whereby the poore haue beene relieued) they ſpeake
alſo of three things that are growen to be verie grieuous
wnto them, to wit, the inhanſing of rents, latelie men-
tioned; the dailie oppreſſion of copiholders, whoſe
2 dast 8 fortie or * middest 5 ten 6–6 it
HARRISON, 16
1—l a
*t → - - -
So poor were the
Farmers, that if
at the Alehouse
one could show
68., all the other
half-dozen
couldn't pro-
duce as much.
But now, tho’
rents have risen
ten or twenty-
fold, Farmers
have 6 or 7
years' rent in
hand, besides
plenty of
pewter,
3 or 4 feather-
beds, tapestry
Carpets, a silver
Salt-cellar, a
wine-bowl, and
a dozen spoons.
But when a
Farmer renews
his lease,
his Landlord
sweeps off all
his ready
Inoney as clean
as the barber
shaves his chin.
Three things
have grown very
grievous in
England.
l. The rise in
rents.
2. Increase of
copyhold fines.
” shaven
242
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
Lords of Manors
rack and fleece
their poor copy-
holders in every
possible way.
3. Usury, now
so practist by
Christians, that
he who lends
his mouey with
out interest is
thought a Fool.
At first no
interest was
paid :
then 1 per cent.,
then 2,
and at last 12.
Reader, help
hang-up takers
of cent per cent
[By the yeare.]
Some landlords
too screw out of
their tenants,
for a lease, all
the money they
have,
as if tenants
were bondmon.
lords ſeeke to bring their poore tenants almoſt into
plaine ſeruitude and miſerie, dailie deuiſing new
meanes, and ſeeking vp all the old, how to cut them
ſhorter and ſhorter, doubling, trebling, and now & then
ſeuen times increaſing their fines; driuing them alſo for
euerie trifle to looſe and forfeit their tenures, (by
whome the greateſt part of the realme dooth ſtand and
is mainteined,) to the end they may fleece them yet
more, which is a lamentable hering. The third thing
they talke of is vſurie, a trade brought in by the Jewes,
now perfeótlie pračtiſed almoſt by euerie chriſtian, and
ſo commonlie, that he is accompted but for a foole that
dooth lend his monie for nothing. In time paſt it was
Sors pro ſorte, that is, the principall onelie for the prin-
cipall; but now, beſide that which is aboue the princi-
pall properlie called Jºſura, we chalenge Foenus, that is.
commoditie of ſoile, & fruits of the earth, if not the
ground it ſelfe. In time paſt alſo, one of the hundred
was much, from thence it roſe vnto two, called in
Latine Vſura, Er ſextante; three, to wit, Er guadrante;
then to foure, to wit, Er triente ; then to fiue, which is
Ex quincunce ; then to fix, called Er ſemiſe, &c.; as
the accompt of the Aſſis ariſeth, and comming at the
laſt vnto ſura ea affè, it amounteth to twelue in the
nundred, and therefore the Latines call it Centeſima, for
that in the hundred moneth it doubleth the principall;
but more of this elſewhere. See Cicero againſt Verres,
Demoſthenes againſt Aphobus, and Athenaeus, lib. I 3. in
fine : and when thou haſt read them well, helpe I praie
thee in lawfull maner to hang vp ſuch as take Centum
pro cento, for they are no better worthie as I doo iudge
in conſcience. Forget not alſo ſuch landlords as vſe to
value their leaſes at a ſecret eſtimation giuen of the
wealth and credit of the taker, whereby they ſeeme (as
it were) to eat them vp, and deale with bondmen; ſo
that if the leaſſee be thought to be worth an hundred
pounds, he ſhall paie no leſſe for his new terme, or elſe
CHAP. XII.] THE BUILDING AND Fu RNITURE OF OUR HOUSES. 243
another to enter with hard and doubtfull couenants.
I am ſorie to report it, much more greeued to vnderſtand ſºrry
to say, and
of the practiſe; but moſt ſorowfull of all to vnderſtand ºr ; tº
know, that
that men of great port and countenance are ſo farre .
actually turn
from ſuffering their farmers to haue anie gaine at all, #ºn.
that they themſelues become grafiers, butchers, tanners, flºwing
ſheepmaſters, woodmen, and denique quid mon, thereby tºº,”
to inrich themſelues, and bring all the wealth of the *
countrie into their owne hands, leauing the com-
munaltie weake, or as an idoll with broken or feeble
armes, which may in a time of peace haue a plauſible
ſhew, but when neceſſitie ſhall inforce, haue an heauie
and bitter ſequele.]" g
1 For p. 238–241, compare Lord Buckhurst's letter in 1568, showing the poor
furniture of his rooms in Q. Elizabeth's palace at Sheen:
“From Shene, this xxxth of September 1568” (To the Lords of Q. Eliz.'s Privy
Council) ... “having receved your L. letters that Ishold repaire to Shene, and there to
do the beste I cold in accommodating the Cardinall with mine advise, aid, and assist-
ans, towards her M. officers who then were at Shene for that purpose, (the same your
letters containing no other effecte at all) I toke hors with-in one hower after, I
being then xxx mile of from Sheme, and so rode all the night, and upon my coming
thether, being but 2 daies before the Cardinals arivall, I spake with her M. officers,
with whome I had conferens for the better accomodating of the Cardinall. I
brought them in to everie parte of the hous that I possessed, and showed them all
such stuf and furniture as I had. And where they required plate of me, I told
them, as troth is, that I had no plate at all. Suche glasse vessell as I had, I
offred them, which they thought to base; for naperie, I cold not satisfie their turne,
for they desired damaske worke for a long table, and I had non other but plain
linnen for a square table. The table whereon I dine me self, I offred them ; and
for that yt was but a square table, they refused yt. One onlie tester and bedsted
not ocupied, I had, and thos I delivered for the Cardinall him self; and when we
cold not by any menes in so shorte a time procure another bedsted for the bushop,
I assighmed them the bedsted on which my wiefes waiting wemen did lie, and laid
them on the ground. Mine own basen and ewer I lent to the Cardinall, and
wanted me self. So did I the candelsticks for mine own table, with divers drinking
glasses, small cushions, small pottes for the ketchin, and sundrie other such like
trifles, although indede I had no greter store of them then I presentlie ocupied ; and
albeit this be not worthie the writing, yet mistrusting lest the misorder of some
others in denieng of such like kind of stuf not ocupied by themselves, hath bene
percase informed as towards me, I have thought good not to omit yt. Long tables,
formes, brasse for the ketchin, and all such necessaries as cold not be furnished by
me, we toke order to provide in the towne; hanginges and beds we receved from
the yeman of the wardrop at Richemond; and when we saw that naperie and shetes
cold no where here be had, I sent word thereof to the officers at the Courte, by
which menes we receved from my lord of Leceter 2 pair of fine shetes for the Car-
244 THE DES C RIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
Of cities and townes in
England.
Cap. I 3.”
S in old time we read that there were eight
Six and and twentie flamines and arch flamines in the
twezzzie cities w * *
in Æzºglazed. ſouth part of this Ile, and ſo manie great
cities vinder their iuriſdićtion ; ſo in theſe our daies
there is but one or two fewer, and each of them alſo
vnder the eccleſiaſticall regiment of ſome one biſhop or
archbiſhop, who in ſpirituall caſes haue the charge and
As many as ouerfight of the ſame. So manie cities therefore are
there are Bish- * e *
gºiºs and Arch there in England and Wales, as there be biſhopriks &
bi sh sº & º s & g *
1snoprics archbiſhopriks. For notwithſtanding that Lichfield
Lichfield and and Couentrie, and Bath and Welles, doo ſeeme to
Coventry count
as one : so do extend the aforeſaid number vnto nine and twentie :
Path and Wells.
yet neither of theſe couples are to be accounted but as
one entier citie and ſee of the biſhop, fith one biſh-
oprike can haue relation but winto one ſee, and the
ſaid ſee be ſituate but in one place, after which the
Once, our biſhop dooth take his name. It appeareth by our old
Southern cities & g g tº º g *
were very large and ancient hiſtories, that the cities of this ſoutherlie
and fine.
portion haue beene of exceeding greatneſſe and beautie,
dinall, and from my lord Chamberlen, one pair of fine for the bushop, with 2 other
courser pair, and order beside for X pair more from London. At which time also,
becaus I wold be sure your L. shold be asserteined of the simplenes and scarsytie of
such stuf as I had here, I sente a man of mine to the Courte, speciallie to declare to
your L. that for plate, damaske naperie and fine shetes, I had none at all; and for
the reste of my stuf, neither was it such as with honor mighte furnishe such a per-
sonage ; nor yet had I any greter store thereof then I presentlie ocupied; and he
brought me this answer again from your L. ‘that if I had it not, I cold not lend it.’
And yet, all things being thus provided for, and the diet for his L. being also pre-
pared, I sente worde thereof to Mr Kingesmele ; and therupon the next daie in the
morning, about ix of the clocke the Cardinall came to Shene, where I met and
receved him almost a quarter of a mile from the hous, and when I had furste brought
the Cardinall to his lodginge, and after, the bushop to his, I thought good there to
leve them to their repose.” (Works of T. Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, in J. R.
Smith's Library of Old Authors, pp. xxx—xxxiii.) Lord B. had been complained of
for not accommodating the Cardinal de Châtillon and Bishop well. Lord B. had
rooms in the Queen's Palace at Sheen, on the London side of Richmond, for which he
paid 40 marks a year. of * In 1577 ed. this chapter forms chap. 7 of Book 2.
CHAP. XIII.] CITIES AND TO WNS IN ENGLAND.
whereof ſome were builded in the time of the Samo-
theans, and of which not a few in theſe our times are
quite decaied, and the places where they ſtood worne
out of all remembrance. Such alſo for the moſt part
as yet remaine, are maruellouſlie altered, inſomuch
that whereas at the firſt they were large and ample,
now are they come either vnto a verie few houſes, or
appeare not to be much greater in compariſon than
poore & ſimple villages. Antoninus the moſt diligent
writer of the thorough fares of Britaine, noteth, among
other, theſe ancient townes following, as Sitomagus,
which he placeth in the waie from Norwich, as Leland
ſuppoſeth (wherin they went by Colcheſter) to Lon-
don; Nouiomagus that lieth betweene Carleill and
Canturburie, within ten miles eaſt of London; and
likewiſe Neomagus and Niomagus which take their
names of their firſt founder Magus, the ſonne of
Samothes, & ſecond king of the Celtes that reigned in
this Iland; [and not A profunditate, onelie, as Bodinus
affirmeth out of Plinie, as if all the townes that ended
in Magus ſhould ſtand in holes and low grounds:
which is to be diſprooued in diuerſe cities in the maine,
as alſo here with vs.] Of theſe moreouer, fir Thomas
Eliot ſuppoſeth Neomagus to haue ſtood ſomewhere
about Cheſter; & George Lillie, in his booke of the
names of ancient places, iudgeth Niomagus to be the
verie ſame that we doo now call Buckingham, [and
lieth farre from the ſhore]. And as theſe and ſundrie
other now periſhed tooke their denomination of this
prince, ſo there * are diuerſe cauſes, which mooue me to
coniečture, that Saliſburie 4 dooth rather take the firſt
name of Sarron, the ſonne of the ſaid Magus, than of
Caſar, Caradoc, or Seuerus (as ſome of our writers doo
imagine), [or elſe at the leaſt wiſe of Saliſburge of the
maine, from whence ſome Saxons came to inhabit in
this land. And for this later, not vnlikelie, fith before
* Salisbury itself
Some have dis-
appeard now ;
others are only
a few houses or
poor villages.
Sztomagus.
Mozzio”zagzes.
Neomeages.
Niomagus.
‘-magus' does
not mean a
hole.
Sir Thos. Eliot.
George Lillie.
[* p. 190]
Salisézerie of
Sarrowz.
246
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAN ID. [Book I I.
Sarronzaeme.
Sarrons burg.
Cities began to
multiply.
Greater cities in
£imzes fast when
Jºzesbandment
a/so zºere
citizens.
The cause of
£he izzczease o
zillages.
Copyllolds.
the comming of the Saxons, the king of the Sueſſion-
enſes had a great part of this Iland in ſubjećtion, as
Caeſar ſaith; and in another place, that ſuch of Belgie
as ſtale ouer hither from the maine, builded and called
diuerſe cities after the names of the ſame from whence
they came, I meane, ſuch as ſtood vpon the coaſt, as he
himſelfe dooth witneſſe.] But fith conie&tures are no
verities, and mine opinion is but one mans iudgement,
I will not ſtand now vpon the proofe of this matter,
leaſt I ſhould ſeeme to take great paines in adding new
conie&tures vnto old, in uch wiſe to deteine the heads
of my readers about theſe trifles, that otherwiſe perad-
uenture would be farre better occupied [in matters of
more importance.] To proceed therefore. As ſoone
after the firſt inhabitation of this Iland, our cities began
no doubt to be builded and increaſed, ſo they ceaſed
not to multiplie from time to time, till the land was
throughlie furniſhed with hir conuenient numbers,
whereof ſome at this preſent with their ancient names,
doo ſtill remaine in knowledge, though diuerſe be
doubted of, and manie more periſhed by continuance of
time, and violence of the enimie. I doubt not alſo but
the leaſt of theſe were comparable to the greateſt of
thoſe which ſtand in our time; for fith that in thoſe
daies the moſt part of the Iland was reſerued vnto
paſture, the townes and villages either were not at all,
(but all ſorts of people dwelled in the cities indifferent-
lie, an image of which eſtate may yet be ſeene in
Spaine,) or at the leftwiſe ſtood not ſo thicke, as they
did afterward in the time of the Romans, but cheefelie
after the comming of the Saxons, and [after them the l
Normans, when euerie lord builded a church neare
wnto his owne manſion houſe, and ºthereto imparted
the greateſt portion” of his lands vinto ſundrie tenants,
[to hold the ſame of him by coppie of court roll, which
rolles were then kept in ſome eſpeciall place indif-
*—l are imputed * part
CHAP. XIII.] CITIES AND TOWNS IN ENGLAND. 247
ferentlie appointed by them and their lord, ſo that the
one could h
aue no reſort vnto them without the other,
1 by which means] the number of townes and villages
was not a little increaſed.” If anie man be deſirous to Names of Eng-
lish cities stand-
know the names of thoſe ancient cities, that ſtood in ing in Roman
the time of the Romans, he ſhall haue them here at
hand, in ſuch wiſe as I haue gathered them out of our
writers, obſeruing euen their manner of writing of (of ºng 90
them ſo neare as to me is poſſible, [without alteration of
anie corruption crept vp into the ſame.]
times.
Trenouanton.
Cair Lud.
1. London - º “º - -
... )Londinum or Longidinium.
otherwiſe s
alled Auguſta, of the legion Auguſta that
Calle º
- ſoiourned there, when the Romans
ruled here.
Cairbranke.
Vrouicum or Yurewijc.
2 Yorke o- \Eorwijc [or Eoforwijc.] . [Zeozzzzzzes
te e e Alaceth yorée in
therwiſe <Yeworwijc. Scotlazza de
eclºsiózes.
called Eboracum. A legion cont-
tº º e ſº g º º . teamed sixti,
Vićtoria, of the legion vićtrix that laie :::::::::::"
e £/tzrtze zyza-
there ſometime. zzzºztli, three
cohortes.]
Duroruerno alids Duraruenno.
3 Cantur- -
& Dorobernia.
'burie © e
Cantwarbirie.
ſ Cair Colon.
Cair Colden.
Cair Colkin [of Coilus.]
Cair Colun, of the riuer that runneth
4 Colche- { thereby.
ſter
Colonia,[of the colonie planted there by
the Romans.] (Plin. lib. 2. ca. 75.
Colonceſter. Tacitus.
U Camulodunum. (Ptolome.]
l—l wherby the * increased among us
248
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Names of
ancient English
cities that stood
in the times of
the Romans,
5 Lincolne
6 Warwijc
[had ſome-
time 9
pariſh
Cair Lud Coit, of the woods that ſtood
about it.
Cair Loichoit, by corruption.
Lindum.
Lindocollinum.
Cair Guttelin.
Cair Line [or Cair Leon.]
Cair Gwair.
Cair Vmber.
churches.] \ Cair Gwaerton.
7 Cheſter vpon / Cair legion.
Vske [was a fa-\ Carlheon.
mous vniuerfi- A Cairlium.
tie in the time | Legeceſter.
of Arthur.] Ciuitas legionum,
8 Carleill
9 S. Albanes
Io Win-
cheſter.
11 Ciſce-
ter.
º Maricipit,
Cair Lueill.
Cair Leill,
Lugibalia,
[Cair Doill.]
Cairº Municip.
Verolamium.
Verlamceſter.
Cair Wattelin, of the ſtreet wheron it
ſtood.
Cair Gwent.
Cair Gwin.
Cair Wine.
Venta Simenorum,
Cair Kyrne.
Cair Kery.
Cair Cery.
Cirneceſter
Churneceſter.
º Churne,
cHAP, XIII.] CITIES AND TOWNS IN ENGLAND. 249
12 Silce- | Cair Segent. ſ:##,
ſter. Seleceſter. 3:f
£eding.]
Cair Badon,
13 Bath. Thermae.
Aquae ſolis.
14 Shafteſ. (Cair Paladour.
byry tº:
Wigornia.
Cair Gworangon.
15 Worce- (Brangonia.
ſter. Cair Frangon,
Woorkeceſter.
16 Chiche- ſ Cair Key [or Kair Kis.]
ſter, {. Chic.
Cair Oder nant Badon.
Oder. *
17 Briſtow & Cair Bren.
Venta Belgarum.
Brightſtow.
1 18 Ro- Durobreuis, corruptlie Durobrouis, [* p. 191]
cheſt. Rofoeſter. Dubobrus.
Roffa. Durobrius.
19 Portche- (Cair Peris.
ſter.
Cair Poreis.
Cair Maridunum.
Cair Merdine.
Maridunum.
Cair Marlin.
Cair Fridhin.
20 Cair-
marden
Cair Clowy.
2 I Gloceſter. & Cair Glow.
Claudioceſtria.
25o
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
Ancient English
cities in Roman
times.
Cair Dorme,
on the Nene in
Huntingdon-
shire.
Alcluid
a march town,
now Dumbar-
ton.
[Cair Beir.]
22 Leir- Cair Leir.
ceſter. ) Cair Lirion.
Wirall, teſte. Matth. Weſt. 895.
23 Cam- { [Grantabric.]
bridge. U Cair Graunt.
24 Cair Vrnach [peraduenture Burgh
caſtell.]
25 Cair Cucurat.
* 26 Cair Draiton, [now a ſlender
village.] *.
27 Cair Celennon.
28 Cair Megwaid.
As for Cair Dorme (another whereof I read likewiſe)
it ſtood ſomewhere vpon [the] Nene in Huntingdon-
fhire, but now vinknowne, fith it was twiſe raced to the
ground, firſt by the Saxons, then by the Danes, ſo that
the ruines thereof are [in theſe daies] not extant to be
ſeene. And in like ſort I am ignorant where moſt of
them ſtood, that are noted [with] the ſtar. [I find in
like ſort mention of a noble citie called Alcluid, ouer
and beſide theſe afore mentioned, ſometime builded by
Ebracus of Britaine, as the fame goeth, and finallie
deſtroied by the Danes, about the yeare of Grace 870.
It ſtood vpon the banks of the riuer Cluda, to wit,
betweene it and the blanke on the north, and the Lound
lake on the weſt, and was ſometime march betweene
the Britons and the Pićts, and likewiſe the Pićts and the .
Scots; neuer the leſſe, the caſtell (as I heare) dooth yet
remaine, and hath beene fince well repared by the
Scots, and called Dombrittain or Dumbritton, ſo that it
is not an hard matter by theſe few words to find where
Alcluid ſtºod. I could here, if leiſure ſerued, and haſt of
the printer [did?] not require diſpatch, deliuer the ancient
names of ſundrie other townes, of which Stafford in
!— they * Not in orig.—F.
chAP. XIII.] CITIES AND TOWNS IN ENGI.AN D.
25 I
time paſt was called Stadtford, and therfore (as I geſſe)
builded, or the name altered by the Saxons, Kinebanton
now Kimbalton. But if anie man be deſirous to ſee
more of them, let him reſort to Houeden in the life of
Henrie the ſecond, and there he ſhall be further ſatiſfied
of his deſire in this behalfe.]
It ſhould ſeeme when thoſe ancient cities flouri-
ſhed, that the ſame towne which we now call ſaint
Albons, did moſt of all excell: but cheefelie in the
Romans time, and was [not onelie] nothing inferior to
London it ſelfe, but rather preferred before it, bicauſe it
was newer, and made a Municipium 4 of the Romans,
whereas the other was old and ruinous, and inhabited
onelie by the Britons, [as the moſt part of the Iland
was alſo in thoſe daies.] Good notice hereof alſo is to
be taken by Matthew Paris, and others before him, out
of whoſe writings I haue thought good to note a few
things, whereby the maieſtie of this ancient citie may
appeare vnto poſteritie, and the former eſtate of Ver-
lamceſter not lie altogither (as it hath doone hitherto)
raked vp in forgetfulnes, through the negligence of ſuch
as might haue deſerued better of their ſucceſſours, by
leauing the deſcription thereof in a booke by it ſelfe,
fith manie particulars thereof were written to their
hands, that now are loſt and periſhed. Tacitus in the
foureteenth booke of his hiſtorie maketh mention of it,
ſhewing that in the rebellion of the Britons, the
Romans there were miſerablie diſtreſſed, Eadem clades
(faith he) municipio Verolamio fuit. And herevpon
Nennius in his catalog of cities calleth it Cair municip,”
as I before haue noted. Ptolome ſpeaking of it, dooth
place it among the Catyeuchlanes, but Antoninus
maketh it one and twentie Italian miles from London,
placing Sullomaca nine mile from thence, whereby it is
euident, that Sullomaca ſtood * neere to Barnet, if it
Of the ſold] compaſſe of
* Minticip
were not the [verie] ſame.
*— a colony
Stafford.
See Howeden’s
Life of Hen. II.
zwhere Albazte
was martyred
Asclepiodotus
zwas legat in
Azitazze.
St Alban's was a
finer town than
London.
Notes from
Matthew Paris
about St
Alban's.
Tacitus men-
tions it.
Sullomaca and
Barnez al/
one, or not far
in sunder.
° stood very
252
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book I I.
The difference
between ‘Muni-
cipium ” and
‘Colonia Ro-
manorum.”
The Romans
gave the
inhabitants of
St Alban's the
whole freedom
of Romans.
“Municipium’
and “Colonia’
.defin'd.
A.D. 959–75
Abbot Eldred
dug in the
ruins of Vero-
lamium,
and found many
pillars, door-
frames,
the walles of Verolamium there is 1 now ſmall knowledge
to be had 1 by the ruines, but of the beautie of the
citie it ſelfe you ſhall partlie vnderſtand by that which
followeth at hand, [after I haue told you for your
better intelligence what Municipium Romanorum is:
for there is great difference betweene that and Colonia
Romanorum, fith Colonia alib traducitur a ciuitate Roma,
but Municipes aliunde in ciuitatem veuiunt, ſuisque iuribus
& legibus viulunt: moreouer their ſoile is not changed
into the nature of the Romane, but they liue in the
ſtedfaſt freendſhip and protećtion of the Romans, as did
ſomtime the Ceretes, who were the firſt people which
euer obteined that priuilege. The Britiſh Verolamians
therefore, hauing for their noble seruice in the warres
deſerued great commendations at the hands of the
Romans, they gaue vnto them the whole freedome of
Romans, whereby they were made Municipes, and
became more free in truth than their Colonies could be.
To conclude therefore, Municipium is a citie infran-
chiſed and indued with Romane priuileges, without
anie alteration of hir former inhabitants or priuileges;
whereas a Colonie is a companie ſent from Rome into
anie other region or prouince, to poſſeſſe either a citie
newlie builded, or to repleniſh the ſame from whence
hir former citizens haue beene expelled and driuen out.
Now to proceed.]
In the time of king Edgar it fell out, that one
Eldred was abbat there ; who being deſirous to inlarge
that houſe, it came into his mind to ſearch about in the
ruines of Verolamium (which now was ouerthrowne by
the furie of the Saxons & Danes) to ſee if he might
there come by anie curious peeces of worke, wherewith
to garniſh his building taken in hand. To be ſhort, he
had no ſooner begun to dig among the rubbis, but he
found an exceeding number of pillers, peeces of antike
worke, threſholds, doore frames, and ſundrie other
"—" yet some mencyon
CHAP. XIII.] CITIES AND TOWNS IN ENGLAND.
2.53
peeces of fine maſonrie for windowes and ſuch like,
verie conuenient for his purpoſe. Of theſe alſo ſome
were of porphyrite ſtone, ſome of diuerſe kinds of
marble, touch, and alabaſter, beſide manie curious
deuiſes of hard mettall; in finding whereof he thought
himſelfe an happie man, and his ſucceſſe to be greatlie
guided by S. Albane. Beſides theſe alſo he found
ſundrie pillers of braſſe, and ſockets of latton, ſalabaſter
and touch,) all which he laid aſide by great heaps,
determining in the end (I ſaie) to laie the foundation
of a new abbaie ; but God ſo preuented his determina-
tion, that death tooke him awaie, before his building
was begun. After him ſucceeded one Eadmerus, who
followed the dooings of Eldred to the vttermoſt ; and
therefore not onlie peruſed what he had left with great
diligence, but alſo cauſed his pioners to ſearch * yet
further, within the old walles of Verolamium, where
they not onelie found infinite [other] peeces of excel-
lent workemanſhip, but came at the laſt to certeine
vaults vinder the ground, in which ſtood diuers idols, and
not a few altars, verie ſuperſtitiouſlie and religiouſlie
adorned, as the pagans left them belike in time of
neceſſitie. Theſe images were of ſundrie mettals, and
ſome of pure gold, their altars likewiſe were richlie
couered, all which ornaments Edmerus tooke awaie,
and not onelie conuerted them to other vſe in his
building, but alſo deſtroied an innumerable ſort of other
idols, whoſe eſtimation conſiſted in their formes, and
ſubſtances could doo no ſeruice. He tooke vp alſo º
fundrie curious pots, iugs, and cruſes of ſtone and wood
moſt artificiallie wrought and carued, and that in ſuch
quantitie, beſides infinite ſtore of fine houſhold ſtuffe, as
if the whole furniture of the citie had beene brought
thither of purpoſe to be hidden in thoſe vaults. In pro-
ceeding further, he tooke vp diuerſe pots of gold, filuer,
braſſe,4 glaſſe [and earth, whereof ſome were filled
window-frames
of porphyry,
devices in
metal,
pillars of brass,
sockets of
latton, &c.
Eadmer carrid
on Eldred's
search in old
Verolamium;
[? p. 192]
and found there
idols and
altars,
the idols of gold,
the altars
ornamented,—
and curiously
wrought pots
and jugs,
* prosequuted 8 moreouer * brasse and
Some of gold,
silver, glass,
filld with
2.54
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
ashes of the
Gentiles, like
others found in
a well at Mass-
ingham about
1578 A.D.
Eadmer also
found 2 books'
of the Rites of
the Gentiles, and
the Martyrdom
of St Alban.
This somendeth.
&#e a lie.
Many beautiful
remains have
been lately
found in old
Verulam.
The Thames
never came up
to St Alban's,
but the Verlume
did and does.
It's now very
SImall,
with the aſhes and bones of the gentils, [the mouths
being turned downewards (the like of which, but of
finer earth, were found in great numbers alſo of late in
a well at little Maſfingham in Norffolke, of fix or eight
gallons a peece, about the yeare 1578, and alſo in the
time of Henrie the eight)] and not a few with the coines
of the old Britons and Romane emperours. All which
veſſels the ſaid abbat brake into peeces, and melting
the mettall, he reſerued it in like ſort for the garniſhing
of his church. i
He found likewiſe in a ſtone wall two old bookes,
whereof one conteined the rites of the gentils, about
the ſacrifices of their gods, the other (as they now ſaie)
the martyrdome of ſaint Albane, both of them written
in old Brittiſh letters, which, either bicauſe no man then
liuing could read them, or for that they were not
woorth the keeping, were both conſumed to aſhes,
ſauing that a few notes were firſt taken out of this later,
concerning the death of their Albane. Thus much
haue I thought good to note of the former beautie of
Verolamium, whereof infinite other tokens haue beene
found ſince that time, and diuerſe within the memorie
of man, of paſſing workemanſhip, the like whereof
hath no whers elſe beene ſeene in anie ruines within
the compaſſe of this Ile, either for coſt or quantitie of
ſtuffe.
Furthermore, whereas manie” are not afraid to ſaie
that the Thames came ſometimes by this citie, indeed
it is nothing ſo; but that the Verlume (afterward
called Vere and the Mure) did and * dooth ſo [ſtill]
(whatſoeuer Gildas talketh hereof, whoſe books may be
corrupted in that behalfe) there is yet euident proofe to
be confirmed by experience. [For albeit that the riuer
be now growne to be verie ſmall, by reaſon of the
ground about it, which is higher than it was in old
time; yet it keepeth in maner the old courſe, and
1 the * dyuers 3 Or
chap. xIII.] cITIES AND Towns IN ENGLAND.
255
runneth betweene the old citie that was, and the new
towne that is ſtanding on Holmechirſt crag, as I beheld
of late. Thoſe places alſo which now are medow
beneath the abbaie, were ſometimes a great lake, mere,
or poole, through which the ſaid riuer ran, and (as I
read) with a verie ſwift and violent courſe, wheras at
this preſent it is verie ſlow, and of no ſuch deapth as of
ancient times it hath beene.] But heare what mine
author ſaith further of the ſame." As thoſe aforſaid
workemen digged in theſe ruines, they happened often-
times vpon Lempet ſhels, peeces of ruſtie anchors, and
keeles of great veſſels; wherevpon, ſome by and by
gathered that either the Thames or ſome arme of the ſea
did beat vpon that towne, not vnderſtanding that theſe
things might aſ well happen in great lakes and meres,
wherof there was one adioining to the north fide of the
citie, which laie then [(as ſome men thinke)] vnwalled,
[but that alſo is falſe. For being there vpon occaſion
this ſummer paſſed, I ſaw ſome remnant of the old
wals ſtanding in that place, which appeared to haue
beene verie ſubſtantiallie builded; the ruines likewiſe
of a greater part of them are to be ſeene running along
by the old chappell hard by, in maner of a banke.
Whereby it is euident that the new towne ſtandeth
cleane without the limits of the old, and that the bridge
whereof the hiſtorie of S. Albane ſpeaketh, was at the
nether end of Halliwell ſtreet or there about, for ſo the
view of the place doth inforce me to conie&ture.] This
mere [(which the Latine copie of the deſcription of
Britaine, written of late by Humfrey Lhoid our countrie
man, calleth corruptlie Stagnum enawimum for Stagnum
marimum)] at the 'firſt belonged to the king, and there-
by Offa in his time did reape no ſmall commoditie.
It continued alſo vntill the time of Alfrijc the ſeuenth
abbat of that houſe, who bought it outright of the king
then liuing, and by exceſſiue charges drained it ſo
*—" thus standeth the case
and runs
between the old
town and the
Inew.
St Alban's
Abbey meadows
Were Once 3
great lake.
In the ruins of
old Verulam
were found
shells, anchors,
&c.
I was at St
Alban's last
summer [1586,1
and saw how
solid the old
walls were.
The old bridge
was at the lower
gº of Halliwell
t.
Humphrey
Lhoyd’s ‘Bri-
tannia.”
256
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book 11.
narrowlie, that within a while he left it drie [(ſauing
that he reſerued a chanell for the riuer to haue hir
vſuall courſe, which he held vp with high bankes)]
bicauſe there was alwaies contention betweene the
moonks and the kings ſeruants, which fiſhed on that
water [wnto the kings behoofe.]
In theſe daies therefore * remaineth no maner
mention of this poole, but onelie in one ſtreet, which
yet is called Fiſhpoole ſtreet, wherof this may ſuffice
for the reſolution of ſuch men, as ſeeke rather to yeeld
to an inconuenience, than that their Gildas - ſhould
ſeeme to miſtake this riuer.
Hauing thus digreſſed to giue ſome remembrance
of the old eſtate of Verolamium, it is now time to
returne againe vnto my former purpoſe. Certes I
would gladlie ſet downe, with the names and number
of the cities, all the townes, and villages in England and
Wales, [with their true longitudes and latitudes, but
as yet I cannot come by them in ſuch order as I would :
howbeit the tale of our cities is ſoone found by the
biſhoprikes, fith euerie ſee hath ſuch prerogatiue giuen
wnto it, as to beare the name of a citie, * & to vſe
Regaleius within hir owne limits. Which priuilege alſo
is granted to fundrie ancient townes in England, eſpe-
ciallie northward, where more plentie of them is to be
found by a great deale than in the ſouth. The names
therefore of our cities are theſe : *
Abbot Alfric
draind the St.
Alban's Abbey
lakes,
(“her' for ‘its’.)
Its name still
remains in Fish-
pool St,
I can't get the
names of all our
towns and
villages.
The names of
our 26 Cities are
these.
London. n ſ Worceſter. \ ſ Cheſter.
Yorke. Gloceſter. Chicheſter,
Canturburie. Hereford. Oxford.
Wincheſter. Salisburie. Peterborow.
Cairleill. # 3 Exceſter. > * Landaffe.
Durham. Bath. S. Dauids.
Elie. Lichfield. Bangor.
Norwich. Briſtow. S. Aſaph.
Lincolne. J Rocheſter. J l
1 there *—? As
CHAP, XIII.] CIT IES AND TOWNS IN ENGLAND.
257
Whoſe particular plots and models with their de-
ſcriptions ſhall inſue, if it may be brought to paſſe, that
the cutters can make diſpatch of them before this chro-
nologiel be publiſhed. Of townes and villages like-
wiſe thus much will I ſaie, that there were greater
ſtore in old time [(I meane within three or foure hun-
dred yeare paſſed)] than at this preſent. And this I
note out of diuerſe records, charters, and donations
(made in times paſt vnto ſundrie religious houſes, as
Glaſſenburie, Abbandon, Ramſeie, Elie, and ſuch like)
and * whereof in theſe daies I find not ſo much as the
ruines. Leland, in fundrie places, complaineth likewiſe
of the decaie of pariſhes in great cities and townes,
miſſing in ſome, fix, or eight, or twelue churches [and
For
albeit that the Saxons builded manie townes and vil-
more, of all which he giueth particular notice.
lages, and the Normans well “more [at their firſt com-
ming, yet ſince the firſt [two hundred yeares after the
latter conqueſt, they haue gone * ſo faſt againe to decaie,
that the ancient number of them is verie much abated.
Ranulph the moonke of Cheſter telleth of generall
furueie made in the fourth, [fixteenth, & nineteenth] of
the reigne of William Conqueror, ſurnamed the Baſtard,
wherein it was found, that (notwithſtanding the Danes
had ouerthrowne a great manie) there were to the
number of 52 ooo townes, 45oo2 pariſh churches, and
75ooo knights fees, whereof the cleargie held 28o 15.
He addeth moreouer that there were diuerſe other
builded fince that time, within the ſpace of an hundred
yeares after the comming of the Baſtard, as it were in
lieu or recompenſe of thoſe that William Rufus pulled
downe for the erection of his new forreſt. [For by an
old booke which I haue, and ſometime written as it
ſeemeth by an vnderſhiriffe of Nottingham, I find, euen 5
in the time of Edw. 4.45120 pariſh churches, and but
hystory * that there were many townes and villages
* gone againe ° orig. cuen
I'll give Plans
of our 26 Cities,
if the Cutters
are quick
enough.
Many old towns
and villages
have disap-
peard,
as Leland bears
witness.
HARRISON. 17
[3 p. 193]
Ranulphus
Says that A. D.
1070-85
there were
in England
52,000 towns,
and 45,000
parish churches.
A.D. 1461-S3
there were
45,120
parish churches.
258
THE DES CRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
60216 knights fees, whereof the cleargie held as before
28015, or at the leaſt 28ooo; for ſo ſmall is the differ-
ence which he dooth ſeeme to vſe.] Howbeit, if the
aſſertions of ſuch as write in our time concerning this
matter, either are or ought to be of anie credit in this
behalfe, you ſhall not find aboue 17ooo townes and
villages, [and 92 Io) in the whole, which is little more
than a fourth part of the aforeſaid number, if it be
throughlie ſcanned.
[Certes this miſfortune hath not onelie happened
wnto our Ile & nation, but vnto moſt of the famous
countries of the world heretofore, and all by the greedie
deſire of ſuch as would liue alone and onelie to them-
ſelues. And hereof we may take example in Candie, of
old time called Creta, which (as Homer writeth) was
called Hetacompolis, bicauſe it conteined an hundred
cities, but now it is ſo vnfurniſhed that it may hardlie
be called Tripolis. Diodorus Siculus faith, that Aegypt
had once 180oo cities, which ſo decaied in proceſſe of
time, that when Ptolomeus Lagus reigned, there were
not aboue 3ooo; but in our daies, both in all Aſia &
Aegypt this leſſer number ſhall not verie readilie be"
In time paſt in Lincolne (as the fame goeth)
there haue beene two and fiftie pariſh churches, and
good record appeareth for eight and thirtie: but now, if
there be foure and twentie, it is all. This inconuenience
hath growen altogither to the church by appropriations
made vnto monaſteries and religious houſes, a terrible
canker and enimie to religion.]
But to leaue this lamentable diſcourſe of ſo notable
[and greeuous] an inconuenience, growing [(as I
ſaid)] by incroching and ioining of houſe to houſe, and
[laieng] land to land, whereby the inbabitants of * manie
places of our” countrie are deuoured and eaten ‘ vp
and their houſes either altogither pulled downe or
Now, we’ve not
above 17,000
towns and
villages.
Lincoln had
once 52 parish-
churches (38 for
certain), but
now has only
24.
This decay of
houses
comes from the
eating-up of
the poor by the
rich.
found.
1 orig. he 2–2 any
3 eate
CHAP. XIII.] CITIES AND TOWNS IN ENGLAND.
2.59
ſuffered to decaie by litle and litle," although ſometime
a poore man peraduenture dooth dwell in one of them,-
who, not being able to repare it, ſuffereth it to fall
downe,—& thereto thinketh himſelfe verie friendlie dealt
withall, if he may haue an acre of ground aſſigned vnto
him, whereon to keepe a cow, or wherein to ſet cab-
bages, radiſhes, parſneps, carrets, melons, pompons, or
ſuch like ſtuffe, by which he and his poore houſehold
liueth as by their principall food, fith they can doo no
better. And as for wheaten bread, they eat it when
they can reach vnto the price of it, contenting them-
ſelues in the meane time with bread made of otes or
barleie:” a poore eſtate God wot Howbeit, what care
our great incrochers ? But in diuers places where rich
men dwelled ſometime in good tenements, there be
now no houſes at all, but hopyards, and ſheads for poles, or
peraduenture gardens, as we may ſee in caſtell Heding-
ham, and diuerſe other places. But to proceed.]
It is ſo, that our ſoile being diuided into champaine
ground and woodland, the houſes of the firſt lie vni-
formelie builded in euerie towne togither, with ſtreets
and lanes; wheras in the woodland countries (except
here and there in great market townes) they ſtand
ſcattered abroad, each one dwelling in the midſt of his
owne occupieng. And as in *manie and moſt great
market townes,” there are commonlie three hundred
or foure hundred families or manſions,” & two thouſand
communicants, or peraduenture more: ſo in the other,
[whether they be woodland or champaine, we find not
often aboue fortie,” fiftie, [or three ſcore] houſeholds,
and two [or threel hundred communicants, whereof
the greateſt part neuertheleſſe are verie poore folkes,
oftentimes without all maner of occupieng, fith the
Sometimes a
poor man 'll live
in a house till it
tumbles down ;
and is lucky if
he gets an acre
of ground for
his cow, or the
garden-stuff
on which his
family live, (cp.
Pier8 Plowman,
B. Pass. 6,)
with oaten or
barley bread.
Other house-
sites are now
gardens, as in
Castle Heding-
ham.
Our country-
town houses are
in streets :
the woodland
ones stand
Separate.
Market-towns
hold 300 or 400
families ;
illages, from
40 to 60,
mainly very
poor folk.
* See on this my Ballads from MSS. i.; Mr Cowper's edition of Life in Tudor
England, Four Supplications, and Crowley's Select Works, for the Early English
Text Soc.; More's Utopia, &c.—F.
* See above, p. 153.−F.
* mansion houses
*—” eury one of the first
5 fortie or
26o
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
ground of the pariſh is gotten vp into a few mens.
hands, yea ſometimes into the tenure of [one] two or
three, whereby the reſt are compelled, either to be hired
ſeruants vnto the other, or elſe to beg their bread in
miſerie from doore to doore.
[There are ſome (ſaith Leland) which are not ſo
fauourable when they haue gotten ſuch lands, as to let
the houſes remaine vpon them to the vſe of the poore;
but they will compound with the lord of the ſoile to
pull them downe for altogither, ſaieng that “if they did
let them ſtand, they ſhould but toll beggers to the
towne, therby to ſurcharge the reſt of the pariſh, & laie
more burden vpon them.” But, alas ! theſe pitifull men
ſee not that they themſelues hereby doo Jaie the great-
eſt log vpon their neighbors necks. For ſith the prince
dooth commonlie looſe nothing of his duties accuſtom-
able to be paid, the reſt of the pariſhioners that re-
maine, muſt anſwer and beare them out: for they
plead more charge other waies, ſaieng: “I am charged
alreadie with a light horſe; I am to anſwer in this
ſort, and after that maner.” And it is not yet altogither
out of knowledge, that where the king had ſeuen
pounds thirteene ſhillings at a taſke gathered of fiftie
wealthie houſeholders of a pariſh in England : now a
gentleman hauing three parts of the towne in his
owne hands, foure houſholds doo beare all the aforeſaid
painment, or elſe Leland is deceiued in his Comment-
aries, lib. 13. latelie come to my hands, which thing he
eſpeciallie noted in his trauell ouer this Ile. A com-
mon plague & enormittie, both in the hart of the land,
and likewiſe vpon the coaſts. Certes] a great number
complaine of the increaſe of pouertie,” [laieng the cauſe
vpon God, as though he were in fault for ſending ſuch
increaſe of people, or want of wars that ſhould con-
ſume them, affirming that the land was neuer ſo full,
&c.) but few men doo ſee the verie root from whence it
All the ground
of some parishes
is in l, 2, or 3
men's hands,
Sonte landlords
pull down all
the poor folks'
houses in a
town.
But this makes
the remaining
inhabitants pay
heavier taxes.
. Once a tax of
437 13s. was
shar'd by 50
house-holders,
but now by 4
only.
Increase of
Poverty.
The Land never
SO •
1 is often 2 See above, p. 213.-F.
CHAP, XIII.] CITIES AND TOWNS IN ENGLAND.
261
dooth proceed. Yet the Romans found it out, when
they floriſhed, and therefore preſcribed limits to euerie
mans tenure and occupieng. Homer commendeth
Achilles for ouerthrowing of fiue and twentie cities:
but in mine opinion Ganges is much better preferred by
Suidas for building of three ſcore in Inde, where he
did plant himſelfe. I could (if need required) ſet
downe in this place the number of religious houſes and
monaſteries, with the names of their founders, that haue
beene in this Iland: but fith it is a thing of ſmall im-
portance, I paſſe it ouer as impertinent to my purpoſe.
Yet herein I will commend ſundrie 4 of the monaſticall
votaries, eſpeciallie moonkes, for that they were authors
of manie goodlie borowes and endwares, neere vnto
their dwellings, although otherwiſe they pretended to
be men ſeparated from the world. But alas ! their
couetous minds, one waie in inlarging their reuenues,
and carnall intent an other, appeered herin too too
much. For, being bold from time to time to viſit their
tenants, they wrought oft” great wickedneſſe, and made
thoſe endwares little better than brodelhouſes, eſpecial-
lie where nunries were farre off, or elſe no ſafe acceſſe
wnto them. But what doo I ſpend my time in the
rehearſall of theſe filthineſſes * Would to God the
memorie of them might periſh with the malefactors
My purpoſe was alſo at the end of this chapter to haue
ſet downe a table of the pariſh churches and market
townes thorough out all England and Wales: but fith
I can not performe the ſame as I would, I am forced 8
to giue ouer my purpoſe : yet by theſe few that inſue
you ſhall eaſilie ſee what order I would haue vſed
according to the ſhires, [if I might haue brought it to
paſſel.
* manye * inforced
The Romans
wisely refus’d to
let any man
hold too much
land.
I praise the
Monks for
building tene-
ments near their
Monasteries.
But they often
turnd their
[* p. 194]
tenants' houses
into brothel-
houses, when
they had no
Nunneries near
to go to.
I can't give the
Inumbers of
Market-towns
and Parish-
churches in
more than 18
shires.
262
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLANI). |Book 11,
The Market-
towns and
Parishes in 18
Shires of Eng-
land.
Castles not
needed in
England.
Shires. Market townes. Pariſhes.
Middleſex. 3 73
London within the walles, and without. I2O
Surrie. 6 140
Suſſex. I8 m 3 I 2
Kent. 17 398
Cambridge, 4. 163
Bedford. 9 I 3
Huntingdon. 5 78
Rutland. 2. * 47
Barkeſhire. I I I 5o
Northhampton, IC) 326
Buckingham. I I 196
Oxford. IO 216
Southhampton, I8 248
Dorſet. I9 279
Norffolke, 26 625
Suffolke, 25 575
Eſſex, I8 415*
Of caſtels and holds.
Chap. I.4.”
[ T hath beene of long time a queſtion in con-
trouerfie, and not yet determined, whether holds
and caſtels, neere cities, or anie where in the
hart of common-wealths, are more profitable or hurt-
full for the benefit of the countrie? Neuertheles it
ſeemeth by our owne experience, that We here in Eng-
1 And these I had of a friende of myne, by whose traueyle and hys maisters
excessiue charges I doubt not, but my country men “” long shall see all Englande
set foorth in seuerall shyres after the same manner that Ortelius hath dealt Wyth
other countries of the mayne, to the great benefitº of our nation and euerlasting
fame of the aforesayde parties.
2 In the 1577 ed, this forms chap. 8 of Book 2.-F.
cHAP. XIV.] CASTLES AND HOLDS.
263
land ſuppoſe them altogither vnneedfull. This alſo is
apparant by the teſtimonie of ſundrie writers, that they
haue beene the ruine of manie a noble citie. Of old
Saliſburie, I ſpeake not; of Anwarpe, I ſaie nothing
more than of ſundrie other, whereof ſome alſo in my
time neuer ceaſe to incroch vpon the liberties of the
cities adioining, thereby to hinder them what and
wherin they may. For my part, I neuer read of anie
caſtell that did good vnto the citie abutting theron, but
onelie the capitoll of Rome: and yet but once good
wnto the ſame, in reſpect of the nine times whereby it
brought it into danger of vtter ruine and confuſion.
Ariſtotle vtterlie denieth that anie caſtle at all can be
profitable to a common wealth well gouerned. Timo-
theus of Corinthum affirmeth, that a caſtle in a common
wealth is but a breeder of tyrants. Pyrhus king of
Epire being receiued alſo on a time into Athens, among
other courteſies ſhewed vnto him, they led him alſo
into their caſtell of Pallas, who at his departure gaue
them great thanks for the freendlie intertainment; but
with this item, that ‘ they ſhould let ſo few kings come
into the ſame as they might; leaſt (ſaith he) they teach
Caie-
tanus, in his common-wealth, hath finallie no liking of
you to repent too late of your great gentleneſſe.’
them, as appeereth in his eight booke of that moſt
But what haue I to deale whether
they be profitable or not, fith my purpoſe is rather to
excellent treatiſe.
ſhew what plentie we haue of them, which I will per-
forme, ſo far as ſhall be needfull?]
There haue beene in times paſt, great ſtore of caſtels.
& places of defenſe within the realme of England, of
which ſome were builded by the Britons, manie by the
Romans, Saxons, and Danes, but moſt of all by the
barons of the realme, in & about the time of king
Stephan, who licenced each of them to build ſo manue
as * them liſted" vpon their owne demeaſhes, hoping
*— they would
Castles—the
owners of them
—have been the
ruin of many a
city.
A Castle in a
Commonwealth
is a breeder of
tyrants.
Caietanus's
* Common-
wealth,’ Bk 8.
Great store of
Castles
formerly in
England.
Most about
Stephen's time.
264
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENG LAND. [Book 11.
Henry the
thirde also
raised diuers.
Honry II.
levelld 1100
of his Barons’
castles,
And since,
many have
decayd. (See
* Ballads from
MSS.,’ i. 94.)
There are very
few castles now
kept up, except
on our coasts
and Marches.
Henry VIII.
repaird many
castles.
thereby that they would haue imploied their vſe to his
aduantage and commoditie. But finallie, when he ſaw
that they were rather fortified againſt himſelfe in the
end, than vſed in his defenſe, he repented all too late of
his inconfiderate dealing, fith now there was no remedie
but by force for to ſubdue them. . After his deceaſe,
king Henrie the ſecond came no ſooner to the crowne,
but he called to mind the inconuenience which his
predeceſſour had ſuffered, and he himſelfe might in time
ſuſtaine, by thoſe fortifications. Therefore, one of the
firſt things he did, was an attempt to race and deface
the moſt part of theſe holds. Certes he thought it
better to hazard the meeting of the enimie now and
then in the plaine field, than to liue in perpetuall feare
of thoſe houſes, and the rebellion of his lords vpon
euerie light occaſion conceiued, who then were full ſo
ſtrong as he, if not more ſtrong; and that made them
the readier to withſtand and gaineſaie manie of thoſe
proceedings, which he and his ſucceſſours from time to
time intended. Herevpon therefore he cauſed more
than eleuen hundred of their [ſaid] caſtels to be raced
and ouerthrowne, whereby the power of his nobilitie was
not a little reſtreined. Since that time alſo, not a few
of thoſe which remained, haue decaied [partlie by the
commandement of Henrie the third, and partlie] of
themſelues, [or by conuerſion of them into the dwell-
ing houſes of noble men, their martiall fronts being
remooued :] ſo that at this preſent, there are verie
few or no caſtels at all mainteined within England,
ſauing onelievgon the coaſts and marches of the countrie,
for the better keeping backe of the forren enimie, when
ſoeuer he ſhall attempt to enter and annoie vs.
The moſt prouident prince that euer reigned in this
land, for the fortification thereof againſt all outward
enimies, was the late prince of famous memorie, king
Henrie the eight, who,” beſide that he repared moſt of
1 Sith
cHAP. xiv.] CASTLES AND HOLDS.
265
ſuch as were alreadie ſtanding,” builded ſundrie out of
For, hauing ſhaken off the more than
ſeruile yoke of * popiſh tyrannie, and eſpieng that the
the ground.
emperour was offended for his diuorce from queene
Catharine his aunt, and thereto [vnderſtanding] that
the French king had coupled the Dolphin his ſonne
with the popes neece, and maried his daughter to the
king of Scots, (whereby he had cauſe more iuſtlie to
ſuſpe&t, than ſafelie to truſt, anie one of them all, as
Lambert ſaith,) he determined to ſtand vpon his owne
defenſe; and therefore, with no ſmall ſpeed, and like
charge, he builded ſundrie blockehouſes, caſtels, and
platformes vpon diuerſe frontiers of his realme, but
chieflie the eaſt and ſoutheaſt parts of England, where-
by (no doubt) he did verie much qualifie the conceiued
grudges of his aduerſaries, and vtterlie put off their
haſtie purpoſe of inuaſion. [But would to God he had
caſt his eare toward Haruiſh, and the coaſts of Norffolke
and Suffolke; where nothing as yet is doone ! albeit
there be none ſo fit and likelie places for the enimie to
enter vpon, as in thoſe parts, where, at a full ſea they
may touch vpon the ſhore, and come to land, without
reſiſtance.] And thus much brieflie for my purpoſe at
this preſent. For I need not to make anie long diſ-
courſe of ca”ſtels, fith it is not the nature of a good
Engliſhman to regard to be caged vp as in a coope, and
hedged in with ſtone wals, but rather to meet with his
enimie in the plaine field at handſtrokes, where he may
trauaiſe his ground, chooſe his plot, and vſe the benefit
of ſunne ſhine, wind and weather, to his beſt aduan-
[Iſocrates alſo ſaith that townes,
walles, bulworkes, ſoldiers, and plentie of armour, are
not the beſt keepers of kingdomes; but freends, loue of
ſubie&ts, & obedience vnto martiall diſcipline; which
they want that ſhew themſelues either cruell or couet-
ous toward their people..] As for thoſe tales that go of
2 of the
tage & commoditie.
! standing he
And seeing
danger
from the Pope,
the Emperor,
and the Kings
of France and
Scotland,
Henry VIII.
built castles,
&c. on his fron-
tiers.
In these dayes
the coast of
Norfolke is the
weakes: as may
aft?ear by
Wałuzºue hope
and of her Álaces
of the same.
[3 p. 195]
Englishmen
don't want to be
coopt up in
stone walls.
They like to
fight in the
open, hand to
hand.
[The best keepers
of Kingdomes.]
266
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
The brag of the
rebel Hugh
Bigot,
that if he were
in his Castle
he’d not care a
button for
Henry III., is
all gammon.
Bigot's Castles
of Bungay and
Framlingham
Were Over-
thrown by
Henry III.
Many old
Camps in Eng-
land.
Of 2 special
Ones,
[The zwandles in
fime Zast zoeze
called windles.]
Gogmagog Hills,
near Cambridge,
were calld
Winterbury
ills.
The second, 2
miles from
Colme, was
calld by the
Welsh, “Cair
Carador.”
Beſton caſtell, how it ſhall ſaue all England on a daie,
and likewiſe the brag of a rebellious baron in old time
[named Hugh Bigot], that ſaid in contempt of king
Henrie the third,' [and about the fiftith yeare of his
reigne :]
If I were in my caſtell of Bungeie,
Vpon the water of Waueneie,
I wold not ſet a button by the king of Cockneie
I repute them but as toies; the firſt meere vaine, the
ſecond fondlie vttered (if anie ſuch thing were ſaid), as
manie other words are, and haue beene, ſpoken of like
holds (as Wallingford, &c.) but now growen out of
memorie, and with ſmall loſſe not heard of among the
common ſort. [Certes the caſtell of Bungeie was ouer-
throwen by the aforeſaid prince, the ſame yeare that he
ouerthrew the walles and caſtell of Leirceſter, alſo the
caſtels of Treſke and Maleſar, apperteining to Roger
Mowbraie, and that of Fremlingham belonging like-
wiſe to Hugh Bigot, wherof in the chronologie follow-
ing you may read at large. I might here in like fort
take occaſion to ſpeake of fundrie ſtrong places where
camps of men haue lien, and of which we haue great
plentie here in England in the plaine fields : but I
paſſe ouer to talke of any ſuch needleſſe diſcourſes.
This neuertheleſſe concerning two of them is not to be
omitted, to wit, that the one neere Vnto Cambridge, now
Gogmagogs hill, was called Windleburie before time, as
I read of late in an old pamphlet. And to faie the
truth, I haue often heard them named Winterburie
hilles, which difference may eaſilie grow by corruption
of the former word: the place likewiſe is verie large
and ſtrong. The ſecond is to be ſeene in the edge of
Shropſhire about two miles from Colme, betweene two
riuers, the Clun or Colunus, and the Tew’e otherwiſe
named Themis, wherevnto there is no acceſſe but at One
! third as I gesse
CHAP. xv.] PALACES BELONGING TO THE PRINCE.
267
place. The Welſhmen call it Cair Carador, and they
are of the opinion, that Caraćtatus king of the Sillures
was ouercome there by Oſtorius, at ſuch time as he fled
to Cartimanda queene of the Brigants for ſuccour,
who betraied him to the Romans, as you may ſee in
Tacitus.]
Of palaces belonging to
the prince.”
Chap. I 5.”
T lieth not in me to ſet down exa&tlie the num-
ber & names of the palaces belonging to the
prince, nor to make anie deſcription of hir
graces court, fith my calling is, and hath beene ſuch, as
that I haue ſcarſelie preſumed to peepe in at hir gates;
much leſſe then haue I aduentured to ſearch out and
, know the eſtate of thoſe houſes, and what magnificent
behauiour is to be ſeene within them. Yet thus much
will I ſaie generallie of all the houſes and honours
* perteining to hir maieſtie,” that they are builded either
of ſquare ſtone or bricke, or elſe of both. And thervnto,
although their capacitie and hugeneſſe be not ſo mon-
ſtrous, as the like of diuerſe forren princes are to be
ſeene in the maine, [and new found nations of the
world :] yet are they ſo curious, neat, and commodious
as any of them, both for conueiance 4 of offices and
lodgings, and excellencie of ſituation, which is not the
leaſt thing to be confidered of [in building]. Thoſe
that were builded before the time of king Henrie the
eight, reteine to theſe daies the ſhew and image of the
ancient kind of workemanſhip vſed in this land: but
ſuch as he erected [after his owne deuiſe (for he was
nothing inferiour in this trade to Adrian the emperour
* and court of Englande
*—” appertaining unto hir grace
It's not for me
to describe
Queen Eliza-
beth's Palaces,
I’ve hardly
dar'd peep in at
her gates.
Her houses are
of stone or
brick,
not so huge as
foreign princes',
but as neat and
well situated as
any of them.
Palaces before
Hen. VIII. are
in the old style.
* In 1577 ed, this forms Chap. 9 of Book 2–F.
* conueighaunce
268
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
[King Hert. 8.
ztof inferior to
Adriant and
justinian.]
Best masonry in
Hen. VIII.'s
time.
Elizabethan
buildings are
more like paper
work.
Henry VIII.'s
are better.
Q. Elizabeth's
Palaces.
Baynard's
Castle, in
London,
with the Tower
Royal there.
white hall.
Durham Place.
Somerset Place.
and Juſtinian the lawgiuer)] doo repreſent another
maner of paterne, which, as they are ſuppoſed to excell
all the reſt that he found ſtanding in this realme, ſo
they are and ſhall be a perpetuall prefident vinto thoſe
that doo come after, to follow in their workes and
buildings of importance. Certes maſonrie did neuer
And albeit
that in theſe daies there be manie goodlie houſes erected
in the ſundrie quarters of this Iland; yet they are rather
better flouriſh in England than in his time.
curious to the eie [like paper worke, than ſubſtantiall
for continuance : whereas ſuch as he did ſet vp, excell
in both, and therefore may iuſtlie be preferred [farre]
aboue all the reſt. The names of thoſe which come
now to my remembrance, [and are as yet reſerued to
hir maieſties onelie vſe at pleaſure] are theſe : [for of
ſuch as are giuen awaie I ſpeake not, neither of thoſe
that are viterlie decaied, as Bainards caſtell in London
builded in the daies of the Conquerour by a noble man
called William Bainard, whoſe wife Inga builded the
priorie of litle Donemow in the daies of Henrie the
firſt; neither of the tower roiall there alſo, &c.; fith I
ſee no cauſe wherefore I ſhould remember them and
manie of the like, of whoſe verie ruines I haue no
certeine knowledge. Of ſuch I ſaie therfore as I erſt
mentioned, we haue] firſt of all, White hall at the weſt
end of London (which is taken for the moſt large &
principall of all the reſt) was [firſt a lodging of the
archbiſhops of Yorke, then pulled downe,) begun by
cardinall Woolfeie, and [finallie] inlarged and finiſhed
by king Henrie the eight. "[By eaſt of this ſtandeth
Durham place, ſometime belonging to the biſhops of
Durham, but conuerted alſo by king Henrie the eight
into a palace roiall, & lodging for the Prince. Of
Summerſet place I ſpeake not, yet if the firſt beginner
thereof (I meane the lord Edward, the learned and
godlie duke of Summerſet) had liued, I doubt not but
* Neere unto y is
CHAP. xv.] PALACES BELONGING TO THE PRINCE.
269
it ſhould haue beene well finiſhed and brought to a
ſumptuous end: but as vintimelie death tooke him from
that houſe & from vs all, ſo it prooued the ſtaie of ſuch
proceeding as was intended about it. Wherby it com-
meth to paſſe that it ſtandeth as he left it. Neither
will I remember the Tower of London, which is rather
an armorie and houſe of munition, and therevnto a
place for the ſafekeeping of offendors, than a palace
roiall for a king or queene to ſoiourne in. Yet in
times paſt I find that Belline held his aboad there, and
therevnto extended the ſite of his palace in ſuch wiſe,
that it ſtretched ouer the Broken wharfe, and came
further into the citie, in ſo much that it approched
neere to Bellines gate, & as it is thought, ſome of the
ruines of his houſe are yet extant, howbeit patched vp
and made warehouſes in that tract of ground in our
times.] S. James, ſometime a nonrie, [was] builded
alſo 1 by the ſame prince. Hir grace hath alſo Oteland,
Aſhridge, Hatfield, Hauering, Enueeld, [Eltham, Lang-
leie, Richmond [builded by Henrie the fift], Hampton
court (begun ſometime by cardinall Woolſeie, and
finiſhed by hir father), and therevnto Woodſtocke,
erected by king * Henrie the firſt,” in which the queenes
maieſtie delighteth greatlie to ſoiourne, notwithſtanding
that in time paſt it was the place of [a parcell of] hir
captiuitie, when it pleaſed God to trie hir by afflićtion
and calamitie.
For ſtrength, Windleſor or Winſor is ſuppoſed to be
the cheefe, a caſtell builded in time paſt by king Arthur,
[or before him by Aruiragus, as it is thought, and
repared by Edward the third, who erected alſo a notable
college there. After him, diuerſe of his ſucceſſours
haue beſtowed exceeding charges vpon the ſame, which
notwithſtanding are farre ſurmounted by the queenes
maieſtie now liuing, who hath appointed huge ſummes
of monie to be emploied vpon the ornature and alter-
* likewise 3 seconde
Somerset Place
is left unfinisht
as when the
Protector
Somerset died.
The Tower of
London is
rather an
armoury and
prison than a
Palace for the
Queen to live
in.
Billingsgate,
S. 9amtes.
Otelarta.
Ashridge.
Aadyżela.
Bzzzzeeld.
Richmond.
Aſampton.
Woodstocke.
Q. Eliz.’s
favourite place.
[* p. 196]
Windsor.
the strongest,
Edw. III. built
a College there.
*…,
$
27o
Q. Elizabeth has
spent huge
sums on alter-
ing Windsor
Castle.
Modern build-
ing.
Greeneezwich.
Castle t
calld “Plea-
sance.”
Perfected by
the masonry-
Phoenix, Henry
VIII,
Partford.
(once a nun-
nery.)
Fºthame.
In summer
when the
Queen makes
her Progresses,
to right poor
folks' wrongs,
every noble-
man's house is
hers.
Of the court.
Q. Elizabeth's
Court is one of
the most re-
nownd in
Europe.
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENG LAND. [Book II.
ation of the mould, according to the forme of building
vſed in our daies, [which is more for pleaſure, than for
either profit or ſafegard.] Such alſo hath beene the
eſtimation of this place, that diuerſe kings haue not
onelie beene interred there, but alſo made it the chiefe
houſe of aſſemblie, and creation of the knights of
the honorable order of the garter, than the which there
is nothing in this land more magnificent and ſtatelie.
Greenewich was firſt builded by Humfreie duke of
Gloceſter, vpon the Thames fide foure miles eaſt from
London, in the time of Henrie the ſixt, and called
Pleaſance.
Edw. 4. garniſhed by king Hen. 7. and finallie made
perfect by king Hen. 8. the onelie Phenix of his time
Afterwards it was gréatlie inlarged by king
for fine and curious maſonrie.
Not farre from this is Dartford, and not much
diſtant alſo from the ſouthſide of the * ſaid ſtreame, ſom-
time a nonnerie [builded by Edward the third], but
now a verie commodious palace, wherevnto it was alſo
conuerted by K. Henrie the eight. Eltham (as I take
it) was builded by king Henrie the third, if not before.
There are beſide theſe, moreouer, diuerſe other. But
what ſhall I need to take vpon me to repeat all, and
tell what houſes the queenes maieſtie hath fith all
is hirs; and when it pleaſeth hir in the ſummer ſeaſon
to recreat hir ſelfe abroad, and view the eſtate of the
countrie, [and heare the complaints of hir poore com-
mons iniuried by hir vniuſt officers or their ſubſtitutes,
euerie noble mans houſe is hir palace, where ſhee con-
tinueth during pleaſure, and till ſhee returne againe to
ſome of hir owne, in which ſhe remaineth ſo long as
pleaſeth hir.
The court of England, which neceſſarilie is holden
alwaies where the prince lieth, is in theſe daies one of
the moſt renowmed and magnificent courts” that are to
be found in Europe. For whether you regard the rich
I that 2 For her Household in 1600-1, see H. Ord., p. 281.-F.
CHAP. xv.] PALACES BE LONGING TO THE PRINCE.
and infinit furniture of houſehold, order of officers, or
the interteinement of ſuch ſtrangers as dailie reſort vnto
the ſame, you ſhall not find manie equall therevnto
much leſſe one excelling it in anie maner of wiſe. I
might here (if I would, or had ſufficient diſpoſition of
matter conceiued of the ſame,) make a large diſcourſe
of ſuch honorable ports, of ſuch graue councellors, and
noble perſonages, as giue their dailie attendance vpon
the queenes maieſtie there. I could in like ſort ſet
foorth a ſingular commendation of the vertuous beautie,
or beautifull vertues of ſuch ladies and gentlewomen as
wait vpon hir perſon, betweene whoſe amiable counte-
nances and coſtlineſſe of attire, there ſeemeth to be ſuch
a dailie conflićt and contention, as that it is verie diffi-
cult for me to geſſe, whether of the twaine ſhall beare
awaie the preheminence. This further is not to be
omitted, to the ſingular commendation of both ſorts
and ſexes of our courtiers here in England, that there
are verie few of them, which haue not the vſe and ſkill
of ſundrie ſpeaches, beſide an excellent veine of writing
before time not regarded. [Would to God the reſt of
their liues and conuerſations were correſpondent to theſe
gifts for as our common courtiers (for the moſt part)
are the beſt lerned and indued with excellent gifts, ſo
are manie of them the worſt men when they come
abroad, that anie man ſhall either heare or read of..]
Trulie it is a rare thing with vs now, to heare of a
courtier which hath but his owne language. And to
ſaie how many gentlewomen and ladies there are, that
beſide ſound knowledge of the Greeke and Latine
toongs, are thereto no leſſe ſkilfull in the Spaniſh,
Italian, and French, or in ſome one of them, it reſteth
not in me: fith I am perſuaded, that as the noble men
and gentlemen doo ſurmount in this behalfe, ſo theſe
come verie little or nothing at all behind them for their
parts: which induſtrie, God continue, [and accompliſh
that which otherwiſe is wanting !]
1 the
Flizabeth's
Maids of
Honour.
Their loveable
faces and costly
attire.
Jºnglish cour-
tiers the best
2earned [& the
zworst Azzeers.]
They know
languages, and
write well, too.
The men are
licentious and
bad.
Ladies know
Greek,
Latin, Spanish,
Italian, French.
And noblemen
Surpass them.
272 THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book 11.
9. gºals. Beſide theſe things, I could in like ſort ſet downe
r X, y * © &
the waies and meanes, wherby our ancient ladies of the
court doo ſhun and auoid idleneſſe, ſome of them exer-
cifing their fingers with the needle, other in caulworke,
diuerſe in ſpinning of filke, ſome in continuall reading
ºdºread, he either of the holie ſcriptures, or hiſtories of our owne or
Bible or His- *
tories, forren nations about vs, [and diuerſe in writing volumes
º; or of their owne, or tranſlating of other mens into our
T3. In Slalºé. -
}. Engliſh and Latine toong," whileſt the yoongeſt * ſort
aques play & --> • - -> -
music for rº, in the meane time applie their lutes, citharnes, pricke-
creation in their • º &
leisure time. ſong, and all kind of muſike, which they vſe onelie for
recreation * ſake, when they haue leiſure, and are free
from attendance vpon the queenes maieſtie, or ſuch as
they belong vnto. [How manie of the eldeſt ſort alſo
** are ſkilfull in ſurgerie and diſtillation of waters, beſide
...” fundrie other artificiall pračtiſes perteining to the or-
nature and commendations of their bodies, I might (if
I liſted to deale further in this behalfe) eaſilie declare,
but I paſſe ouer ſuch maner of dealing, leaſt I ſhould
ſeeme to glauer, and currie fauour with ſome of them.
Neuertheleſſe this I will generallie ſaie of them all, that
as ech of them are cuning in ſomthing wherby they
keepe themſelues occupied in the court, ſo there is in
maner none of them, but when they be at home, can
And every Lady helpe to ſupplie the ordinarie want of the kitchen with
can cook choice º - - º
dishes, mainly a number of delicat diſhes of their owne deuiſing,
after Portuguese º e º *
recipes. wherein the Portingall is their cheefe counſellor, as ſome
of them are moſt commonlie with the clearke of the
kitchen, who vſeth (by a tricke taken Vp of late) to giue
Bms of Fare or in a breefe rehearſall of ſuch and ſo manie diſhes as are
“Cartes' just
brow-ght in : to come in at euerie courſe throughout the whole ſeruice
cana Memorials, in the dinner or ſupper while ; which bill ſome doo call
9 º e
#: Or a memoriall, other a billet, but ſome a fillet, bicauſe
1 I suppose that Sir Thomas More, and Henry VIII., and Lady J ane Grey's
parents began ‘the higher education of women’ in England, by having their
daughters properly taught. On Education in Early England' see my Forewords
(tho' sadly imperfect) to the Babees Book.-F. tº
2 younger 3 recreation and solace
CHAP. xv.] PALACES BELONGING TO THE PRINCE.
273
ſuch are commonlie hanged on the file, and kept by the
ladie or gentlewoman vnto ſome other purpoſe. But
whither am I digreſſed ?]
I might finallie deſcribe the large allowances in
offices, and yearelie liueries, and therevnto the great
plentie of gold and filuer plate, the ſeuerall peeces
whereof are commonlie ſo great and maſſie, and the
quantitie therof ſo abundantlie ſeruing all the houſhold,
that [(as I ſuppoſe) Cyniras, Creſus, and Craſſus had
not the like furniture: naie) if Midas were now liuing
& once againe put to his choiſe, I thinke he could aſke
no more, or rather not halfe ſo much as is there to be
ſeene and vſed. But I paſſe ouer to make ſuch need-
leſſe diſcourſes, reſoluing my ſelfe, that euen in this
alſo, [as in all the reſt] the exceeding mercie and louing
kindneſſe of God dooth wonderfullie appeere towards
vs, in that he hath ſo largelie indued vs with theſe his
ſo ample benefits.
In ſome great princes courts [beyond the ſeas,
& which euen for that cauſe are likened vnto hell by
diuerſe learned writers that haue ſpent a great part
of their time in them, as Henricus Cornelius Agrip-
pa, one (for example) who in his epiſtle Ad aulicum
quen"dam, faith thus: An non in inferno es amice, qui es
in aula, wbi, daemonum habitatio eſt, qui illic ſuis artibus
humana licet effigie regnant, atque vbi ſcelerum ſchola
eſt, & animarum iaćtura ingens, acquicquid vſpiam eſ:
perfidia ac doli, quicquid crudelitatis & inclementia, quic-
quid effraenatae ſuperbiae, & rapacis auariciae, quicquid
obſcenae libidinis, fadiſſimae impudicitize, quicquid nefanda
impietatis, & morum peſſimorum, totum illic aceruatur
cumulatiſfime, wbi ſtupra, raptus, inceſius, adulteria, prin-
cipum & mobilium ludi ſunt, wbi faſius & tumor, ira,
liuor, foºdáque cupido cum ſocijs ſuis imperauit, vli crimi-
num omnium procellae virtutiºnque omnium finemarrabile
naufragium, &c. In ſuch great princes courts (I ſaie)]
it is a world to ſee what lewd behauiour is vſed among
H ARRTSON, IS
I pass over the
Queen's large
household pay-
ments and her
plate. [See
“Queen Eliza-
beth's annual
expence, civil
and military'
(A. D. 1578), in
* Household
Ordinances,’
p. 241-275 ; and
her “ Dook of
Household,’
p. 281-298.)
God's goodness
has given us
much.
Some beyond-
sea courts are
[*p, 197]
calld “hell’ by
Agrippa,
so utterly bad
and vicious are
they.
274
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
The shocking
vices of foreign
courts
are driven out
of Q. Elizabeth's,
or kept under
by her officers.
In every office
is either a Bible,
a Chronicle, or
the like,
so that the
Court looks
like a University
School rather
than a palace.
Would to God
that our nobles'
Houses were as
ruled as Our
Queen's I
[Traines of
attendants.]
1–4 such
diuerſe of thoſe that reſort vnto the ſame, and what
whoredome, ſwearing, ribaldrie, atheiſme, dicing, card-
ing, carowfing, drunkenneſſe, gluttonie, quareling, and
ſuch like inconueniences doo dailie take hold, and ſome-
times euen among thoſe, in whoſe eſtates the like *
behauiour is leaſt conuenient [(whereby their talke is
verified, which ſay that the” thing increaſeth and groweth
in the courts of princes, ſauing vertue, which inſuch places
dooth languiſh and dailie vade away)] all which enorm-
ities are either vtterlie expelled out of the court of Eng-
land, or elſe ſo qualified by the diligent endeuour of the
chiefe officers of hir graces houſehold, that ſeldome are
anie of theſe things apparantlie ſeene there, without
due reprehenſion, and ſuch ſeuere correction as belong-
eth to thoſe treſpaſſes. Finallie, to auoid idleneſſe, and
preuent ſundrie tranſgreſſions, otherwiſe likelie to be
committed and doone, ſuch order is taken, that euerie
office hath either a bible, or the bookes of the aëts and
monuments of the church of England, or both, beſide
ſome hiſtories and chronicles lieng therein, for the
exerciſe of ſuch as come into the ſame : whereby the
ſtranger that entereth into the court of England vpon
the ſudden, ſhall rather imagine himſelfe to come into
ſome publike ſchoole of the vniuerſities, where manie
giue eare to one that readeth,” than into a princes
palace, if you conferre “the ſame 4 with thoſe of other
nations. Would to God all honorable perſonages
would take example of hir graces godlie dealing in this
behalfe, and ſhew their conformitie vnto theſe hir ſo
good beginnings which if they would, then ſhould
manie grieuous offenſes" (wherewith God is highlie
diſpleaſed) be cut off and reſtreined, which now doo
reigne exceedinglie, in moſt noble and gentlemens
houſes, wherof they ſee no paterne within hir graces
gates. -
[I might ſpeake here of the great traines and
2 : every–F. & readeth unto them 4–4 this "enormities
CHAP. xv.] PALACES BELONGING TO THE PRINCE -
27.5
troopes of seruing men alſo, which attend vpon the
nobilitie of England in their ſeuerall liueries, and with
differences of cogniſances on their ſleeues, whereby it
is knowen to whome they apperteine. I could alſo ſet
downe what a goodlie fight it is to ſee them muſter in
the court, which, being filled with them, dooth yeeld
the contemplation of a noble varietie vnto the beholder,
much like to the ſhew of the pecocks taile in the full
beautie, or of ſome medow garniſhed with infinit kinds
But I paſſe ouer the
rehearſall hereof to other men, who more delite in vaine
and diuerſitie of pleaſant floures."
amplification than I, and ſeeke to be more curious in
theſe points than I profeſſe to be.]
The [diſcipline of] firme peace alſo that is main-
teined within a certeine compaſſe of the princes palace,
is ſuch, as is nothing inferiour to that we ſee dailie
practiſed in the beſt gouerned holds & fortreſſes. And
ſuch is the ſeuere puniſhment of thoſe that ſtrike within
the limits prohibited, that without all hope of mercie,
benefit of clergie, or ſanótuarie, they are ſure to looſe
their right hands at a ſtroke, and that in verie ſolemne
maner, the forme whereof I will ſet downe, and then
make an end of this chapter, to deale with other mat-
ters.
At ſuch time therefore as the partie tranſgreſſing is
conuićted by a ſufficient inqueſt impanelled for the
ſame purpoſe, and the time come of the execution of
the ſentence, the ſergeant of the kings wood-yard pro-
uideth a ſquare blocke, which he bringeth to ſome
appointed place, and therewithall a great beetle, ſtaple,
and cords, wherewith to faſten the hand of the offendor
wnto the ſaid blocke, vntill the whole circumſtance of
his execution be performed. The yeoman of the
ſcullarie likewiſe for the time being, dooth prouide a
great fire of coales hard by the blocke, wherein the
The troops of
Serving-men
in livery, with
badges on their
sleeves,
when musterd
at Court, are as
beautiful as a
peacock's tail or
a flowery mead.
Any man
striking another
within the
Queen's Court,
loses his right
hand.
Striking within
the cozzzz azza:
£alace of the
Arince.
How the
offender's hand
is chopt off.
Coal-fire to heat
1 Compare Chaucer's Prologue—the Squire. On the evils of serving-men, see
Sir T. More's Utopia, and my Ballads from MSS., i.—F.
276
T H E, DESCRI). TION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
the searing-
iron,
Groom of the
Cellary with
vinegar and cold
Water.
ſearing irons are to be made readie, againſt the chiefe
ſurgeon to the prince or his deputie ſhall occupie the
ſame. Vpon him alſo dooth the ſergeant or chiefe
farrour attend with thoſe irons, whoſe office is to deliuer
them to the ſaid ſurgeon, when he ſhall be redie, by
ſearing, to vſe the ſame. The groome of the ſalarie for
the time being, or his deputie, is furthermore appointed
to be readie with vineger and cold water, and not to
depart from the place vntill the arme of the offendor
be bound vp and fullie dreſſed. And as theſe things
are thus prouided, ſo the ſergeant ſurgeon is bound
from time to time to be readie to execute his charge,
and ſeare the ſtumpe, when the hand is taken from it.
The ſergeant of the cellar is at hand alſo with a cup of
red wine, and likewiſe the chiefe officer of the pantrie
with manchet bread, to giue vnto the ſaid partie after
the execution doone, and the ſtumpe ſeared, as the ſer-
geant of the ewerie is with clothes, wherein to wind
and wrap vp the arme, the yeoman of the poultrie with
a cocke to laie vnto it, the yeoman of the chandrie with
ſeared cloths, and finallie the maiſter cooke or his
deputie with a ſharpe dreſſing knife, which he deliuereth
at the place of execution to the ſergeant of the larder,
who dooth hold it vpright in his hand, vintill the execu-
tion be performed by the publike officer appointed
therevnto. And this is the maner of puniſhment or-
deined for thoſe that ſtrike within the princes palace, or
limits of the ſame. [Which ſhould firſt haue beene
executed on fir Edmund Kneuet, in the yeare 154I.
But when he had made great fute to ſaue his right hand
for the further ſeruice of the king in his warres, and
willinglie yeelded to forgo his left, in the end the king
pardoned him of both, to no ſmall benefit of the
offendor, and publication of the bountifull nature that
remained in the prince.] The like priuilege almoſt
is i giuen to churches and churchyards, although in
Serjeant-
surgeon to Sear
the stump.
Red wine and
mamchet bread
for the offender,
when his band's
chopt off.
Cloth to wrap
the stump in.
Cock to put
to it ;
knife to cut
the hand off
with.
Thus are
strikers in Court
punisht.
Sir Edm.
Knevet was
condemnd thus
to lose his
hand; but Hen.
VIII, forgave
him.
Brawls in
churches and
churchyards.
l—" is almost
CHAP xv.] PALACES BE LONG ING TO THE PRINCE -
277
maner of puniſhment great difference doo appeere.
For he that bralleth or quarelleth in either of them, is
by and by ſuſpended Ab ingreſſic eccleſiæ, vntill he be
abſolued : as he is alſo that ſtriketh with the fiſt, or
laieth violent hands vpon anie whome ſo euer. But if
he happen to ſmite with ſtaffe, dagger, or anie maner
of weapon, & the ſame be ſufficientlie found by the
verdićt of twelue men at his arrainement, beſide excom-
munication, he is ſure to looſe one of his eares, without
But if he be ſuch a one as hath
beene twiſe condemned and executed, whereby he hath
now none eares, then is he marked with an hot iron vpon
the cheeke, and by the letter F, which is ſeared [deepe]
into his fleſh; he is from thencefoorth noted as a com-
all hope of releaſe."
mon barratour and fraie maker, and therevnto remaineth
excommunicate, till by repentance he deſerue to be
abſolued. [T o ſtrike a clearke alſo, (that is to ſaie) a
miniſter, is plaine excommunication, and the offendor
not to be abſolued but by the prince or his eſpeciall
commiſſion. Such alſo is the generall eſtate of the
excommunicate in euery reſpect, that he can yeeld no
teſtimonie in anie matter ſo long as he ſo ſtandeth. No
bargaine or ſale that he maketh, is auaileable in law,
neither any of his ačts whatſoeuer pleadable, wherby he
liueth as * an outlaw, & a man altogither out of the
princes protećtion; although it be not lawfull to kill
him, nor anie man otherwiſe outlawed, without the
danger of fellonie.]
1 recouerye
Brawlers in
church or
churchyard are
kept out of
church.
Smiters there
3, ré £XCOTYl-
municated,
and lose one of
their ears for
each offence.
On the 3rd
offence, they 're
burnt on the
cheek, and the
letter F is
seard into
them.
Excommunica-
tion for striking
a Clerk.
The penalties
of Excom-
munication.
[? p. 198]
278
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENG LAN D. [Book II.
Of armour and munition.
Chap. 16.4
OW well or how ſtronglie our countrie hath
beene furniſhed in times paſt with armor
and artillerie, it lieth not in me as of my
ſelfe to make reherſall. Yet that it lacked both in the
late time of queen Marie, not onlie the experience of
mine elders, but alſo the talke of certeine Spaniards not
yet forgotten, did leaue ſome manifeſt notice. Vpon
the firſt I need not ſtand, for few will denie it. For
the ſecond, I haue heard, that when one of the greateſt
peeres of Spaine eſpied our nakedneſſe in this behalfe,
and did ſolemnelievtter in no obſcure place, that ‘it
ſhould be an eaſie matter in ſhort time to conquer Eng-
land, bicauſe it wanted armor,’ his words were then not
ſo raſhlie vttered, as they were politikelie noted. For
albeit that for the preſent time their efficacie was diſ-
ſembled, and ſemblance made as though he ſpake but
merilie, yet at the verie enterance of this our gratious
queene vnto the poſſeſſion of the crowne, they were ſo
prouidentlie called to remembrance, and ſuch ſpeedie
reformation ſought of all hands for the redreſſe of this
inconuenience, that our countrie was ſooner furniſhed
with armour and munition, from diuerſe parts of the
maine, (befide great plentie that was forged here at
home), than our enimies could get vnderſtanding of
anie ſuch prouifion to be made. By this policie alſo
was the no ſmall hope conceiued by Spaniards vtterlie
cut off, who, of open freends being now become our
ſecret enimies, and thereto watching a time wherein to
atchieue ſome heauie exploit againſt vs and our coun-
trie,” did therevpon change their purpoſes, whereby
England obteined reſt, that otherwiſe might haue beene
We were short
of armour and
artillery in
Queen Mary's
time,
as a Spanish
peer noted.
But as soon as
Q. Elizabeth
came to the
throne, the
want was
remedied, and
we were well
supplied,
to the dis-
appointment of
the Spaniards.
1 In 1577 ed. this forms Chap, 12 of Bk 2. —F.
* 1588 was the Armada year.—F.
cHAP. xvi.] ARMOUR AND MUNITION.
279
ſure of ſharpe and cruell wars. Thus a Spaniſh word
vttered by one man at one time, ouerthrew, or at the
leaſt wiſe hindered, ſundrie priuie practiſes of manie at
another. In times paſt the cheefe force of England con-
fiſted in their long bowes." But now we haue in maner
generallie giuen ouer that kind of artillerie, and for
long bowes in deed doo practiſe to ſhoot compaſſe for
our paſtime : which kind of ſhooting can neuer yeeld
anie ſmart ſtroke, nor beat downe our enimies, as Our
countrie men were woont to doo at euerie time of need.
Certes the Frenchmen and Rutters deriding our new
archerie in reſpect of their corſlets, will not let, in open
ſkirmiſh, if anie leiſure ſerue, to turne vp their tailes
and crie: “Shoote Engliſh,” and all bicauſe our ſtrong
ſhooting is decaied and laid in bed. But if ſome of our
Engliſhmen now liued that ſerued king Edward the
third in his warres with France, the breech of ſuch a
varlet ſhould haue beene nailed to his bum with one
arrow, and an other fethered in his bowels, before he
ſhould haue turned about to ſee who ſhot the firſt.
But as our ſhooting is thus in manner vtterlie decaied
among vs one waie, ſo our countrie men wez ſkilfull in
ſundrie other points, as in ſhooting in ſmall peeces, the
caliuer, and handling of the pike, in the ſeuerall vſes
whereof they are become verie expert. sº
Our armour differeth not from that of other nations,
and therefore conſiſteth of corſlets, almaine riuets,” ſhirts
of maile, iackes quilted and couered ouer with leather,
fuſtian, or canuas, ouer thicke plates of iron that are
ſowed in the ſame, & of which there is no towne or
village that hath not hir conuenient furniture. The
ſaid armour and munition likewiſe * is kept in one
ſeuerall place [of euerie towne, appointed by the con-
* See Ascham's Toacophilus.
The English
Long-Bow of
old time.
4.
Shooting coin-
pass
is no good.
The French and
Teutons turn up
their tails, and
bid us shoot.
But if the Eng-
lish of Crecy
and Poitiers
had been here,
they’d have put
2 arrows into
such a man
before he could
have turnd to
see who shot
the first.
Still, we shoot
well with the
caliver.
Kinds of
3. Til Olli I-
rivets, jacks, &c.
Every town
and village has
its armoury.
When our folk and Government come to their
senses, every English boy and man 'll be taught rifle-shooting; ranges will be pro-
vided by compulsory powers; and every male over 16 be made sure of his man
in any invading force.
grave. —F. * riuerets 3 also
If then any such force wants to come, let it, and find its
28o
THE DESCRIPTION or ENGLAND. [Book II.
Men of arms
and armour
inspected in
every town.
Even the poorest
village has arms
and armour for
3 or 4 soldiers.
Altogether, we
had in 1574-5,
1,172,674 able
Men. [See the
Nos. for each
county, in
* Household
Ordinances,’ p.
270-1.]
Of munitions
and armour,
England never
had better store
than now.
ſent of the whole pariſh, where it is alwaies readie to be
had and worne within an houres warning. Sometime
alſo it is occupied, when it pleaſeth the magiſtrate either
to view the able men, & take note of the well keeping
of the ſame, or finallie to ſee thoſe that are inrolled to
exerciſe each one his ſeuerall weapon, [at the charge of
the towneſmen of each pariſh] according to his appoint-
ment. Certes there is almoſt no village ſo poore in
England (be it neuer ſo ſmall) that hath not ſufficient
furniture in a readineſſe to ſet foorth three or foure
ſoldiors, as "one archer, one gunner, one pike, & a bil-
man at the leaſt. No, there is not ſo much wanting as
their verie liueries and caps, which are leaſt to be
accounted of, if anie haſt required : [ſo that if this good
order may continue, it ſhall be vnpoſſible for the ſudden
enimie to find vs vmprouided. As for able men for
ſeruice, thanked be God, we are not without good
ſtore; for by the muſters taken 1574 and 1575, our
number amounted to 1,172,674, and yet were they not
ſo narrowlie taken, but that a third part of this like
multitude was left vnbilled and vncalled.] What ſtore
of munition and armour the queenes maieſtie hath in
hir ſtorehouſes, it lieth not in me to yeeld account, fith
I ſuppoſe the ſame to be infinit. And whereas it was
commonlie ſaid after the loſſe of Calis, that England
ſhould neuer recouer * the ſtore of * ordinance there left
[and loſt:J that ſame is at this time prooued falſe, fith
euen ſome of the ſame perſons doo now confeſſe, that
this land was neuer better furniſhed with theſe things
in anie kings daies that reigned ſince the conqueſt.
[The names of our greateſt ordi-
nance are commonlie theſe.
Robinet, whoſe weight is two hundred pounds,
and it hath one inch and a quarter within the mouth.
1 or 2–3 their
cHAP. xv.1.] ARMOUR AND MUNITION.
281
Falconet weigheth fiue hundred pounds, and his
wideneſſe is two inches within the mouth.
Falcon hath eight hundred pounds, and two inches
and a halfe within the mouth.
Minion poiſeth eleauen hundred pounds, and hath
three inches and a quarter within the mouth.
Sacre hath fifteene hundred poundes, and is three
inches and a halfe wide in the mouth.
Demie Culuerijn weigheth three thouſand pounds,
and hath foure inches and a halfe within the mouth.
Culuerijn hath foure thouſand pounds, and fiue
inches and an halfe within the mouth.
Demie Canon ſix thouſand pounds, and ſix inches
and an halfe within the mouth.
Canon ſeauen thouſand pounds, and eight inches
within the mouth.
E. Canon eight thouſand pounds, and ſeauen inches
within the mouth.
Baſiliske 9ooo pounds, eight inches, and three
quarters within the mouth. By which proportions alſo
it is eaſie to come by the weight of euerie ſhot, how
manie ſcores it doth flee at point blanke, how much
pouder is to be had to the ſame, & finallie how manie
inches in height ech bullet ought to carrie.
The names of the Weight Scores , Pounds Height
{ greatest } ; of the } : of | | of } { of }
ordinance. shot. cariage. pouder. bullet.
Robinet. \ | 1. li. \ | O \ # I \
Falconet. 2. li. I4 2 1 +
Falcon. 2. º. 16 2} 2 #
Minion. 4. #. 17 4% 3
Sacre. 5 I8 5 3 +
Demie Culuerijn. \hath 9 2O 9 4.
Culuerijn. I8 25 18 5 +
Demie canon. 3o 38 28 6 :
Canon. 6o 2O 44 7 #
E. Canon. 42 * 2O 2O 6 #
Basiliske. J 6o | \ 21 J 6o 8 3 M
I might here take iuſt occaſion to ſpeake of the
But what ſhall it need 2 fith the
whole realme is hir armorie, and therefore hir furniture
The Turke had one gun made by one Orban
princes armories.
infinit.
a Dane, the caſter of his ordinance, which could not be
. º,the
guns of the
English Artil-
lery.
Minion.
Sacre.
Culverin.
Canon.
Basilisk. º
[p. 199]
Big Tur
guns.
282
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
drawen to the fiege of Conſtantinople, but by ſeauentie
yokes of oxen, and two thouſand men; he had two
other there alſo whoſe ſhot poiſed aboue two talents in
weight, made by the ſame Orban. But to proceed.]
As for the armories of ſome 1 of the nobilitie (whereof I
alſo haue ſeene a part) they are ſo well furniſhed, [that] .
within ſome one barons cuſtodie.” I haue ſeene three
ſcore [or a hundred] corſlets at once, befide caliuers,
hand-guns, bowes, ſheffes of arrowes, pikes, bils, polaxes,
flaſkes, touchboxes, targets, &c.: the verie fight wherof
appalled my courage. What would the wearing of
ſome of them “doo then * (trow you) if I ſhould [be
inforced to] vſe [one of] them in the field : [But
thanked be God, our peaceable daies are ſuch, as no
man hath anie great cauſe to occupie them at all, but
onelie taketh good leiſure to haue them in a readineſſe,
and therefore both high and lowe in England.
Cymbala pro galeis pro ſcutis tympana pulſant.]
I would write here [alſo] of our maner of going
to the warres, but what hath the long blacke gowne
to doo with gliſtering armour what [ſound] acquaint-
ance can there be betwixt Mars and the Muſes 2 or how
ſhould a man write anie thing to the purpoſe of that
wherewith he is nothing acquainted [This neuerthe-
leſſe will I adde of things at home, that ſeldome ſhall
you ſee anie of my countriemen aboue eighteene or
twentie yeeres old, to go without a dagger, at the leaſt,
at his backe or by his fide, although they be aged
burgeſſes, or magiſtrates of anie citie, who in appeer-
ance are moſt exempt from brabling and contention.
Our nobilitie weare commonlie ſwords or rapiers with
their daggers, as dooth euerie common ſeruing man alſo
that followeth his lord and maſter. Some deſperate
cutters we haue in like ſort, which carrie two daggers
or two rapiers in a ſheath alwaies about them, where-
Armories of the
English
Nobility.
The mere sight
of one frightend
II].6.
But, thank God,
we’ve no need
to use arms;
only, to keep
'em ready.
Å Parson can't
write of War.
Malë 7722esis
czemz Marte.
All young men
wear daggers.
Noblomen wear
swords.
Some Cutters
carry 2 daggers
or rapiers.
1 diucrs * custodie that 3—” haue done this
CHAP. xvi.] ARMO (JR AND MUNITION.
283
with in euerie dronken fraie" they are knowen to worke
much miſchiefe ; their ſwords & daggers alſo are of a
great length, and longer than the like vſed in anie other
countrie, whereby ech one pretendeth to haue the more
aduantage of his enimie. But as manie orders haue
beene taken for the intollerable length of theſe weapons,
ſo I ſee as yet ſmall redreſſe: but where the cauſe
thereof doth reſt, in ſooth for my part I wote not. I
might here ſpeake of the exceſſiue ſtaues which diuerſe
that trauell by the waie doo carrie vpon their ſhoulders,
whereof ſome are twelue or thirteene foote long, beſide
the pike of twelue inches: but as they are commonlie
ſuſpected of honeſt men to be theeues and robbers, or
at the leaſtwiſe ſcarſe true men which beare them; ſo
by reaſon of this and the like ſuſpicious weapons, the
honeſt traueller is now inforced to ride with a caſe of
dags at his ſadle bow, or with ſome pretie ſhort ſnapper,
whereby he may deale with them further off in his
owne defenſe, before he come within the danger of
theſe weapons. Finallie, no man trauelleth by the
waie without his ſword, or ſome ſuch weapon, with vs;
except the miniſter, who commonlie weareth none at
Sel-
dome alſo are they or anie other waifaring men robbed,
all, vnleſſe it be a dagger or hanger at his fide.
without the conſent of the chamberleine, tapſter, or
oſtler where they bait & lie, who feeling at their alight-
ing whether their capcaſes or budgets be of anie weight
or not, by taking them downe from their ſadles, or
otherwiſe ſee their ſtore in drawing of their purſes, do
by and by giue intimation to ſome one or other attend-
ant dailie in the yard or houſe, or dwelling hard by,
vpon ſuch matches, whether the preie be worth the
following or no. If it be for their turne, then the gen-
tleman peraduenture is aſked which waie he trauelleth,
and whether it pleaſe him to haue another gheſt to
Cutters' long
swords,
which they
won't shorten.
Travellers carry
Long Staves
of 12 or 13 feet,
with a 12-inch
pike at the end :
they 're scarce
true men.
Honest folk
travelling
must now carry
Pistols
and swords.
Parsons wear a
dagger or
ger.
Inn-keepers,
&c., accomplices
with Robbers.
They weigh the
travellers' bags,
&c.,
and warn the
Robbers who's
worth robbing.
The Robber or
his mate offers
* Remember Marlowe's death in one—his own dagger turnd back into his
brain.—F.
284
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
himself as a
companion to
the traveller.
If the robber
knows the
traveller's road,
he lies in
wait for him or
overtakes him,
and robs him. .
Highway rob-
beries happen
specially about
Christmas.
Some of the
thieves get
trusst up in a
Tyburn tippet.
I pass over the
old English
manner of war-
fare in chariots,
gaily painted.j
beare him companie at ſupper, who rideth the ſame
waie in the morning that he doth, or not. And thus
if he admit him, or be glad of his acquaintance, the
cheate is halfe wrought. And often it is ſeene that the
new gheſt ſhall be robbed with the old, onelie to colour
out the matter and keepe him from ſuſpicion. Some-
times when they knowe which waie the paſſenger
trauelleth, they will either go before, and lie in wait for
him, or elſe come galloping apace after, wherby they
will be ſure, if he ride not the ſtronger, to be fingering
with his purſe. And theſe are ſome of the policies of
ſuch ſhrews, or cloſe booted gentlemen, as lie in wait for
fat booties by the high waies, and which are moſt com-
monlie practiſed in the winter ſeaſon about the feaſt of -
Chriſtmas, when ſeruing men and vnthriftie gentlemen
want monie to plaie at the dice and cards, lewdlie ſpend-
ing in ſuch wiſe whatſoeuer they haue wickedlie gotten,
till ſome of them ſharplie ſet vpon their cheuiſances, be
truſſed vp in a Tiburne tippet, which happeneth vnto
them commonlie before they come to middle age.
Wherby it appeereth that ſome ſort of youth will oft
haue his ſwinge, although it be in a halter."
I might alſo intreat of our old maner of warfare
vſed in and before the time of Ceſar, when as the
cheefe brunt of our fight was in Eſſedis or wagons;
but this I alſo paſſe ouer, nothing neuertheleſſe out
of Propertius, that our ſaid wagons were gorgeous
and gailie painted, which he ſetteth downe in theſe
foure verſes inſuing, Arethuſie ad Lycotam, lib. 4.
eleg. 3.
Te modø viderunt iteratos Baćira per ortus,
Te modø munito Sericus hoſtis equo,
Hibernique Getae, pičićque Brittannia curru,
Jºſius & Eva diſcolor Indus aqua.]
* See the amusing extract from Wm. Bulleyn, in my Babees Book, p. 240-3.-F.
CHAP. xv.11.] THE NAVY OF ENGLAND, .
285
Of the nauie of England.
Chap. 17."
[ Here is nothing that hath brought me into
more admiration of the power and force of
antiquitie, than their diligence and care had
of their nauies: wherein, whether I conſider their
ſpeedie building, or great number of ſhips which ſome
one kingdome or region poſſeſſed at one inſtant, it
giueth me ſtill occaſion, either to ſuſpect the hiſtorie, or
to thinke that in our times we come verie farre behind
them. For what a thing is it to haue a ſhip growing
on the ſtub, and ſailing on the ſea within the ſpace of
fiue and fiftie daies' And yet ſuch a nauie was to be
ſeene in the firſt war of Carthage, led thither by Duel-
lius the Romane. In the warres alſo againſt Hieron,
two hundred and twentie tall ſhips bare leafe & ſaile
within fiue and fortie daies. In the ſecond warre of
Carthage, the nauie that went with Scipio, was felled in
the wood, and ſeene to ſaile on the ſea fullie furniſhed
in fixe weekes : which vnto them that are ignorant of
things doth ſeeme to be falſe and vnpoſſible. In like
maner for multitude, we find in Polybius, that at one
ſkirmiſh on the ſea the Romans loſt ſeauen hundred
veſſels, which bare ech of them fiue rowes of ores on a
ſide, and the Carthaginenſes fiue hundred. And albeit
the formes and apparell of theſe veſſels were not alto-
gither correſpondent to our ſhips and gallies made in
theſe daies : yet the capacitie of moſt of them did not
onelie match, but farre exceed them; ſo that if one of
their biremes onlie conteined ſo much in burden as a
ſhip of ours of ſix hundred tun : what ſhall we thinke
of thoſe which had ſeauen rowes of ores wałking on a
fide But leaſt I ſhould ſeeme to ſpeake more of theſe
forren things than the courſe of the hiſtorie doth permit
[p. 2001
I wonder at the
navies of ancient
kingdoms.
* This chapter forms chap. 13 in Bk 2 of 1577 ed.—F.
A ship finisht,
and fitted, and
Sailing, in 55
days; nay,
220 ships so
done in 45 days ;
Scipio's navy in
6 weeks.
In one skirmish
thaginians 500.
If a bireme
equalld our
ship of 600 tons,
what would a
septireme do?
286 THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
without licence to digreſſe: giue me leaue (I beſeech
jº, thee, gentle reader) to wade yet a little further in the
...º. report of theſe ancient formes & kinds of veſſels. For
ancients. albeit that the diſcourſe hereof maketh little to the
deſcription of our preſent nauie in England: yet ſhall
the report thereof not be vinprofitable and vnpleaſant to
ſuch as ſhall reade among the writings of their capacities
and moulds. It ſhall not be amiſſe therefore to begin
Xerxes's navy, at the nauie of Xerxes, of which ech meane veſſell (as
appeereth by Herodot) was able to receiue two hundred
and thirtie ſouldiers, and ſome of them three hundred.
Theſe were called triremes, and were indeede gallies
that had three rowes of ores on euerie ſide ; for the
word Nauis is indifferentlie applied ſo well to the gallie
as ſhip, as to the conuerſant in hiſtories is eaſie to be
Gallies of from found. In old time alſo they had gallies of foure
4 to 15 rows of & &
O8.YS OIl rowes, fiue rowes, ſix, ſeauen, eight, nine, twelue, yea
each side :
fifteene rowes of ores on a fide; iudge you then of
what quantitie thoſe veſſels were. Plinie, lib. 7. noteth
one Damaſthenes to be the firſt maker of the gallies
• with two rowes called biremes: Thucidides referreth
the triremes to Ammocles of Corinthum; the quad-
riremes were deuiſed by Ariſtotle of Carthage; the quin-
quiremes by Nefichthon of Salamina; the gallie of fix
rowes by Xenagoras of Syracuſa: from this to the
tenth Nefigiton brought vp; Alexander the great
cauſed one to be made of twelue; Ptolomeus Soter of
fifteene; Demetrius the ſonne of Antigonus of thirtie ;
Ptolom. Philad. of fortie; Ptol. Triphon of fiftie: all
all º: call which aboue foure were none other (in mine opinion)
4 rows, & º
sºlºidy than vnweldie carts, and more ſeruing for pleaſure and
CàI’U.S.
to gaze vpon, than anie vſe in the wars for which they
one galley with ſhould be deuiſed. But of all other I note one of fortie
40 , 4000 - º º & &
jºb rowes, which Ptolo. Philopater builded, conteining 200
seamen and • º * , e. º º º
3000 soldiers. and eightie cubits in length, and eight and fortie cubits
in breadth: it held alſo foure thouſand ores, foure hun-
dred mariners, and three thouſand ſouldiers, ſo that in
CHAP. xv.11.] THE NAVY OF ENGLAND.
287
the ſaid veſſell were ſeauen thouſand and foure hun-
dred perſons: a report incredible, if truth and good
I muſt needs
confeſſe therefore, that the ancient veſſels far exceeded
teſtimonie did not confirme the ſame.
ours for capacitie: neuertheleſſe if you regard the
forme, and the aſſurance from perill of the ſea, and
therewithall the ſtrength and nimbleneſſe of ſuch as are
made in our time, you ſhall eaſilie find that ours are of
more value than theirs: for as the greateſt veſſell is not
alwaies the ſafeſt, ſo that of moſt huge capacitie is not
alwaies the apteſt to ſhift and brooke the ſeas : as
might be ſeene by the great Henrie, the hugeſt veſſell
that euer England framed in our times. Neither were
the ſhips of old like vnto ours in mould and maner of
building aboue the water (for of low gallies in our
ſeas we make ſmall account) nor ſo full of eaſe within,
fith time hath ingendred more ſkill in the wrights, and
brought all things to more perfeótion than they had in
the beginning. And now to come vnto our purpoſe
at the firſt intended.]
The nauie of England may be diuided into three
ſortes, of which the one ſerueth for the warres, the
other for burden, and the third for fiſhermen, which
get their liuing by fiſhing on the ſea. How manie of
the firſt order are mainteined within the realme, it
paſſeth my cunning to expreſſe: yet fith it may be
parted into the nauie roiall and common fleete, I thinke
good to ſpeake of thoſe that belong vnto the prince,
and ſo much the rather, for that their number is cer-
Certes there is
no prince in Europe that hath a more beautifull [or
gallant] ſort of ſhips than the queenes maieſtie of Eng-
land at this preſent, and thoſe generallie are of ſuch
exceeding force, that two of them being well appointed
teine & well knowne to verie manie.
Though the
ancients' ships
were bigger
than ours,
ours are fitter
for service.
The Great
Henry, the
biggest English
ship of our
times.
The English
navy consists of
1. war ships; 2.
merchant
vessels ; 3. fish-
ing boats.
No European
prince has such
fine ships as our
Queen has.
* See my Ballads from MSS. i. 120, on this, and Henry VIII.'s navy. There's
an engraving of this Great Henry or Henry Grace (burnt, Aug. 27, 1553), in the
British Museum.—F.
288
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
The build of our
ships is the best
for weather.
All strangers
Say our ships
are the best in
the world,
Our navy's
under an
Admiral.
Q. Elizabeth
has now, A.D.
1582, 24 or 25
great ships, and
3 gallies, whose
names and
guns, &c., I'll
give. 5
1 them
and furniſhed as they ought, will not let to encounter
with three or foure 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 anie forren barkes ſo
conuenientlie made, to brooke “ſo well one ſea as another
lieng vpon the ſhore” in anie part of the continent as
thoſe of England. And therefore the common report
that ſtrangers make of our ſhips amongſt themſelues is
dailie confirmed to be true, which is, that for ſtrength,
aſſurance, nimbleneſſe and ſwiftneſſe of ſailing, there
are no veſſels in the world to be compared with ours.
[And all theſe are committed to the regiment and ſafe
cuſtodie of the admerall, who is ſo called (as ſome
imagine) of the Greeke word Almiras a capiteine on the
ſea, for ſo ſaith Zonaras in Baſilio Macedone & Baſilio
Porphyriogenito, though other fetch it from Ad mare
the Latine words, another ſort from Amyras the Saracen
magiſtrate, or from ſome French deriuation: but theſe
things are not for this place, and therefore I paſſe them
ouer.] The queenes highneſſe hath at this preſent
[(which is the foure and twentith of hir reigne)] alreadie
made and furniſhed, to the number of *foure or five *
and twentie great ſhips, which lie for the moſt part in
Gillingham rode, beſide three gallies, of whoſe particu-
lar names [and furnitures (ſo far foorth as I can come
by them)] it ſhall not be amiſſe to make report at this
time.
? Surely this statement was justified by the facts. And Nelson, Dundonald, and
their successors have shown that English sailors since have not degenerated.—F
9–3 the seas
4–4 one
* See in Household Ordinances, p. 267–270, “An account of all the Queen's
Ships of War; (the Musters taken in 1574 and 1575; the warlike stores in the
Tower and aboard the Navy in 1578; the CUSTODEs RoTULORUM of every county
in England and Wales, and the names of all the English Fugitives).”—F.
chap. xvii.] THE NAVY OF ENGLAND. 289
*The names of ſo manie ſhips belong- ſp. 201
ing to hir maieſlie as I could come by at
this preſent.
ſ The Bonaduenture. ſ Forefight. - ~ Sºğueen
Elizabeth Ionas. Swift ſute. 24 Men-of-War.
White Beare. Aid.
Philip and Marie. | Handmaid.
Triumph. Dread nought.
< Bull. Swallow. >
Tiger. Genet.
Antlope. Barke of Bullen.
Hope. Achates.*
Lion. Falcon.*
Vićtorie. George.*
| Marie Roſe. J U Reuenge.” 2
1–1 The first of them therefore is called Bonaduenture.
The next hight the Elizabeth Ionas, aname deuised by hir gracein remembraunceof
hir owne deliuerance from the fury of hirenemies, from which in one respect she wasno
lesse myraculously preserued, then was the prophet Ionas from the belly of the Whale.
The White Boare is the thirde. [* Not in the 1577 list, notes.—F.
And after them she hath the Philip and Mary.
The Triumph
The Bull.
The Tygre so called of hyr exceedyng nimblenesse in sayling & swiftnesse of
COUll'Sè.
The list of 24 ships (with their men and arms), in
* #. * the [... list in º Ordinances, p. 267-270, *:
e Hope. tains all those in the note here, except the Cadish; and
The Lyon. adds to them the Primrose, and the Faulcon, Aibates (for
The Victorie. Achates), and George, named above. The 1578 list has
The Mary rose. not the Reuenge above. It calls the White Boare and
“Dread not’, the White Bearand Dreadnought (as above);
The Foresight. and the Genet, Jennett. And adds, “The sum of all
The Cadish.t other, as well merchant shipps as other, in all places in
The Swift sute. England, of 100 tunns and upwards, 135. The sum of
The Ayde. all barkes and shippes of 40 tunne and upwards to an
The Handmaide. 100 tunne, 656. There are besides, by estimation, 100
The Dread not. saile of hoyes. Also of small barkes and fishermen an
The Swall infinite number. So as the number of . . . . through
e SW3.11OW. the realme cannot be lesse than 600, besides London.”
The Genet. No doubt Mrs Green's Calendar of State Papers, temp.
The Barke of Bullen. Eliz., gives further details.-F.]
[f Not in the 1587 list above —F.]
HARRISON, 19
290
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
As ancient kings
built a city a
year,
Q. Elizabeth is
said to build 1
ship a year.
She can have
9000 or 10,000
seamen afloat.
3 choice gallies,
The Queen is
delighted with
her navy.
Number of
[It is ſaid, that as kings and princes haue in the
yoong daies of the world, and long fince, framed them-
ſelues to erect euerie yeare a citie, in ſome one place or
other of their kingdoms, (and no ſmall woonder that
Sardanapalus ſhould begin & finiſh two, to wit, Anchi-
alus and Tharſus in one daie,) ſo hir grace dooth yeare-
lie build one ſhip or other to the better defenſe of hir
frontiers from the enimie. But as of this report I haue
no aſſured certeintie, ſo it ſhall ſuffice to haue ſaid ſo
much of theſe things: yet this I thinke worthie further
to be added, that if they ſhould all be driuen to ſeruice
at one inſtant (which God forbid) ſhe ſhould haue a
power by ſea of about nine or ten thouſand men, which
were a notable companie, beſide the ſupplie of other veſ-
els apperteining to hir ſubječts to furniſh vphir voiage.]
Beſide theſe, hir grace hath other in hand alſo, of
whom hereafter, as their turnes doo come about, I will
not let to leaue ſome further remembrance. She hath
likewiſe three notable gallies : the Speed well, the Trie
right, and the Blacke gallie, with the fight whereof, and
reſt of the nauie roiall, it is incredible to ſaie how
greatlie' hir grace is delighted; and not without great
cauſe [(I ſaie)], fith by their meanes hir coaſts are kept
in quiet, and fundrie forren enimies put backe, which
otherwiſe would inuade vs. The number of thoſe that
ſerue for burden with the other, whereof I haue made
mention alreadie, and whoſe vſe is dailie ſeene, as occa-
fion ſerueth, in time of the warres, is to mee vtterlie
vnknowne. Yet if * the report of one record * be anie
thing at all to be credited, there are “135. ſhips that
English Ships, exceed 5oo tun; topmen vnder Ioo, and aboue fortie,
656: holes Ioo: but of hulkes, catches, fiſherboats, and
craiers, it lieth not in me to deliuer the iuſt account,
fith they are hardlie to come by.” Of theſe alſo there
1 marueylously 2–2 common estimation
3–3 17 or eighteene hundred of one & other of them, besides fisher boates & small
Craiers, which I referre unto the thirde sort.
CHAP, xvi.I.] THE NAVY OF ENGLAND.
29I
are ſome of the queenes maieſties ſubie&ts that haue two
or three ; ſome, foure or ſix; and (as I heard of late)
one man whoſe name I ſuppreſſe for modeſties ſake,
hath bene knowne not long ſince to haue had ſixteene
or ſeuenteene, and emploied them wholie to the wafting
in and out of our merchants, whereby he hath reaped
no ſmall commoditie and gaine. I might take occaſion
to tell of the notable and difficult voiages made into
ſtrange countries by Engliſhmen, and of their dailie ſuc-
ceſſe there”: but as theſe things are nothing incident to
my purpoſe, ſo I ſurceaſe to ſpeake of them. Onelie
this will I ad,” to the end all men ſhall vnderſtand ſome-
what of the great maſſes of treaſure dailie emploied
vpon our nauie, how there are few of thoſe ſhips, of the
firſt and ſecond ſort, that being apparelled and made
readie to ſale, are not woorth one thouſand pounds, or
three thouſand ducats at the leaſt, if they ſhould pre-
ſentlie be ſold. What ſhall we 4 thinke then of the
greater, but eſpeciallie of the nauieroiall, of which ſome
one veſſell is woorth two of the other, as the ſhipwrights
haue often told me? It is poſſible that ſome couetous per-
ſon hearing this report, will either not credit it at all, or
ſuppoſe monie ſo emploied to be nothing profitable to the
queenes coffers: as a good huſband ſaid once when he
hard there ſhould be prouiſion made for armor, wiſhing
the queenes monie to be rather laid out to ſome ſpeedier
returne of gaine vnto hir grace, [bicauſe the realme
(faith he) is in caſe good enough, and ſo peraduenture
he thought.] But if "as by ſtore of armour for the
defenſe of the countrie, he had likewiſe vnderſtanded 5
that the good keeping of the ſea, is the ſafegard of our
land, he would "haue altered" his cenſure, and ſoone
giuen' ouer his iudgement. For in times paſt, when
* speake
Private ship-
owners have
from 2 to 16
ships each, that
carry mer-
chandise.
Almost every
one of our
1st and 2nd
class merchant
ships is worth,
when fitted,
431000;
our men-of-war
worth £2000.
The good keep-
ing of the sea is
the safeguard of
our land.
* See Hakluyt's record of the daring and endurance of our Elizabethan Seamen.
—F.
* adde therefore 4 we shall
*—5 he wist
6–8 alter
"giue
292
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
our nation made ſmall account of nauigation, how ſoone
did the Romans, then the Saxons, & laſt of all the
Danes, inuade this Iland 2 whoſe crueltie in the end in-
forced our countrimen, as it were euen againſt their 1
wils, to prouide for ſhips from other places, and build
at home of their owne, whereby their enimies were
oftentimes diſtreſſed. But moſt of all were the Normans
therein to be commended. For in a ſhort proceſſe of
time after the conqueſt of this Iland, and good con-
ſideration had for the well keeping of the ſame, they
ſuppoſed nothing more commodious for the defenſe of
the countrie, than the maintenance of a ſtrong nauie,
which they ſpeedilie prouided, mainteined, and thereby
reaped in the end their wiſhed ſecuritie, wherewith be-
fore their times this Iland was neuer acquainted. Before
the comming of the Romans, I doo not read that we
had anie ſhips at all, except a few made of wicker and
couered with buffle hides, [like vnto the which there
are ſome to be ſeene at this preſent in Scotland (as I
heare), although there be a little (I wote not well what)
difference betweene them. Of the ſame alſo Solimus
ſpeaketh, ſo far as I remember: neuertheleſſe it may
be gathered by his words, how the vpper parts of them
aboue the water onelie were framed of the ſaid
wickers, and that the Britons did vſe to faſt all the
whiles they went to the ſea in them : but whether it
were doome for policie or ſuperſtition, as yet I doo not
read.]
In the beginning of the Saxons [regiment] we had
* ſome ſhips alſo “; but as their number and mould was
litle and nothing to the purpoſe, ſo Egbert was the firſt
prince that euer throughlie began to know this neceſſitie
of a nauie, [and vſe the ſeruice thereof] in the defenſe
of his countrie. After him alſo other princes, as Alfred,
[Edgar,J Ethelred, &c, indeuoured more and more to
ſtore themſelues at the full with ſhips of all quantities,
The want of a
Inavy, the cause
of our being
invaded in old
times.
The Normans’
care for a
strong navy.
British boats.
[The Britons
fasted all the
while they were
at the sea in
these shifts.]
The Saxons had
but few poor
ships.
Egbert first
knew the
necessity for a
navy.
1 their owne 2–2 a fewe
CHAP. xv.11.] THE NAV Y OF ENG LAND.
293
but chieflie [Edgar, for he prouided a nauie of 16oo
aliás 3600 ſaile, which he diuided into foure parts, and
ſent them to abide vpon foure ſundrie coaſts of the
land, to keepe the ſame from pirats. Next vnto him
(and worthie to be remembred) is] Etheldred, who
made a law, that euerie man holding 3 Io hidelands,
ſhould find a ſhip furniſhed to ſerue him in the warres.
Howbeit, and as I ſaid before, when all their nauie was
at the greateſt, it was not comparable [for force and
ſure building] to that which afterward the Normans
prouided; neither that of the Normans anie thing like
to the ſame that is to be ſeene now in [theſe] our daies.
For the iourneies alſo of our ſhips, you ſhall vnderſtand,
that a well builded veſſell will run or ſaile [commonlie]
three hundred leagues or nine hundred miles in a weeke,
or peraduenture ſome will go 2200 leagues in fix weekes
and an halfe. And ſuerlie, if their lading be readie
againſt they come thither, there be of them that will
be here, at the weſt Indies, & home againe in twelue or
thirteene weekes from Colcheſter; although the ſaid
Indies be eight hundred leagues from the cape or point
[This alſo I
vnderſtand * by report of ſome trauellers, that if anie of
of Cornewall, as I haue beene informed.
our veſſels happen to make a voiage to Hiſpaniola or
new Spaine, called in time paſt Quinquexia and Haiti,
and lieth betweene the north tropike and the equator;
after they haue once touched at the Canaries, (which
are eight daies ſailing, or two hundred and fiftie leages,
from S. Lucas de Barameda in Spaine,) they will be
there in thirtie or fourtie daies, & home againe in
Cornewall in other eight weekes, which is a goodlie
matter, beſide the ſafetie and quietneſſe in the paſſage.
But more of this elſewhere.]
Edgar had
1600 or 3600
ships.
Ethelred made
every man
holding 310
hidelands, pro-
vide a warship.
Our ships 'll
sail 900 miles
a week.
Some 'll go
from Colchester
to the West
Indies and
back, in 12 or 13
weeks :
[r p. 202]
and to Haiti
and back
in 16 weeks.
2.94. THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book 11.
Of faires and markets.
Chap. 18."
Here are (as I take it) few great townes in
Weekly markets England, that haue not their weekelie mar-
in every large e
town. kets, [one or more granted from the prince,
in which all maner of prouiſion for houſhold is to be
bought and ſold, for eaſe and benefit of the countrie
round about. Wherby, as it commeth to paſſe that
no buier ſhall make anie great iourneie in the puruei-
ance of his neceſſities, ſo no occupier ſhall haue occaſion
to trauell far off with his commodities, except it be to
ſeeke for the higheſt prices, which commonlie are neere
wnto great cities, where round and ſpeedieſt vtterance is
They were alwaies to be had. And as theſe haue beene in times
meant for the paſt erected for the benefit of the realme, ſo are they in
i. º * many places too too much abuſed : for the reliefe and
uyer, but are tº g - g
turnd to the eaſe of the buier is not ſo much intended in them, as
benefit of the e e
seller. the benefit of the ſeller, Neither are the magiſtrats for
the moſt part [(as men loth to diſpleaſe their neighbours
for their one yeares dignitie,)] ſo carefull in their offices,
as of right and dutie they ſhould bee. For in moſt of
Little inspection theſe markets, neither aſſiſes” of bread, nor orders for
gº nºw goodneſſe [and ſweetneſſe] of graine, and other com-
modities that are brought thither to be ſold, are anie
whit looked vnto ; but ech one ſuffered to ſell or ſet vp
what and how himſelfe liſteth : & this is one euident
cauſe of dearth 3 [and ſcarfitie] in time of great abund-
3Il Ce.
I could (if I would) exemplifie in manie, but I will
touch no one particularlie, fith “it is rare to ſee in anie
5 countrie towne" [(as I ſaid)] the affiſe of bread well
kept according to the ſtatute. [And yet if anie coun-
trie baker happen to come in among them on the
1 This is chap, 11, Bk 2, in 1577 ed.—F.
* Sizes 3 darth * Certes 5–5 market
CHAP. x v III.] FAIRS AND MARKETS.
295
market daie with bread of better quantitie, they find
fault by and by with one thing or another in his ſtuffe;
whereby the honeſt poore man, whome the law of
nations doo commend, for that he indeuoureth to liue
by anie lawfull meanes, is driuen awaie, and no more
to come there vpon ſome round penaltie, by vertue of
their priuileges.] Howbeit * though they are ſo nice
in the proportion of their bread, yet! in lieu º of the
ſame, there is 4 ſuch headie ale & beere in moſt of
them, as for the mightineſſe thereof among ſuch as
ſeeke it out, is commonlie called huffecap, the mad
dog, father whoreſonne, angels food, dragons milke,
[go by the wall, ſtride wide, and lift leg, &c. And
this is more to be noted, that when one of late fell by
Gods prouidence into a troubled conſcience, after he
had confidered well of his reachleſſe” life, and danger-
ous eſtate : another, thinking belike to change his
colour and not his mind, caried him ſtraightwaie” to
the ſtrongeſt ale, as to the next phyſician. It is in-
credible to ſaie how our maltbugs lug at this liquor,
euen as pigs ſhould lie in a row, lugging at their
dames teats, till they lie ſtill againe, and be not able
to wag. Neither did Romulus and Remus ſucke their
ſhee woolfe [or ſheepheards wife] Lupa, with ſuch eger
and ſharpe deuotion, as theſe men hale at hufcap, till
they be red as cockes, & litle wiſer than their combs.
But how am I fallen from the market into the ale-
houſe? In returning therefore vnto my purpoſe, I find 5
that in corne great abuſe is dailie ſuffered, to the great
preiudice of the towne and countrie, eſpeciallie the poore
artificer and houſeholder, which tilleth no land, but
laboring all the weeke to buie a buſhell or two of
graine on the market daie, can there haue none for his
monie: bicauſe bodgers, loders, and common carriers of
corne," doo not onlie buie vp all, but giue aboue the
1–1 I find 2–2 thereof
* find therfore 6 Graine
8 rekelesse 4
Yet a good
country baker
intruding, is
found fault
with, and
driven away.
There's plenty
of heady ale and
beer, calld
Huffcap,
Dragon's Milk,
Stride-wide, &c.
Our maltbugs
lug at alepots
like pigs at
their dame's
teats,
till they're as
red as cocks.
Bodgers buy up
all the corn.
straight
296
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Corn-dealers’
dodges to buy
up corn, and
then raise
prices.
Sometimes
they'll get a
man, for a pot of
Merry-go-down,
to buy for them.
[Szeborned
bodgers.]
[Bodgers
Alicenced.]
price, to be ſerued of great quantities. Shall I go anie
further? Well, I will ſaie yet a little more, and ſome-
what by mine owne experience.
At Michaelmaſſe time poore men muſt 1 make
monie of their graine, that they may paie their rents.
So long then as the poore man hath to ſell, rich men
will bring out none, but rather buie vp that which the
poore bring, vnder pretenſe of ſeed corne, [or alteration
of graine, although they bring none of their owne, J
bicauſe one wheat often ſowen without change of ſeed,
will ſoone decaie, and be conuerted into darnell. For
this cauſe therefore they muſt needs buie in the markets,
though they be twentie miles off, and where they be
not knowne, promiſing there, [if they happen to be
eſpied (which, God wot, is verie ſeldome)] to ſend
ſo much to their next market, to * be performed * I wot
not when.
If this ſhift, serue not (neither dooth the fox vſe
alwaies one tracke for feare of a ſhare), they will com-
pound with ſome one of the towne where the market
is holden, who for a pot of hufcap or merie go downe,
will not let to buie it for them, and that in his owne
name. Or elſe they wage one poore man or other, to
become a bodger, and thereto get him a licence vpon
ſome forged ſurmiſe; which being doone, they will feed
him with monie, to buie for them till he hath filled
their lofts,” and then if he can doo any good for himſelfe,
ſo it is ; if not, they will giue him ſomewhat for his
paines at this time, & reſerue him for an other yeare.
How manie of 4 the like * prouiders ſtumble vpon blind
creekes at the ſea coaſt, I wote not well; but that ſome
haue ſo doone, [and yet doo, vinder other mens wings,
the caſe" is too [too] plaine. But who dare find fault
1–1 sell 2–3 performe
3 What a pity the poor men couldn't co-operate, imitate the rich buyer, and have
their own bodger to buy for them.—F.
4–4 these ° cause
cHA2. xv.111.] FAIRS ANID MARKET 3.
297
with them, when they haue once a licence? [yea) though
it be but to ſerue a meane gentlemans houſe with corne,
who hath caſt vp all his tillage, bicauſe he boaſteth how
he can buie his graine in the market, better cheape than
he can ſow his land, as the rich grafier often dooth alſo
vpon the like deuiſe, [bicauſe grafing requireth a ſmaller
houſehold and leſſe attendance and charge.] If anie
man come to buie a buſhell or two for his expenſes vnto
the market croſſe, anſwer is made; “ Forſooth, here was
one euen now that bad me monie for it, and I hope he
will haue it.” And to ſaie the truth, theſe bodgers are
faire chapmen, for there are no more words with them,
but “Let me ſee it, what ſhall I giue you? knit it vp,
I will haue it, go carie it to ſuch a chamber, [and if
you bring in twentie ſeme more in the weeke daie to
ſuch an Inne or ſollar where I laie my corne, I will
haue it, and giue you [ ] pence or more in euerie
buſhell for fix weekes day of painment than an
other will.” Thus the bodgers beare awaie all, ſo
that the poore artificer and labourer cannot make
his prouiſion in the markets, fith they will hardlie
now adaies ſell by the buſhell, nor breake their
meaſure; and ſo much the rather, for that the buier
will looke (as they ſaie) for ſo much ouer meaſure
in a buſhell, as the bodger will doo in a quarter.
Naie, the poore man cannot off get anie of the
farmer at home, bicauſe he prouideth altogither to
ſerue the bodger, or hath an hope grounded vpon
a greedie and inſatiable defire of gaine, that the
ſale will be better in the market: ſo that he muſt
*giue two pence or a groate more in a buſhell at his
houſe, than the laſt market craued, or elſe go without
it, and ſleepe with an hungrie bellie. Of the common
carriage of corne ouer vnto the parts beyond the ſeas,
I ſpeake not; or at the leaſtwiſe if I ſhould, I could
not touch it alone, but needs muſt ioine other prouiſion
withall, whereby not onelie our freends abroad, but
Some small -
landholders,
and rich
graziers, don't
grow their own
COLT1,
Bodgers buying
up COrn.
How the
Bodgers trouble
the poor.
[r p. 203]
Export of corn
298
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
to enemies and
Papists, I can
hardly believe
MIl.
Large Dealers'
tricks to raise
the price of
COID.
At first they'll
sell only very
Small lots.
Bodgers’ super-
stitions about
the price of
COrn .
as of the first
cranes flying
south in winter.
alſo manie of our aduerſaries and countriemen, the
papiſts, are abundantlie relieued (as the report goeth);
but fith I ſee it not, I will not ſo truſt mine eares as
to write it for a truth.] But to returne to our markets
againe."
By this time the poore occupier hath all ſold his
crop for need of monie, being readie peraduenture to
buie againe yer long. And now is the whole ſale of
corne in the great occupiers hands, who hitherto haue
threſhed little or none of their owne, but bought vp of
other men, ſo much as they could come by. Hence-
foorth alſo they begin to ſell, not by the quarter or load
at the firſt, [for marring the market, but by the buſhell
or two, or an horſſeload at the moſt, therby to be ſeene
to keepe the croſſe,” either for a ſhew, or to make men
eger to buie, and ſo as they may haue it for monie, not
to regard what they paie. And thus corne waxeth
deere; but it will be deerer the next market daie. It
is poſſible alſo that they miſlike the price in the begin-
ning for [the] whole yeare inſuing, as men ſuppoſing
that corne will be litle worth for this, & of better price
in the next yeare. [For they haue certeine ſuperſtitious
obſeruations, whereby they will giue a geſſe at the ſale
of corne for the yeare following. And our countrie-
men doo vſe commonlie for barleie, where I dwell, to
iudge after the price at Baldocke vpon S. Matthewes
daie ; and for wheat, as it is ſold in ſeed time. They
take in like ſort experiment by fight of the firſt flockes
of cranes that flee ſouthward in winter, the age of the
moone in the beginning of Ianuarie, & ſuch other
apiſh toies, as by laieng twelue cornes vpon the
hot hearth for the twelue moneths, &c.; whereby
they ſhew themſelues to be ſcant good chriſtians: but
what care they, ſo they may come by monie 2. Here-
1—l proceede
2 market. “For maring of the market' appears here as a marginal reference.
—F.
cHAp. xv.111.] FAIRS AND MARKET5.
299
vpon alſo will they threſh out three parts of the old
corne, toward the latter end of the ſummer, when new
commeth apace to hand, and caſt the ſame in * the
fourth vnthreſhed, where it ſhall lie vntill the next
ſpring, or peraduenture till it muſt and putrifie.
[Certes it is not deintie to ſee muſtie corne in manie o
our great markets of England, which theſe great oc-
cupiers bring foorth when they can keepe it no longer.
But as they are inforced oftentimes vpon this one
occaſion ſomwhat to abate the price, ſo a plague is not
ſeldome ingendred thereby among the poorer ſort, that
of neceſſitie muſt buie the ſame, wherby manie thou-
ſands of all degrees are conſumed, of whoſe deaths (in
mine opinion) theſe farmers are not vnguiltie. But to
proceed. If they laie not vp their graine or wheat in
this maner, they haue yet another policie, whereby they
will ſeeme to haue but ſmall ſtore left in their barnes :]
for * elſe they will gird their ſheues‘ by the band, and
ſtacke it vp of new in leſſe roome, to the end it may
not onlie ſeeme” leſſe in quantitie, but alſo giue place
to the corne that is yet to come into the barne, or
growing [in] the field. If there happen to be ſuch
plentie in the market on anie market daie, that they
cannot ſell at their own price, then will they ſet it vp
in ſome freends houſe, againſt another or the third daie,
& not bring it foorth till 9 they like of the ſale. If they
ſell anie at home, beſide harder meaſure, it ſhall be
deerer to the poore man [that bieth it] by two pence
or a groat in a buſhell, than they may ſell it in the
market. But as theſe things are worthie redreſſe, ſo I
wiſh that God would once open their eies that deale
thus, to ſee their owne errours: for as yet ſome of them
little care how manie poore men ſuffer extremitie, ſo
that they may fill their purſes, and carie awaie the gaine.
[It is a world alſo to ſee how moſt places of the
realme are peſtered with purueiours, who take vp egs,
then 2 into 3 Or * sheues of * appeare
Bodgers some-
times keep corn
In hand till it
musts and rots.
The poor have
to buy it, and
it gives 'em the
plague.
Bodgers 'll bind
up their corn
tight, to seem
to have little,
and will put off
selling till they
get their own
price.
May God open
their eyes to
their sins 1
We're pesterd
too with
° untyll
3oo
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, . |Book II.
Purveyors,
who buy up our
country eggs,
chickens, &c.,
and sell 'em
elsewhere.
Rise of Price in
Butter
from 18d. a
gallon to 3s. 4d.
or 5s.
Superfluous
dealers, and
buying at
private houses,
instead of open
markets, are the
chief causes of
high prices.
No general
measure : differ-
ent Bushels
everywhere.
1 Victorian writers can say this too.
butter, cheeſe, pigs, capons, hens, chickens, hogs, bakon,
&c, in one market, vnder pretenſe of their commiſſions,
& ſuffer their wiues to ſell the ſame in another, or
to pulters of London. If theſe chapmen be abſent but
two or three market daies, then we may perfeótlie ſee
theſe wares to be more reaſonablie ſold, and therevnto
the croſſes ſufficientlie furniſhed of all things. In like
ſort, ſince the number of buttermen haue ſo much
increaſed, and ſince they trauell in ſuch wiſe, that they
come to mens houſes for their butter faſter than they
can make it; it is almoſt incredible to ſee how the
price of butter is augmented " : whereas, when the
owners were inforced to bring it to the market townes,
& fewer of theſe butter buiers were ſtirring, our butter
was ſcarſlie woorth eighteene pence the gallon, that
now is worth three ſhillings foure pence, & perhaps
fiue ſhillings. Wherby alſo I gather that the mainte-
nance of a ſuperfluous number of dealers * in moſt
trades, tillage alwaies excepted, is one of the greateſt
cauſes why the prices of things become exceſſiue : for
one of them doo commonlie vſe to out bid another.
And whileſt our countrie commodities are commonlie
bought and ſold at our priuate houſes, I neuer looke
to ſee this enormitie redreſſed, or the markets well
furniſhed.]
I could ſaie more, but this is euen inough, & more
peraduenture than I ſhall be well thanked for; yet true
it is, though ſome thinke it no treſpaſſe. This more-
ouer is to be lamented, that one generall meaſure is not
in vſe throughout all England, but euerie market
towne hath in * maner a ſeuerall buſhell 4; and the
I recollect fresh butter at 8d. and 10d.
a pound here at Egham, and now we pay 20d. The imported Italian butter that
we get in London, from Ralli, Greek St, Soho, is 19d,—F,
* An interesting anticipation of John Stuart Mill's point of the evil of a large
Co-operation, with a few middle-
middleman class checkt only by competition.
men, the agents and servants of the co-operators, is what we want.—F.
3 in a * measure
cHAP. xviii.] FAIR3 AND MARKET 3.
3o I
leſſer it be, the more ſellers it draweth to reſort vnto
the ſame. [Such alſo is the couetouſneſſe of manie
clearkes of the market, that in taking view of meaſures,
they will alwaie ſo prouide, that one and the ſame
buſhell ſhall be either too big or too little at their next
comming, and yet not depart without a fee at the firſt :
ſo that, what by their mending at one time, and em-
pairing the ſame at another, the countrie is greatlie
charged, and few iuſt meaſures to be had in anie ſteed.]
It is oft found likewiſe, that diuerſe Vnconſcionable
dealers haue one meaſure to ſell by, & another to buie
withall; the like is alſo in weights, [and yet all ſealed
and bronded.] Wherefore it were verie good that theſe
two were reduced vnto one ſtandard, that is, one buſhell,
one pound, one quarter, one hundred, one tale, one
number : ſo ſhould things in time fall into better order,
and fewer cauſes of contention be mooued in this land.
[Of the complaint of ſuch poore tenants as paie rent
corne vnto their landlords, I ſpeake not, who are often
dealt withall very hardlie. For beſide that in the
meaſuring of ten quarters, for the moſt part they loſe
one through the iniquitie of the buſhell (ſuch is the
greedineſſe of the appointed receiuers thereof), fault is
found alſo with the goodneſſe and cleanneſſe of the
graine. Wherby ſome peece of monie muſt needs
paſſe vnto their purſes to ſtop their mouths withall, or
elſe my lord will not like of the corne : “Thou art
worthie to looſe thy leaſe, &c.” Or if it be cheaper
in the market, than the rate allowed for it is in their
rents, then muſt they paie monie, and no corne, which
is no ſmall extremitie. And thereby we may ſee
how each one of vs indeuoureth to fleece and eat vp
another.
Another thing there is in our markets worthie to be
looked vnto, and that is the recariage of graine from the
ſame into lofts and ſollars, of which before I gaue ſome
intimation: wherefore if it were ordered, that euerie
Cheating by
Clerks of the
Market.
Dealers have 1
measure to sell
by, and another
to buy by.
We ought to
have 1 Standard
for measures
and weights.
Tenants who
pay rent in
COIIl
are cheated by
the Receivers
whom they're
oblig'd to fee.
Each one tries
to eat up the
other.
Sellers oughtn't
to be allowd to
carry off their
grain unsold.
3O2
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAN}}. [Book 11.
[1 p. 204]
Corn-seller's
ought to sell in
the nearest
market, and not
be allowd to go
20 miles off to
get a higher
price.
The contents of
Barns should
be noted, and
In Ore COTIn
brought to the
Town-Crosses.
Now, corn is
exported,
to our common-
wealth's great
hurt.
ſeller ſhould make his market by an houre, or elſe the
bailie or clearke of the ſaid market to make ſale
therof according to his diſcretion, without libertie to
the farmer to ſet vp their corne in houſes and chambers,
I am perſuaded that the prices of our graine would
ſoone be abated. Againe, if it were enaëted that each
one ſhould keepe his next market with his graine, and
not to run fix, eight, ten, foureteene, or twentie miles
from home, to ſell his corne where he dooth find the
higheſt price, and therby leaueth his neighbours vn-
furniſhed, I doo not thinke but that our markets would
be farre better ſerued than at this preſent they are.
Finallie, if mens barns might be indifferentlie viewed
immediatlie after harueſt, and a note gathered by an
eſtimat, and kept by ſome appointed & truſtie perſon
for that purpoſe, we ſhould haue much more plentie of
corne in our towne croſſes than as yet is commonlie
ſeene : bicauſe each one hideth and hoordeth what he
may, vpon purpoſe either that it will be deerer, or that
he ſhall haue ſome priuie veine by bodgers, who doo
accuſtomablie ſo deale, that the ſea dooth load awaie no
ſmall part thereof into other countries & our enimies,
to the great hinderance of our common-wealth at home,
and more likelie yet to be, except ſome remedie be
found..] *But what doo I talke of theſe things, or defire
the ſuppreſſion of bodgers, being a miniſter? Certes I
may ſpeake of them right well, as feeling the harme in
that I am a buier, neuertheleſſe I ſpeake generallie in
ech of them.” *
To conclude therefore, in our markets all things are
to be ſold, neceſſarie for mans vſe ; and there is our
prouifion made commonlie for all the weeke inſuing.
Therefore, as there are no great townes without one
weekelie market at the leaſt, ſo there are verie few of
2–2 But more of this hereafter in the next booke, where I haue inserted a litle
treatize, which I sometimes collected of our weights & measures, and their com-
parison with those of the auncient Greekes and Romaines.
cHAP. XIX.] PARKS AND WARRENS ,
3O3
them that haue not one or two faires or more within
the compaſſe of the yeare, aſſigned vnto them by the
prince. And albeit that ſome of them are not much
better than [Lowſe faire, or the common kirkemeſſes
beyond the ſea, yet there are diuerſe not inferiour to the
greateſt marts in Europe, as Sturbridge faire neere to
Cambridge, [Briſtow faire, Bartholomew faire at
London, Lin 1 mart, Cold faire at Newport pond for
cattell, and diuerſe other, all which, or at leaſtwiſe the
greateſt part of them, (to the end I may with the more
eaſe to the reader and leſſe trauell to my ſelfe fulfill my
taſke in their recitall), I haue ſet downe, according to
the names of the moneths wherein they are holden, at
the end of this booke, where you ſhall find them at
large, as I borowed the ſame from II.] Stow, [and the
reports of others.]
Of Parkes and Warrens.
Chap. 19.”
Neuerie ſhire of England there is great plentie of
parkes, whereof ſome here and there, [to wit,
welnere to the number of two hundred, for hir
daily prouiſion of that fleſh, apperteine to the prince,
the reſt to ſuch of the nobilitie and gentlemen as haue
their lands and patrimonies” lieng [in or] neere vnto
the ſame. I would gladlie haue ſet downe the iuſt
number of theſe incloſures to be found in euerie
countie: but fith I cannot ſo doo, it ſhall ſuffice to
ſaie, that in Kent and Eſſex onelie are to the number of
an hundred, [and twentie in the biſhoprike of Durham,
wherein great plentie of fallow deere is cheriſhed and
1 Linne
Most towns have
1 or 2 fairs a
year,
some great ones,
as Stourbridge
Fair, Bartholo-
mew Fair, &c.
The names and
dates of these
I’ve set down at
the end of this
book.
The Queen has
nearly 200
parks.
There are 100 in
Kent and Essex,
with fallow
deer.
* This, in 1577 ed., is Chap. 15 of Bk 2; and its title is markt with the parao'raph
sign "I.-F. * patrimony
3O4.
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
kept. As for warrens of conies, I iudge them almoſt
innumerable, and dailie like to increaſe, by reaſon that
the blacke ſkins' of thoſe beaſts are thought to coun-
eruaile the prices of their naked carcaſes, and this is
the Onelie cauſe whie the graie are leſſe eſteemed.
Neere vnto London, their quickeſt merchandize is of
the yong rabbets, wherfore the older conies” are
brought from further off, where there is no ſuch ſpeedie
vtterance of rabbets and ſucklings “in their ſeaſon, nor
ſo great loſſe by their ſkins, fith they are ſuffered to
growe vp to their full greatneſſe with their owners.
Our parkes are generallie incloſed with ſtrong pale
made of oke, of which kind of wood there is great ſtore
cheriſhed [in the woodland countries] from time to
time in ech of them, onelie for the maintenance of the
ſaid defenſe, and ſafe-keeping of the [fallow] deere
from ranging about the countrie. [Howbeit, in times
paſt diuerſe haue been fenſed in with ſtone walles (eſpe-
ciallie in the times of the Romans, who firſt brought
fallow deere into this land (as ſome coniećture) albeit
thoſe incloſures were ouerthrowne againe by the Saxons
& Danes, as Cauiſham, Towner, and Woodſtocke,
beſide other in the weſt countrie, and one alſo at Bolton.
Among other things alſo to be ſeene in that towne,
there is one of the faireſt clockes in Europe. Where
no wood is, they are alſo incloſed with piles of ſlate;
and therto it is douted of manie whether our bucke or
doe are to be reckoned in wild or tame beaſts or not.
Plinie deemeth them to be wild; Martial is alſo of the
ſame opinion, where he ſaith, Imbelles dama quid nift
prada ſumus 2 And ſo in time paſt the like con-
trouerfie was about bees, which the lawiers call Feras,
tit. de acquirendo rerum dominio, & lib. 2. inſtit. But
Coney-warrens.
Skins of black
conies are worth
more than their
bodies.
Near London,
young rabbits
and sucklings
sell best.
Parks are en-
closd now with
oak palings,
to keep the
deer in.
The old fencing
was with
stone walls.
(Bolton has one
of the finest
clocks in
Europe.)
Slate-fencing.
* See Percy Folio, Loose and Humorous Songs, p. 86, l. 31-4.—F.
? We've unluckily lost the distinction between rabbit and coney.—F.
• Calld ‘suckers’ in Babees Book, and Henry VIII.'s Household Ordinances.—
F.
cHAP. XIX.] PARKS AND WARRENS.
305
Plinie attempting to decide the quarell calleth them
Medias inter feras & placidas aues. But whither am I
ſo ſuddenlie digreſſed ? In returning therefore vnto
our parks, I find alſo] the circuit of theſe incloſures in
like manner conteine often times a walke of foure or
fiue miles, and ſometimes more or leſſe. Wherby it is
to be ſeene what ſtore of ground is emploied vpon that
vaine commoditie, which bringeth no manner of gaine
or profit to the owner, fith they commonlie giue awaie
their fleſh, neuer taking penie for the ſame, [except the
ordinarie fee, and parts of the deere, giuen vnto the
keeper by a cuſtome, who beſide three ſhillings foure
pence, or fiue ſhillings in monie, hath the ſkin, head,
vmbles, chine, and ſhoulders : whereby he that hath
the warrant for an whole bucke, hath in the end little
more than halfe, which in my iudgement is ſcarſelie
equall dealing;] for veniſon in England is neither
bought nor ſold,” [as in other countries, but mainteined
onelie for “the pleaſure of the owner and his friends.”
[Albeit I heard of late of one ancient ladie, which
maketh a great gaine by ſelling yeerelie hir huſbands
veniſon 4 to the cookes, (as another of no leſſe name will
not ſticke to ride to the market to ſee hir butter ſold,)
but not performed without infinite ſcoffes and mockes,
euen of the pooreſt pezzants of the countrie, who thinke
them as odious matters in ladies and women of ſuch
countenance, to ſell their veniſon and their butter, as for
an earle to feele his oxen, ſheepe, and lambs, whether
they be readie for the butcher or not, or to ſell his
wooll vnto the clothier, or to keepe a tan-houſe, or deale
with ſuch like affaires as belong not to men of honor,
but rather to farmers, or grafiers; for which ſuch, if
there be anie, may well be noted (and not vniuſtlie) to
degenerate from true nobilitie, and betake themſelues
! because
Parks are 4 or
5 miles round.
Keeper's per-
quisites on a
deer being
illd.
Venison 's not
bought or sold.
Yet one Lady
has actually
sold her hus-
band's Venison
to the Cooks :
and another has
ridden to
market to see
her Butter sold !
An Earl must
not turn ox-
dealer.
* sold by the right owner
*—” hys pleasure to the no small decay of husbandry & diminution of mankind.
* See Andrew Boorde's amusing bit about venison in his Dyetary: my ed., p.
275.-F.
HARRISON. 20
306
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book 11.
[2 p. 205]
The Romans
passt a law
against allowing
Senators to
trade, and so
become base
and covetous.
[Tillage and
2/tazukizzº dºmaint-
ished by Žarkes.]
Owners of parks
even take-in
commons, and
say that we've
too many people
in England.
to huſbandrie." And euen the ſame enormitie tooke
place ſometime among the Romans, and entred ſo farre
as into the verie ſenate, of whome ſome one had two or
three ſhips going vpon the ſea, pretending prouiſion for
their houſes; but in truth following the trades of
merchandize, till a law was made which did inhibit
and reſtraine them. Liuie alſo telleth of an”other
law which paſſed likewiſe againſt the ſenators by
Claudius the tribune, and helpe onelie of C. Flaminius,
that no ſenator, or he that had beene father to anie
ſenator, ſhould poſſeſſe anie ſhip or veſſell aboue the
capacitie of three hundred amphoras, which was ſup-
poſed ſufficient for the cariage and recariage of ſuch
neceſſities as ſhould apperteine vnto his houſe : fith
further trading with merchandizes and commodities
dooth declare but a baſe and couetous mind, not alto-
gither void of enuie, that anie man ſhould liue but he
or that if anie gaine were to be had, he onelie would
haue it himſelfe: which is a wonderfull dealing, and
muſt needs proue in time the confuſion of that countrie
wherein ſuch enormities are exerciſed.] Where” in
times paſt, manie large and wealthie occupiers were
dwelling within the compaſſe of ſome one parke, and
thereby great plentie of corne and cattell ſeene, and to
be had annong them, beſide a more copious procreation
of humane iſſue, whereby the realme was alwaies better
furniſhed with able men to ſerue the prince in his
affaires; now there is almoſt nothing kept but a ſort of
wild and ſauage beaſts, cheriſhed for pleaſure and de-
light; and yet ſome 4 owners, ſtill defirous to inlarge
thoſe grounds, [as either for the breed and feeding of
cattell, doo not let dailie to take in more, [not ſparing
the verie commons whervpon manie towneſhips now
and then doo liue, affirming that we haue alreadie too
great ſtore of people in England; and that youth by
1 Harrison was not quite up to the Dignity of Labour.—F.
3 For where 4 the
cHAP. XIX.] PARKS AND WARRENS.
3o 7
marrieng too ſoone doo nothing profit the countrie,
but fill it full of beggars, [to the hurt and vtter vndooing
(they ſaie) of the common wealth.]
Certes, if it be not one curſe of the Lord, to haue
our countrie conuerted in ſuch ſort, from the furniture
of mankind, into the walks and ſhrowds of wild beaſts,
I know not what is anie. How manie families alſo
theſe great and ſmall games (for ſo moſt keepers call
them) haue eaten vp, and are likelie hereafter to de
uoure, ſome men may coniećture, but manie more
lament, ſith there is no hope of reſtraint to be looked
for in this behalfe, [becauſe the corruption is ſo gen-
erall.] But if a man may preſentlie giue a gheſſe at the
wniuerſalitie of this euill by contemplation of the cir-
cumſtance,” he ſhall ſaie at the laſt, that the twentith
part of the realme is imploied vpon deere and conies
alreadie, which ſeemeth verie much, if it be" dulie
conſidered of.
[King Henrie the eight, one of the nobleſt princes
that euer reigned in this land, lamented oft that he was
conſtreined to hire forren aid, for want of competent
ſtore of ſouldiors here at home, perceiuing (as it is in-
deed,) that ſuch ſupplies are oftentimes more hurtfull
than profitable vnto thoſe that interteine them, as may
cheeſlie be ſeene in Valens the emperor, our Vortiger,
and no ſmall number of others. He would oft maruell
in priuate talke, how that when ſeauen or eight princes
ruled here at once, one of them could lead thirtie or
fortie thouſand men to the field againſt another, or two
of them Iooooo againſt the third, and thoſe taken out
onelie of their owne dominions. But as he found the
want, ſo he ſaw not the cauſe of this decaie, which
grew beſide this occaſion now mentioned; alſo by laieng
houſe to houſe, and land to land, whereby manie mens
occupiengs were conuerted into one, and the breed of
people not a little thereby diminiſhed. The auarice of
1–1 Left out in ed. 1587,-F. * circumstances
The decaie of the
Aeople is the de-
struction of a
Æingdomte,
1 zleyther zs any
mzan borne to
fossesse the earth
alone. I
A twentieth of
the realm is
taken up by
deer and conies.
Henry VIII.
often lanented
the want of
Englishmen for
soldiers,
and wonderd
how in early
days there were
So many.
The causes of
our loss of men
are, Parks, and
turning many
small holdings
into one large
Olle.
* be not, ed. 1587.-F.
308
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENG LAND. [Book 1 I.
Evils of Privi-
leges and Facul-
ties.
Bad second
editions of
books. [The
fact is well
known. See
instances in W.
de Worde's
Kerving, 2 ed.,
in Babees Book.]
Never so few
people in Eng-
land as now.
Of the destruc-
tion of tene-
ments I can
speak from my
own experience.
landlords, by increaſing of rents and fines, alſo did ſo
wearie the people, that they were readie to rebell with
him that would ariſe, ſuppoſing a ſhort end in the
warres, to be better than a long and miſerable life in
peace.
Priuileges and faculties alſo are another great cauſe
of the ruine of a common wealth and dirminution
of mankind ; for whereas law and nature dooth per-
mit all men to line in their beſt maner, and whatſoeuer
trade they be exerciſed in, there commeth ſome priui-
lege or other in the waie, which cutteth them off from
this or that trade, wherby they muſt needs ſhift ſoile,
and ſeeke vnto other countries. By theſe alſo the
greateſt commodities are brought into the hands of few,
who imbaſe, corrupt, and yet raiſe the prices of things
at their owne pleaſures. Example of this laſt I can
giue alſo in bookes, which (after the firſt impreſſion of
anie one booke) are for the moſt part verie negligentlie
handled: whereas if another might print it ſo well as
the firſt, then would men ſtriue which of them ſhould
doo it beſt; and ſo it falleth out in all other trades. It
is an eaſie matter to prooue that England was neuer
leſſe furniſhed with people than at this preſent; for if
the old records of euerie manour be ſought, and ſearch
made to find what tenements are fallen, either downe,
or into the lords hands, or brought and vnited togither
by other men: it will ſoone appeere, that in ſome one
manour, ſeuenteen, eighteene, or twentie houſes are
ſhrunke. I know what I ſaie, by mine owne experi-
ence: notwithſtanding that ſome one cotage be here
and there erected of late, which is to little purpoſe. Of
cities and townes, either vtterlie decaied, or more than
a quarter or halfe diminiſhed, though ſome one be a
little increaſed here and there; of townes pulled downe
for ſheepe-walks", and no more but the lordſhips now
1 See the curious tract on this in Mr J. M. Cowper's Four Supplications, E. E.
Text Soc., Extra Series.—F.
CHAP. XIX.] PARKS AND WARRENS.
309
ſtanding in them, beſide thoſe that William Rufus
pulled downe in his time; I could ſaie ſomewhat : but
then I ſhould ſwarue yet further from my purpoſe,
wherevnto I now returne.]
Wee had no parkes [left] in England at the com-
ming of the Normans, who added this calamitie alſo to
the ſeruitude of our nation, making men of the beſt
ſort furthermore to become keepers of their game,
whileſt they liued in the meane time vpon the ſpoile of
their reuenues, and dailie ouerthrew townes, villages,
and an infinit ſort of families, for the maintenance of
their venerie. Neither was anie parke ſuppoſed in theſe
times to be ſtatelie enough, that conteined not at the
leaſt eight or ten hidelands, that is, ſo manie hundred
acres or families (or, as they haue beene alwaies called
in ſome places of the realme, carrucats or cartwares) of
which one was ſufficient in old time to mainteine an
honeſt yeoman.
[King John trauelling on a time northwards, to wit,
I2O9, to warre vpon the king of Scots, becauſe he had
married his daughter to the earle of Bullen without his
conſent: in his returne ouerthrew a great number of
parkes and warrens, of which ſome belonged to his
barons, but the greateſt part to the abbats and prelats
of the cleargie. For hearing (as he trauelled) by com-
plaint of the countrie, how theſe incloſures were the
cheefe decaie of men, and of tillage in the land, he
ſware with an oth that he would not ſuffer wild beaſts
to feed vpon the fat of his ſoile, and ſee the people
periſh for want of abilitie to procure and buie them
food that ſhould defend the realme. Howbeit, this ačt
of his was ſo ill taken by the religious and their adhe-
rents, that they inuerted his intent herein to another
end; affirming moſt ſlanderouſlie how he did it rather
of purpoſe to ſpoile the corne and graſſe of the com-
mons and catholikes that held againſt him of both
! before
Parks due to the
Normans.
Carucates or
Cartwares.
King John
overthrew many
parks and
warrens,
Swearing that
he'd not let
Wild beasts eat
his people's
food.
3 Io
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Andrew Boorde
(my ed. p. 274)
says there are
more parks
[“pleasure for
harte and
hynde') in
England than
in all Europe.
[1 p. 206]
Still, some
owners of Parks
now find it pays
to dispark
them.
Franke Chase,
A Park is en-
clos'd 2 : a Chase
open, like En-
field and
Malvern Chases.
[2 No Park at
Charlecote in
Shakspere's
time.]
Parks, &c. can
only be made by
the King's
Charter.
Beasts of the
Chase.
Beasts of
Venery.
eſtates, and by ſo doing to impoueriſh and bring the
north part of the realme to deſtruction, becauſe they
refuſed to go with him into Scotland. If the ſaid
prince were aliue in theſe daies, wherein Andrew
Boord ſaith there are more parks in England than in
all Europe (ouer which he trauelled in his owne per-
ſon), and ſaw how much ground they conſume, "I
thinke he would either double his othes, or laié the
moſt of them open, that tillage might be better looked
wnto. But this I hope ſhall not need in time, for the
owners of a great ſort of them begin now to ſmell out,
that ſuch parcels might be emploied to their more
gaine, and therefore ſome of them doo grow to be diſ-
parked.
Next of all, we haue the franke chaſe, which taketh
ſomething both of parke and forreſt, and is giuen either
by the kings grant or preſcription. Certes it differeth
not much from a parke; nay, it is in maner the ſelfe
ſame thing that a parke is, ſauing that a parke is in-
uironed with pale, wall, or ſuch like : the chaſe alwaie
open and nothing at all incloſed, as we ſee in Enueeld
& Maluerne chaſes. And as it is the cauſe of the ſeiſure
of the franchiſe of a parke not to keepe the ſame in-
cloſed, ſo it is the like in a chaſe, if at anie time it be
imparked. It is treſpaſſe, and againſt the law alſo, for
anie man to haue or make a chaſe, parke, or free warren,
without good warrantie of the king by his charter or
perfeót title of preſcription: for it is not lawfull for anie
ſubjećt either to carnilate, that is, build ſtone houſes,
imbattell, haue the querke of the ſea, or keepe the aſſiſe
of bread, ale, or wine, or ſet vp furels, tumbrell, thew,
or pillorie, or incloſe anie ground to the aforeſaid pur-
poſes within his owne ſoile, without his warrant and
grant. The beaſts of the chaſe were commonlie the
bucke, the roe, the fox, and the marterne. But thoſe
of venerie in old time were the hart, the hare, the bore
and the woolfe; but as this held not in the time of
CHAP. XIX.] PARKS AND WARRENS.
3 II
Canutus, ſo in ſteed of the woolfe the beare is now
crept in, which is a beaſt commonlie hunted in the eaſt
countries, and fed vpon as excellent veniſon, although
with vs I know not anie that feed thereon or care for it
at all. Certes] it ſhould ſeeme, that forreſts [and
franke chaſes] haue alwaies beene had, and religiouſlie
preſerued in this Iland, for the ſolace of the prince, and
recreation of his nobilitie: howbeit I read not that euer
they were incloſed more than at this preſent, or other-
wiſe fenſed than by vſuall notes of limitation, whereby
their bounds were remembred from time to time, for
the better preſeruation of ſuch venerie and vert of all
ſorts as were nouriſhed in the ſame. Neither are anie
of the ancient laws preſcribed for their maintenance,
before the daies of Canutus, now to be had ; fith time
hath ſo dealt with them that they are periſhed and loſt.
Canutus therefore, ſeeing the dailie ſpoile that was
made [almoſt] in all places of his game, did at the laſt
make fundrie ſančtions and decrees, whereby from
thenceforth the red and fallow deere were better looked
to” throughout his whole dominions. We haue in theſe
daies diuerſe forreſts in England and Wales, [of which,
ſome belong to the king, and ſome to his ſubie&ts, as
Waltham forreſt, Windleſor, Pickering, Fecknam, De-
lamore, [Gillingham, Kingſwood, Wencedale, Clun,
Rath, Bredon, Weire, Charlie, Leirceſter, Lee, Roking-
ham, Selwood, New forreſt, Wichwood, Hatfeeld,
Sauernake, Weſtbirie, Blacamore Peke, Deane, Pen-
riſe, & manie other now cleane out of my remem-
brance: and which, although they are far greater in
circuit than manie parkes and warrens, yet are they in
this our time leſſe deuourers of the people than theſe
latter, fith, beſide, much tillage [&J manie townes are
found in each of them, wheras in parks and warrens
we haue nothing elſe than either the keepers [& wa-
reners] lodge, or at leaſt” the manor place of the cheef
1 unto * the lest wise
(In the East, the
Bear is hunted
and eaten, as
good Venison.)
Canute made
laws for preserv-
ing his deer.
The Forests in
England and
Wales.
Forests devour
less people than
parks and
W&IſTellS.
3 ſ 2
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
lord & owner of the ſoile. [I find alſo by good record,
that all Eſſex hath in time paſt wholie beene forreſt
ground, except one cantred or hundred; but how long
it is fince it loſt the ſaid denomination, in good ſooth I
doo not read. This neuertheleſſe remaineth yet in
memorie, that the towne of Walden in Eſſex ſtanding
in the limits of the aforeſaid countie, doth take hir
name thereof. For in the Celtike toong, wherewith
the Saxon or Scithian ſpeech dooth not a little partici-
pate, huge woods and forreſts were called Walds; and
likewiſe their Druides were named Walie or Waldie,
bicauſe they frequented the woods, and there made
facrifice among the okes and thickets. So that if my
coniečture in this behalfe be anie thing at all, the afore-
ſaid towne taketh denomination of Wald and end, as if
I ſhould ſay, ‘The end of the wooddie ſoile'; for, being
once out of that pariſh, the champaine is at hand. Or
it may be that it is ſo called of Wald and dene: for I
haue read it written in old euidences Waldaeme, with a
diphthong. And to ſaie truth, Dene is the old Saxon
word for a vale or lowe bottome, as Dune or Don is for
an hill or hillie ſoile. Certes if it be ſo, then Walden
taketh hir name of the woodie vale, in which it ſome-
time ſtood. But the firſt deriuation liketh me better;
and the higheſt part of the towne is called alſo Chip-
ping Walden, of the Saxon word gipping, which ſigni-
fieth ‘Leaning or hanging,' and may verie well be ap-
plied therevnto, fith the whole towne hangeth as it were
vpon the fides of two hils, wherof the leſſer runneth
quite through the middeſt of the ſame. I might here,
for further confirmation of theſe things, bring in men-
tion of the Wald of Kent: but this may ſuffice for the
vſe of the word Wald, which now differeth much from
Wold. For as that ſignifieth a woodie ſoile, ſo this be-
tokeneth a ſoile without wood, or plaine champaine
countrie, without anie ſtore of trees, as may be ſeene in
All Essex was
once forest, save
one hundred.
* Walden "
(Essex)
is deriv'd from
“Wald,’ wood,
and ‘end’;
or from “Wald,’
and ‘dene,’ a
vale.
In “Chipping
Walden,’ ‘Chip-
ping’ is A.S.
[Giżing, of
going zºº to anie
£lace.]
The Weald of
Kent.
Difference
between “Wald,”
wood, and
‘Wold,’ open
country.
1 orig. of of
chap. xix.] PARKS AND war RENs.
3 I3
Cotſwold, Porkewold, &c. Beſide this] I could ſaie
more of our forreſts, and the aforeſaid incloſures [alſo,
& therein to prooue by the booke of forreſt law, that
the whole countie of Lancaſter hath likewiſe beene
forreſt heretofore. Alſo how William the Baſtard made
a law, that whoſoeuer did take anie wild beaſt within
the kings forreſt ſhould loſe an eare; as Henrie the firſt
did puniſh them either by life or lim: which ordinance
was confirmed by Henrie the ſecond and his peeres at
Woodſtocke, wherevpon great trouble inſued vnder
king John and Henrie the third, as appeareth by the
chronicles: but it ſhall ſuffice” to haue ſaid ſo much as
is ſet downe alreadie.
Howbeit, that I may reſtore one antiquitie to light,
which hath hitherto lien as it were raked vp in the
embers of obliuion, I will giue out thoſe” laws that
Canutus made for his forreſt: whereby manie things
ſhall be diſcloſed concerning the ſame (wherof perad-
uenture ſome lawiers haue no knowlege,) and diuerſe
other notes gathered touching the ancient eſtate of the
realme not to be found in other. But before I deale
with the great charter (which as you may perceiue, is
in manie places vnperfect by reaſon of corruption, [and
want alſo of congruitie, crept in by length of time, not
by me to be reſtored), I will note another breefe law,
which he made in the firſt yeare of his reigne at Win-
cheſter,” afterward inſerted into theſe his later conſti-
tutions, canon 32, & beginneth thus in his owne Saxon
tong: Ic" will that elc one, &c.; ‘I will and grant that
ech one ſhall be worthie of ſuch venerie as he by hunt-
ing can take either in the plaines or in the woods,”
within his owne fee or dominion"; but ech man ſhall
abſtaine from my venerie in euerie place, where I will
that my beaſts ſhall haue firme peace and quietneſſe,
vpon paine to forfet ſo much as a man may forfet."
I’ll say no more
of Forests,
Inclosures,
or Wn. the
Bastard's
and Henry I.'s
forest laws.
Canute's Forest-
La
WS,
Canute's 1st
Forest-Law.
* suffice at this time * the same * Winchester, and
4 ſ * Woods, or ° dominion (out of the forest)
-
3I4. THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book 11.
Hitherto the ſtatute made by the aforeſaid Canutus,
which was afterward confirmed by king Edward fur.
named the Confeſſor; [& ratified by the Baſtard] in the
fourth yeare of his reigne. Now followeth the great
(r. p. 207] charter it ſelfe in [ſuch rude order and Latine las I find
it word for word, and which I would gladlie haue
turned into Engliſh, if it might haue ſounded to anie
benefit of the vinſkilfull and vnlearned.
C t p ğ to ſº * * } te e -
Fºw. Incipiunt constitutiones Canuti regis de
foresta.”
4e ſunt ſanétienes de foreſta, quas ego Ca-
nutus rer cum conſºlio primariorum hominum
meorum condo & facio, vt cunétis regni noſtri
Angliae eccleſ.js & par & juſtitia fiat, & vi omnis delin-
quens ſecundum modum delićti, & delinquentis fortunam
patiatur.
Pegened. I. Sint iam deinceps quatuor ea liberalioribus homi-
nibus, qui habent ſaluas ſuas debitas conſuetudines (quos
Angli Pegened appellant) in qualibet regni mei pro-
uincia conſtituti, ad inſtitiam diſtribuendam, vna cum
poena merita & materijs forreſta cunéto populo meo, tam
Anglis qudm Danis per totum regnum meum Angliae,
quos quatuor primarios foreſide appellandos cenſemus.
* The following translation is from John Manwood’s ‘Brefe Collection of the
Lawes of the Forest' (date, according to the Museum Catalogue, 1592), printed for
private circulation; the translation was left out in the author's full Treatise on
Forest Laws, published in 1615, after his death, which embodied his two earlier
works. –F.
“These are the Lawes of the Forest, which I King Canutus with the Counsell
of my cheefe men do make and establish, to that end that Peace & Justice might be
ministred to all congregations of our Realme of England: and that euery man that
doth offend, may be punished according to the manner of the offence, and of him
that doth offend.
1. Nowe from hencefoorth, let there be foure men of the best account, which
haue their free customes & duties serued (which Englishmen do call ‘Pegened,’ ap-
pointed throughout the Prouince of my realme to administer Justice to al my people
throughout all my Realme of England, as well to Englishmen as to Danes, together
chap. xix.] PARKS AND WARRENS. 3 I 5
2. Sint ſub quolibet horum, quatuor er mediocribus r:
hominibus (quos Angli Leſpegend nuncupant, Dani verb Lesſegend.
yoong men vocant) locati, qui curam & onus tum viridis %:#f
tum veneris ſuſcipiant.
3. In adminiſtranda autem iuſtitia nullatenus volo
vt tales ſe intromittant: mediocréſque tales poſt ferarum
curam ſuſceptam, pro liberalibus ſemper habeantur, quos
Dani Ealdermen appellant. Ealdermen.
4. Sub horum iterum quolibet ſint duo minutorum Tineman.
hominum, quos Tineman Angli dicunt, hi noćturnam
curam & veneris & viridis tum ſeruilia opera ſubibunt.
5. Si talis minutus ſeruus fuerit, tam citè quêm in
foreſia noſtra localitur, liber eſto, omnéſue hos er ſump-
tibus noſtris manutenebimus.
6. Habeat etiam quilibet primariorum quolilet anno
de noſtra warda, quam Michni Angli appellant, duos Michni
equos, vnum cum ſella, alterum fine ſella, vnum gladium,
quinque lanceas, vnum cuſpidem, vnum ſcutum, & du-
centos ſolidos argenti. -
7. Mediocrium quilibet vnum equum, vnam lanceam,
vnum ſcutum, & 6o ſolidos argenti.
with condigne punishment for the offences of the Forest: which foure men of the
Forest, we haue determined to call them Primarios, that is to saie, the cheife men.
2. Let there be vnder euerie one of those foure cheife men of the Forest, foure
meane men placed, which Englishmen call ‘Lespegend,' but Danes do call them “yong
men’; which shall take vpon them the charge and burthen, both of Wert and Venison.
3. But in the execution of Justice, I will that in no wise such foure cheife men,
doe let in or suffer such meane men to ioyne with them therin. For after that they
haue taken vpon them the charge of the wilde beastes, they shal alwaies be ac-
counted for freemen, which the Danes doe call “Eldermen.’
4. Againe, vnder euery one of these meane men, let there bee two of the least
men of account of the Forest, (which Englishmen do call ‘Tyne-men';) these persons
shall vndertake the seruile labour, and also the night charge of Wert and Venison.
5. If such a seruile officer shall fortune to be a bondman: so soone as he shall be
placed in our Forest, let him be made Free of his bondage: & all these persons we
will maintaine of our owne costes.
6. And also, euery one of the saide foure cheefe men, shall haue for euery yeere
of our allowance, (which the Danes doe call “Michni,') two Horses, one of them with
a Saddell, an other of them without a Saddell: One Sworde, 5 Jauelins, one speare,
one shilde, and x. li. in money.
7. And euery one of our said meane men, shall haue for euery yeare, one Horse,
one Jaueline, one shilde, and iii li. in Money.
3I6 THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND [Book II.
Canute's * : ); J. - §
Forest-Laws. 8. Minutorum quilibet, vnum lanceam, vnam arcuba-
liſtam, & I5 ſolidos argenti.
9. Sint omnes tam primarij, quám mediocres, & mi-
nuti, immunes, liberi, & quieti ab omnibus prouincialibus
Hundred law, ſummonitionibus, & popularibus placitis, quae Hundred
laghe Angli dicunt, & ab omnibus armorum oneribus,
[Warscot.] quod Warſcot Angli dicunt, & forinceſs querelis,
Io. Sint mediocrium & minutorum cauſe, & earum
correótiones, tam criminalium quam ciuilium per prouidam
Japientiam & rationem primariorum iudicatae & deciſe:
primariorum verb enormia ſi quae fuerint (ne ſcelus ali-
quod remaneat inultum) noſmet in ira noſtra regali pu-
niemus.
II. Habeant hi quatuor vnam regalem poteſtatem
(ſalua [ſemper] nobis noſtra praeſentia) quatérque in anno
generales foreſta demonſtrationes & viridis & veneris
Muchehunt, forisfačtiones, quas Muchehunt dicunt, vli teneant omnes
calumniam de materia aliqua tangente foreſtam, edintſ/ue
%; ad triplea iudicium, quod Angli Ofgangfordell dicunt.
triplex ordalia, Ita autem acquiratur illud triplex indicium. Accipiat ſe-
cum quinque, & ſit ipſe ſertus, & ſic iurando acquirat
8. And euery one of the saide seruile persons, shall haue for euery yeere, one
Jaueline, one Crosbowe, and XV shillings of money.
9. Let, as well all the saide foure cheefe men, as also the saide meane men, and
the foresaide seruile officers, be exempted and discharged from paying of any tribute,
& also freed and aquited from al prouincial Sommons, and popular plees, which
Englishmen do cal Hundred laghe and also from all charges of Armoure, which
Englishmen do call ‘Warscot,’ and also from foreine sutes.
10. The causes & offences of these meane men & seruile persons: & the correc-
tion of them, as wel such causes & offences as are Criminall, as those that are Ciuil,
shal be adjudged & decided by the prouident wisdome and discretion of those foure
cheefe men: but the offences of those foure cheefe men, if any shal fortune to be,
lest that any haynous offence should remaine vnreuenged, Wee our owne selfes shal
punish the same in our Royall displeasure.
11. These foure cheefe men, shall haue one Roial authoritie (sauing vnto vs our
owne Roial presence :) And foure times in the yeere they shall keepe theire generall
Sessions or Plees of the Forest, & all forfeitures, as well of Wert, as of Venison :
(which Englishmen do call “Much-hunt,”) where they shall hold Plee of any matter
concerning the Forest. And they shall proceede to a three folde Judgement, which
Englishmendo call “of Gangfardell’; and this threefolde Judgement is thus to be had.
Hee that is accused, must take with himselfe fiue other persons, and himselfe must
be the sixt person; and so in Swearing he shal haue a threefold Judgement, or three-
CHAP. XIX.] PARKS AND WARRENS. 3 7
tripler indicium, aut tripler iuramentum, Sed purgatio F.,
ignis nullatenus admittatur, nift wbi nuda veritas nequit TT
aliter inueſtigari. ºr
12. Liberalis autem homo. I. Pegen, modo crimen Pegen.
ſuum non ſit inter maiora,' habeat fidelem hominem qui
poſit pro eo iurare iuramentum. I. Forathe ſi autem non Forathe,
habet, ipſemet inret, nec pardonetur ei aliquodiuramentum.
13. Si aduena vel peregrinus qui de longinquo venerit
ſit calumniatus de foreſia, & talis eſt ſua inopia wt non
poſit habere plegium ad primam calumniam, qualem *
nullus Anglus iudicare poteſt : tunc ſubeat captionem re-
gis, & ibi expectet quouſ/ue vadat ad iudicium ferri &
aquae : attamen ſ, quis ertraneo aut peregrino de longe
venienti º *ſūli ipſ, nocet, ſº aliquod indicium iudicaue-
nint.
14. Quicºnque coram primarios homines meos foreſide
in falſo teſtimonio ſieterit & vičius fuerit, non ſit dignus
impoſierum ſtare aut portare teſtimonium, quia legalita-
tem ſuam perdidit, & pro culpa ſoluat regi decem ſolidos
quos Dani vocant Halfehang, alids Halſehang. Haffehang,
folde oath. But for any person to haue his triall or purgation by Fier, is in nowise
to be allowed or admitted, except it be where the manifest trueth cannot otherwise
be found out.
12. But a freeman, (which Englishmen call ‘Pegen') hauing his offence depend-
ing: although he bee not within the compasse of the Seas, yet hee may haue a
trustie or faithfull friend that may sweare his oath for him : (which Englishmen
call ‘Foreath'), but if he haue not such a trustie man to sweare for him, he him selfe
shall sweare the oath, neither shall he be pardoned for any oath.
13. If a straunger or pilgrime, which hath come from a far Contrey, be accused
of the offence of the Forest : and his pouerty is such that he cannot haue a Pledge,
such as he ought to haue: at the first accusation no Englishman may adiudge him
therof: then he must indure the Kinges imprisonment, and there remaine wintill he
may proceed forward to iudgement of the Iron, and Water. And yet notwithstand-
ing, if any person do hurt vnto him that is such a straunger or pilgrime, comming
from a far Countrey : if those foure cheefe men shal determine any iudgement
against the same stranger, the same Judgement shall be vnto him that did hurte the
same straunger.
14. Whosoeuer shall beare false witnes before my said foure cheefe men of the
Forest, & shal be conuicted thereof, afterwardes he is not worthy any more to be
allowed a witnes, or to beare any witnes, for because he hath lost his ability
therin, & for that offence he shal paie vnto the King ten shillinges: which the
Danes do call Halfeshang, alias Halshang. * mariora
3.18 THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Canute's & e tº º g * e .
Forest-Laws. I5. Si quis vim aliquam primarijs foreſide mea in-
T tulerit, ſº liberalis ſit amittat libertatem & omnia ſua,
Jº villanus alſcindatur dextra.
I6, Si alteruter iterum peccauerit, reus ſit mortis.
I7. Si quis "autem contra" primarium pugnauerit,
in plito emendet ſecundum pretium ſui ipſius, quod Angli
Pere & Pite, Pere & pite dicunt, & ſoluat primario quadraginta ſoli-
dos,
18. Si pacem quis fregerit ante mediocres foreſiae,
Gethbrech quod dicunt Gethbrech, emendet regi decem ſolidis.
I9. Si quis mediocrium aliquem cum ira percufferit,
emendetur prout interfeótio ferae regalis mihi emendari ſo-
let.
20. Si quis delinquems in foreſta noſtra capietur,
poenas luet ſecundum modum & genus delióti.
2.I. Poena & forisfactio non vna eadémque erit libe-
&aldermeant. Talis (quem Dani Ealderman vocant) & illiberalis : do-
mini & ſerui : noti & ignoti : nec vna eadémque erit
cauſarum tum ciuilium tum criminalium, ferarum foreſide,
15. If any man shall offer any force to my said cheefe men of my Forest, if he
be a freeman that shal so offend, he shall lose his libertie or freedome, and all that
he hath : but if he be a bondman, then his right hand shalbe cutt.
16. But if either of them shall offend againe, then he shal be adiudged gilty of
death for the same.
17. But if any man shall contend in Sute with any one of our cheefe men afore-
saide against him, then he shall make recompence for the same to the King, accord-
ing to the worth of him selfe, which Englishmen do call “Pere et Pite’: and also
shall paie vnto our cheefe man for the same, fourty shillinges.
18. If any man shall breake the peace of the King, in the presence of our meane
men of the Forest aforesaide (which Englishmen do call “Geth-brech') he shall yeeld
recompence to the King for the same, ten shillinges.
19. If any of our meane men aforesaid with his wrath shall strike any man, let
him make such recompence to the King for the same, as was accustomed to be made
to me for the killing of a roial wilde beast.
20. If any man be taken offending in our Forest, it is conuenient for him to be
punished, according to the maner and kind of his offence.
21. The punishment of a freeman (whom the Danes do call ‘Eldermen,”) shal not
be one and the selfe same punishment of a man that is seruile, or not free: Of a
seruant and a maister: Of a man that is knowen, and of him that is not knowen :
Nor the punishment of Criminall causes, & of Ciuil causes shalbe one, and the self
same: Nor of wilde beasts of the Forest, & royall wild beasts: nor the destroying
!--' contra autem cum
CHAP. XIX.] PARKS AND WARRENS, 319
& ferarum regalium : viridis & veneris tractatio: nam r.
crimen veneris ab antiquo inter maiora & non immerito
numerabatur: viridis verb (fraćtione chaceae noſtra rega-
lis excepta) ita puſillum & exiguum eſt, quëd vir ea-
reſpicit noſtra conſtitutio º qui in hoc tamen deliquerit,
Jit criminis foreſtae reus.
22. Si liber aliquis feram foreſta "ad curſum impu-
lerit," ſiue caſu, ſiue praehabita voluntate, ita vt curſu
celeri cogatur fera anhelare, decem ſolidis regi emendet,
J, illiberalis dupliciter emendet, ſº ſeruus careat corio.
23. Si vero harum” aliquot interfecerit, ſoluat du-
pliciter & perſoluat, ſitgue pretij ſui reus contra regem.
24. Sed,ſ regalem feram, quam Angliº Staggon ap- ::::::: [or
pellant, alteruter coegerit anhelare, alter per vnum an-
num, alter per duos careat libertate naturali: ſă verb ſeruus,
pro vtlegato habeatur, quem Angli Frendleſman vocant. Fremalesman.
25. Si verb occiderit, amittat liberſcutum libertatis,ſ,
Jit illiberalis careat libertate, ſº ſeruus vita.
of Wert & of Venison. For the offence of Venison or hunting, not vnworthely haue
bene accounted amongest the greatest offences of the Forest euen of auncient time.
But the offence of Wert (except it be for the breach of our Roiall free chace) it is so
little, and of so smal an account, that this our Constitution or Law, doth scantly
respect the same. Yet notwithstanding, he that shall offend in this offence, let him
be accounted gilty of an offence of the Forest.
22. If any freeman shall chase away a Dere, or a wilde beast out of the Forest:
whether the same were done by chaunce, or of a set purpose, so that thereby the
wilde beast is forced by swift running to lyll out the tong, or to breath with his tong
out of his mouth : he shall paie to the King ten shillings for amends for the same
offence: but if he be a seruile person, then he shall double the same recompence:
but if he be a bondman, then he shall lose his Skinne.
23. But if any of these men shall kill a wilde beast of the Forest, let him paie
double recompence for the same : And also let him paie besides, euen to the vtter-
most valew that he is worth: and he shal be accounted as an offender against the
Ring.
24. But if either of them shall chase a Roiall wilde heaste of the Forest (which
Englishmen doe call a “Stagon’) and thereby shall force him to hang out the tourge
with swifte running, then the one of them which is a freeman, shall lose his naturall
libertie for one whole yeere : and the other of them that is not a freeman, shall lose
his naturall libertie for two whole yeeres. But if he be a bondman, then afterwards
hee shall bee taken for an out-law, (which Englishmen do call “Frendlesman.”)
25. But if a freeman shall slea a wilde beaste, he shall lose the defence of his
1—1 fugerit * horum * Angli a
32O THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book 11.
rº. 26, Epiſcopi, abbates, & barones mei non calumnia-
buntur pro venatione, ſi non regales feras occiderint : &
Jº regales, reſtabunt rei regi pro libito ſuo, ſîne certa emen
datione.
27. Sunt aliae (praeter feras foreſtap) beſide, quae
ſºp 20s) *dum interſepta & ſepes foreſide continentur, emendationi
Jubiacent: quales ſunt capreoli, lepores, & cuniculi.
Sunt & alia quám plurima animalia, quae quanquam infra
ºftºn * ſepta foreſtae viulunt, & oneri & cura mediocrium ſubia-
cent foreſide, tamen nequaquam cenſeri poſſunt, qualia ſunt?
bulali, vacca, & ſimilia. Pulpes & lupi, nec foreſa
nec veneris habentur, & proinde eorum interfeółio nulli
emendationi ſubiacet. Si tamen infra limites occidumtur,
jraćtio ſit regalis chaceae, & mitids emendetur. Aper
verb quanquam foreſta ſit, nullatenus tamen animal vene-
ris haberi eſt aſſuetus.
28. Boſco nec ſulboſco noſtro ſine licentia primario-
rum foreſta memo manum apponat, quëd ſº quis fecerit
reus ſit fraćtionis regalis chaceae.
libertie, but if he be not a Freeman, then he shalbe imprisoned: but if he be a
bondman, then he shal lose his life.
26. My Bishops, Abbottes, and Barons, shall not be accused for hunting, if they
do not kill wild beastes that be Roial beastes: but if they doe kill Roia]l beastes of
the Forest, then they shall depend vpon the King for his determination of that
matter, without any certaine fine.
27. Besides the wilde beastes of the Forest, there are other wilde beastes, which
so long as they are remaining within the bandes and limittes of the Forest, they are
subject to the punishment of the Lawes of the Forest: such are, wild Gotes, Hares,
and Conies. And there are also diuers other wilde beastes, which although they do
liue and remaine within the bounds and limits of the Forest, & are subject to the
charge & burthen of the Regarders of the Forest, yet they cannot be accounted or
taken to be of the Forest: Such are wilde Horses, Bugalls, wilde Kine, and such
like. Foxes and Wolfes, are not accounted beastes of the Forest, nor of Venerie,
and therefore the killing of them is not subiect to any recompence for the same :
yet notwithstanding, if they be killed within the boundes of the Forest, it is a
breach of the King's Roiall free chase, and for that cause the offendor must make a
recompence: but a wilde Beare, although he be of the Forest, yet he is not accus-
tomed to be accounted a beast of Venerie.
28. No man shal laie his hande to our great Wood, or vnderwood, within our
demeanes, without licence of our verderors, or cheefenen of the Forest, the which
if any man shall doe the contrarie, he shalbe gilty of the breach of the Kinges Roial
free chase. * Sunt equi,
chap. xix.] PARKS AND WARRENS. 32 I
29. Si quis verb ilicem aut arborem aliquam, quae' vic- ſites giguando
zzz Britanzza
tum feris ſuppeditat ſciderit, praeter fraćtionem regalis º:#atºr
chaceae, emendet regi viginti ſolidis.
3o. Volo vi omnis liber homo pro libito ſuo habeat
venerem ſiue viridem in planis ſuis ſuper terras ſuas, fine
chacea tamen ; & deuitent omnes meam, vlicºnque eam
habere voluero.
31. Nullus mediocris habebit nec cuſtodiet canes, quos
Angli Greihounds appellant. Liberali verb, dum genui- Greihounds.
ſciſſio eorum fačia fuerit coram primario foreſide licebit,
aut ſine genuiſciſſione dum remoti ſunt d limitibus foreſta
per decem miliaria : quando verb propiºs” venerint, emen-
det quodlibet miliare vno ſolido. Si verb infra ſepta
joreſide reperiatur, dominus canis forisfaciet & decem
ſolidos regi.
32. Welteres verb quos Langeran appellant, quia Welter
e * * * * * * - e - * * • . . Lazºgezan.
manifeſtè conſtat in iſs nihil-effe periculi, cuilibet licebit
Jine genuiſciſſione eos cuſtodire. Idem de canibus quos
Ramhundt vocant. A’azuzhievedº.
29. But if any man shall cut downe a Holly Tree within the Forest, or any other
tree which doth beare frute or foode for the wilde beastes of the Forest, he shall paie
wnto the King twentie shillinges for amendes or recompence, ouer and besides the
breach of the Kinges Roial free chase.
30. I will that euery freeman may take Vert and Venison at his owne pleasure,
vpon his owne ground in his owne Plaines or Fildes, being without my free chase :
but euery man must refraine from my Wenery, wheresoeuer I will haue the same.
31. None of the meane men shall haue or keepe any Doggs which Englishmen
doe call ‘Grey-hounds’: but it is Lawfull for a freeman to haue and keepe Grey-
hounds when they are hoxed, that is to say, that they shall haue their knees cut be-
fore a Werderor of the Forest. And it is Lawfull for freemen to keepe Grey-hounds
without cutting of their knees when they doe dwell without the Forest, and from
the bounds of the Forest ten miles distant; but when they doe come nearer to the
Forest then ten miles, they must paie a recompence vnto the King, for euery mile a
shilling. But when those Grey-hounds be founde within the bounds of the Forest,
the owner of the Dogg'shall forfeit, both the same Dogg, and also ten shillings, to
the King. -
32. But it shal be lawful for euery bodie to keepe little Dogs called Velters
(that is to saie little houndes, which Englishmen doe cal Langeran) without cutting
of their knees, because it doth manifestly appeare that there is no danger of them :
and the same is of little dogges called Spanels, which Englishmen do call ‘Ram-
bundt’: but this is ment of those that are so little, that they may sit in a mans
lapp. - * qui * proprius
HARRISON. 21
3.22. THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
33. Quðdſ caſu inauſpicato huiuſmodi canes rabidi
Jiant & vbéque vagantur, negligentia dominorum, reddun-
...# tur illiciti, &- emendeur regi pro illicitis, &c. Quod ſº
intra ſepta foreſta reperiantur, talis eacquiratur herus, &e
emendet ſecundum pretium hominis mediocris, quod ſecun-
dum legem 'Werinorum. I. Churingorum,” eſ: ducento-
zum ſolidorum
34. Si canis rabidus momorderit feram, tuncemendet
[Pretium liberi ſecundum pretium hominis liberalis, quodeſt duodecies ſoli-
Åominis.] tº * º tº
dis centum. Si verb fera regalis morſafuerit, reus ſit
marimi criminis.
And theſe are the conſtitutions of Canutus concern-
ing the forreſt, verie barbarouſlie tranſlated by thoſe that
tooke the ſame in hand. Howbeit, as I find it, ſo I ſet
it downe, without anie alteration of my copie in anie
iot or tittle.
* Of gardens and orchards.
Chap. 20.
Fter ſuch time as Calis was woone from the
French, and that our countriemen had
Trade made our learned to trade into diuerſe countries (wher-
folk rich and e *
idle. by they grew rich) they began to wax idle alſo, and
therevpon not onlie left off their former painfulneſſe
33. If that such doggs by misfortune doe become madd or wilde, and do runne
about euery where by the negligence of their maister, and doe become vnlawfull :
then the owner of the same doggs shall paie a recompence to the King for their vn-
lawfulnes. If that they be founde within the boundes.of the Forest, such a maister
must be sought out, and he must paie a recompence to the King for the same ac-
cording to the valewe of a meane man, which, according to the auncient Lawe, is ten
poundes. sº
34. If a greedy rauening dogg shall bite a wild beast, then the owner of the
same dogg shall yeeld a recompence to the King for the same, according to the
valew of a freeman, which is twelue times a hundred shillings. If a Roial beast
shall be bitten, then the owner of the dogg shalbe gilty of the greatest offence.”—F.
1–1 merimorum
* This chapter (misnumberd 19) does not appear anywhere in the ed. of 1577. –F.
CHAP. xx.] GARDENS AND ORCHARDS.
32.3
and frugalitie, but in like fort gaue themſelues to liue
in exceſſe and vanitie, whereby manie goodlie commo-
dities failed, and in ſhort time were not to be had
amongſt vs. Such ſtrangers alſo as dwelled here with
vs, perceiuing our ſluggiſhneſſe, and eſpieng that this
idleneſſe of ours might redound to their great profit,
foorthwith imploied their endeuours to bring in the
ſupplie of ſuch things as we lacked, continuallie from
forren countries; which yet more augmented our idle-
nes. For hauing all things at reaſonable prices as we
ſuppoſed, by ſuch means from them, we thought it
meere madneſſe to ſpend either time or coſt about the
ſame here at home. And thus we became enimies to
our owne welfare, as men that in thoſe daies repoſed our
felicitie in following the wars, wherewith we were often
exerciſed both at home and other places. Beſides this,
the naturall defire that mankind hath to eſteeme of
things farre ſought, bicauſe they be rare and coſtlie, and
the irkeſome contempt of things neere hand, for that
they are common and plentifull, hath borne no ſmall
ſwaie alſo in this behalfe amongſt vs. For hereby we
haue neglected our owne good gifts of God, growing
here at home, as vile and oi no valure, and had euerie
trifle and toie in admiration that is brought hither from
far countries, aſcribing I wot not what great forces and
ſolemne eſtimation vnto them, vntill they alſo haue
waxen old; after which, they haue beene ſo little re-
garded, if not more deſpiſed amongſt vs than our owne.
Examples hereof I could ſet downe manie, & in manie
things, but fith my purpoſe is to deale at this time with
gardens and orchards, it ſhall ſuffice that I touch them
onelie, and ſhew our inconſtancie in the ſame, ſo farre
as ſhall ſeeme & be conuenient for my turne. I com-
prehend therefore vnder the word ‘garden, all ſuch
grounds as are wrought with the ſpade by mans hand,
for ſo the caſe requireth. Of wine I haue written al-
readie elſe—where ſufficientlie, which commoditie (as I
Foreigners im-
ported supplies
from abroad ;
our men became
idlers, and
took to wars.
We set far-fetcht
goods
above home-
grown ones.
By ‘garden ' I
mean all spade-
dug grounds.
324.
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book 11.
haue learned further fince the penning of that booke)
hath beene verie plentifull in this Iland, not onlie in
the time of the Romans, but alſo fince the conqueſt, as
I haue ſeene by record: yet at this preſent haue we
none at all, or elſe verie little to ſpeake of, growing in
this Iland: which I impute not vinto the ſoile, but the
negligence of my countrimen. Such herbes, fruits,
and roots alſo, as grow yeerelie out of the ground, of
feed, haue beene verie plentifull in this land, in the time
of the firſt Edward, and after his daies : but in proceſſe
of time they grew alſo to be neglected, ſo that from
Henrie the fourth till the latter end of Henrie the
feuenth, & beginning of Henrie the eight, there was
litle or no vſe of them in England," but they remained
either vnknowne, or ſuppoſed as food more meet for
hogs & ſauage beaſts to feed vpon, than mankind.
Whereas in my time their vſe is not onelie reſumed
among the poore commons,—I meane of melons, pom-
pions, gourds, cucumbers, radiſhes, ſkirets,” parsneps, car-
rets, cabbages, nauewes,” turneps, and all kinds of ſalad
herbes, but alſo fed vpon as deintie diſhes at the tables
of delicate merchants, gentlemen, and the nobilitie,
who make their prouiſion yearelie for new ſeeds out of
ſtrange countries, from whence they haue them abound-
antlie. Neither doo they now ſtaie with ſuch of theſe
fruits as are wholeſome in their kinds, but aduenture
further vpon ſuch as are verie dangerous and hurtfull,
as the verangenes,4 muſhroms, &c.; as if nature had
Wine was once
much grown
here,
but now hardly
at all.
From Hen. IV.
to Hen. VIII.
vegetables were
little us’d in
England,
but now the
poor use melons,
radishes,
turnips, &c.,
and so do our
gentlefolk.
Some too eat
dangerous
herbs,
as egg-plants
and mushrooms.
1 No vegetables are mentiond by John Russell in his different bills of fare for
dinners in his ‘Boke of Nurture,’ ab. 1440 A.D., Babees Book, p. 164—175.-F.
2 Skirret is in my book, p. 214, l. 1, Sium Sisarum, an umbelliferous plant
with a small root like a little carrot, no longer cultivated in England, or very
rarely.—R. C. A. PRIOR.
* Navew, Brassica Napus, is probably only a variety of the turnip, from which it
differs in the smaller and less orbicular root, and the leaves being glabrous and not
rough. It is that which is cultivated for making Colza oil, and for sheep-feed.
The differences between Brassica Napus, B. campestris, and B. Rapa (the turnip)
are really very slight, as you will see in any botanical work on British plants.—
R. C. A. PRIoR.
4 Solanum esculentum, L., French Věringeane.—PRIOR.
cHAP. xx.] GARD ENS AND ORCHARDS.
32.5
ordeined all for the bellie, or that all things were to be
eaten, for whoſe miſchiefous operation the Lord in
ſome meaſure hath giuen and prouided a remedie.
Hops in time paſt were plentifull in this land:
afterwards alſo their maintenance did ceaſe; and now
being reuiued, where are anie better to be found 2
where anie greater commoditie to be raiſed by them :
onelie poles are accounted to be their greateſt charge.
But ſith men haue learned of late to ſow aſhen keies in
aſhyards by themſelues, that incon”uenience in ſhort
time will be redreſſed. Madder hath growne abundantlie
in this Iland, but of Jong time neglected, and now a little
reuiued, and offereth it ſelfe to prooue no ſmall benefit
wnto our countrie, as manie other things elſe, which
are now fetched from vs; as we before time, when we
gaue our ſelues to idleneſſe, were glad to haue them
other. If you looke into our gardens annexed to our
houſes, how woonderfullie is their beauty increaſed, not
onelie with floures, which Colſujmella calleth Terrena
ſydera, ſaieng:
Pingit & in varios terreſtria ſydera flores,
and varietie of curious and coſtlie workmanſhip, but alſo
with rare and medicinable hearbes” ſought vp in the
land within theſe fortie yeares: ſo that in compariſon of
this preſent, the ancient gardens were but dunghils and
laiſtowes to ſuch as did poſſeſſe them. How art alſo
helpeth nature, in the dailie colouring, dubling and in-
larging the proportion of our floures, it is incredible to
report: for ſo curious and cunning are our gardeners
now in theſe daies, that they preſume to doo in maner
what they liſt with nature, and moderate hir courſe in
things as if they were hir ſuperiours. It is a world alſo
to ſee how manie ſtrange hearbs, plants, and annuall
fruits, are dailie brought vnto vs from the Indies, Ameri-
* See John Russell's list of those for the bath of Humfrey,
cester, in The Babees Book, p. 183-5,-F.
Hops were once
plentiful here,
then were dis-
us'd, but now
are reviv'd, and
are nowhere
better.
[r p. 209]
Madder has
been lately
grown again.
We’ve beautiful
gardens, not
only with
flowers,
but also rare
medicinable
herbs.
*
Art helps
Nature in
colouring and
doubling
flowers.
Our gardeners
do what they
like with
Nature.
We import
Duke of Glou-
326
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
foreign herbs
and annuals
from all parts of
the world.
Every rich man
has great store
of them.
Of medicinable
herbs [’ve seem
from 300 to 400
in one garden.
But men praise
foreign herbs
too much,
specially
Tobacco,
which isn’t of
much good,
Our Thistle
Benet is as
valuable as any
foreign herb.
cans, Taprobane, Canarie Iles, and all parts of the world:
the which, albeit that in reſpect of the conſtitutions of our
bodies they doo not grow for vs, bicauſe that God hath
beſtowed ſufficient commodities vpon euerie countrie for
hir owne neceſſitie; yet for delečtation ſake vnto the eie,
and their odoriferous ſauours vnto the noſe, they are to
be cheriſhed, and God to be glorified alſo in them, bi-
cauſe they are his good gifts, and created to doo man
helpe and ſeruice. There is not almoſt one noble man,
gentleman, or merchant, that hath not great ſtore of
theſe floures, which now alſo doo begin to wax ſo well
acquainted with our ſoiles, that we may almoſt accompt
of them as parcell of our owne commodities. They
haue no leſſe regard in like ſort to cheriſh medicinable
hearbs fetched out of other regions neerer hand: inſo-
much that I haue ſeene in ſome one garden to the
number of three hundred or foure hundred of them, if
not more ; of the halfe of whoſe names, within fortie
yeeres paſſed we had no maner knowledge. But herein
I find ſome cauſe of iuſt complaint, for that we extoll
their vſes ſo farre that we fall into contempt of our
owne, which are in truth more beneficiall and apt for vs
than ſuch as grow elſewhere, fith (as I ſaid before) euerie
region hath abundantlie within hir owne limits whatſo-
euer is needfull and moſt conuenient for them that dwell
therein. How doo men extoll the vſe of Tabacco in
my time, whereas in truth (whether the cauſe be in the
repugnancie of our conſtitution vnto the operation there-
of, or that the ground dooth alter hir force, I cannot
tell) it is not found of ſo great efficacie as they write.
And beſide this, our common germander or thiſtle benet
is found & knowne to bee ſo wholeſome and of ſo great
power in medicine, as anie other hearbe, if they be vſed
accordinglie. I could exemplifie after the like maner
in fundrie other, as the Salſa parilla, Mochoacan, &c.;
but I forbeare ſo to doo, becauſe I couet to be breefe.
And trulie the eſtimation and credit that we yeeld and
cHAP. xx.] GARDENS AND ORCHARDS.
327
giue vnto compound medicines made with forren drugs,
is one great cauſe wherefore the full knowledge and vſe
of our owne ſimples hath bene ſo long raked vp in the
imbers. And as this may be verified, ſo to be one ſound
concluſion, for the greater number of ſimples that go
wnto anie compound medicine, the greater confuſion is
found therein, becauſe the qualities and operations of
verie few of the particulars are throughlie knowne.
And euen ſo our continuall deſire of ſtrange drugs,
whereby the phyſician and apothecarie onlie hath the
benefit, is no ſmall cauſe that the vſe of our fimples
here at home dooth go to loſſe, and that we tread thoſe
herbes vinder our feet, whoſe forces if we knew, & could
applie them to our neceſſities, we wold honor & haue
in reuerence as to their caſe behooueth. Alas! what
haue we to doo with ſuch Arabian & Grecian ſtuffe
as is dailie brought from thoſe parties, which lie in
another clime? And therefore the bodies of ſuch as
dwell there, are of another conſtitution, than ours are
here at home. Certes they grow not for vs, but for the
Arabians and Grecians. And albeit that they maie by
ſkill be applied vnto our benefit, yet to be more ſkilfull
in them than in our owne, is follie; and to vſe forren
wares when our owne maie ſerue the turne, is more
follie; but to deſpiſe our owne, and magnifie aboue
meaſure the vſe of them that are ſought and brought
from farre, is moſt follie of all: for it ſauoureth of ig-
norance, or at the leaſtwiſe of negligence, and therefore
woorthie of reproch.
Among the Indians, who haue the moſt preſent
cures for euerie diſeaſe, of their owne nation, there is
ſmall regard of compound medicins, & leſſe of forren
drugs, becauſe they neither know them nor can vſe them,
but worke woonders euen with their owne ſimples. With
them alſo the difference of the clime dooth ſhow hir
full effect. For whereas they will heale one another in
ſhort time with application of one ſimple, &c., if a
Compound
medicines of
foreign drugs
have led to the
disuse of Our
own simples.
Arab and Greek
st
grows for Arabs
and Greeks.
Our simples are
the best for us.
Indians, who
are the best
doctors,
work wonders
with their own
simples.
328
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book 11.
Marcus Cato
used Roman
simples, and
studied them.
For 600 years
Colewort was
the only medi-
cine in Rome.
Pliny complains
of the later rage
for outlandish.
drugs.
These have stopt
the study of our
own simples.
Spaniard or Engliſh man ſtand in need of their helpe,
they are driuen to haue a longer ſpace in their cures,
and now and then alſo to vſe ſome addition of two or
three ſimples at the moſt, whoſe forces vinto them are
throughlie knowne, becauſe their exerciſe is onelie in
their owne, as men that neuer ſought or heard what
vertue was in thoſe that came from other countries.
And euen ſo did Marcus Cato, the learned Roman, in-
deuor to deale in his cures of ſundrie diſeaſes, wherein
he not onelie vſed ſuch ſimples as were to be had in his
owne countrie, but alſo examined, and learned the
forces of each of them, wherewith he dealt ſo dili gentlie,
that in all his life time, he could atteine to the exact
knowledge but of a few, and thereto wrote of thoſe
moſt learned lie, as would eaſilie be ſeene, if thoſe his
bookes were extant. For the ſpace alſo of 6oo yeeres,
the colewort onelie was a medicine in Rome for all
diſeaſes, ſo that his vertues were thoroughlie knowne in
thoſe parts.
In Plinies time the like affection to forren drugs
did rage among the Romans, whereby their owne did
grow in contempt. Crieng out therefore of this ex-
treame follie, lib. 22. cap. 24, he ſpeaketh after this
maner: Non placent remedia tam longe naſcentia, non
enim nobis gignuntur, immë me illis quidem, alioquin non
venderent ; ſº placet etiam ſuperſtitionis gratić emantur,
quoniam ſupplicamus, &c. Salutem quidem ſine his poſſe
conſtare, vel ob id probabimus, vt tanto magis ſui tandem
pudeat. For my part I doubt not, if the vſe of outlandiſh
drugs had not blinded our phyſicians of England in
times paſſed, but that the vertues of our ſimples here at
home would haue beene far better knowne, and ſo well
wnto vs, as thoſe of India are to the praćtifioners of thoſe
partes, and therevnto be found more profitable for vs
than the forren either are or maie be. This alſo will I
ad, that euen thoſe which are moſt common by reaſon
of their plentie, and moſt vile bicauſe of their abundance,
cHAP. xx.] GARD ENS AND ORCHARD5. 329
are not without ſome vniuerſall and eſpeciall efficacie, if
it were knowne, for our benefit: ſith God in nature º...
hath ſo diſpoſed his creatures, that the moſt needfull are i.*:::::.
the moſt plentifull, and ſeruing for ſuch generall diſeaſes
as our conſtitution moſt commonlie is affected withall. [*P. 210]
Great thanks therefore be giuen vnto the phyſicians of
our age and countrie, who not onelie indeuour to ſearch
out the vſe of ſuch fimples as our ſoile dooth yeeld and
bring foorth, but alſo to procure ſuch as grow elſe-
where, vpon purpoſe ſo to acquaint them with our clime,
that they in time, through ſome alteration receiued from
the nature of the earth, maie likewiſe turne to our
benefit and commoditie, and be vſed as our owne.
The chiefe workeman, or as I maie call him the
founder, of this deuiſe, is Carolus Cluſius, the noble #.§.#,
herbariſt, whoſe induſtrie hath woonderfullie ſtirred
them vp vnto this good ačt. For albeit that Matthiolus,
Rembert, Lobell, and other, haue trauelled verie farre in
this behalfe, yet none hath come neere to Cluſius, much
leſſe gone further in the finding and true deſcriptions of
ſuch herbes as of late are brought to light. I doubt not
but if this man were in England but one ſeuen yeeres, could be 7 years
he would reueale a number of herbes growing with vs, #º he'd
whereof neither our phyſicians nor apothecaries as yet ºul
haue anie knowledge. And euen like thankes be giuen
wnto our nobilitie, gentlemen, and others, for their con-
tinuall nutriture and cheriſhing of ſuch homeborne and
forren ſimples in their gardens; for hereby they ſhall not
onlie be had at hand and preſerued, but alſo their formes
made more familiar to be diſcerned, and their forces
better knowne than hitherto they haue beene.
And euen as it fareth with our gardens, ſo dooth it
with our orchards, which were neuer furniſhed with ſo orchards.
good fruit, nor with ſuch varietie as at this preſent. For
beſide that we haue moſt delicate apples, plummes, Fruits.
peares, walnuts, filberds, &c.; and thoſe of ſundrie ſorts,
planted within fortie yeeres paſſed, in compariſon of
33O
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Foreign fruits
here : almonds
figs, oranges,
lemons.
which moſt of the old trees are nothing woorth : ſo haue
we no leſſe ſtore of ſtrange fruit, as abricotes, almonds,
peaches, figges, corne-trees" in noble mens orchards. I
haue ſeene capers, orenges, and lemmons, and heard of
wild oliues growing here, befide other ſtrange trees,
brought from far, whoſe names I know not. So that
England for theſe commodities was neuer better fur-
niſhed, neither anie nation vnder their clime more
plentifullie indued with theſe and other bleſfings from
the moſt high God, who grant vs grace withall to vſe
the ſame to his honour and glorie ' and not as inſtru-
ments and proudcations vnto further exceſſe and vanitie,
wherewith his diſpleaſure may be kindled, leaſt theſe
his benefits doo turne vnto thornes and briers vinto vs
for our annoiance and puniſhment, which he hath be-
ſtowed vpon vs for our conſolation and comfort.
We haue in like ſort ſuch workemen as are not
onelie excellent in graffing the naturall fruits, but alſo
in their artificiall mixtures, whereby one tree bringeth
foorth fundrie fruits, and one and the ſame fruit of
diuers colours and taſts, dallieng as it were with nature
and hir courſe, as if her whole trade were perfeótlei
knowne vnto them : of hard fruits they will make
tender, of ſowre ſweet, of ſweet yet more delicate,
beereuing alſo ſome of their kernels, other of their cores,
and finallie induing them with the ſauour of muſke,
ambre, or ſweet ſpices at their pleaſures. Diuerſe alſo
haue written at large of theſe ſeuerall pračtiſes, and
ſome of them how to conuert the kernels of peaches
into almonds, of ſmall fruit to make farre greater, and
to remooue or ad ſuperfluous or neceſſarie moiſture to
the trees, with other things belonging to their preſerua-
tion, and with no leſſe diligence than our phyſicians doo
commonlie ſhew vpon our owne diſeaſed bodies, which
Grafters
make the same
tree bear fruits
of different
kinds.
Writers on
grafters'
ICl2. In Oell Wres,
1 Corne trees are probably cornels, from one of which, the C. mas, L., the berries
are commonly eaten in Italy, and sherbet made from them in the East. In Italy
they are called cornia and corniolo.—R. C. A. PRIOR.
cHAP. xx.] GARDENS AND ORCHARDS.
33 I
to me dooth ſeeme right ſtrange. And euen ſo doo our
gardeners with their herbes, whereby they are ſtrength-
ened againſt noiſome blaſts, and preſerued from putri-
fačtion and hinderance; whereby ſome ſuch as were
annuall, are now made perpetuall, being yeerelie taken
vp, and either reſerued in the houſe, or hauing the roſſe
pulled from their rootes, laid againe into the earth,
where they remaine in ſafetie. What choiſe they make
alſo in their waters, and wherewith ſome of them doo
now and then keepe them. moiſt, it is a world to ſee;
inſomuch that the apothecaries ſhops maie ſeeme to be
needfull alſo to our gardens and orchards, and that in
ſundrie wiſe: naie, the kitchen it ſelfe is ſo farre from
being able to be miſſed among them, that euen the
verie diſhwater is not without ſome vſe amongeſt our
fineſt plants. Whereby, and ſundrie other circumſtances
not here to bee remembred, I am perſuaded, that albeit
the gardens of the Heſperides were in times paſt ſo
greatlie accounted of, becauſe of their delicacie : yet if
it were poſſible to haue ſuch an equall iudge, as by cer-
teine knowledge of both were able to pronounce vpon
them, I doubt not but he would giue the price vnto the
gardens of our daies, and generallie ouer all Europe, in
compariſon of thoſe times, wherein the old exceeded.
Plinie and other ſpeake of a roſe that had three ſcore
leaues growing vpon one button: but if I ſhould tell of
one which bare a triple number vnto that proportion,
I know I ſhall not be beleeued, and no great matter
though I were not, howbeit, ſuch a one was to be ſeene
in Antwarpe I 585, as I haue heard, and I know who
might haue had a ſlip or ſtallon thereof, if he would
haue ventured ten pounds vpon the growth of the ſame,
which ſhould haue bene but a tickle hazard, and there-
fore better vndoone, as I did alwaies imagine. For mine
owne part, good reader, let me boaſt a little of my gar-
den, which is but ſmall, and the whole Area thereof
little aboue 3oo foot of ground, and yet, ſuch hath beene
Gardeners turn
annual into per-
petual herbs.
Even our dish-
water is us’d for
plants l
The Gardens of
the Hesperides
were not equal
to ours now-a-
days.
Pliny talks of a
rose with 60
leaves on one
bud.
At Antwerp in
1585 was a rose
with 180 leaves,
and I could
have had a slip
off its tree for
$10.
Harrison’s own
Garden,
300 ft. square,
3.32.
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
has 300 simples
in it.
Largest English
gardens.
None of our
rivers have the
same odd quali-
ties that old
writers told lies
about.
*
[2 p. 211]
my good lucke in purchaſe of the varietie of fimples,
that notwithſtanding my ſmall abilitie, there are verie
neere three hundred of one ſort and other conteined
therein, no one of them being common or vſuallie to
bee had. If therefore my little plot, void of all coſt in
keeping, be ſo well furniſhed, what ſhall we thinke of
thoſe of Hampton court, Noneſuch, Tibaults, Cobham
garden, and ſundrie other apperteining to diuerſe citi-
zens of London, whom I could particularlie name, if I
fhould not ſeeme to offend them by ſuch my demeanour
and dealing J
[Of waters generallie.
Chap. 21.4
Here is no one commoditie in England, where-
of I can make leſſe report than of our waters.
For albeit our ſoile abound with water in all
places, and that in the moſt ample maner: yet can I
not find by ſome experience that almoſt anie one of our
riuers hath ſuch od and rare qualities as diuers of the
maine are ſaid to be indued withall. Vitruvius writeth
of a well in Paphlagonia, whoſe water ſeemeth as it
were mixed with wine, & addeth thereto that diuerſe
become drunke by ſuperfluous taking of the ſame. The
like force is found In amne Licéſo, a riuer of Thracia,
vpon whoſe bankes a man ſhall hardlie miſſe to find
ſome traueller or other ſleeping for drunkenneſſe, by
drinking of that liquor. Neere alſo vnto Epheſus are
certeine welles, which taſte like ſharpe vineger, and
*therefore are much eſteemed of by ſuch as are ficke
and euill at eaſe in thoſe parts. At Hieropolis is a
ſpring of ſuch force (as Strabo ſaith) that the water
thereof mixed with certaine herbes of choiſe, dooth
colour wooll with ſuch a gloſſe, that the die thereof
* This chapter (mainly old lies) is not in the edition of 1577.-F.
CHAP. xxi.] t WATERS GENERALLY.
333
contendeth with ſkarlet, murreie, and purple, and oft
ouercommeth the ſame. The Cydnus' in Tarſus of
Cilicia, is of ſuch vertue, that who ſo batheth himſelfe
therein, ſhall find great eaſe of the gowt that runneth
ouer all his ioints. In one of the fortunate Iles (ſaith
Pomponius the Coſmographer) are two ſprings, one of
the which bringeth immoderate laughter to him that
drinketh thereof, the other ſadneſſe and reſtraint of that
effect, whereby the laſt is taken to be a ſouereigne
medicine againſt the other, to the great admiration of
ſuch as haue beholden it. At Sufis in Perſia there is a
ſpring, which maketh him that drinketh downe anie of
the water, to caſt all his teeth; but if he onlie waſh
his mouth withall, it maketh them faſt, & his mouth to
be verie healthfull. So there is a riuer among the
Gadarens, wherof if a beaſt drinke, he foorthwith
caſteth hoofe, haire, and hornes, if he haue anie. Alſo
a lake in Aſſyria, neere vnto the which there is a kind
of glewie matter to be found, which holdeth ſuch
birds as by hap doo light thereon ſo faſt as birdlime, by
means wherof verie manie doo periſh and are taken
that light vpon the ſame: howbeit, if anie portion here-
of happen to be ſet on fire by caſualtie or otherwiſe, it
will neuer be quenched but by caſting on of duſt, as
Caietanus dooth report. Another at Halicarnaſſus called
Salmacis, which is noted to make ſuch men effeminate
as drinke of the water of the ſame. Certes it maie be
(ſaith Strabo) that the water and aire of a region maie
qualifie the courage of ſome men, but none can make
them effeminate, nor anie other thing becauſe of ſuch
corruption in them, ſooner than ſuperfluous wealth, and
inconſtancie of liuing and behauiour, which is a bane
wnto all natures, lib. 4. All which, with manie other
not now comming to memorie, as the Letheus, Styx,
Phlegeton, Cocitus, &c.; haue ſtrange & incredible re-
ports made of them by the new and ancient writers, the
1 orig. Cydims
What old rivers
are said to have
done:—
cur'd the gout,
caus’d laughter,
sadness,
loss of teeth,
restoration of
'em,
loss of beasts'
hoofs and horns;
caught birds,
caus'd
effeminacy.
This is all
gam Dhon.
334
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
All the water in
England is
good
Some of our
waters turn
Wood into stone.
Lies about
a Welsh lake.
There are plenty
more such.
like wherof are not to be found in England, which I
impute wholie to the bleſfing of God, who hath or-
deined nothing amongſt vs in this our temperate region,
but that which is good, wholeſome, and moſt commo-
dious for our nation. We haue therefore no hurtfull
waters amongſt vs, but all wholeſome and profitable for
the benefit of the people. Neuertheles as none of them
is to be found without hir fiſh ; ſo we know by experi-
ence, that diuerſe turne aſh, ſome other elme, and oken
ſtakes or poles that lie or are throwne into them into
hard ſtone, in long continuance of time, which is the
ſtrangeſt thing that I can learne at this preſent where-
vpon to reſt for a certentie. Yet I read of diuerſe welles,
wherevnto our old writers aſcribe either wonderfull ver-
tues, or rare courſes, as of one vpon the ſhore, beyond
the which the ſea floweth euerie daie twiſe a large mile
and more; and yet is the ſurge of that water alwaies
ſeuen foot from the ſalt ſea: whereby it ſhould ſeeme
that the head of the ſpring is mooueable. But, alas! I
doo not eaſilie beleeue it, more than that which is writ-
ten of the Lilingwan lake in Wales, which is neere to
the Seuerne, and receiueth the flowing ſea into hir
chanell as it were a gulfe, and yet is neuer full: but,
when the ſea goeth awaie by reaſon of the ebbe, it
caſteth vp the water with ſuch violence, that hir banks
are ouerflowne and drowned, which is an abſurd report.
They ad alſo, that if all the people of the countrie ſtood
neere to the ſame, with their faces toward the lake in
ſuch maner that the daſhing of the water might touch
and wet their clothes, they ſhould haue no power to go
from thence, but mawgre their reſiſtance be drawne in-
to that gulfe, and periſh; whereas if they turned their
backs vnto the ſame, they ſhould ſuffer no ſuch incon-
uenience, though they ſtood neuer ſo neere. Manie
other ſuch like toies I could ſet downe of other welles
and waters of our countrie. But whie ſhould I write
that, for other men to read, whereto I giue no credit my
cHAP. xxi.] WATERS GENERALLY,
33.5
ſelfe, more than to the report which Iohannes du Choul
dooth make in his deſcription of Pilats lake, In monte
Pilati in Gallia, or Boccatius of the Scaphigiolo in the
Appenine hils, or Foelia Malliolus of Pilats lake In
monte fraćto (whereof Iacobus de Voragino, biſhop of
Gene, & Ioachimus Vadianus in Pompon. Melam doo alſo
make mention), fith I take them but for fables, & far
wnworthie that anie good man ſhould ſtaine his paper
with ſuch friuolous matters as are reported of them,
being deuiſed at the firſt by Satanas the father of lies,
for the holding of the ignorant & credulous in their
ſuperſtitions and errors. Such alſo is the tale that goeth
of Wenefrids well, & nothing inferior to that of Mer-
curie neere to port Caperia in Rome, wherein ſuch as
went by would dip branches of baie, and ſprinkle the
ſame vpon themſelues: and ſo manie as ſtood about
them, calling vpon Mercurie, and crauing pardon for
their finnes, as if that ceremonie had bene of force vnto
forgiueneſſe and remiſſion of their treſpaſſes. And ſo it
appeareth partlie by Cicero, who (being a man neither
thinking well of their owne gods, nor liking of the
augures,) dooth write in his firſt De legibus (except my
memorie faile me), aſperſione aquae labem tolli corpoream,
& caſtimoniam corporis praiſiari, which maketh me to
thinke further, that they thought it equall with our late
I might
further alſo (if I would) make relation of diuerſe welles,
holie-water, wherewith it maie be compared.
which haue wrought manie miracles in time of ſuperſti-
tion, as S. Butolphs well in Hadſtocke, S. Germans well
at Falkeburne, Holie well at S. Albones and London, and
ſundrie other in other places: but as their vertues are
now found out to be but baits to draw men and women
wnto them, either for gaine vnto the places where they
were, or ſatisfaction of the lewd diſpoſition of ſuch as
hunted after other game, ſo it ſhall ſuffice to haue
touched them far off. Onlie this will I ad, that we
1 orig. where-
But what's the
good of writing
'em when I
know they're
lies 2
Satan invented
'em.
St Winifred's
well, and one
near Rome,
did as much
good as our late
“holy-water.”
As to wells
working
Miracles, as
Holy Well in
London, &c.,
they were
but baits
to draw money
or satisfy lust.
336
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II,
A spring near
Lord Audley's,
at Saffron
Walden,
looses the
bowels.
I’ve drunk of it.
Of 2 wells near
London, one
won't bear soap.
Great abundance
of wood sometime
in England.
[2 p. 212]
Now we’ve but
little, except
Ileal Olull"
dwellings.
haue no hurtfull waters, no not vnto our ſheepe, though
it pleaſe Cardan to auouch otherwiſe; for our waters
are not the cauſes, but the fignes of their infections
when they drinke, as I elſewhere haue noted in the
chapter of cattell, as alſo that we haue a ſpring neere
Saffron Walden, and not farre from the houſe of the
lord Audleie, which is of ſuch force, that it looſeth the
bodie of him that drinketh therof in verie gentle maner,
and beſide that, is verie dele&table & pleaſant to be
taken, as I haue found by experience. I heare alſo of
two welles neere London, of which the one is verie ex-
cellent water, the other will beare no ſope, and yet ſo
ſituat that the one is hard by the other. And thus
much of waters.]
Of woods and marishes.
Chap. 22."
T ſhould ſeeme by ancient records, and the teſti-
monie of ſundrie authors, that the whole coun-
tries of Lhoegres and Cambria, now England
and Wales, haue ſometimes beene verie well repleniſhed
with great woods & groues, although at this time the
ſaid commoditie be not a little decaied in both, and in
ſuch wiſe that a man * ſhall oft ride ten or twentie miles
in ech of them, and find verie little, or rather none at
all, except it be neere vnto townes, gentlemens houſes,
& villages, where the inhabitants haue planted a few
elmes, okes, haſels, or aſhes, about their dwellings, for
their defenſe from the rough winds, and keeping of the
ſtormie weather from annoiance of the ſame. This
ſcarſitie at the firſt grew (as it is thought) either by
the induſtrie of man, for maintenance of tillage (as we
vnderſtand the like to be doone of late by the Spaniards
in the weſt Indies, where they fired whole woods of
* This is chap. 16, Bk 2, in 1577 ed.—F.
CHAP. XXII.] WOODS AND MARS HES.
337
verie great compaſſe, therby to come by ground where-
on to ſow their graines,) or elſe thorough the couetouſ-
neſſe of ſuch, as, in preferring of paſture for their ſheepe
and greater cattell, doo make ſmall account of firebote
and timber: or finallie, by the crueltie of the enimies,
whereof we haue ſundrie examples declared in our hiſ-
tories. Howbeit, where the rocks and quarrie grounds
are, I take the ſwart of the earth to be ſo thin, that no
tree of anie greatneſſe, other than ſhrubs and buſhes, is
able to grow or proſper long therein, for want of ſuf-
ficient moiſture wherewith to feed them with freſh
humour, or at the leaſtwiſe of mould, to ſhrowd, ſtaie
- vpright, and cheriſh the ſame in the bluſtering winters
weather, till they may grow vnto anie greatneſſe, and
ſpread or yeeld their rootes downe right into the ſoile
about them : and this either is or may be one other
cauſe, wherefore ſome places are naturallie void of
wood. But to proceed. Although I muſt needs con-
feſſe that there is good ſtore of great wood or timber
here and there, euen now in ſome places of England,
yet in our daies it is far vnlike to that plentie, which our
anceſtors haue ſeene heretofore, when ſtatelie building
was leſſe in vſe. For albeit that there were then greater
number of meſuages and manſions almoſt in euery place;
yet were their frames ſo ſlight and ſlender, that one
meane dwelling houſe in our time is able to counter-
uaile verie manie of them, if you confider the preſent
charge, with the plentie of timber that we beſtow vpon
them. In times paſt, men were contented to dwell in
houſes, builded of ſallow, willow, plumtree, hardbeame,
and elme, ſo that the vſe of oke was in maner dedicated
wholie vnto churches, religious houſes, princes palaces,
noblemens lodgings, & nauigation: but now all theſe
are reiected, and nothing but oke anie whit regarded.
And yet ſee the change, for when our houſes were
builded of willow, then had we oken men; but now
On rocks the
sward is too
thin to grow
trees.
that our houſes are come to be made of oke, our men
HARRISON, 22
We have far less
timber than
our forefathers
The frames of
their houses
were slight,
and made of
willow, horn-
beam, elm, &c.
Now, oak only
is us’d.
Yet, with
Willow houses
they had
Oaken men:
now with
Oaken houses,
338
THE D C SCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. |Book 11.
we have willow
and straw men.
Desire of much
wealth and ease
abateth mean-
Aood, & orter-
#hroweth a
meant lie courage.
Chimnies.
(see p. 239.)
In old days
we'd none : the
smoke hardend
the timber, and
kept colds off
the men.
Our timber
frames are now
of far better
design than of
old,
and all the
crooked oak is
us’d up in them.
Our amateur (?)
architects are
very clever.
And they never
tire of altering
their buildings.
are not onlie become willow, but a great manie
[through Perſian delicacie crept in among vs] altogither
of ſtraw, which is a ſore alteration. In thoſe the courage
of the owner was a ſufficient defenſe to keepe the houſe
in ſafetie, but now the aſſurance of the timber, [double
doores, lockes and bolts, muſt defend the man from
robbing. Now haue we manie chimnies; and yet our
tenderlings complaine of rheumes, catarhs and poſes.
Then had we none but reredoſſes; and our heads did
neuer ake. For as the ſmoke in thoſe daies was ſup-
poſed to be a ſufficient hardning for the timber of the
houſe, ſo it was reputed a far better medicine to keepe
the goodman and his familie from the quacke or poſe,
wherewith, as then, verie few were ſoft] acquainted.
[Of the curiouſneſſe of theſe piles I ſpeake not, fith
our workemen are growne generallie to ſuch an excel-
lencie of deuiſe in the frames now made, that they far
paſſe the fineſt of the old. And ſuch is their huſbandrie
in dealing with their timber, that the ſame ſtuffe which
in time paſt was reie&ted as crooked, vnprofitable, and to
no vſe but the fire, dooth now come in the fronts and
beſt part of the worke. Wherby the common ſaieng is
likewiſe in theſe daies verified in our manſion houſes,
which earſt was ſaid onelie of the timber for ſhips, that
“no oke can grow ſo crooked but it falleth out to ſome
vſe,’ & that neceſſarie in the nauie. It is a world to ſee
moreouer how diuerſe men being bent to building, and
hauing a dele&table veine in ſpending of their goods by
that trade, doo dailie imagine new deuiſes of their owne,
to guide their workemen withall, and thoſe more curious
and excellent alwaies than the former. In the proceed-
ing alſo of their workes, how they ſet vp, how they pull
downe, how they inlarge, how they reſtreine, how they
ad to, how they take from, whereby their heads are
neuer idle, their purſes neuer ſhut, nor their bookes of
account neuer made perfeót.
cHAP. xxii.] WOODS AND MARS HES.
339
Deſiruunt, adificant, mutant quadrata rotundis
ſaith the poet. So that if a man ſhould well confider of
all the od crotchets in ſuch a builders braine, he would
thinke his head to haue euen inough of thoſe affaires
onelie, & therefore iudge that he ſhould not well be
able to deale in anie other. But ſuch commonlie are
our workemaſters, that they haue beſide this veine
afore mentioned, either great charge of merchandizes,
little leſſe buſineſſe in the commonwealth, or finallie, no
fmall dealings otherwiſe incident vnto them, wherby
gaine ariſeth, and ſome trouble oft among withall.
Which cauſeth me to wonder not a little how they can
plaie the parts ſo well, of ſo manie ſundrie men, where-
as diuerſe other, of greater forecaſt in apparance, can
ſeldome ſhift well or thriue in anie one of them. But
to our purpoſe.]
We haue manie woods, forreſts, and parks, which
chreriſh trees abundantlie, although in the woodland
countries there is almoſt no hedge that hath not ſome
ſtore of the greateſt ſort, beſide infinit numbers of hedge-
rowes, groues, and ſprings, that are mainteined of pur-
poſe for the building and prouiſion of ſuch owners as
doo poſſeſſe the ſame. Howbeit, as euerie ſoile dooth
not beare all kinds of wood, ſo there is not anie wood,
parke, hedgerow, groue, or forreſt, that is not mixed
with diuerſe," as oke, aſh, haſell, hawthorne, birch,
beech, hardbeame, hull, forfe, ſquicken, aſpe, poplers,
wild cherie, and ſuch like, wherofoke hath alwaies the
preheminence, as moſt meet for building [and the
nauie, whervnto it is reſerued. This tree bringeth
foorth alſo a profitable kind of maſt, whereby ſuch as
dwell neere vnto the aforeſaid places doo cheriſh and
bring vp innumerable heards of ſwine. In time of
plentie of this maſt, our red and fallow deere will not
let to participat [thereof) with our hogs, more than our”
nete: yea, our common pultrie alſo, if they may come
1 many 2 our other
And yet with
all the odd
crochets filling
our builders'
brains, they
manage other
businesses.
In hedgerows,
&c., trees are
grown,
as hazel,
hawthorn,
hornbeam,
holly, sorb (see
p. 366, 367),
Imountain-ash,
aspen, and
specially oak.
Acorns are -
eaten by swine,
deer, and,
poultry.
34O
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
The like hazee Y
seene where herts
doo feed npon the
tender blades of
gazzike.
Oak-bark is
bought by
tanners in May.
I do want our
shoe-leather
well tannd.
If quickly done
it has no
‘sadness’ or
lasting.
We have laws
against this
hasty tanning,
[2 p. 213]
but the rascally
tanners bribe
the rascally
'administrators
of the law,
and make worse
leather than
€Wer.
Park oaks are
wnto them. But as this abundance dooth prooue verie
pernicious vnto the firſt, ſo theſe" egs which theſe latter
doo bring foorth (beſide blackeneſſe in color and bitter-
neſſe of taſt,) haue not ſeldome beene found to breed
diuerſe diſeaſes vnto ſuch perſons as haue eaten of the
ſame. I might ad in like ſort the profit inſuing by the
barke of this wood, whereof our tanners haue great vſe
in dreſſing of leather, and which they buie yearelie in
Maie by the fadarne, as I haue oft ſeene; but it ſhall
not need at this time to enter into anie ſuch diſcourſe;
onlie this I wiſh, that our ſole and vpper leathering
may haue their due time, and not be haſted on by extra-
ordinarie ſlights, as with aſh, barke, &c. Whereby, as
I grant that it ſeemeth outwardlie to be verie thicke &
well doone: ſo, if you reſpect the ſadnes therof, it dooth
prooue in the end to be verie hollow, & not able to hold
out water. [Neuertheleſſe we haue good lawes for re-
dreſſe of this enormitie, but it commeth to paſſe in theſe,
as in the execution of moſt penall ſtatutes. For the
gaines to be gotten by the ſame being giuen to one or
two hungrie and vnthriftie perſons, they make a ſhew of
great reformation at the firſt, & for a litle while, till they
find that following of ſute *in law againſt the offendors,
is ſomwhat too chargeable and tedious. This, therefore,
perceiued, they giue ouer the law, and fall to the
admiſſion of gifts and rewards to winke at things paſt,
and when they haue once gone ouer their ground with
this kind of tillage, then doo they tender licences, and
offer large diſpenſations vnto him that ſhall aſke the
ſame, thereby to doo what him liſteth in his trade for
an yearelie penſion, whereby the bribour now groweth
to ſome certeine reuenues, & the tanner to ſo great
libertie, that his lether is much worſe than before. But
is not this a mockerie of our lawes, & manifeſt illu-
fion of the good ſubiećt whom they thus pill & poll
Of all oke growing in England, the parke oke is the
1 the
CHAP. XXII.] WOODS AND MARS H E S.
34 I
ſofteſt, and far more ſpalt and brickle than the hedge
oke. And of all in Eſſex, that growing in Bard-
field parke is the fineſt for ioiners craft: for oftentimes
haue I ſeene of their workes made of that oke ſo fine
and faire, as moſt of the waineſcot that is brought hither
out of Danſke, for our waineſcot is not made in Eng-
land. Yet diuerſe haue aſſaied to deale without okes to
that end, but not with ſo good ſucceſſe as they haue
hoped, bicauſe the ab or iuice will not ſo ſoone be
remoued and cleane drawne out, which ſome attribute
to want of time in the ſalt water. Neuertheleſſe, in
building, ſo well the hedge as the parke oke go all one
waie, and neuer ſo much hath beene ſpent in a hundred
years before, as is in ten yeare of our time; for euerie
man almoſt is a builder, and he that hath bought any
ſmall parcell of ground, be it neuer ſo little, will not be
quiet till he haue pulled downe the old houſe (if anie
were there ſtanding), and ſet vp a new after his owne
deuiſe. But wherevnto will this curioſitie come 2)
Of elme [we haue great ſtore in euerie high waie
and elſewhere, yet] 4 haue I not ſeene thereof anie” to-
gither in woods or forreſts, but where they haue beene
firſt planted, and then ſuffered to ſpread at their owne
willes. Yet haue I knowen great woods of beech and
haſell in manie places, eſpeciallie in Barkeſhire, Oxford-
fhire, and Buckinghamſhire, where they are greatlie
cheriſhed, & conuerted to fundrie vſes by ſuch as dwell
about them. [Of all the elms that euer I ſaw, thoſe in
the ſouth fide of Douer court, in Eſſex neere Harwich,
are the moſt notable, for they grow (I meane) in
crooked maner, that they are almoſt apt for nothing
elſe but nauie timber, great ordinance, and beetels; and
ſuch thereto is their naturall qualitie, that being vſed in
the ſaid behalfe, they continue longer, and more long
than anie the like trees in whatſoeuer parcell elſe of this
land, without cuphar, ſhaking, or cleauing, as I find.]
*— I haue not seene any great store
more brittle
than hedge oaks.
In Essex, the
Bardfield-Park
oak is the best.
Our wainscot is
not made in
England, but
brought out of
Denmark.
In the last 10
years we've
us’d as much
oak as in the
former 100 years.
Every man's
pulld down his
old house and
rebuilt it.
Elm woods not
planted.
Beech and hazel
woods.
In Essex, the
Dover-court,
elms are the
most note-
worthy.
342.
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Ash.
Plane, yew,
lime, black
cherry.
Yew in York-
shire and Kent.
Frankincense
and Pine,
Aspen, for
arroVS.
Poplars, for
bowls, troughs.
Alder, whose
bark dies hose
black. “
Great sales of
wood,
Aſh commeth vp euerie where of it ſelfe, and with
euerie kind of wood. And as we haue verie great
plentie, and no leſſe vſe of theſe in our huſbandrie, ſo
are we not without the plane, the vgh, the ſorfe, the
cheſtnut, the line, the blacke cherrie, and ſuch like.
And, although that we inioy them not in ſo great
plentie now in moſt places, as in times paſt, or the
other afore remembred; yet haue we ſufficient of
them all for our neceſſarie turnes and vſes, eſpeciallie
of vgh ; as may be ſeene betwixt Rotheram and Shef-
field, and ſome ſteeds of Kent alſo, as I haue beene
informed.]
The firre, frankincenſe, and pine, we doo not alto-
gither want, eſpeciallie the firre, whereof we haue ſome
ſtore in Chatleie moore in Darbiſhire, Shropſhire, An-
derneſſe, and a moſſe neere Mancheſter, [not far from
Leirceſters houſe : although that in time paſt, not onelie
all Lancaſterſhire, but a great part of the coaſt betweene
Cheſter and the Solme were well ſtored.] As for the
frankincenſe and pine, they haue beene planted [onelie]
in colleges and cloiſters, by the cleargie and religious
heretofore." Wherefore (in mine opinion) we may
rather ſaie that we want them altogither: for except
they grew” naturallie, and not by force, I ſee no cauſe
whie they ſhould be accounted for parcell of our com-
modities. [We haue alſo the aſpe, whereof our fletchers
make their arrowes. The ſeuerall kinds of poplars of
our turners haue great vſe for bolles, treies, troughs,
diſhes, &c. Alſo the alder, whoſe barke is not vnprofit-
able to die blacke withall, and therfore much vſed by
our countrie wiues in colouring their knit hoſen.] I
might here take occaſion to ſpeake of the great ſales
yeerelie made of wood, whereby an infinit quantitie”
hath bin deſtroied within theſe few yeers : but I giue
in this behalfe. Howbeit * thus
* dyd growe 3 deale
*—" thys
ouer to trauell 4
* in tymes past
* deale
CHAP. XXII.] WOODS AND MARS HE S.
343
much? I dare affirme, that if woods' go ſo faſt to
decaie in the next hundred yeere of Grace, as they haue
doone and are like to doo in this, ſometimes for in-
creaſe of ſheepwalks, and ſome maintenance of pro-
digalitie and pompe (for I haue knowne a [well burn-
iſhed] gentleman * that hath borne threeſcore at once
in one paire of galigaſcons to ſhew his ſtrength and
brauerie), it is to be feared that [the fennie bote,
broome, turffe, gall, heath, firze, brakes, whinnes, ling,
dies, haſſacks, flags, ſtraw, ſedge, reed, ruſh, and [alſo
ſeacole, will be good merchandize euen in the citie of
London, wherevnto ſome of them *euen now * haue
gotten readie paſſage, and taken vp their innes in the
A man would thinke that
our laws were able inough to make ſufficient prouiſion
greateſt merchants parlours.
for the redreſſe of this error & enormitie likelie to
inſue. But ſuch is the nature of our countriemen, that
as manie laws are made, ſo they will keepe none; or if
they be vrged to make anſwer, they will rather ſeeke
forme crooked conſtrućtion * of them 3 to the increaſe of
their priuat gaine, than yeeld themſelues 4 to be guided by
the ſame for a common wealth and profit [to their coun-
trie.] So that in the end, whatſoeuer the law ſaith, we
will haue our willes, whereby the wholeſome ordinances
of the prince are contemned, the trauell of the nobilitie
& councellors as it were derided, the common wealth
impoueriſhed, & a few onelie inriched by this peruerſe
dealing. Thus * manie thouſand perſons doo ſuffer
Hereby 8 the
wholeſome laws of the prince are oft defrauded, [and] the
goodſ meaning magiſtrate in conſultation about the
I would wiſh
that I might liue no longer than to ſee foure things in
this land reformed, that is: the want of diſcipline in the
church : the couetous dealing of moſt of our merchants
hinderance by this their lewd 7 behauior.
common wealth ºvtterlie negleśted.”
Woods are us'd
up too fast.
I know a man
who turnd 60
into one pair of
breeches.
* This gem-
tlemtazz careght
szech azz heate
zwith this sore
/oade that he
was faine to go
to Rozzze for
Ahysicke, yet it
cozz/a/ 7zof sazze
Åis life, but hee
must needs die
Åomewards.
Our laws ought
to stop this;
but our folk
walk thro' laws
whenever they
can gain by it.
They will have
their wills, and
let the common-
Weal go to the
bad.
I only want to
live till
four things
are reformd :
1. Church dis-
cipline :
2—” alreadie
7 crooked
1 woods doe
6 whereas
*—3 therof
8 whereby
* themselves willing
*—” seduced
344
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
in the preferment of [the commodities of other coun-
tries, and hinderance of their owne: the holding of
faires" and markets vpon the fundaie to be aboliſhed and
referred to the wedneſdaies: and that euerie man,” in
whatſoeuer ſpart of the champaine] ſoile enioieth fortie 3
acres of land and vpwards, after that rate, either by free
deed, copie hold, or fee farme, might plant one acre of
wood, or ſowe the ſame with [oke] maſt, *haſell, beech,
and ſufficient prouiſion be made that it may be cheriſhed
and kept.” But I feare me that I ſhould then liue too
long, and ſo long, that I ſhould either be wearie of the
world, or the world of me; and yet they are not ſuch
things but they may eaſilie be brought to paſſe.
Certes euerie ſmall occaſion in my time is enough
to cut downe a great wood, and euerie trifle ſufficeth to
laie infinit acres of corne ground vnto paſture. As for
the taking downe of houſes, a ſmall fine will beare out
a great manie. Would to God we might once take
example of the Romans, who, in reſtreint of ſuper-
fluous grafing, made an exačt limitation, how manie
head of cattell ech eſtate might keepe, and what num-
bers of acres ſhould ſuffice for that and other purpoſes.
Neither was wood euer * better cheriſhed, or manſion
houſes mainteined, than by their lawes and ſtatutes.
[Such alſo was their care in the maintenance of naui-
gation, that it was a great part of the charge of their
conſuls, yeerelie to view and looke vnto the hilles
whereon great timber did grow, leaſt their vnneceſſarie
faults for the ſatiſfaction of the priuat owner, and his
couetous mind might prooue a preiudice vnto the com-
mon wealth, in the hinderance of ſufficient ſtuffe for
the furniture of their nauie. Certes the like hereof is
yet obſerued in Venice. Read alſo, I praie you,
what Suetonius writeth of the conſulſhip of Bibulus and
Ceſar. As for the wood that Ancus Martius dedicated
2. Merchants’
covetousness;
3. Fairs not on
Sundays, but
Wednesdays;
4. 1 acre of every
40 to he planted
with wood.
Now any trifle
justifies cutting
down woods,
turning corn
land into
pasture, and
ulling down
OllSeS.
Would to God
we settled these
things by law,
as the Romans
did ;
[5 p. 214]
and as they do
now in Venice.
i Compare Stubs's Anatomie, p. 218. Turnbull.—F. 2 man wyth 3 foure
4–4 beside that which remayneth already to be cherished and kept
—F
cHAP. xx11.] WO OPS AND MARS HE3.
345
toward the maintenance of the common nauie, I paſſe
it ouer, as hauing elſewhere remembred it vinto another
end.] But what doo I meane to ſpeake of theſe, fith
my purpoſe is onlie to talke of ſour owne] woods?
Well, take this then for a finall concluſion in woods,
that [beſide ſome countries are alreadie driuen to ſell
their wood by the pound, which is an heauie report:]
within theſe fortie yeeres we ſhall haue little great"
timber growing aboue” fortie yeeres old; for it is com-
monlie ſeene that thoſe yoong ſtaddles which we leaue
ſtanding at one & twentie yeeres fall, are vſuallie at
the next ſale cut downe without any danger of the
ſtatute, and ſerue for fire bote, if it pleaſe the owner to
burne them.
Mariſes and fennie bogges we haue many in England,
[though not now ſo many as ſome of the old Roman
writers doo ſpecifie, but more in Wales, if you haue
reſpect vnto the ſeuerall quantities of the countries.
Howbeit, as they are verie profitable in [the] ſummer
halfe of the yeere, ſo are a number of them [which lie
lowe and neere to great riuers, to ſmall commoditie in
the winter part, as common experience dooth teach.
Yet this I find of manie” moores, that in times paſt
they haue beene harder ground, and ſundrie of them
well repleniſhed with great woods, that now are void
of buſhes. And for example hereof, we may ſee the
triall (beſide the roots that are dailie found in the deeps
of Monmouth, where turfe is digged, alſo in Wales,
Aburgauennie, and Merioneth,) in fundrie parts of
Lancaſhire, where [great ſtore of firre hath growen
in times paſt, as I ſaid, and the people go vnto this
daie into their fens and mariſes with long ſpits, which
they daſh here and there vp to the verie cronge into
the ground. In which pračtiſe, (a thing commonlie
doone in winter), if they happen to ſmite vpon 4 anie
firre trees which lie there at their whole lengths, or
1 new
° aboue two and * mamie of these
Within 40 years
we shall have
little timber left
growing.
Marises and
/ennes
Many moors
were once hard
ground well
wooded.
In Lancashire,
people in winter
prod for fir-trees
with long spits,
*—4 a tree or blocke
346
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. |Boo K II.
other blocks," they note the place, and about harueſt
time, when the ground is at the drieſt, they come
againe and get them vp, and afterward carieng them "
home, applie them" to their vſes. The like doo they in
Shropſhire with *the like,” which hath beene felled in
old time, within 7 miles of Salop. Some of them fool-
iſhlie ſuppoſe the ſame to haue lien there ſince Noies
floud : and other, more fond than the reſt, imagine them
to grow euen in the places where they find them,
without all confideration that in times paſt, the moſt
part, if not all Lhoegres and Cambria, was generallie
repleniſhed with wood, which being felled, or ouer-
throwne vpon ſundrie occaſions, was left lieng in ſome
places ſtill on the ground, and in proceſſe of time
became to be quite ouergrowne with earth and moulds,
which moulds wanting their due ſadneſſe, are now
turned into moorie plots. Wherby it commeth to
paſſe alſo, that great plentie of water commeth betweene
the new looſe ſwart and the old hard earth, that being
drawen awaie [by ditching and dreanes (a thing ſoone
doone, if our countrie-men were painfull in that be-
halfe), might ſoone leaue a drie ſoile to the great lucre
and aduantage of the owner. We find in our hiſtories,
that Lincolne was ſomtime builded by Lud, brother to
Caſſibelan, who called it Cair Ludooit, of the great
ſtore of woods that inuironed the ſame : but now the
commoditie is vtterlie decaied there, ſo that if Lud
were aliue againe, he would not call it his citie in the
wood, but rather his towne in the plaines: for the
wood (*as I heare”) is waſted altogither about the ſame.
The hilles called the Peke were in like ſort named
Mennith "and Orcoit,” that is, the wooddie hilles [and
forreſts.] But how much wood is now to be ſeene in
thoſe places, let him that hath beene there teſtifie, if he
liſt; for I heare of "no ſuch ſtore there as hath beene
1 it
5–5 Coit
and then dig
'em out and
draw 'em home
in harvest-time.
Soin Shropshire.
Noah's-Flood
fools (of whom
the race is not
yet extinct in
1876).
If men would
but ditch and
drain more,
they'd make
more dry soil.
Lincoln was
formerly ring
with woods.
The Peak Hills
were also coverd
with woods,
which are all
gone now.
*—” fire wood 3–3 I say
9–6 none
cHAP. xxi.11.] BATHS AND HOT WELLS.
347
in time paſt" by 1 thoſe that" trauell that waie. And
thus much of woods and mariſes, and ſo far as I can
deale with the ſame.
Of baths and hot welles.
Chap. 23.”
S almightie GOD hath in moſt plentifull
maner beſtowed infinit, and thoſe verie
notable, benefits, vpon this Ile of Britaine,
whereby it is not a little inriched: ſo in hot and
naturall baths (whereof we haue diuerſe in ſundrie
places), it manifeſtlie appeereth that he hath not forgot-
ten England. There are ſundrie” baths therefore to be
found in this realme, of which the firſt is called ſaint]
Vincents, the ſecond Halliewell 4; both being places
(in my opinion) more obſcure than the other two, and
yet not ſeldome ſought vnto by ſuch as ſtand in need.
For albeit the fame of their forces be not ſo generallie
ſpread, yet in ſome caſes they are thought to be nothing
inferior to the other, as diuèrſe haue often affirmed by
their owne experience and triall. The third place
wherein hot baths are to be found is neere vnto Buxſton,
a towne in Darbiſhire, ſituat in the high Peke, not
paſſing fixteene miles from Mancheſter, or Markeſt]cheſ-
terford, and twentie from Darbie, where about eight or
nine ſeuerall welles are to be ſeene; of which three are
counted to be moſt excellent: but of all, the greateſt is
the hoteſt, void of corruption, and compared (as Iones
ſaith) with thoſe of Summerſetſhire, ſo cold indeed, as
a quart of boiling water would be made if fille quartes
of running water were added therevnto ; whereas on
the other fide, thoſe of Bath likened vnto theſe, haue
ſuch heat appropriated vnto them, as a gallon of hot
*—l such as
3 foure
4 Hally Well
God hasn't
forgotten to
give us hot
baths and wells,
as 1. St. Vin-
cents, 2. Halli-
well (? in Shore-
ditch,
3. Buxton in
Derbyshire,
which has 8 or
9 wells, 3 being
most excellent.
* This is Chap. 14, Bk 2, in 1577 ed.—F.
348 THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
water hath when a quart of cold is mixed with the
Fººt Buxton ſame. Herevpon the effect of this bath worketh more
temperatlie and pleaſantlie (as he writeth) than the
other. And albeit that it maketh not ſo great ſpeed in
cure of ſuch as reſort vnto it for helpe; yet it dealeth
more effectuallie and commodiouſlie than thoſe in Sum-
merſetſhire, and infer withall leſſe greeuous accidents in
the reſtreining of naturall iſſues, ſtrengthening the
affeebled members, aſſiſting the liuelie forces, diſperfing
annoious oppilations, and qualifieng of ſundrie griefes,
as [his] experience hath oft confirmed. The like
vertues haue the other two, but not in ſuch meaſure":
and therefore their operation is not ſo ſpeedilie per-
# Kings Newn- ceiued. [The fourth place where baths are, is kings
ham, not far
º miles Newnam, and within certeine miles of Couentrie, the
$º., water wherof (as it is thought) proceedeth from ſome
rocke of allume, and this I vinderſtand by diuerſe
glouers which haue beene there, and alſo by mine owne
9.* its experience, that it hath a taſt much like to allume liquor,
alum.) and yet nothing vnpleſant nor vnſauorie in the drink-
ing. There are three welles in all, but the chiefeſt and
beſt of them riſeth out of an hill, and runneth toward
the ſouth, & from thence infinit plentie of water without
[2 p. 215] *any notable diminution of the ſpring is dailie caried
This wateris, into ſundrie parties of the realme, & droonke by ſuch
sent all over the
country. sunie *
& ºther 2 * haue need to occupie the ſame. Of the other two,
yellº ºpt one is reſerued for ſuch as be comelie perſonages and
for comely folk,
and the 2nd left
:*.*.*.* void of lothſome diſeaſes: the other is left common for
tag and rag; but clenſed dailie as the other is, whereby
it becommeth the wholeſomer, Manie diſeaſes alſo
are cured in the ſame, as the palſie, dimneſſe of fight,
These wells cure dulneſſe of hearing, but eſpeciallie the collike and the
colic, stone, old
sores and fresh ſtone, old ſores and greene wounds; ſo that I ſuppoſe
wounds. & * @
there was neuer anie compound medicine of greater and
more ſpeedie force in theſe behalfes, than the vſe of
this ſimple liquor is to ſuch as doo frequent it. The
* measure and degree
CHAP, xxi.11.] BATHS AND HOT WELLS.
349
*-*. &_*-*-* -— -->~~~~...~~~~~~<2<<-º-º:
ſaid water hath a naturall propertie alſo following it
which is rare, for if a leafe, or ſticke of aſh, oke, &c.;
doo fall into the ſame, within a ſhort ſpace, ſuch ſtore
of fine ſand (comming no doubt out of the earth with
the water) will congeale and gather about it, that the
forme being reſerued, and the inner part not lightlie
altered, it will ſeeme to become an hard ſtone, and
much like vnto that which is ingendred in the kidneis
of a man, as I haue ſeene by experience. At the firſt
entrance it is verie cold, but after a ſeaſon it warmeth
the goer in, caſting him into an indifferent heat. And
this is furthermore remembred of it, that no man hath
yet ſuſteined anie manner of impeachment through the
coldneſſe of the ſame. The vertue thereof was found
1579, about Whitſuntide, by a man who had wounded
himſelfe, & comming by the ſame water, thought
onelie to waſh the blood from his hand therewith, and
ſo to go home and ſeeke for helpe by ſurgerie : finallie
finding the paine well aſſwaged, & the wound faire
clenſed, he departed, and miſliking his vſuall medicins,
he eftſoones came againe, and ſo often indeed vnto the
ſaid water, till his hand was healed outright without
anie other pračtiſe. By this meanes alſo he became a
counſellor to other being hurt or in paine, that they
ſhould trie the vertue of this ſpring, who, finding eaſe
alſo, gaue out ſuch commendation of the ſaid water,
that now at this preſent their fame is fullie equall, and
the reſort vnto them nothing inferior to that of the old
baths. Beſide this, the cures of ſuch diſeaſes as their
forces do extend vnto, is much more ſpeedie than we
may haue at the other; and this is one commoditie
alſo not ſmallie to be confidered of. The fift place of
baths or medicinable welles is at an hamlet called
Newton, a little from ſaint Neots, or (as we pronounce
it) ſaint Needs, which is ten or twelue miles from
Cambridge, where two ſprings are knowne to be, of
which the one is verie ſweet and freſh, the other brack-
The Newnham
baths also
petrify leaves
and bits of
wood,
and in 1579 the
water heald a
man's wounded
hand.
5. Newton, near
St Neots, in
Huntingdon-
shire. It has 2
Springs.
35o
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
One Newton
spring good for
leprosy ; the
other for dim
sight,
6. Wells near
Rugby;
7. at Ratcliffe
near London;
iſh & ſalt; this is good for ſcabs and leaperie (as it is
ſaid), the other for dimneſſe of fight.
alſo doo make their repaire vnto them for fundrie
Verie manie
diſeaſes, ſome returning whole, and ſome nothing at all
amended, bicauſe their cure is without the reach and
working of thoſe waters. Neuer went people ſo faſt
from the church, either vnto a faire or market, as they go
to theſe wels, and thoſe neere Rugbie, both places being
diſcouered in this 1579 of Grace.
well to be found alſo about Ratcliffe neere London,
I heare of another
euen at the ſame ſeaſon. But ſith rumors are now
ſpred almoſt of euerie ſpring, & vaine tales flie about in
maner of euerie water, I ſurceaſe to ſpeake at all of
anie other, till further experience doo trie whether they
be medicinable or not : and yet I doubt not but moſt
of theſe alredie mentioned haue heretofore bin knowne
& remembred alſo, though confuſedlie by the writers
of old time; & yet in proceſſe of time either negle&ted
or forgotten, by meanes of ſundrie troubles and tur-
moiles made in this realme by Danes, and other out-
ward enimies, whereby their manifold benefit hath
woonderfullie beene miſſed.]
The' laſt place of our baths, is a citie in Summerſet-
ſhire, which taketh his name of the hot waters there to
be ſeene and vſed. At the firſt it was called Cair Bledud,
and not Cair Bledune, as ſome would haue it, for that
is the old name of the ancient caſtell at Malmeſburie,
which the Saxons named Yngleburne, Ptolomie after-
ward called it Therma, other Aquae ſolis, [or Scaman-
nia, or Acmanceſter, but now it hight generallie Bath
in Engliſh, and vnder that name it is likelie to continue.
The citie of it ſelfe is a verie ancient thing, no doubt,
as may yet appeare by diuerſe notable antiquities
ingraued in ſtone, to be ſeene in the wals thereof; and
firſt of all betweene the ſouth gate and the weſt, and
betwixt the weſt gate and the north.
8. Bath, in
Somersetshire
(where I, parson
Harrison, have
been 2)
a very ancient
city, with
carven stones
in its walls.
1 The fourth and
CHAP. XXIII.] PATH S AND HOT W E LLS.
35 I
The firſt is the antike head of a man, made all flat,
with great locks of haire, much like to the coine that I
haue ſeene of Antius the Romane. The ſecond be-
tweene the ſouth and the north gate is an image, as I
take it, of Hercules, for he held in each hand a ſerpent,
and ſo dooth this.' Thirdlie, there ſtandeth a man on
foot with a ſword in his one hand, and a buckler
ſtretched out in the other. There is alſo a branch that
lieth folded and wreathed into circles, like to the
wealth of Alcimedon. There are, moreouer, two
naked images, whereof the one imbraceth the other,
beſide ſundrie antike heads, with ruffeled haire, a
greiehound running, and at his taile certeine Romane
letters, but ſo defaced, that no man liuing can read
them at this preſent. There is, moreouer, the image of
Lacaon, inuironed with two ſerpents, and an other
inſcription: and all theſe betweene the ſouth and the
weſt gates, as I haue ſaid before.
Now, betweene the weſt and north gate are two
inſcriptions, of which ſome words are euident to be
read, the reſidue are cleane defaced. There is alſo the
image of a naked man, and a ſtone in like ſort, which
hath Cupidines & labruſcas intercurrentes, and a table
hauing at each hand an image vined and finelie
floriſhed both aboue and beneath. Finallie (ſauing
that I ſaw afterward the image of a naked man graſping
a ſerpent in each hand), there was an inſcription of a
toome or buriall, wherein theſe words did plainelie
appeare, Virit annos war : but ſo defuſedlie written,
that letters ſtood for whole words, and two or three
letters combined into one. Certes, I will not ſaie
whether theſe were ſet into the places where they
now ſtand by the gentiles, or brought thither from
other ruines of the towne it ſelfe, and placed after-
ward in thoſe wars, in their neceſſarie reparations.
But howſoeuer the matter ſtandeth, this is to be
gathered by our hiſtories, that Bladud firſt builded that
Sculptur'd
stones in the
walls of Bath ;
one with a
Latin inscrip-
tion now
defac’t,
others, with
inscriptions that
can be read ;
also, an
inscription on a
tomb.
352
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
The City of
Bath,
Chap. 25.
citie there, and, peraduenture, might alſo kindle the
ſulphurous veines, of purpoſe to burne continuallie
[there] in the honour of Minerua ; by which occaſion
the ſprings thereabout did in proceſſe of time become
hot & not vnprofitable, for ſundrie kinds of diſeaſes.
Indeed the later pagans dreamed, that Minerua was
the cheefe goddeſſe and gouerneſſe of theſe waters,
bicauſe of the neereneſſe of hir temple vnto the ſame.
Solinus addeth furthermore, how that in hir ſaid
temple, the fire which was continuallie kept, did neuer
conſume into dead ſparkles; but ſo ſoone as the embers
thereof were cold, they congealed into clots of hard ſtone:
all which I take to be nothing elſe than the effect of
the aforeſaid fire, of the ſulphurous veine kindled in the
earth, from whence the waters doo come. That theſe
baths or waters are deriued from ſuch, the marchaſites,"
[which the Grecians call Pyritis, per antonomaſiam (for
being ſmit with the iron, it yeeldeth more ſparkes than
anie flint or calcedonie, and therefore ſeemeth to
deſerue the name aboue the reſt), and beſides theſe
other] ſtones mixed with ſome copper, and dailie found
vpon the moun *teins thereabouts will beare ſufficient
witneſſe, though I would write the contrarie. Dočtor
Turner alſo, the father of Engliſh phyſicke, and an
excellent diuine, ſuppoſeth that theſe ſprings doo draw
their forces from ſulphur: or if there be anie other
thing mingled withall, he geſſeth that it ſhould be ſalt
peter, bicauſe he found an obſcure likelihood of the
ſame, euen in the croſſe bath.” But that they partici-
pate with anie allume at all, he could neuer till his
dieng daie be induced to beleeue. I might here (if I
thought it neceſſarie) intreat of the notable ſituation of 4
[the citie, which ſtandeth in a pleaſant bottome,
inuironed on euerie ſide with great hils, out of the
which come ſo manie ſprings of pure water by ſundrie
waies vnto the citie, and in ſuch abundance, as that
[The Pyritis is
found almost in
exterie zweine of
metfall in great
Alertfie, dizzer-
sities and colour,
and sometimes
??tired with that
mettall of whose
excrezzzezzi's zf
consistezh.]
[2 p. 216]
Dr Turner, the
Father of
English Physic,
thinks the
Bath waters
hold sulphur
and salt-petre,
but not alum.
Bath's very
pleasantly
situated, in a
bottom ringd
with hills
whence streams
I'UlD.
* marchasites & 3 crosse Bath 4 of Bath itself
CHAP. XXIII.] BATHS AND HOT WELLS.
353
euerie houſe is ſerued with the ſame by pipes of lead,
the ſaid mettall being the [more] plentious and lefſe of
value vnto them, bicauſe it is not had far off from
thoſe quarters. It ſhould not be amiſſe alſo to ſpeake
of the foure gates, number of pariſh churches, bridges,
religious houſes diſſolued, and their founders, if place
did ſerue therefore: but for ſo much as my purpoſe is
not to deale in this behalfe, I will omit the mention of
theſe things, and go in hand with the baths them-
ſelues, wherof in [the title of] this chapiter I proteſted .
to intreat.
There are two ſprings of water (as Leland faith)
in the weſt ſouth weſt part of the towne, whereof the
biggeſt is called the croſſe bath, of a certeine croſſe that
was ere&ted ſometime in the middeſt thereof. This
bath is much frequented by ſuch as are diſeaſed with
leaprie, pockes, ſcabs, and great aches: yet of it ſelfe, it
is verie temperate and pleaſant, hauing eleuen" or
twelue arches of ſtone in the fides thereof, for men to
ſtand vnder, when raine dooth ought annoie them.
The common bath, or, as ſome call it, the hot bath,
is two hundred foot or thereabout from the croſſe bath,
leſſe in compaſſe within the wall than the other, and
with onelie ſeauen arches, wrought out of the maine
It is worthilie called the hot bath, for at the
firſt comming into it, men thinke that it would ſcald
their fleſh, and loſe it from the bone; but after a ſeaſon,
and that the bodies of the commers thereto be warmed
incloſure.
throughlie in the ſame, it is more tollerable and eaſie
to be borne. Both theſe baths be in the middle of a
little ſtreet, and ioine to S. Thomas hoſpitall, ſo that it
may be thought that Reginald, biſhop of Bath, made
his houſe neere vnto theſe common baths, onelie to
ſuccour ſuch poore people as ſhould reſort vnto them.
The kings bath is verie faire and large, ſtanding
almoſt in the middle of the towne, at the weſt end of
The city of
Bath is wel)
supplied with
Water,
and has 4 gates,
bridges, &c.
Crosse bath.
This is the
biggest,
and is us’d for
leprosy, Scabs,
&c.
Common bath.
This is the hot
bath, and at
first men think
it'll scald the
flesh off their
bones.
1—l had not
HARRISON.
* a leuen
23
Rings bath,
354
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book 11.
The ºlis in the cathedrall church. It is compaſſed about with a
6 Ull,
Hot houses in
sozzze cozezzzzzes
verie high ſtone wall, and the brims thereof are mured
round about, where in be two and thirtie arches for
men and women to ſtand in ſeparatlie, who, being of
the gentrie for the moſt part, doo reſort thither indif-
ferentlie, but not in ſuch laſciuious ſort as vinto other
Zittle better than baths and hot houſes of the maine, whereof ſome write
brodels.1
more a great deale than modeſtie ſhould reueale and
honeſtie performe. There went a ſluce out of this
bath, which ſerued in times paſt the priorie with water,
which was deriued out of it vinto two places, and com-
monlie vſed for baths, but now I doo not thinke that
they remaine in vſage.
As for the colour of the water of all the bathes, it
is moſt like to a deepe blew, and reeketh much after
the maner of a ſeething pot, commonlie yeelding ſom-
what a ſulpherous taſte, and verie vnpleaſant ſauour.
The water [alſo] that runneth from the two ſmall
baths, goeth by a dike into the Auon by weſt, and
beneath the bridge; but the ſame that goeth from the
kings bath turneth a mill,” and after goeth into Auon
aboue Bath bridge, where it loſeth both force and taſt,
and is like vnto the reſt. In all the three baths a man
maie euidentlie ſee how the water bubbleth vp from the
ſprings. This is alſo to be noted, that at certeine times
all entrances into them is vtterlie prohibited, that is to
ſaie, at high noone and midnight; for at thoſe two
ſeaſons, and a while before and after, they boile verie
feruentlie, and become ſo hot, that no man is able to
indure their heat, or anie while ſuſteine their force and
vehement working. They purge themſelues, further-
more, from all ſuch filth as the diſeaſed doo leaue in
each of them, wherfore we doe forbeare the raſh
entrance into them at that time; and ſo much the
rather, for that we would not, by contraćtion of anie
new diſeaſes, depart more greeuouſlie affected than we
Colour of the
zoater of the
baths.
Taste of the
water.
Fall or issue
of the water.
At noon and
midnight the
waters boil so
hotly that no
man may go
into them.
1 bordelles * myl
CHAP. xxi.11.] BATHS AND H OT W E L L S.
355
came vnto the citie, which is in deed a thing that each
one ſhould regard. For theſe cauſes, [therefore, they
are commonlie ſhut vp from halfe an houre after ten of
the clocke in the forenoone, to halfe an houre after one
in the afternoone, and likewiſe at midnight: at which
times the keeper of them reſorteth to his charge, open-
eth the gates, and leaueth [(or ſhould leaue)] free
paſſage vnto ſuch as come vnto them. Hitherto
Leland.
What coſt 1 of late hath 1 beene beſtowed vpon theſe
baths by diuerſe of the nobilitie, gentrie, communaltie,
and cleargie, it lieth not in me to declare : yet, as I
heare, they are not onelie verie much repared and
garniſhed with fundrie curious peeces of workemanſhip,
partlie touching their commendation, and partlie for
the eaſe and benefit, of ſuch as reſort vnto them; but
alſo better ordered, clenlier kept, & more friendlie
prouiſion made for ſuch pouertie as dailie repaireth
thither. But, notwithſtanding all this, ſuch is the
generall eſtate of things in Bath, that the rich men
maie ſpend while they will, and the poore beg whileſt
they liſt for their maintenance and diet ſo long as they
remaine there: and yet I denie not but that * there is
verie good order *in that citie" for all degrees. But where
ſhall a man find anie equall regard of poore and rich,
though God dooth *giue theſe his [good] gifts freelie.
[&] vnto both alike 2 I would here intreat further of
the cuſtoms vſed in theſe baths, what number of phy-
ficians dailie attend vpon thoſe waters, for no man
(eſpeciallie ſuch as be able to interteine them) dooth
enter into theſe baths before he conſult with the
phyſician; alſo, what diet is to be obſerued, what par-
ticular diſeaſes are healed there, and to what end the
commers thither doo drinke oftimes of that medicinable
liquor; but then I ſhould exceed the limits of a de-
Wherefore I paſſe it ouer to others, hoping
* yt 3–8 there
Not good to
ezzze?" Zzzzo
baths at al/
Sęſz.50%.S.
Much money
has been laid
out on the
baths in Bath
lately.
The rich spend
while they will,
and the poor
beg while they
please, for their
living in Bath.
Lots of Physi-
cians attend at
the baths.
ſcription.
I—l hath of late
4 do
356
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
I hope some one
'll finish the
description of
the treatment
at Bath that Dr
Turner began.
The antiquities
found here
that ſome man yer long will vouchſafe to performe that
at large, which the famous clearke, Dočtor Turner, hath
brieflie yet happilie begun, touching the effects &
Working of the ſame. For hitherto I doo not know of
manie that haue trauelled in the natures of thoſe baths
of our countrie, with anie great commendation ; much
leſſe of anie that hath reuealed them at the full for the
benefit of our nation, or commoditie of ſtrangers [that
reſort winto the ſame.]
“Of antiquities found."
Chap. 24.”
Auing taken” ſome occaſion to ſpeake here
and there in this treatiſe of antiquities, it
- A ſhall not be amis to deale yet more, in this
chapter, with ſome of them apart, & by themſelues,
whereby the ſecure authoritie of the Romans ouer this
I*land maie in ſome caſes more manifeſtlie appeare.
For ſuch was their poſſeſſion of this Iland on this fide
of the Tine, that they held not one or two, or a few
places onelie vnder their ſubie&tion, but all the whole
countrie from eaſt” to weſt, from the Tine to the
Britiſh ſea, ſo that there was no region void of their
gouernance : notwithſtanding that vintill the death of
Lucius, and extinétion of his iſſue, they did permit the
ſucceſſors of Lud and Cimbaline to reigne and rule
amongeſt them, though vnder a certeine tribute, as
elſe-where I haue declared. The cheefe cauſe that
vrgeth me to ſpeake of antiquities, is the paines that I
haue taken to gather great numbers of them togither,
intending (if euer my Chronologie ſhall happen to
come abroad) to ſet downe the liuelie portraitures of
euerie emperour ingrauen" in the ſame: alſo the faces
witness the
- ancient rule of
the Romans
over our island.
[4 p. 217]
I’ve got together
a great many of
these, and mean
to engrave all
the Emperors in
my “Chrono-
logy,’ if it's ever
publisht.
*—l Of the Antiquities, or auncient Coines found in England.
* Chap. 17, Book 2, in 1577 ed.—F. & take * East the ° ingraued

CHAP. XXIV.] ANTIQUITIES FOUND.
357
of Pompeie, Craſſus, the ſeuen kings of the Romans,
Cicero, and diuerſe other, which I haue prouided readie
for the purpoſe, befide the monuments and liuelie
images of ſundrie philoſophers, and kings of this Iland,
ſince the time of Edward the Confeſſor. Wherof,
although preſentlie I want a few, yet I doo not doubt
but to obteine them all, if *friendſhip at the leaſtwiſe
But as
it hath doone hitherto, ſo the charges to be emploied
procured for monie ſhall be able to preuaile.
vpon theſe braſen or copper images, will hereafter put
by the impreſſion of * that treatiſe: * whereby it maie
come to paſſe, that long trauell ſhall ſoone proue to be
ſpent in vaine, and much coſt come to verie ſmall ſuc-
ceſſe. Whereof yet I force not greatlie, fith by this
means I haue reaped ſome commoditie vnto my ſelfe,
by ſearching of the hiſtories, which often miniſter ſtore
of examples readie to be vſed [in my function,] as oc-
caſion ſhall mooue” me. But to proceed with my pur-
poſe.
Before the comming of the Romans, there was a
kind of copper monie currant here in Britaine, as
Caeſar confeſſeth in the fift booke of his Commentaries,
[but I find not of what maner it was...] Hereto" he
addeth a report of certeine rings, of a proportionate
weight, which they vſed in his time, in ſtead likewiſe
of monie. But as hitherto it hath not bene my lucke
[(I ſaie)] to haue the certeine view of anie of theſe, ſo
after the comming of the Romans, they inforced vs to
abandon our owne, and receiue ſuch imperiall [monies
or] coines,” as for the painment of their° legions was
dailie brought ouer vnto them.” What coines the
Romans had, it is eaſie to be knowne, and from time
to time much of it is found in manie places of this
Iland, as well of gold and filuer, as of copper, braſſe,
and other mettall, much like ſteele, almoſt of euerie
I’ve coins of
nearly all the
Emperors,
but the money
wanted to buy
'em 'll probably
stop the print-
ing of my
* Chronology.’
1–1 eyther friendship or
5 coine
*—” my booke
* compell
7 us
Caesar’s account
of the early
coins in Britain.
I’ve never had
the luck to get
sight of any.
Plenty of
Roman coins
and antiquities
have been found
here.
* whereunto
358
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
I’ve already
stated (in Bk I.
Ch. 10, see p. 366
here), how many
Roman coins,
&c., have been
found in Kent
and St Alban's.
emperour. So that I account it no rare thing to haue
of the Roman coine, albeit that it ſtill repreſent an
image of our captiuitie, and maie be a good admonition
for vs, to take heed how we yeeld our ſelues to the
Of the ſtore of theſe monies,
found vpon the Kentiſh coaſt, I haue alreadie made
regiment of ſtrangers.
mention in the deſcription of Richborow, and chapter
of Iles adiacent vnto the Britiſh Albion, and there ſhewed
alſo how ſimple fiſhermen haue had plentie of them,
and that the conies in making profers and holes to
breed in, haue ſcraped them out of the ground in
In ſpeaking alſo of S. Albans,
in the chapter of townes and villages, I haue not
omitted to tell what plentie of theſe coines haue bene
gathered there : wherfore I ſhall not need here to
repeat the ſame againe.
verie great abundance.
Howbeit this is certeine, that
the moſt part of all theſe antiquities to be found within
the land, & diſtant from the ſhore, are to be gotten
either in the ruines of ancient cities and townes decaied,
or in incloſed burrowes, where their legions accuſtomed
ſometime to winter, as by experience is dailie confirmed.
What ſtore hath beene ſeene of them in the citie of
London, which they called Auguſta, of the legion that
ſoiourned there, & likewiſe in Yorke named alſo Vićtrix,
of the legion Vićtoria, or Altera Roma (becauſe of [the]
beautie and fine building of the ſame), I my ſelfe can
partlie witneſſe, that haue ſeene, & often had of them,
if better teſtimonie were wanting. The like I maie
affirme of Colcheſter, where thoſe of Claudius, Adrian,
Traian, Veſpaſian, and other, are oftentimes plowed vp,
or found by other means: alſo of Cantorburie, And-
redeſcheſter” (now decaied), Rocheſter, then called
Durobreuum, Wincheſter, and diuerſe other beyond
the Thames, which for breuitie ſake I doo paſſe ouer
Onlie the chiefe of all and where moſt are
found in deed, is neere vnto Carleon and Cairgwent in
Most are dis-
coverd in old
towns and
enclosures
where the
Roman Legions
winterd.
That very many
have come from
London and
York,
I can witness,
as I can of
Colchester.
? Andreschester
in ſilence.
1 the very
chAP. xxiv.] ANTIQUITIES FOUND.
359
Southwales, about Kencheſter, three miles aboue Here-
ford, Aldborow, Ancaſter, Bramdon, Dodington,' [where
a ſpurre and peece of a chaine of gold were found in
king Henrie the eight his daies, beſides much of the ſaid
Roman coine, Bincheſter, Camalet, Lacocke vpon
Auon, [and] Lincolne, Dorcheſter, Warwike, and
Cheſter, where they are often had in verie great abun-
dance. It ſeemeth that Ancaſter hath beene a great
thing, for manie ſquare & colored pauements, vaults,
and arches are yet found, and often laid open by ſuch
as dig and plow in the fields about the ſame. And
amongſt theſe, one Wreſbie or Roſebie, a plowman, did
ere vp not long fince a ſtone like a trough, couered
with another ſtone, wherein was great foiſon * of the
The like alſo was ſeene not yet
fortie yeares agone about Grantham. But in king
Henrie the eight his daies, an huſbandman had far
better lucke at Harleſton, two miles from the aforeſaid
aforeſaid coines.
place, where he found not onelie great plentie” of this
coine, but alſo an huge braſſe pot, and therein a large
helmet of pure gold, richlie fretted with pearle, and ſet
with all kind of coſtlie ſtones: he tooke vp alſo chaines
much like vnto beads of ſiluer, all which, as being (if a
man might gheſſe anie certeintie by their beautie) not
likelie to be long hidden, he preſented to queene
Katharine then lieng at Peterborow, and therewithall a
few ancient rolles of parchment written long agone,
though ſo defaced with mouldineſſe, and rotten for
age, that no man could well hold them in his hand
without falling into peeces, much leſſe read them by
reaſon of their blindneſſe.
In the beginning of the ſame kings daies alſo at
Killeie a man found as he eared, an arming girdle,
harneſſed with pure gold, and a great maſfie pomell
with a-croſſe hilt for a ſword of the ſame mettall, befide
ſtuds and harneſſe for ſpurs, and the huge long ſpurs of 4
8 store
Roman coins,
&c., found at
Doddington,
Warwick,
Chester, &c.
Roman pave-
ments, &c.,
found at
Ancaster.
A ploughman
ploughd up a
trough with
many coins.
In Henry VIII.'s
time a husband-
man at
Harleston found
coins, a brass
pot with a gold
helmet in it,
and chains,
1 Dodington, Cirnechester * abundaunce
which he gave
to Q. Katharine
at Peterborough,
and some old
rolls of parch-
ment.
Another man
ploughing at
Killeie found a
gold girdle, &c.
* also of
360
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
The Roman
boroughs or
camps in the
Open
were generally
walld with stone
walls,
[1 p. 218]
and had gates,
as may be seen
by one near
Great Chester-
ford in Essex,
by others at
the Borow
Hills, south of
Burton, St
Neot's, Dover,
Rye, Romney,
&c.
Coins from
them are calld
Dwarfs' money,
Fairy groats, &c.
like ſtuffe, whereof [one] doćtor Ruthall got [a]part
into his hands. The boroughs or buries, wherof I
ſpake before, were certeine plots of ground, wherin the
Romane ſouldiers did vſe to lie when they kept in the
open fields as choſen places, from whence they might
haue eaſie acceſſe vnto their aduerſaries, if anie outrage
were wrought, or rebellion mooued againſt them. And
as theſe were the vſuall aboads for thoſe able legions
that ſerued dailie in the wars, ſo had they other certeine
habitations for the old and forworne ſouldiers, whereby
diuerſe cities grew in time to be repleniſhed with
Romane colonies, as Cairleon, Colcheſter, Cheſter,
and ſuch other, of which, Colcheſter bare the name of
Colonia long time, and wherein A. Plautius builded a
temple vnto the goddeſſe of Vićtorie (after the departure
of Claudius) which Tacitus calleth Aram ſempiternac
dominationis, a perpetuall monument of that our Britiſh
ſeruitude. But to returne vnto our borowes, they
Were generallie walled about with ſtone wals, and ſo
large in compaſſe that ſome did conteine thirtie, fourtie,
three ſcore, or eightie acres of ground * within their
limits: they had alſo diuerſe gates or ports vinto each
of them, and of theſe, not a few remaine to be ſeene in
our time, as one, for example, not far from great Cheſ-
terford in Eſſex, neere to the limits of Cambridgſhire,
which I haue often viewed, and wherein the compaſſe
of the verie wall with the places where the gates ſtood is
eaſie to be diſcerned : the like alſo is to be ſeene [at a
place] within two miles ſouth of Burton, called the
Borow hils. In theſe, therefore, and ſuch like, [and
likewiſe at Euolſburg, now S. Neots, or S. Needs, and
ſundrie other places, eſpeciallie vpon the ſhore and
coaſts of Kent, as Douer, Rie, Romneie, Lid, &c :] is
much of their coine alſo to be found, and ſome peeces
or other are dailie taken vp, which they call Borow
pence, Dwarfs monie, Hegs pence, Feirie groats, Iewes
monie, & by other fooliſh names not woorthie to be
cHAP. xxv.] THE CO INS OF ENGLAND.
361
remembred. At the comming of the Saxons, the
Britons vſed theſe holds as reſcues for their cattell in
the daie and night, when their enimies were abroad;
the like alſo did the Saxons againſt the Danes, by which
occaſions (and now and then by carieng of their ſtones
to helpe forward other buildings neere at hand), manie
of them were throwne downe and defaced, which other-
wiſe might haue continued for a longer time, and ſo
your honour” would ſaie, if you ſhould happen to
peruſe the thickeneſſe and maner of building of thoſe
[ſaid] wals and borowes. It is not long fince a filuer
ſaucer of verie ancient making was found neere to
Saffron Walden, in the open field among the Sterbirie
hils, and eared vp by a plough, but of ſuch maſſie
greatneſſe, that it weighed better than twentie ounces,
as I haue heard reported. But if I ſhould ſtand in
theſe things vntill I had ſaid all that might be ſpoken
of them, both by experience and teſtimonie of Leland
in his Commentaries of Britaine, and the report of
diuerſe, yet liuing, I might make a greater chapter than
would be either conuenient or profitable to the reader:
wherefore *ſo much onelie” ſhall ſerue the turne for
this time as” I haue ſaid alreadie of antiquities found
within our Iland, eſpeciallie of coine, whereof I pur-
poſed chiefelie to intreat.*
Of the coines of England.
Chap. 25.”
He Saxon coine before the conqueſt is [in
maner] vºterlie vnknowne to me: howbeit
if my coniečture be anie thing, I ſuppoſe
that "one ſhilling" of filuer in thoſe daies did counter-
1 selues 2—3 these
* This is chap. 20, Book 3, in 1577 ed.—F.
3 that
When the
Romans left,
their Camps
were us'd as
holds for cattle,
and destroyd,
or they’d have
lasted longer, as
you, my Lord
Cobham, know.
Szerºzze a
Alace where an
armeie hath /teſt.
I know nothing
of the Saxon
coins before the
Conquest.
4 treate
"—" the shillynges
362
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Copper mortie.
A Saxon
ºuins worth
5d.
Spanish money
common here in
Q. Mary’s days.
Silue” restored.
Q. Elizabeth
turnd the copper
and brass coin
into guns, and
made silver bits
of #d., la, 1%d.,
3d., and the
groat, testern,
and shilling of
12d.
Old gold.
º
peiſe our common ounce, though afterward it came to
paſſe that it aroſe to twentie pence, and ſo continued
wntill the time of king Henrie the eight, who firſt
brought it to three ſhillings and foure pence, & after-
ward our filuer coine vnto braſſe & copper monies, by
reaſon of thoſe ineſtimable charges, which diuerſe waies
oppreſſed him." [And, as I gather ſuch obſcure notice
of the ſhilling which is called in Latine Solidus, ſo I
read more manifeſtlie of another which is the 48 part
of a pound, and this alſo currant among the Saxons of
our Ile, ſo well in gold as in filuer, at ſuch time as
240 of their penies made vp a juſt pound, fiue pence
went to the ſhilling, and foure ſhillings to the ounce.
But to proceed with my purpoſe. After the death
of K. Henrie, Edward his ſonne began to reſtore
the aforeſaid coine againe vnto fine filuer : ſo queene
Marie, his ſucceſſour, did continue his good purpoſe,
notwithſtanding that in hir time the Spaniſh monie
was verie common in England, by reaſon of hir mariage
with Philip, king of Spaine.
After hir deceaſe the ladie Elizabeth, hir ſiſter, and
now our moſt gratious queene, * ſouereigne and” prin-
ceſſe, did finiſh the matter wholie, vtterly aboliſhing
the vſe of copper [and braſen] coine, and conuerting
the ſame into [guns and great ordinance, ſhe reſtored
ſundrie coines of] fine ſiluer, as peeces of halfepenie
farding, of a penie, of three halfe pence, peeces of two
pence, of three pence, of foure pence (called the groat),
of fix pence vſuallie named the teſtone, and ſhilling of
twelue pence, whereon ſhe hath imprinted hir owne
image, and emphaticall ſuperſcription. Our gold is
either old or new. The old is that which hath remained
ſince the time of king Edward the third, or beene
coined by ſuch other princes as haue reigned fince his
deceaſſe, without [anie] abafing [or diminution] of the
fineſſe of that mettall. Therof alſo we haue yet
1 him, But as King *—” and souereigne
CHAP. xxv.] THE CO INS OF ENGLAND,
363
remaining, the riall, the George noble, the Henrie
riall, the ſalut, the angell, and their ſmaller peeces, as
halfes or quarters, though theſe in my time are not ſo
common to be ſeene. I haue alſo beheld the ſoue-
reigne of twentie ſhillings, and the peece of thirtie ſhil-
lings; I haue heard likewiſe of peeces of fortie ſhillings,
three pounds, fiue pounds, and ten pounds. But fith
there were few of them coined, and thoſe onelie at the
commandement of kings, yearelie to beſtow where
their maieffies thought good in lieu of new yeares gifts
Old gold coins
now left.
I’ve seen a 30s.
gold piece.
Gold coins from
#92 to £10 as
New Years'Gifts.
and rewards: it is not requiſit that I ſhould remember
them here amongſt our currant monies.”
The new gold is taken for ſuch as began to be
coined in the latter daies of king Henrie the eight, at
which time the fineſſe of the mettall began to be verie
much alaied, & is not likelie to be reſtored, for ought
that I can ſee: and yet is it” ſuch as hath beene coined
fince by his ſucceſſors princes of this realme, in value
and goodneſſe equall and not inferiour to the coine and
currant gold of other nations, where each one dooth
couet [chiefelie] to gather vp our old finer gold : ſo that
the angels, rials, and nobles, are more plentifullie ſeene
in France, [Italie, and Flanders, than they be by a
great deale within the realme of England, [if you
regard the painments which they dailie make in thoſe
kinds of our coine.] Our peeces now currant are of
ten ſhillings, fiue ſhillings, and two ſhillings and fix
pence onelie: and thoſe of ſundrie ſtamps and names,
as halfe ſouereigns [(equall in weight with our currant
* ſhilling, whereby that gold is valued at ten times ſo
much filuer)], quarters of ſouereigns (otherwiſe called
crownes), and halfe crownes: likewiſe angels, halfe
angels, and quarters of angels; or if there be anie other,
in good ſooth I know them not, as one ſcarſelie
acquainted with any filuer at all, much leſſe then (God
it wot) with any ſtore of gold.
1 of the * coynes 8 it &
New gold,
of less fine
metal,
tho' equal to
that of foreign
nations.
Our old fine
gold is more
plentiful abroad
than here.
Our present
Elizabethan
current money.
364
THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND. [Book II.
Henry VIII.
first coind the
silver shilling of
120.
Edw. VI. the
silver 5s, 2s. 6d.,
and 6d. pieces.
Q. Elizabeth the
Silver groat, la.,
2d., #d
Edw. I. first
coind round
silver-pennies,
&c., instead of
Square Ones.
[2 p. 2191
Foreign coins
current in Eng-
land: ducats,
crusadoes,
portigues,
French and
Flemish crowns.
Thalers, &c., are
exchang'd as
bullion.
1–1
ob
The firſt currant ſhilling or [filuer] peeces of twelue
pence [ſtamped within memorie, were coined by K.
Henrie the eight [in the twentith yeare of his reigne,
[&] thoſe of fiue ſhillings, and of two ſhillings and fix
pence, & the halfe ſhilling by king Edward the fixt:
but the od peeces aboue remembred vnder the groat
by our high and mightie princeſſe queene Elizabeth,
the name of the groat, penie, two pence, "halfe penie”
and farding, [in old time the greateſt filuer monies
if you reſpect their denominations onelie, being
more ancient than that I can well diſcuſſe of the
time of their beginnings. Yet thus much I read, that
king Edward the firſt in the eight yeare of his reigne,
did firſt coine the penie and ſmalleſt peeces of filuer
roundwiſe, which before were ſquare, and woont to
beare a double croſſe with a creſt, in ſuch ſort that
the penie might eaſilie be broken, either into halfes
or quarters: by which ſhift onelie the people *came
by [ſmall monies, as] halfe pence and fardings, that
otherwiſe were not ſtamped nor coined of ſet purpoſe.
Of forren coines we haue all” the ducats, the ſingle,4
double, [and the double double, the cruſadoes, with
the long croſſe and the ſhort : the portigue, a peece
verie ſolemnelie kept of diuerſe, & yet oft times abaſed
with waſhing, or” abſolutelie counterfeited: and finallie
the French and Flemiſh crownes, onlie currant among
vs, ſo long as they hold weight. But of filuer coines,
[as the ſoules turnois, whereof ten make a ſhilling, as
the franke dooth two ſhillings, and three franks the
French crowne, &c.; we haue] none at all : yet are the
dalders, and ſuch, often times brought ouer, but neuer-
theleſſe exchanged as bullion, according to their fine-
neſſe and weight, and afterward conuerted into coine,
by ſuch as haue authoritie.
In old time we had fundrie mints in England, and
thoſe commonlie kept in abbaies and religious houſes
3 both * single and the * or else
cHAP. xxv.] THE COIN3 OF ENGLAND.
365
before the conqueſt, where true dealing was commonlie
ſuppoſed moſt of all to dwell: as at Ramſeie, "S. Ed-
mundſburie," Canturburie, Glaſſenburie, [Peterborow],
and ſuch like, ſundrie exemplificats of the grants
whereof are yet to be ſeene in writing, [eſpeciallie that
of Peterborow vnder the confirmation of pope Eugenius:
wherevnto it appeereth further by a charter of king
Edgar (which I haue), that they either held it or had
another in Stanford.] But after the Normans had
once gotten the *kingdome into their fingers,” they
truſted themſelues beſt with the ouerfight of their mints,
and therefore erected diuerſe of their owne, although
they afterward permitted ſome for ſmall peeces of ſiluer
wnto ſundrie of the houſes aforeſaid. In my time
diuerſe mints are ſuppreſſed, as Southwarke, Briſtow,
&c.; and all coinage is brought into one place, that is
to ſaie, the Tower of London, where it is continuallie
holden and peruſed, but not without great gaine to
ſuch as deale withall. There is alſo coinage of tin
holden yearelie at two ſeuerall times, that is to ſaie,
Midſummer and Michaelmas in the weſt countrie;
which at the firſt hearing, I ſuppoſed to haue beene of
monie of the ſaid mettall, and granted by priuilege from
ſome” prince vnto the towns of Haileſtone, Trurie, and
Loſtwithiell. Howbeit, vpon further examination of
the matter, I find it to be nothing ſo, but an office
onlie erected for the prince, wherin he is allowed the
ordinarie cuſtomes of that * mettall : and ſuch blocks
of tin as haue paſſed the hands of his officers, are
marked with an eſpeciall ſtampe, whereby it is knowne
that the cuſtome due for the ſame hath ordinarilie beene
anſwered. It ſhould ſeeme (and in my opinion is verie
likelie to be true) that while [the] Romans reigned here,
Kingſtone vpon Thames [(ſometime a right noble
citie and place where the Saxon kings were vſuallie
crowned)] was the chiefe place of their coinage for this
*— Bury *—” masterye 3 the
Old Mints in
England.
The Normans
kept these
Mints in their
own hands.
I’ve seen the
Mints at South-
wark, Bristol,
&c., suppresst,
and all coinage
centred in the
Tower,
In Cornwall tin
is stampt twice
a year, when the
Prince's dues
are paid on it.
At Kingston-
upon-Thames
was probably a
Roman Mint.
4 the
366 THE DESCRIPTION OF ENGLAND, [Book II.
prouince. For in earing of the ground about that
towne in times paſt, and now of late (beſides the
curious foundation of manie goodlie buildings that haue
beene ripped vp [by plowes], and diuerſe coines of
; .* braſſe, filuer, and gold, with Romane letters in painted
pots" found there) in the daies of cardinall Woolſele,
one ſuch [huge] pot was diſcouered full as it were of new
and plates filuer latelie coined; another with plates of filuer readie
ready for coin- wº e c tº
ing, found at to be coined ; and the third with chaines of filuer [and
Kingston-upon- * ſº
Thames. ſuch broken ſtuffe] redie (as it ſhould appeere) to be
melted into coinage,” whereof let this ſuffice to coun-
tenance out my conie&ture. [Of coins currant before
the comming of the Romans I haue elſewhere declared,
that there were none at all in Britaine : but as the
Ilanders of Scylira, the old Romans, Armenians, Scy-
thians, Seritans, Sarmatians, Indians, and Eſſences did
The Britons barter ware for ware, ſo the Britons vſed braſſe or rings
.#tº for of iron, brought vnto a certeine proportion, in ſteed of
money. monie, as the Lacedemonians & Biſantines alſo did, &
the Achiui (as Homer writeth) who had (ſaith he)
rough peeces of braſſe and iron in ſteed of coine, where-
with they purchaſed their wines.]
* pots that haue beene * coine
p. 337, l. 8 from foot, sallow. Saule : m. A Sallow, Willow, or Withy tree.
(And see Saula.)—Cotgrave. -
‘Who that buyidith his housal of salwes,
And priketh his blynde hors over the falwes,
And suffrith his wyf to go seken halwes,
Is worthy to ben honged on the galwes.’
Chaucer, Prol, to Wife of Bath's Tale, 1.655-8, ed. Morris, ii. 226.
p. 339, l. 10 from foot, Hull, prov. holly. Fr. Hour m. The Hollie, Holme
or Hulver-tree.—Cotgrave. See Hulwyr, and Mr Way's note, in Promptorium.
p. 339, l, 10 from foot, sorfe. Lat. Sorbus. . . Columſella]. A tree hauing a
streite stemme, and thinne barke, somewhat fattie, firste yelowe, and after whitish;
a leafe like a laurell, but thinner and lesse; a fruyte or bearie small & in facion
of an egge. Some haue thought it our Servis tree.—Cooper's Thesaurus, 1584.
Fr. Corne : f. The Service or Sorb-apple. Cornier: m. The Service tree,
Sorb-apple tree.—Cotgrave.
Dr Prior says that Service and Sorb “have nothing to do with each other. See
NOTES. º 367
Servius ad Virgil. Georg. iii. 379 : “Sorbium, cervisia vel potus ex fructu sorbi.”
The cornier is quite a different tree, a ‘cornel,' the fruit of which is eaten in Italy,
and used to make sherbet in Persia. It is not uncommon in our shrubberies, with
golden yellow blossoms in March. See Meibomius de Cerevisiis.”
In his excellent “Popular Names of British Plants,’ 1870, Dr Prior says:
“SoRB, L, sorbus, from sorbeo, drink down, in allusion to a beverage made from
the fruit. (See Service-Tree.) A name formerly given to Pyrus domestica, L., at
present to Pyrus torminalis, L.
“SERVICE-, or, as in Ph. Holland's Pliny more correctly spelt, SERVISE-TREE,
from L. cervisia, its fruit having from ancient times been used for making a fer-
mented liquor, a kind of beer :
- “Et pocula lasti
Fermento atque acidis imitantur vitea sorbis.”—Virg, Georg. iii. 379.
I)iefenbach remarks: (Or. Eur. 102), ‘bisweilen bedeutet cervisia einen nicht
aus Getreide gebrauten Trank;" and Evelyn tells us in his Sylva (ch. xv.), that
‘ale and beer brewed with these berries, being ripe, is an incomparable drink.’
The Cerevisia of the ancients was made from malt, and took its name, we are told
by Isidore of Seville, from Ceres, Cereris, but this has come to be used in a
secondary sense without regard to its etymological meaning, just as in Balm-tea we
use tea in the sense of an infusion, without regard to its being properly the name of
a different plant, Pyrus domestica, Sm.
“SERVICE, WILD-, the rowan tree, Pyrus aucuparia, Gärt. [See Rowan.]
“QUICKEN, or QUICK-BEAM, or WICKEN, a tree ever moving, A.S. cwic-beam,
from owie, alive, and beam tree, translated in AElfric’s glossary ‘tremulus,’ a name
applied by him to the aspen, but which has been transferred to this, the wild-
service or roan tree, probably through some confusion between cºvic and wicce, &c.,
a witch, and the roam being regarded as a preservative against witch-craft. See
RoAN. Wicker is merely a different spelling of the same word. Whick is given
in Levins's Manipulus as meaning ‘alive ’, ‘vivus’. Pyrus aucuparia, L.”
p. 352. Doctor Turner. ‘A Booke of the natures and properties / as well of
the bathes in England as of other bathes in Germanye and Italye / very necessarye
for all sycke persones that can not be healed without the helpe of natural bathes /
lately ouersene and enlarged by william Turner Doctor of Physick, God saue the
Quene. Imprinted at Collen . . . M. D. LXVIII . . . *, 4 leaves: B–D 5 in sixes.”
“Following the title is the “Preface of the Author vnto his wellbeloued neighboures
of bath Bristow / Wellis / Winsam / and Charde,” dated 10 March 1557-8, from
Basle.”—W. C. Hazlitt–Collections and Notes, 1876. Turner's Herball, 1568, and
homish apothecarye, are capital books, and worth reprinting.
p. 358, Richborow. Harrison, Bk I., cap. 10, p. 29: ‘Of such Ilands as are to
Rutupium, be seene vpon the coast of Britaine.’ p. 30, col. 2, 1.49 : “Sometime
Rutupium or (as Beda calleth it) Reptacester, stood also in this Iland; but now,
thorough alteration of the chanell of the Dour, it is shut quite out, and annexed to
the maine. It is called in these daies ‘Richborow,” and, as it should seeme,
builded upon an indifferent soile or high ground. The large brickes also yet to be
seene there, in the ruinous walles, declare either the Romane or the old British
workemanship. But as time decaieth all things, so Rutupium, named Ruptimuth,
is now become desolate, and out of the dust thereof, Sandwich producted, which
standeth a full mile from the place where Reptacester stood. The old writers
affirme, how Arthur & Mordred fought one notable battell here, wherin Gwallon
368 sº NOTES.
or Gawan was slaine; at which time the said rebell came against his souereigne
with 70000 Picts, Scots, Irish, Norwegiens, &c., and with Ethelbert the first
christian king of Kent did hold his palace in this towne, and yet none of his coine
hath hitherto beene found there, as is dailie that of the Romanes, whereof manie
peeces of siluer and gold, so well as of brasse, copper, and other mettall, haue often
beene shewed unto me.
“It should appeere in like sort, that of this place, all the whole coast of Kent
therabout was called Littus Rutupinum, which some doo not a little confirme by
these words of Lucane, to be read in his sixt booke, soone after the beginning :
Awt vaga cum Tethis, Rutupinaque littora fervent,
Wnda Calidonios fallit turbata Britannos.
The last Or when the wandering seas
of tº: and Kentish coasts doo worke,
and first of an And Calidons of British bloud,
other. * t
the troubled waues beguile.
Meaning in like sort by the latter, the coast neere Andredeswald, which in time
past was called Littus Calidonium, of that wood or forrest, as Leland also confirmeth.
But as it is not my mind to deale anie thing curiouslie in these by-matters, so in
returning againe to my purpose, and taking my iourney toward the Wight, I must
Seolesey, of needs passe by Selesey, which sometime (as it should seeme) hath
Seles there beene a noble Iland, but now in maner a Byland or Peninsula
taken. wherin the cheefe see of the bishop of Chichester was holden by the
space of three hundred twentie nine yeares, and vnder twentie bishops.”
I can’t find the fisherman and coney passages.

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