Chapter VII: 43 is the amusing one on the "Apparell and Atire" of English

folk already referrd to (p. xiii. above); and though it's not so bitter as Stubbes's or Crowley's, yet it's fun, with its "dog in a doublet," and its beard bit, if a man "be wesell becked [beakt], then much heare left on the cheekes will make the owner looke big like a bowdled hen, and so grim as a goose, if Cornelis of Chelmeresford saie true."

In the chapter on the Parliament the only personal bit is Harrison's saying that he copies from Sir Thomas Smith,[44] "requiting him with the like borrowage as he hath vsed toward me in his discourse of the sundrie degrees of estates in the commonwealth of England." But in the next chapter, "Of the Laws of England," after a dull account of the Trial by Ordeal, etc., we get Harrison breaking out again against the Lawyers, their prosperity and rascality, and taking fees (as barristers often do still) and doing nothing for 'em, with a good bit about Welshmen's love of law-suits. We also find a pleasant notice of John Stow, the hard-working chronicler so shamefully neglected in his own age: "my freend _Iohn Stow_, whose studie is the onelie store house of antiquities in my time, and he worthie therefore to be had in reputation and honour."

The chapter "Of Prouision made for the Poore," notes the weekly collection made in every parish for the deserving poor, and gives Harrison's opinion on the Malthusians of his day:--

"Some also doo grudge at the great increase of people in these daies,
thinking a necessarie brood of cattell farre better than a
superfluous augmentation of mankind. But I can liken such men best of
all vnto the pope and the diuell, who practise the hinderance of the
furniture of the number of the elect to their vttermost, to the end
the authoritie of the one upon earth, the deferring of the locking vp
of the other in euerlasting chaines, and the great gaines of the
first, may continue and indure the longer. But if it should come to
passe that any forren inuasion should be made, which the Lord God
forbid for his mercies sake!--then should these men find that a wall
of men is farre better than stackes of corne and bags of monie, and
complaine of the want when it is too late to seeke remedie."

The sham beggars, he says, "are all theeues and caterpillers in the commonwealth, and by the word of God not permitted to eat." Then he makes extracts from Harman about the rogues, among whom, by statute, are "plaiers and minstrels," Shakspere and his fellows, etc.

In the chapter on the "Punishments appointed for Malefactors," our author notes that "our condemned persons doo go ... cheerfullie to their deths, for our nation is free, stout, hautie, prodigall of life and bloud;" that the punishment for "robbing by the high waie" (like Sir John Falstaff's), "cutting of purses," "stealing of deere by night" (like Shakspere's, if he ever stole deer from Sir Thomas Lucy, who had no park in his time), was death; and that the punishment for adultery and fornication was not sharp enough:--

"As in theft therfore, so in adulterie and whoredome, I would wish
the parties trespassant, to be made bond or slaues vnto those that
receiued the iniurie, to sell and giue where they listed, or to be
condemned to the gallies: for that punishment would proue more bitter
to them than halfe an houres hanging, or than standing in a sheet,
though the weather be neuer so called."

He also complains of the robberies by unthrift young gentlemen, and "seruing-men whose wages cannot suffice so much as to find them breeches;" and that selfish men, and even constables, in the country, won't leave their work to follow up thieves and take them to prison:[45] this "I haue knowne by mine owne experience."

The chapter, "Of the manner of Building and Furniture of our Houses," is perhaps the best, and the best-known, in the book. It describes how English houses were built, and notes these new things, 1. that rich men were beginning to use stoves for sweating baths; while, 2. all men were using glass for windows; 3. that timber-houses were giving way to brick and stone; and that though our workmen were excellent, their demands for high wages often causd strangers to be employd in building; 4. the increast richness of furniture, not only in rich men's houses, but in those of "the inferiour artificers and manie farmers," who "now garnish their cupbords with plate, their ioined beds with tapistrie and silke hangings, and their tables with carpets & fine naperie, whereby the wealth of our countrie ... dooth infinitelie appear;"

[5.] "the multitude of chimnies latelie erected;" [6.] "the great
(although not generall) amendment of lodging, for (said they) our
fathers (yea, and we our selues also) haue lien full oft vpon straw
pallets, on rough mats couered onelie with a sheet, vnder couerlets
made of dagswain or hopharlots (I vse their owne termes), and a good
round log vnder their heads in steed of a bolster or pillow....
Pillowes (said they) were thought meet onelie for women in childbed.
As for seruants, if they had anie sheet aboue them, it was well, for
seldome had they anie vnder their bodies, to keepe them from the
pricking straws that ran oft through the canuas of the pallet, and
rased their hardened hides."... [7.] "The exchange of vessell, as of
treene[46] platters into pewter, and woodden spoones into siluer or
tin. For so common were all sorts of treene stuffe in old time, that
a man should hardlie find four peeces of pewter (of which one was
peraduenture a salt) in a good farmers house, and yet for all this
frugalitie (if it may so be iustly called) they were scarse able to
liue and paie their rents at their daies without selling of a cow, or
an horsse, or more, although they paid but foure pounds at the
vttermost by the yeare."

The farmer was very poor too; and yet now, though his £4 rent is raised to £40, he can not only buy plate, and featherbeds, etc., but can purchase a renewal of his lease, 6 years before the expiration of the old one; and the paying the money "shall neuer trouble him more than the haire of his beard, when the barber hath washed and shaued it from his chin." Against these signs of prosperity, these fat kine, are 3, nay 4, lean kine, which eat up their plump brethren,

"three things ... are growen to be verie grieuous vnto them, to wit,
the inhansing of rents, latelie mentioned; the dailie oppression of
copiholders, whose lords seeke to bring their poore tenants almost
into plaine seruitude and miserie, dailie deuising new meanes, and
seeking vp all the old, how to cut them shorter and shorter,
doubling, trebling, and now & then seuen times increasing their
fines; driuing them also for euerie trifle to loose and forfeit their
tenures (by whome the greatest part of the realme dooth stand and is
mainteined), to the end they may fleece them yet more, which is a
lamentable hering. The third thing they talke of is vsurie, a trade
brought in by the Jewes, now perfectlie practised almost by euerie
christain, and so commonlie, that he is accompted but for a foole
that dooth lend his monie for nothing."

Interest has run up to 12 per cent.; wherefore, "helpe I praie thee in lawfull maner to hang vp such as take _Centum pro cento_, for they are no better worthie as I doo iudge in conscience." The 4th grievance is that Gentlemen (!) have actually "themselves become grasiers, butchers, tanners, sheepmasters, woodmen, and _denique quod non_!"

The chapter, "Of Cities and Townes in England," is dull, but has a short account of the antiquities found in old Verulam, and Harrison's visit there in the summer of 1586 or 1585; and his groan over the decay of houses, their destruction by greedy land-owners, and the hard fare of poor men. He evidently would have put a limit to the land that one man might hold. In "Of Castles and Holds," he wants the East coast fortified (p. 265), notes the frequency of old camps "in the plaine fields of England," and says:--

"I need not to make anie long discourse of castles, sith it is not
the nature of a good Englishman to regard to be caged vp as in a
coope, and hedged in with stone wals, but rather to meet with his
enimie in the plaine field at handstrokes, where he may trauaise his
ground, choose his plot, and vse the benefit of sunne shine, wind
and weather, to his best aduantage & commoditie."

In the next chapter he describes the Queen's palaces, but prefers the Henry VIII. buildings to the Elizabethan:

"Certes masonrie did neuer better flourish in England than in his
time. And albeit that in these daies there be manie goodlie houses
erected in the sundrie quarters of this Iland; yet they are rather
curious to the eie, like paper worke,[47] than substantiall for
continuance: whereas such as he did set vp, excell in both, and
therefore may iustlie be preferred farre aboue all the rest."

He then gives an interesting account of the virtues of the Queen's Maids of Honour, the vices of the Courtiers; the studies of the young Ladies, and the medical powers of the old; all of them being able to cook admirably, and the Carte or Bill of Fare of the dinner having been just introduced. Lastly he notes the admirable order and absence of ill-doing in the Queen's court. Her "Progresses" he approv'd of.

He treats "Of Armour and Munition;" but, says Harrison, "what hath the longe blacke gowne to doo with glistering armour?" Still, he echoes the universal lament of Ascham, the Statutes, etc., etc., over the decay of Long-Bow shooting in England:--

"Certes the Frenchmen and Rutters deriding our new archerie in
respect of their corslets, will not let in open skirmish, if anie
leisure serue, to turne vp their tailes and crie: 'Shoote English,'
and all bicause our strong shooting is decaied and laid in bed. But
if some of our Englishmen now liued that serued king Edward the third
in his warres with France, the breech of such a varlet should haue
beene nailed to his bum with one arrow, and an other fethered in his
bowels, before he should haue turned about to see who shot the
first."

He then says that all the young fellows above eighteen or twenty wear a dagger; noblemen wear swords or rapiers too, while "desperate cutters" carry two daggers or two rapiers, "wherewith in euerie dronken fraie they are knowen to work much mischief." And as trampers carry long staves, the honest traveller is obliged to carry pistols, "to ride with a case of dags at his saddlebow, or with some pretie short snapper," while parsons have only a dagger or hanger, if they carry anything at all. The tapsters and ostlers at inns are in league with the highway robbers,[48] who rob chiefly at Christmas time, to get money to spend at dice and cards, till they "be trussed vp in a Tiburne tippet."

Passing over the chapter on the "Navy," Queen Elizabeth's delight in it, and the fast sailing of our ships, we come on a characteristic and interesting chapter "Of Faires and Markets." This subject is within Harrison's home-life, as a buyer; and it's on the buyer's side, which includes the poor man's, that he argues. Magistrates don't see the proclamation price and goodness of bread kept to; bodgers are allowd to buy up corn and raise the price of it; to carry it home unsold, or to a distant market, if they want more money than the buyer likes to give; nay, they've leave to export it for the benefit of enemies and Papists abroad, so as to make more profit. Again, pestiferous purveyors buy up eggs, chickens, bacon, etc.; buttermen travel about and buy up butter at farmers' houses, and have raisd its price from 18d. to 40d. a gallon. These things are ill for the buyer and the poor man, and should not be allowd:--

"I wish that God would once open their eies that deale thus, to see
their owne errours: for as yet some of them little care how manie
poore men suffer extremitie, so that they may fill their purses, and
carie awaie the gaine."

Good doctrine, no doubt; but "_nous avons changé tout cela_." However in one thing the modern Political Economist can agree with Harrison:--

"I gather that the maintenance of a superfluous number of dealers in
most trades, tillage alwaies excepted, is one of the greatest causes
why the prices of things become excessiue."

There's a comical bit about the names for ale, "huffecap, mad dog, angels' food," etc., and the way

"our maltbugs lug at this liquor, euen as pigs should lie in a row,
lugging at their dames teats, till they lie still againe, and be not
able to wag ... and ... hale at hufcap, till they be red as cockes, &
litle wiser than their combs."

In his chapter "Of Parks and Warrens," Harrison tells us how coney warrens have increast, from the value of the creatures' black skins and the quick sale for young rabbits in London; and what a shocking thing it is that one Lady has sold her husband's venison to the Cooks, and another Lady has ridden to market to see her butter sold! it's as bad as an Earl feeling his own oxen to see whether they're ready for the butcher! He then gives us a refreshing bit of his mind on owners of parks who enclose commons:

"And yet some owners, still desirous to inlarge those grounds, as
either for the breed and feeding of cattell, doo not let dailie to
take in more, not sparing the verie commons whervpon manie towneships
now and then doo liue, affirming that we haue alreadie too great
store of people in England; and that youth by marrieng too soone doo
nothing profit the countrie, but fill it full of beggars, to the hurt
and vtter vndooing (they saie) of the common wealth.

"Certes, if it be not one curse of the Lord, to haue our countrie
conuerted in such sort, from the furniture of mankind, into the walks
and shrowds of wild beasts, I know not what is anie. How manie
families also these great and small games (for so most keepers call
them) haue eaten vp, and are likelie hereafter to deuoure, some men
may coniecture, but manie more lament, sith there is no hope of
restraint to be looked for in this behalfe, because the corruption is
so generall."

The chapter "Of Gardens and Orchards" is interesting, not only as containing the bit quoted above on Harrison's own garden, but for its note of how vegetables, roots, and salad herbs, that had gone out of use since Henry IV.'s time, had in Henry VIII.'s and Elizabeth's days come into daily consumption, so that men even eat dangerous fruits like mushrooms. Also, hops and madder were grown again, and rare medicinable herbs. Gardens were beautified, plants imported; orchards supplied with apricot, almond, peach, fig, and cornel trees; nay, capers, oranges, lemons, and wild olives. Grafting was practist with great skill and success; even dishwater was utilis'd for plants. And as to roses, there was one in Antwerp in 1585 that had 180 leaves on one button or flower, and Harrison could have had a slip of it for £10 (£60 now?) if he hadn't thought it "but a tickle hazard."

The chapter "Of Woods and Marshes" is interesting, from Harrison's laments in it over the destruction of English woods, which he saw yearly disappearing around him,[49] one man, as he says, having turnd sixty woods into one pair of breeches.[50] And then, mov'd by the thought of what will become of England without its oaks, the unselfish old parson utters the four dearest wishes of his heart:--

"I would wish that I might liue no longer than to see foure things in
this land reformed, that is: (1) the want of discipline in the
church: (2) the couetous dealing of most of our merchants in the
preferment of the commodities of other countries, and hinderance of
their owne: (3) the holding of faires and markets vpon the sundaie to
be abolished, and referred to the wednesdaies: (4) and that euerie
man, in whatsoeuer part of the champaine soile enioieth fortie acres
of land and vpwards, after that rate, either by free deed, copie
hold, or fee farme, might plant one acre of wood, or sowe the same
with oke mast, hasell, beech, and sufficient prouision be made that
it may be cherished and kept. But I feare me that I should then liue
too long, and so long, that I should either be wearie of the world,
or the world of me; and yet they are not such things but they may
easilie be brought to passe."

This same chapter contains the capital bit about the oaken men and willow houses and their smoke-dried inhabiters, quoted above; and a strong protest against rascally tanners and wood-fellers who, for private gain, evade the laws; also some good advice about draining.

In his chapter on "Baths and Hot Wells," Harrison says that he's tasted the water of King's Newnham well, near Coventry, and that it had "a tast much like to allume liquor, and yet nothing vnplesant nor vnsauorie in the drinking." From his description of Bath it is clear that he had been there, unless he quotes an eye-witness's words as his own. His chapter, "Of Antiquities found," tells us of his own collection of Roman coins which he intended to get engrav'd in his _Chronologie_, though, he says, the cost of engraving,

"as it hath doone hitherto, so the charges to be emploied vpon these
brasen or copper images will hereafter put by the impression of that
treatise: whereby it maie come to passe, that long trauell shall
soone proue to be spent in vaine, and much cost come to verie small
successe."

His words seem to imply that he'd visited Colchester (as no doubt he had) and York, in his search for coins. His account "Of the Coines of England,"