Elizabethan England Part 11

Of the curiousness of these piles I speak not, sith our workmen are grown generally to such an excellency of device in the frames now made that they far pa.s.s the finest of the old. And, such is their husbandry in dealing with their timber, that the same stuff which in time past was rejected as crooked, unprofitable, and of no use but the fire doth now come in the fronts and best part of the work. Whereby the common saying is likewise in these days verified in our mansion houses, which erst was said only of the timber for ships, that "no oak can grow so crooked but it falleth out to some use," and that necessary in the navy. It is a world to see, moreover, how divers men being bent to building, and having a delectable vein in spending of their goods by that trade, do daily imagine new devices of their own, to guide their workmen withal, and those more curious and excellent always than the former. In the proceeding also of their works, how they set up, how they pull down, how they enlarge, how they restrain, how they add to, how they take from, whereby their heads are never idle, their purses never shut, nor their books of account never made perfect.

"_Destruunt, aedificant, mutant quadrata rotundis_,"

saith the poet. So that, if a man should well consider of all the odd crotchets in such a builder's brain, he would think his head to have even enough of those affairs only, and therefore judge that he would not well be able to deal in any other. But such commonly are our work-masters that they have beside this vein aforementioned either great charge of merchandises, little less business in the commonwealth, or, finally, no small dealings otherwise incident unto them, whereby gain ariseth, and some trouble oft among withal. Which causeth me to wonder not a little how they can play the parts so well of so many sundry men, whereas divers other, of greater forecast in appearance, can seldom shift well or thrive in any one of them. But to our purpose.

We have many woods, forests, and parks, which cherish trees abundantly, although in the woodland countries there is almost no hedge that hath not some store of the greatest sort, beside infinite numbers of hedgerows, groves, and springs, that are maintained of purpose for the building and provision of such owners as do possess the same. Howbeit, as every soil doth not bear all kinds of wood, so there is not any wood, park, hedgerow, grove, or forest, that is not mixed with divers, as oak, ash, hazel, hawthorn, birch, beech, hardbeam, hull, sorb, quicken, asp, poplars, wild cherry, and such like, whereof oak hath always the pre-eminence, as most meet for building and the navy, whereunto it is reserved. This tree bringeth forth also a profitable kind of mast, whereby such as dwell near unto the aforesaid places do cherish and bring up innumerable herds of swine. In time of plenty of this mast, our red and fallow deer will not let to partic.i.p.ate thereof with our hogs, more than our neat, yea, our common poultry also, if they may come unto them.[192] But, as this abundance doth prove very pernicious unto the first, so the eggs which these latter do bring forth (beside blackness in colour and bitterness of taste) have not seldom been found to breed divers diseases unto such persons as have eaten of the same. I might add in like sort the profit ensuing by the bark of this wood, whereof our tanners have great use in dressing leather, and which they buy yearly in May by the fadame, as I have oft seen; but it shall not need at this time to enter into any such discourse, only this I wish, that our sole and upper leathering may have their due time, and not be hasted on by extraordinary flights, as with ash, bark, etc. Whereby, as I grant that it seemeth outwardly to be very thick and well done, so if you respect the sadness thereof, it doth prove in the end to be very hollow, and not able to hold out water. Nevertheless we have good laws for the redress of this enormity, but it cometh to pa.s.s in these as in the execution of most penal statutes. For the gains to be got by the same being given to one or two hungry and unthrifty persons, they make a shew of great reformation at the first, and for a little while, till they find that following of suit in law against the offenders is somewhat too chargeable and tedious. This therefore perceived, they give over the law, and fall to the admission of gifts and rewards to wink at things past; and, when they have once gone over their ground with this kind of tillage, then do they tender licences, and offer large dispensations unto him that shall ask the same, thereby to do what he listeth in his trade for a yearly pension, whereby the briber now groweth to some certain revenues and the tanner to so great liberty that his leather is much worse than before. But is not this a mockery of our laws, and manifest illusion of the good subject whom they thus pill and poll? Of all oak growing in England the park oak is the softest, and far more spalt and brittle than the hedge oak. And of all in Ess.e.x, that growing in Bardfield Park is the finest for joiners' craft; for oftentimes have I seen of their works made of that oak as fine and fair as most of the wainscot that is brought hither out of Denmark: for our wainscot is not made in England. Yet divers have essayed to deal without oaks to that end, but not with so good success as they have hoped, because the ab or juice will not so soon be removed and clean drawn out, which some attribute to want of time in the salt water. Nevertheless, in building, so well the hedge as the park oak go all one way, and never so much hath been spent in a hundred years before as is in ten years of our time; for every man almost is a builder, and he that hath bought any small parcel of ground, be it never so little, will not be quiet till he have pulled down the old house (if any were there standing) and set up a new after his own device.

But whereunto will this curiosity come?

Of elm we have great store in every highway and elsewhere, yet have I not seen thereof any together in woods or forests but where they have been first planted and then suffered to spread at their own wills. Yet have I known great woods of beech and hazel in many places, especially in Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and Buckinghamshire, where they are greatly cherished, and converted to sundry uses by such as dwell about them. Of all the elms that ever I saw, those in the south side of Dovercourt, in Ess.e.x, near Harwich, are the most notable, for they grow (I mean) in crooked manner, that they are almost apt for nothing else but navy timber, great ordinance, and beetles; and such thereto is their natural quality that, being used in the said behalf, they continue longer, and more long than any the like trees in whatsoever parcel else of this land, without cuphar, shaking, or cleaving, as I find.

Ash cometh up everywhere of itself, and with every kind of wood. And as we have very great plenty, and no less use of these in our husbandry, so are we not without the plane, the yew, the sorb, the chestnut, the lime, the black cherry, and such like. And although we enjoy them not in as great plenty now in most places as in times past, or the other afore remembered; yet have we sufficient of them all for our necessary turns and uses, especially of yew; as may be seen betwixt Rotherham and Sheffield, and some steads of Kent also, as I have been informed.

The fir, frankincense, and pine we do not altogether want, especially the fir, whereof we have some store in Chatley Moor in Derbyshire, Shropshire, Anderness, and a moss near Manchester, not far from Leicester's house: although that in time past, not only all Lancashire, but a great part of the coast between Chester and the Solme, were well stored. As for the frankincense and the pine, they have been planted only in colleges and cloisters, by the clergy and religious heretofore. Wherefore (in mine opinion) we may rather say that we want them altogether: for, except they grew naturally, and not by force, I see no cause why they should be accounted for parcel of our commodities. We have also the asp, whereof our fletchers make their arrows. The several kinds of poplars of our turners have great use for bowls, trees, troughs, dishes, etc. Also the alder, whose bark is not unprofitable to dye black withal, and therefore much used by our country wives in colouring their knit hosen. I might here take occasion to speak of the great sales yearly made of wood, whereby an infinite quant.i.ty hath been destroyed within these few years: but I give over to travel in this behalf. Howbeit, thus much I dare affirm, that if woods go so fast to decay in the next hundred years of Grace as they have done and are like to do in this, sometimes for increase of sheepwalks, and some maintenance of prodigality and pomp (for I have known a well-burnished gentleman that hath borne threescore at once in one pair of galigascons to shew his strength and bravery[193]), it is to be feared that the fenny bote, broom, turf, gall, heath, furze, brakes, whins, ling, dies, ha.s.sacks, flags, straw, sedge, reed, rush, and also seacale, will be good merchandise even in the city of London, whereunto some of them even now have gotten ready pa.s.sage, and taken up their inns in the greatest merchants' parlours. A man would think that our laws were able enough to make sufficient provision for the redress of this error and enormity likely to ensue. But such is the nature of our countrymen that as many laws as are made, so they will keep none; or, if they be urged to make answer, they will rather seek some crooked construction of them to the increase of their private gain than yield themselves to be guided by the same for a commonwealth and profit to their country. So that in the end, whatsoever the law saith, we will have our wills, whereby the wholesome ordinances of the prince are contemned, the travel of the n.o.bility and councillors (as it were) derided, the commonwealth impoverished, and a few only enriched by this perverse dealing. Thus many thousand persons do suffer hindrance by this their lewd behaviour. Hereby the wholesome laws of the prince are oft defrauded, and the good-meaning magistrate in consultation about the commonwealth utterly neglected. I would wish that I might live no longer than to see four things in this land reformed, that is, the want of discipline in the church, the covetous dealing of most of our merchants in the preferment of the commodities of other countries and hindrance of their own, the holding of fairs[194] and markets upon the Sundays be abolished and referred to the Wednesdays, and that every man in whatsoever part of the champaign soil enjoyeth forty acres of land and upwards (after that rate, either by free deed, copyhold, or free farm) might plant one acre of wood or sow the same with oak mast, hazel, beech, and sufficient provision be made that it may be cherished and kept. But I fear me that I should then live too long, and so long that I should either be weary of the world, or the world of me; and yet they are not such things but that they may easily be brought to pa.s.s.

Certes every small occasion in my time is enough to cut down a great wood, and every trifle sufficeth to lay infinite acres of ground unto pasture.

As for the taking down of houses, a small fine will bear out a great many.

Would to G.o.d we might once take example of the Romans, who, in restraint of superfluous grazing, made an exact limitation how many head of cattle each estate might keep, and what number of acres should suffice for that and other purposes. Neither was wood ever better cherished, or mansion houses maintained, than by their laws and statutes. Such also was their care in the maintenance of navigation that it was a great part of the charge of their consuls yearly to view and look unto the hills whereon great timber did grow, lest their unnecessary faults for the satisfaction of the private owner and his covetous mind might prove a prejudice unto the commonwealth in the hindrance of sufficient stuff for the furniture of their navy. Certes the like hereof is yet observed in Venice. Read also, I pray you, what Suetonius writeth of the consulship of Bibulus and Caesar.

As for the wood that Ancus Martius dedicated toward the maintenance of the common navy, I pa.s.s it over, as having elsewhere remembered it unto another end. But what do I mean to speak of these, sith my purpose is only to talk of our own woods? Well, take this then for a final conclusion in woods, that besides some countries are already driven to sell their wood by the pound, which is a heavy report, within these forty years we shall have little great timber growing about forty years old; for it is commonly seen that those young staddles which we leave standing at one and twenty years fall are usually at the next sale cut down without any danger of the statute, and serve for fire bote, if it please the owner to burn them.

Marshes and fenny bogs we have many in England, though not now so many as some of the old Roman writers do specify, but more in Wales, if you have respect unto the several quant.i.ties of the countries. Howbeit, as they are very profitable in the summer half of the year, so are a number of them which lie low and near to great rivers to small commodity in the winter part, as common experience doth teach. Yet this I find of many moors, that in times past they have been harder ground, and sundry of them well replenished with great woods that now are void of bushes. And, for the example hereof, we may see the trial (beside the roots that are daily found in the deeps of Monmouth, where turf is digged, also in Wales, Abergavenny, and Merioneth) in sundry parts of Lancashire, where great store of fir hath grown in times past, as I said, and the people go unto this day into their fens and marshes with long spits, which they dash here and there up to the very cronge into the ground. In which practice (a thing commonly done in winter), if they happen to smite upon any fir trees which lie there at their whole lengths, or other blocks, they note the place, and about harvest time (when the ground is at the driest) they come again and get them up, and afterward, carrying them home, apply them to their uses. The like do they in Shropshire with the like, which hath been felled in old time, within seven miles of Salop. Some of them foolishly suppose the same to have lien there since Noah's flood: and other, more fond than the rest, imagine them to grow even in the places where they find them, without all consideration that in times past the most part, if not all, Lhoegres and Cambria was generally replenished with wood, which, being felled or overthrown upon sundry occasions, was left lying in some places still on the ground, and in process of time became to be quite overgrown with earth and moulds, which moulds, wanting their due sadness, are now turned into moory plots. Whereby it cometh to pa.s.s also that great plenty of water cometh between the new loose swart and the old hard earth, that being drawn away by ditching and drains (a thing soon done, if our countrymen were painful in that behalf) might soon leave a dry soil to the great lucre and advantage of the owner. We find in our histories that Lincoln was sometime builded by Lud, brother to Ca.s.sibelan, who called it Cair Ludcoit, of the great store of woods that environed the same: but now the commodity is utterly decayed there, so that if Lud were alive again he would not call it his city in the wood, but rather his town in the plains: for the wood (as I hear) is wasted altogether about the same. The hills called the Peak were in like sort named Mennith and Orcoit--that is, the woody hills and forests. But how much wood is now to be seen in those places, let him that hath been there testify if he list; for I hear of no such store there as hath been in time past by those that travel that way.

And thus much of woods and marshes, and as far as I can deal with the same.

CHAPTER XX.

OF PARKS AND WARRENS.

[1577, Book II., Chapter 15; 1587, Book II., Chapter 19.]

In every shire of England there are great plenty of parks, whereof some here and there, to wit, well near to the number of two hundred, for her daily provision of that flesh, appertain to the prince, the rest to such of the n.o.bility and gentlemen as have their lands and patrimonies lying in or near unto the same. I would gladly have set down the just number of these enclosures to be found in every county; but, sith I cannot so do, it shall suffice to say that in Kent and Ess.e.x only are to the number of an hundred, and twenty in the bishopric of Durham, wherein great plenty of fallow deer is cherished and kept. As for warrens of conies, I judge them almost innumerable, and daily like to increase, by reason that the black skins[195] of those beasts are thought to countervail the prices of their naked carcases, and this is the only cause why the grey are less esteemed.

Near unto London their quickest merchandise is of the young rabbits, wherefore the older conies[196] are brought from further off, where there is no such speedy utterance of rabbits and sucklings[197] in their season, nor so great loss by their skins, sith they are suffered to grow up to their full greatness with their owners. Our parks are generally enclosed with strong pales made of oak, of which kind of wood there is great store cherished in the woodland countries from time to time in each of them only for the maintenance of the said defence and safe keeping of the fallow deer from ranging about the country. Howbeit in times past divers have been fenced in with stone walls, especially in the times of the Romans, who first brought fallow deer into this land (as some conjecture), albeit those enclosures were overthrown again by the Saxons and Danes, as Cavisham, Towner, and Woodstock, beside other in the west country, and one also at Bolton. Among other things also to be seen in that town there is one of the fairest clocks in Europe. Where no wood is they are also enclosed with piles of slate; and thereto it is doubted of many whether our buck or doe are to be reckoned in wild or tame beasts or not. Pliny deemeth them to be wild; Martial is also of the same opinion, where he saith, "_Imbelles damae quid nisi praeda sumus?_" And so in time past the like controversy was about bees, which the lawyers call _feras_ (_t.i.t de acquirendo rerum dominio_, lib. 2 Inst.i.t.). But Pliny, attempting to decide the quarrel, calleth them _medias inter feras et placidas aves_.

But whither am I so suddenly digressed? In returning therefore unto our parks, I find also the circuit of these enclosures in like manner contain oftentimes a walk of four or five miles, and sometimes more or less.

Whereby it is to be seen what store of ground is employed upon that vain commodity, which bringeth no manner of gain or profit to the owner, sith they commonly give away their flesh, never taking penny for the same, except the ordinary fee, and parts of the deer given unto the keeper by a custom, who beside three shillings four pence or five shillings in money, hath the skin, head, umbles, chine, and shoulders: whereby he that hath the warrant for a whole buck hath in the end little more than half, which in my judgment is scarcely equal dealing; for venison in England is neither bought nor sold, as in other countries, but maintained only for the pleasure of the owner and his friends. Albeit I heard of late of one ancient lady which maketh a great gain by selling yearly her husband's venison[198] to the cooks (as another of no less name will not stick to ride to the market to see her b.u.t.ter sold), but not performed without infinite scoffs and mocks, even of the poorest peasants of the country, who think them as odious matters in ladies and women of such countenance to sell their venison and their b.u.t.ter as for an earl to feel his oxen, sheep, and lambs, whether they be ready for the butcher or not, or to sell his wool unto the clothier, or to keep a tan-house, or deal with such like affairs as belong not to men of honour, but rather to farmers or graziers; for which such, if there be any, may well be noted (and not unjustly) to degenerate from true n.o.bility, and betake themselves to husbandry.[199]

And even the same enormity took place sometimes among the Romans, and entered as far as into the very senate, of whom some one had two or three ships going upon the sea, pretending provision for their houses, but in truth following the trades of merchandise, till a law was made which did inhibit and restrain them. Livy also telleth of another law which pa.s.sed likewise against the senators by Claudius the tribune, and help only of C.

Flaminius, that no senator, or he that had been father to any senator, should possess any ship or vessel above the capacity of three hundred amphoras, which was supposed sufficient for the carriage and recarriage of such necessities as should appertain unto his house, sith further trading with merchandises and commodities doth declare but a base and covetous mind (not altogether void of envy that any man should live but he: or that, if any gain were to be had, he only would have it himself), which is a wonderful dealing, and must needs prove in time the confusion of that country wherein such enormities are exercised. Where in times past many large and wealthy occupiers were dwelling within the compa.s.s of some one park, and thereby great plenty of corn and cattle seen and to be had among them, beside a more copious procreation of human issue, whereby the realm was always better furnished with able men to serve the prince in his affairs, now there is almost nothing kept but a sort of wild and savage beasts, cherished for pleasure and delight; and yet some owners, still desirous to enlarge those grounds, as either for the breed and feeding of cattle, do not let daily to take in more, not sparing the very commons whereupon many townships now and then do live, affirming that we have already too great store of people in England, and that youth by marrying too soon do nothing profit the country, but fill it full of beggars to the hurt and utter undoing (they say) of the commonwealth.

Certes if it be not a curse of the Lord to have our country converted in such sort, from the furniture of mankind into the walks and shrouds of wild beasts, I know not what is any.[200] How many families also these great and small game (for so most keepers call them) have eaten up and are likely hereafter to devour, some men may conjecture, but many more lament, sith there is no hope of restraint to be looked for in this behalf because the corruption is so general. But, if a man may presently give a guess at the universality of this evil by contemplation of the circ.u.mstance, he shall say at the last that the twentieth part of the realm is employed upon deer and conies already, which seemeth very much if it be duly considered of.

King Henry the Eighth, one of the n.o.blest princes that ever reigned in this land, lamented oft that he was constrained to hire foreign aid, for want of competent store of soldiers here at home, perceiving (as it is indeed) that such supplies are oftentimes more hurtful than profitable unto those that entertain them, as may chiefly be seen in Valens the Emperor, our Vortiger, and no small number of others. He would oft marvel in private talk how that, when seven or eight princes ruled here at once, one of them could lead thirty or forty thousand men to the field against another, or two of them 100,000 against the third, and those taken out only of their own dominions. But as he found the want, so he saw not the cause of this decay, which grew beside this occasion now mentioned, also by laying house to house and land to land, whereby many men's occupyings were converted into one, and the breed of people not a little thereby diminished. The avarice of landlords, by increasing of rents and fines, also did so weary the people that they were ready to rebel with him that would arise, supposing a short end in the wars to be better than a long and miserable life in peace.

Privileges and faculties also are another great cause of the ruin of a commonwealth and diminution of mankind: for, whereas law and nature doth permit all men to live in their best manner, and whatsoever trade they are exercised in, there cometh some privilege or other in the way which cutteth them off from this or that trade, whereby they must needs shift soil and seek unto 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 own pleasures. Example of this last I can give also in books, which, after the first impression of any one book, are for the most part very negligently handled:[201] whereas, if another might print it so well as the first, then would men strive which of them should do it best; and so it falleth out in all other trades. It is an easy matter to prove that England was never less furnished with people than at this present; for, if the old records of every manor be sought (and search made to find what tenements are fallen either down or into the lord's hands, or brought and united together by other men), it will soon appear that, in some one manor, seventeen, eighteen, or twenty houses are shrunk.

I know what I say, by mine own experience. Notwithstanding that some one cottage be here and there erected of late, which is to little purpose. Of cities and towns either utterly decayed or more than a quarter or half diminished, though some one be a little increased here and there, of towns pulled down for sheep-walks,[202] and no more but the lordships now standing in them, beside those that William Rufus pulled down in his time, I could say somewhat; but then I should swerve yet further from my purpose, whereunto I now return.

We had no parks left in England at the coming of the Normans, who added this calamity also to the servitude of our nation, making men of the best sort furthermore to become keepers of their game, whilst they lived in the meantime upon the spoil of their revenues, and daily overthrew towns, villages, and an infinite sort of families, for the maintenance of their venery. Neither was any park supposed in these times to be stately enough that contained not at the least eight or ten hidelands, that is, so many hundred acres or families (or, as they have been always called in some places of the realm, carrucats or cartwares), of which one was sufficient in old time to maintain an honest yeoman.

King John, travelling on a time northwards, to wit, 1209, to war upon the King of Scots, because he had married his daughter to the Earl of Bullen without his consent, in his return overthrew a great number of parks and warrens, of which some belonged to his barons, but the greatest part to the abbots and prelates of the clergy. For hearing (as he travelled), by complaint of the country, how these enclosures were the chief decay of men, and of tillage in the land, he sware with an oath that he would not suffer wild beasts to feed upon the fat of his soil, and see the people perish for want of ability to procure and buy them food that should defend the realm. Howbeit, this act of his was so ill taken by the religious and their adherents, that they inverted his intent herein to another end, affirming, and most slanderously, how he did it rather of purpose to spoil the corn and gra.s.s of the commons and catholics that held against him of both estates, and by so doing to impoverish and bring the north part of the realm to destruction because they refused to go with him into Scotland. If the said prince were alive in these days (wherein Andrew Boord saith there are more parks in England than in all Europe, over which he travelled in his own person), and saw how much ground they consume, I think he would either double his oaths, or lay most of them open, that tillage might be better looked unto. 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 employed to their more gain, and therefore some of them do grow to be disparked.

Next of all, we have the frank chase, which taketh something both of park and forest, and is given either by the king's grant or prescription.

Certes it differeth not much from a park; nay, it is in manner the selfsame thing that a park is, saving that a park is environed with pale, wall, or such like, the chase always open and nothing at all enclosed, as we see in Enfield and Malvern chases. And, as it is the cause of the seizure of the franchise of a park not to keep the same enclosed, so it is the like in a chase if at any time it be imparked. It is trespa.s.s, and against the law also, for any man to have or make a chase, park, or free warren, without good warranty of the king by his charter or perfect t.i.tle of prescription; for it is not lawful for any subject either to carnilate, that is, build stone houses, embattle, have the querk of the sea, or keep the a.s.size of bread, ale, or wine, or set up furels, tumbrel, thew, or pillory, or enclose any ground to the aforesaid purposes within his own soil, without his warrant and grant. The beasts of the chase were commonly the buck, the roe, the fox, and the martern. But those of venery in old time were the hart, the hare, the boar, and the wolf; but as this held not in the time of Canutus, so instead of the wolf the bear has now crept in, which is a beast commonly hunted in the east countries, and fed upon as excellent venison, although with us I know not any that feed thereon or care for it at all. Certes it should seem that forests and frank chases have always been had, and religiously preserved in this island, for the solace of the prince and the recreation of his n.o.bility: howbeit I read not that ever they were enclosed more than at this present, or otherwise fenced than by usual notes of limitation, whereby their bounds were remembered from time to time for the better preservation of such venery and vert of all sorts as were nourished in the same. Neither are any of the ancient laws prescribed for their maintenance before the days of Canutus now to be had, sith time hath so dealt with them that they are perished and lost. Canutus therefore, seeing the daily spoil that was made almost in all places of his game, did at the last make sundry sanctions and decrees, whereby from thenceforth the red and fallow deer were better looked to throughout his whole dominions. We have in these days divers forests in England and Wales, of which some belong to the king, and some to his subjects, as Waltham Forest, Windsor, Pickering, f.e.c.knam, Delamore, Gillingham, Kingswood, Wencedale, Clun, Rath, Bredon, Weir, Charlie, Leicester, Lee, Rockingham, Selwood, New Forest, Wichwood, Hatfield, Savernake, Westbury, Blacamore Peak, Dean, Penrise, and many others now clean out of my remembrance; and which, although they are far greater in circuit than many parks and warrens, yet are they in this our time less devourers of the people than these latter, sith, beside, much tillage and many towns are found in each of them, whereas in parks and warrens we have nothing else than either the keeper's and warrener's lodge, or, at least, the manor place of the chief lord and owner of the soil. I find also, by good record, that all Ess.e.x hath in time past wholly been forest ground, except one cantred or hundred; but how long it is since it lost the said denomination, in good sooth I do not read. This nevertheless remaineth yet in memory, that the town of Walden in Ess.e.x, standing in the limits of the aforesaid county, doth take her name thereof. For in the Keltic tongue, wherewith the Saxon or Scythian speech doth not a little partic.i.p.ate, huge woods and forests were called _walds_, and likewise their Druids were named _walie_ or _waldie_, because they frequented the woods, and there made sacrifice among the oaks and thickets. So that, if my conjecture in this behalf be anything at all, the aforesaid town taketh denomination of _Wald_ and _end_, as if I should say, "The end of the woody soil;" for, being once out of that parish, the champaign is at hand. Or it may be that it is so called of _Wald_ and _dene_: for I have read it written in old evidences Waldaene, with a diphthong. And to say truth, _dene_ is the old Saxon word for a vale or low bottom, as _dune_ or _don_ is for a hill or hilly soil. Certes, if it be so, then Walden taketh her name of the woody vale, in which it sometime stood. But the first derivation liketh me better; and the highest part of the town is called also Chipping-Walden, of the Saxon word _Zipping_, which signifies "Leaning or hanging," and may very well be applied thereunto, sith the whole town hangeth as it were upon the sides of two hills, whereof the lesser runneth quite through the midst of the same. I might here, for further confirmation of these things, bring in mention of the Wald of Kent; but this may suffice for the use of the word _wald_, which now differeth much from _wold_. For as that signifieth a woody soil, so this betokeneth a soil without wood, or plain champaign country, without any store of trees, as may be seen in Cotswold, Porkwold, etc.

Beside this I could say more of our forests, and the aforesaid enclosures also, and therein to prove by the book of forest law that the whole county of Lancaster hath likewise been forest heretofore. Also how William the b.a.s.t.a.r.d made a law that whosoever did take any wild beast within the forest should lose an ear (as Henry the First did punish them either by life or limb, which ordinance was confirmed by Henry the Second and his peers at Woodstock, whereupon great trouble rose under King John and Henry the Third, as appeareth by the chronicles); but it shall suffice to have said so much as is set down already.[203]

CHAPTER XXI.

OF PALACES BELONGING TO THE PRINCE.

[1577, Book II., Chapter 9; 1587, Book II., Chapter 15.]

It lieth not in me to set down exactly the number and names of the palaces belonging to the prince, nor to make any description of her grace's court, sith my calling is, and hath been such, as that I have scarcely presumed to peep in at her gates; much less then have I adventured to search out and know the estate of those houses, and what magnificent behaviour is to be seen within them. Yet thus much will I say generally of all the houses and honours pertaining to her majesty, that they are builded either of square stone or brick, or else of both. And thereunto, although their capacity and hugeness be not so monstrous as the like of divers foreign princes are to be seen in the main and new found nations of the world, yet are they so curious, neat, and commodious as any of them, both for convenience of offices and lodgings and excellence of situation, which is not the least thing to be considered of in building. Those that were builded before the time of King Henry the Eighth retain to these days the shew and image of the ancient kind of workmanship used in this land; but such as he erected after his own device (for he was nothing inferior in this trade to Adrian the emperor and Justician the law-giver) do represent another manner of pattern, which, as they are supposed to excel all the rest that he found standing in this realm, so they are and shall be a perpetual precedent unto those that do come after to follow in their works and buildings of importance. Certes masonry did never better flourish in England than in his time. And albeit that in these days there be many goodly houses erected in the sundry quarters of this island, yet they are rather curious to the eye like paper work than substantial for continuance: whereas such as he did set up excels in both, and therefore may justly be preferred far above all the rest. The names of those which come now to my remembrance and are as yet reserved to her majesty's only use at pleasure are these: for of such as are given away I speak not, neither of those that are utterly decayed (as Baynard's castle in London, builded in the days of the Conqueror by a n.o.ble man called William Baynard, whose wife Inga builded the priory of little Dunmow in the days of Henry the First), neither of the tower royal there also, etc., sith I see no cause wherefore I should remember them and many of the like, of whose very ruins I have no certain knowledge. Of such (I say therefore) as I erst mentioned, we have, first of all, Whitehall, at the west end of London (which is taken for the most large and princ.i.p.al of all the rest), was first a lodging of the archbishops of York, then pulled down, begun by Cardinal Wolsey, and finally enlarged and finished by King Henry the Eighth. By east of this standeth Durham Place, sometime belonging to the bishops of Durham, but converted also by King Henry the Eighth into a palace royal and lodging for the prince. Of Somerset Place I speak not, yet if the first beginner thereof (I mean the Lord Edward, the learned and G.o.dly duke of Somerset) had lived, I doubt not but it should have been well finished and brought to a sumptuous end; but as untimely death took him from that house and from us all, so it proved the stay of such proceeding as was intended about it. Whereby it cometh to pa.s.s that it standeth as he left it. Neither will I remember the Tower of London, which is rather an armoury and house of munition, and thereunto a place for the safe keeping of offenders, than a palace royal for a king or queen to sojourn in. Yet in times past I find that Belliny held his abode there, and thereunto extended the site of his palace in such wise that it stretched over the Broken Wharf, and came further into the city, insomuch that it approached near to Billingsgate; and, as it is thought, some of the ruins of his house are yet extant, howbeit patched up and made warehouses in that tract of ground in our times. St. James's, sometime a nunnery, was builded also by the same prince. Her grace hath also Oteland, Ashridge, Hatfield, Havering, Enfield, Eltham, Langley, Richmond (builded by Henry the First), Hampton Court (begun sometime by Cardinal Wolsey, and finished by her father), and thereunto Woodstock, erected by King Henry the First, in which the queen's majesty delighteth greatly to sojourn, notwithstanding that in time past it was the place of a parcel of her captivity, when it pleased G.o.d to try her by affliction and calamity.

For strength, Windlesor or Windsor is supposed to be the chief, a castle builded in time past by King Arthur, or before him by Arviragus, as it is thought, and repaired by Edward the Third, who erected also a notable college there. After him, divers of his successors have bestowed exceeding charges upon the same, which notwithstanding are far surmounted by the queen's majesty now living, who hath appointed huge sums of money to be employed upon the ornature and alteration of the mould, according to the form of building used in our days, which is more for pleasure than for either profit or safeguard. Such also hath been the estimation of this place that divers kings have not only been interred there, but also made it the chief house of a.s.sembly and creation of the knights of the honourable Order of the Garter, than the which there is nothing in this land more magnificent and stately.

Greenwich was first builded by Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, upon the Thames side, four miles east from London, in the time of Henry the Sixth, and called Pleasance. Afterwards it was greatly enlarged by King Edward IV., garnished by King Henry VII., and finally made perfect by King Henry VIII., the only Phoenix of his time for fine and curious masonry.

Not far from this is Dartford, and not much distant also from the south side of the said stream, sometime a nunnery builded by Edward the Third, but now a very commodious palace, whereunto it was also converted by King Henry the Eighth. Eltham (as I take it) was builded by King Henry the Third, if not before. There are besides these, moreover, divers others.

But what shall I need to take upon me to repeat all, and tell what houses the queen's majesty hath? Sith all is hers: and, when it pleaseth her in the summer season to recreate herself abroad, and view the estate of the country, and hear the complaints of her poor commons injured by her unjust officers or their subst.i.tutes, every n.o.ble man's house is her palace, where she continueth during pleasure, and till she return again to some of her own, in which she remaineth so long as pleaseth her.

The Court of England, which necessarily is holden always where the prince lieth, is in these days one of the most renowned and magnificent courts[204] that are to be found in Europe. For, whether you regard the rich and infinite furniture of household, order of officers, or the entertainment of such strangers as daily resort unto the same, you shall not find many equal thereunto, much less one excelling it in any manner of wise. I might here (if I would, or had sufficient disposition of matter conceived of the same) make a large discourse of such honourable ports, of such grave councillors, and n.o.ble personages, as give their daily attendance upon the queen's majesty there. I could in like sort set forth a singular commendation of the virtuous beauty or beautiful virtues of such ladies and gentlewomen as wait upon her person, between whose amiable countenances and costliness of attire there seemeth to be such a daily conflict and contention as that it is very difficult for me to guess whether of the twain shall bear away the pre-eminence. This further is not to be omitted, to the singular commendation of both sorts and s.e.xes of our courtiers here in England, that there are very few of them which have not the use and skill of sundry speeches, besides an excellent vein of writing beforetime not regarded. Would to G.o.d the rest of their lives and conversations were correspondent to these gifts! For as our common courtiers (for the most part) are the best learned and endued with excellent gifts, so are many of them the worst men when they come abroad that any man shall either hear or read of. Truly it is a rare thing with us now to hear of a courtier which hath but his own language. And to say how many gentlewomen and ladies there are that besides sound knowledge of the Greek and Latin tongues are thereto no less skilful in the Spanish, Italian, and French, or in some one of them, it resteth not in me, sith I am persuaded that, as the n.o.blemen and gentlemen do surmount in this behalf, so these come very little or nothing at all behind them for their parts: which industry G.o.d continue, and accomplish that which otherwise is wanting!

Besides these things, I could in like sort set down the ways and means whereby our ancient ladies of the court do shun and avoid idleness, some of them exercising their fingers with the needle, others in caulwork, divers in spinning of silk, some in continual reading either of the Holy Scriptures, or histories of our own or foreign nations about us, and divers in writing volumes of their own, or translating of other men's into our English and Latin tongue,[205] whilst the youngest sort in the meantime apply their lutes, citherns, p.r.i.c.ksong, and all kind of music, which they use only for recreation's sake when they have leisure, and are free from attendance upon the queen's majesty or such as they belong unto.

How many of the eldest sort also are skilful in surgery and distillation of waters, besides sundry other artificial practices pertaining to the ornature and commendations of their bodies, I might (if I listed to deal further in this behalf) easily declare; but I pa.s.s over such manner of dealing, lest I should seem to glaver and curry favour with some of them.

Nevertheless this I will generally say of them all, that as each of them are cunning in something whereby they keep themselves occupied in the court, so there is in manner none of them but when they be at home can help to supply the ordinary want of the kitchen with a number of delicate dishes of their own devising, wherein the Portuguese is their chief counsellor, as some of them are most commonly with the clerk of the kitchen, who useth (by a trick taken up of late) to give in a brief rehearsal of such and so many dishes as are to come in at every course throughout the whole service in the dinner or supper while, which bill some do call a memorial, others a billet, but some a fillet, because such are commonly hanged on the file and kept by the lady or gentlewoman unto some other purpose. But whither am I digressed?

I might finally describe the large allowances in offices and yearly liveries, and thereunto the great plenty of gold and silver plate, the several pieces whereof are commonly so great and ma.s.sive, and the quant.i.ty thereof so abundantly serving all the household, that (as I suppose) Cinyras, Croesus, and Cra.s.sus had not the like furniture; nay, if Midas were now living and once again put to his choice, I think he could ask no more, or rather not half so much as is there to be seen and used. But I pa.s.s over to make such needless discourses, resolving myself that even in this also, as in all the rest, the exceeding mercy and loving kindness of G.o.d doth wonderfully appear towards us, in that he hath so largely endued us with these his so ample benefits.

In some great princes' courts beyond the seas, and which even for that cause are likened unto h.e.l.l by divers learned writers that have spent a great part of their time in them, as Henricus Cornelius Agrippa, one (for example) who in his epistle _Ad aulic.u.m quendam_, saith thus--

"_An non in inferno es amice, qui es in aula, ubi daemonum habitatio est, qui illic suis artibus humana licet effigie regnant, atque ubi scelerum schola est, et animarum jactura ingens, ac quicquid uspiam est perfidae ac doli, quicquid crudelitatis et inclementiae quicquid effraenatae superbiae et rapacis avariciae quicquid obscenae libidinis, faedissimae impudicitiae, quicquid nefandae impietatis et norum pessimorum, totum illic acervatur c.u.mulatissime ubi strupra, raptus, incestus, adulteria, principum et n.o.bilium ludi sunt ubi fastus et tumor, ira, livor, foedaque cupido c.u.m sociis suis imperavit, ubi, criminum omnium procellae virtutumque omnium inenarrabile naufragium_," etc.

In such great princes' courts (I say) it is a world to see what lewd behaviour is used among divers of those that resort unto the same, and what wh.o.r.edom, swearing, ribaldry, atheism, dicing, carding, carousing, drunkenness, gluttony, quarrelling, and such like inconveniences do daily take hold, and sometimes even among those in whose estates the like behaviour is least convenient (whereby their talk is verified, which say that the thing increaseth and groweth in the courts of princes, saving virtue, which in such places doth languish and daily fade away), all which enormities are either utterly expelled out of the court of England or else so qualified by the diligent endeavour of the chief officers of her grace's household that seldom are any of these things apparently seen there without due reprehension and such severe correction as belongeth to those trespa.s.sers. Finally, to avoid idleness, and prevent sundry transgressions otherwise likely to be committed and done, such order is taken that every office hath either a Bible, or the books of the Acts and Monuments of the Church of England, or both, besides some histories and chronicles lying therein, for the exercise of such as come into the same: whereby the stranger that entereth into the court of England upon the sudden shall rather imagine himself to come into some public school of the universities, where many give ear to one that readeth, than into a princes' palace, if you confer the same with those of other nations. Would to G.o.d all honourable personages would take example of her grace's G.o.dly dealing in this behalf, and shew their conformity unto these her so good beginnings! Which, if they would, then should many grievous offences (wherewith G.o.d is highly displeased) be cut off and restrained, which now do reign exceedingly, in most n.o.ble and gentlemen's houses, whereof they see no pattern within her grace's gates.

I might speak here of the great trains and troops of serving men also which attend upon the n.o.bility of England in their several liveries and with differences of cognisances on their sleeves, whereby it is known to whom they appertain. I could also set down what a goodly sight it is to see them muster in the court, which, being filled with them, doth yield the contemplation of a n.o.ble variety unto the beholder, much like to the shew of the peac.o.c.k's tail in the full beauty, or of some meadow garnished with infinite kinds and diversities of pleasant flowers.[206] But I pa.s.s over the rehearsal hereof to other men, who more delight in vain amplification than I, and seek to be more curious in these points than I profess to be.[207]

CHAPTER XXII.

OF ARMOUR AND MUNITION.

[1577, Book II., Chapter 12; 1587, Book II., Chapter 16.]