Elizabethan England Part 16

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

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

[11] He complains of help promist, and never given: see in the folio Harrison, p. 45, col. I (beginning of cap. II, Book I., about the Thames).--F. [See Appendix.--W.]

[12] Still you get his side-note--I suppose 'tis his--at p. 254 below, on the report of two old British books being found in a stone wall at Verolamium, "_This soundeth like a lie_." Other bits of wholesome doubt turn up elsewhere.--F.

[13] The Thames "hieth to Sudlington, otherwise called Maidenhead, and so to Windlesh.o.r.e (or Windsore), Eaton, and then to Chertseie.... From Chertseie it hasteth directlie vnto Stanes, and receiuing an other streame by the waie, called the Cole (wherevpon Colbrooke standeth), it goeth by Kingstone, Shene, Sion, and Brentford or Bregentford."... Bk. I. p. 46, col. 1, l. 30, vol. i., folio ed. 1587.--F.

[14] The extracts quoted by Dr. F. will be mostly found in the modernised text. Here they are printed in the old spelling, giving an idea of the original volume, saving the black letter type.--W.

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

[16] Harrison doesn't scold the women for painting their faces and wearing false hair, in the persistent way that Shakspere does. These two bits of falseness (in town women only?) evidently made a great impression on the country-bred Shakspere's mind. Stubbes complaind bitterly of them too.

[17] "Before the earliest date of Parish Registers (1538). I have all the Marriage Licences issued by the Bishop of London, beginning as early as 1521; but they do not include that of Harrison's father."--J. L. CHESTER.

[18] As Harrison left by his will twenty shillings to the poor of St.

Thomas the Apostle in London, Colonel Chester thinks he may have been born in that parish.----P.S. Aug. 31, 1876. I've just found in Harrison's MS.

_Chronologie_, under 1534, "The Author of this boke is borne, vpon y{e} 18 of Aprill, hora 11 minut 4, Secunde 56, at London, in Cordwainer streete, otherwise called bowe lane in y{e} [_crosst thro'_: house next to y{e} holly lambe towards chepeside, & in y{e}] p_ar_ish of St. Thomas the Apostle."--F.

[19] Dr. Scott, the present Head-Master, tells me that the early registers are not. "My dear Sir,--I regret to say that no early records of Westminster School are known to be in existence anywhere, except the names of those admitted to the Foundation, and even these merely from an old "b.u.t.tery Book" in the earliest times, to which Noel belongs; only those who were elected to Ch. Ch. or Trinity are recorded. There is no trace of such a name as Harrison. I have done my best to hunt up old records, but with very small result.--Faithfully yours, CHAS. B. SCOTT." After Harrison's days, Dean Goodman gave the School for a time a Sanatorium at Chiswick--"_Cheswicke_, H. 14, belonging to a prebend of Paules now in the handes of Doctor _Goodman_, Deane of _Westminster_, where he hath a Faire house, whereunto (in the time of any common plague or sicknes, as also to take the aire) he withdraweth the schollers of the colledge of _Westminster_." 1596. Jn. Norden's _Description of Middles.e.x_, p. 17, ed.

1723.

[20] Alexander Nowell was one of the most famous divines of the Reformation. Born in Lancashire about 1507, he got a fellowship at Brasenose in 1540; in 1543 became second master of Westminster School; and in 1551 Prebendary of Westminster. He was elected M.P. for Looe in Cornwall, in the first Parliament of Queen Mary, but his election was voided because he was a Church dignitary. He then went to Stra.s.sburg; returnd on the accession of Elizabeth, and was made Dean of St. Paul's in 1560. He publisht his celebrated Larger Catechism, and an abridgment of it, both in Latin, in 1570; and is supposed to have written the greater part of the Church of England Catechism. He was elected Master of Brasenose in 1595, and died 13 February, 1601-2. (_Cooper._).--F.

[21] Cooper, in his _Athenae Cantabrigienses_, says of Harrison--"He was a member of this university [Cambridge] in 1551, and afterwards studied at Oxford. We are unable to ascertain his house at either university." ?

Merton, Oxf. see p. xvi. (There's no Merton Admission book so early as Harrison's time, the Bursar says.)

[22] He us'd his eyes too at both places, and at school; for he says of the buildings: "The common schooles of Cambridge also are farre more beautifull than those of Oxford, onelie the diuinitie schoole at Oxford excepted, which for fine and excellent workemanship, commeth next the moold of the kings chappell in Cambridge, than the which two, with the chappell that king Henrie the seauenth did build at Westminster, there are not (in mine opinion) made of lime & stone three more notable piles within the compa.s.se of Europe."--F.

[23] Mr. Luard of Trinity, the Registrar of the University, has kindly copied the grace for me:--"1569. Grace Book [Greek: D], fol. 97 _b_: Conceditur 10 Junii magistro Willelmo Harryson ut studium 7 annorum in Theologia postquam rexerit in artibus Oxoniae c.u.m 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[24] et admissus 17 Junii."--F.

[24] Master of St. John's.

[25] Wood's _Ath. Ox._, ed. Bliss., i. col. 537; Cooper's _Ath. Cant._ ii.

164.

[26] The Manor and advowson of _Great Radwinter_ had been part of the property of the Cobham family since 1433, if not before. (See Wright's _Hist. of Ess.e.x_, II. 92; Morant's do., II. 535.).--F.

[27] See his defence of pluralism. [In the chapter on "The Church of England."--W.] It was vehemently condemnd by most of his contemporaries.--F.

[28] The Vicarage of _Wimbish_ not being a "competent maintenance," and the adjoining vicarage of _Thunderley_ being so small that no one would accept of it, Dr. Kemp, Bishop of London in 1425, united the two. The presentation to these incorporated vicarages was made alternate in the Rector of Wimbish (it is a sinecure rectory) and the Priory of Hatfield Regis (who had the great t.i.thes 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 pa.s.sed on in private hands, so that from 1567 to 1599 it belonged to Francis de la Wood, who thus, it would seem, must have been the patron who presented William Harrison. See Morant's _Hist. of Ess.e.x_, pp. 560, 561. By the _Valor Ecclesiasticus_ of Hen. VIII. the clear yearly value of _Wimbish Vicarage_ was 8; t.i.thes 16s. That of _Radwinter Rectory_ 21 11s. 4d.; t.i.thes 2 3s. 2-1/2d. Some of the parson of Radwinter's t.i.thes were made up thus:--"to the parson of Radwynter forseid for the yerely tythes of the said maner [Bendish Hall, in the parish of Radwinter], one acre of whete in harvest p_ri_ce x s, one acre of otes p_ri_ce v s iiij d, a lambe p_ri_ce viij d, a pigg, p_ri_ce iiij d, and in money iij s iiij d."--_Valor Eccl._, Vol. I. p. 85, col.

2.--F.

[29] I a.s.sume that Harrison had once more children, whom he floggd occasionally. When speaking of mastiffs in Bk. 3, chap. 7, p. 231, col. 1, l. 60, ed. 1587, he says, "I had one my selfe once, which would not suffer anie man to bring in his weapon further than my gate, neither those that were of my house, to be touched in his presence. Or if I had beaten _anie of my children_, he would gentlie haue a.s.saied to catch the rod in his teeth, and take it out of my hand, or else pluck downe their clothes to saue them from the stripes: which in my opinion is not vnworthie to be noted. And thus much of our mastiffes, creatures of no lesse faith and loue towards their maisters than horses." Still, girls were floggd in Elizabeth's days, no doubt (compare Lady Jane Grey's case, in Ascham), as well as a hundred years before. See how Agnes Paston beat her daughter Elizabeth in 1449, _Paston Letters_, ed. Gairdner, vol. i., Introd., p.

cxvi.--F. [See Chapter XVI., "Of our English Dogs and their Qualities."--W.]

[30] Gerard had above a thousand--

"_Gerard's Catalogue of his Garden._--A reprint of 'the first professedly complete catalogue of any one garden, either public or private, ever published' certainly deserves putting on record here. Gerard's _Herball_ is by no means a rare book; but the _Catalogus arborum frutic.u.m ac plantarum tam indigenarum quam exoticarum in horto Johannis Gerardi civis et chirurgi Londinensis nascentium_ is exceedingly rare. This reprint, therefore, which we owe to the liberality of Mr. B. Daydon Jackson, will be extremely welcome to all interested in the early introduction of exotic plants. The reprint consists of a limited number of copies for private circulation only. Without being an absolute fac-simile it is almost an exact reproduction of the original, the first edition of which was published in 1596. A second edition appeared in 1599, which Mr. Jackson also reprints, together with some of his own remarks and notes on the _Herball_, and a Life of Gerard. But what will be found especially useful is the list of modern names affixed to the old ones. Gerard's _physic_ garden was in Holborn, and included upwards of a thousand different kinds of plants.... There are several other lists of this kind we should be glad to see reprinted--Tradescant's, among others, as the younger Tradescant made a voyage to Virginia and introduced many American trees."--(_Academy_, July 1876.)--F.

[31] (Note by the late Dr. Goodall): Erat quidem Gulielmus Harrison Socius Etonensis Mar. 3, 1592, Vice praepositus Collegii et Rector de Everdon in Comitatu Northampt. Ut ille mortuus est Etonae, et ibidem Sepultus Dec. 27, 1611.--F.

[32] Mr. J. Higgs, of Sheet Street, Windsor, has kindly searcht the Parish Register of Burials, which dates from 1564, but he finds no entry of Canon Harrison's burial.--F. [At Radwinter. See Appendix.--W.]

[33] See his defence of priests leaving "their substances to their wives and children," in his _Description_.--F. [In "Church" chapter.--W.]

[34] Compare the smart red dress with blue hood and long blue liripipe from it, of the Nun's Priest, in the colourd illumination of the Ellesmere MS. given in my Six-Text _Canterbury Tales_.--F.

[35]

Proude preestes coome with hym, Mo than a thousand, In paltokes and _pyked shoes_, And p.i.s.seris long knyves.

_Vision of Piers Plowman_, Pa.s.s. xx. l. 14,360, ii. 438, ed. Wright.--F.

[36] William Rede or Reade, made Bp. of Chichester 1369, died 1385, "is said to have been a native of Devonshire, and to have received his early education in Exeter Coll., Oxford, from whence he removed to Merton, having been elected a fellow. He soon discovered a singular genius for the sciences, as they were then known and practised, and excelled in geography, astronomy, and architecture. About the year 1349, he gave a design for a library at Merton College, and superintended the building, which is very s.p.a.cious, 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 Suss.e.x_, 1832, vol. i. pp. 54, 55.--F.

[37] Cambridge studies. 1516, Aug. 31. Er. Ep. II. 10. Erasmus to Bovill.

Thirty years ago, nothing was taught at Cambridge except Alexander's _parva Logicalia_, some sc.r.a.ps from Aristotle, and the _Quaestiones_ of Duns Scotus. In process of time improved studies were added; mathematics, a new Aristotle, a knowledge of Greek letters. What has been the consequence? The University can now hold its head with the highest, and has excellent theologians. Of course they must now study the New Testament with greater attention, and not waste their time, as heretofore, in frivolous quibbles.--Brewer's _Calendar of Henry VIII.'s Time_, vol. ii., pt. i., p. 716.--F.

[38] As a usually accurate friend of mine always calls this name "Asham,"

I note that it's often spelt "Askham" in old writers.--F.

[39] Harrison repeats his warning in stronger terms. [See Chapter I.--W.]

"This neuerthelesse is generallie to be reprehended in all estates of gentilitie, and which in short time will turne to the great ruine of our countrie, and that is the vsuall sending of n.o.blemens & 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 pa.s.se that they returne far worsse men than they went out." See the sequel.--F.

[40] See Sir T. More's _Utopia_, "a huge number of idle fellows, who never learned any art by which they may gain their living," etc.--F.

[41] On the finest kind of bread, _manchet_, note that Queen Elizabeth's was made from Heston wheat, Middles.e.x:--"_Heston_, H. 10, a most fertyle place of wheate, yet not so much to be commended for the quant.i.tie, as for the qualitie, for the wheat is most pure, accompted the purest in manie shires. And therefore Queene Elizabeth hath the most part of her provision from that place for _manchet_ for her Highnes own diet, as is reported."

1596. Jn. Norden, _Description of Middles.e.x_, p. 25, ed. 1723.--F.

[42] But he speaks, at p. 69, "of the common sort, whose mouthes are alwaies wide open vnto reprehension, and eies readie to espie anie thing that they may reprooue and carpe at." Still, Harrison took more kindly to the common sort than Shakspere did in his plays.--F.

[43] Now Chapter VIII.--W.

[44] _De Republica Anglorum._ The maner of Gouernement or policie of the Realme of England, compiled by the Honorable Sir Thomas Smyth, Knight, Doctor of both the lawes, and one of the princ.i.p.al Secretaries vnto the two most worthy Princes, King Edward the sixt, and Queen Elizabeth ...

London ... 1584 (some copies 1583). A posthumous publication.--_Hazlitt._--F.

[45] Did Shakspere ever turn out and chevy a Stratford thief, I wonder? He must have been able to hit and hold hard.--F.

[46] Made of tree or wood.--F.

[47] See an instance in Burleigh House.

[48] Of hostlers, Harman says, "not one amongst twenty of them but haue well left their honesty, as I here a great sorte saye."--Harman's _Caueat_, p. 62, ed. Viles and Furnivall.--F.