254 HOUSES OF THE NOBLES AND HOUSEKEEPING.

they were to beat their daughters with. After this account of the severity of parents, it need not surprise us to learn that the nobility were often employed as jailers.

5. When any person of rank was to be put under confinement, it was no uncommon thing to commit him to the custody of some nobleman, whose house was thus converted into a prison. Indeed, the dwellings of the nobility were so surrounded by walls that they seemed as if they had been built for prisons originally.

6. Let us imagine that we enter one of these old houses, and look at things as they were two or three hundred years ago. We will begin our survey at the kitchen, where we should probably see, if it was before eleven o'clock in the day, a huge fire, with a monstrous piece of meat roasting before it, turned by a poor miserable boy, whose business it was to act as turnspit, before smoke-jacks and roasters were invented.

7. Let us next proceed to the great hall, where the lord of the mansion passed the day, and which in the night we should find spread with beds for the men-servants to sleep on. This hall we should observe to be covered with rushes, under which was the accumulated dirt of twenty years, for so filthy were the English habits at this period, that Erasmus attributes to this circumstance the great prevalence of contagious disorders in England.

8. An Earl of Northumberland, who lived in the reign of Henry VII., wrote a book of directions for the management of his household. This is still preserved, and is called the Northumberland Household Book. In it the earl enters into the most minute particulars.

9. He even directs the number of fagots to be allowed to each fire, and gives the items of what the men-servants were to have for their breakfast, and the number of bones of mutton that were to be provided for his own. The family consisted of 166 persons, and the allowance of meat and drink was quite sufficient, but the stock of house-linen was surprisingly small.

10. There were only eight table-cloths "for my lord's table," and one for the upper servants, which was washed once a month. The earl divided the year between three different houses, but he had furniture only for one; so that, when he removed from one to another, all his household goods were removed also, even to the saucepans for the kitchen.

11. Everything was packed upon seventeen carts and one wagon; and this might well be sufficient, since one large table and three long benches constituted the whole of the furniture of the state apartment.

12. A removal at the present day is apt to make sad work with the china and glass; but there was no such danger in those days. Drinking-glasses were not made in England till the time of Queen Mary, and were at first considered more precious than silver. As for looking-glasses, there were very few in use, and these were prob

fans used for? 6, 7. Describe the dwellings of the nobles. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Relate scME particulars of the mode of life.

MORE ABOUT THE ENGLISH IN THE 16TH CENTURY. 255

ably very small, and commonly carried by the ladies in their pockets, or hung to their girdles.

CHAPTER CXXXIX.

More about the Manners of the English in the Sixteenth Century. About Commerce.-Disastrous Voyage of Sir Hugh Willoughby.

1. THE following amusing account of the manners of the English is written by a French priest, who visited England in the reign of Edward VI. We will give his own words: "The people of this country have a mortal aversion to the French, and in common call us France knave, or France dog.

2. "The people of this land make good cheer, and dearly love junketing. The men are large, handsome, and ruddy, with flaxen hair. Their women are the greatest beauties in the world, and as fair as alabaster. The English in general are cheerful, and love music; they are likewise great drunkards.

3. "In this land they commonly make use of silver vessels wh they drink wine. The servants wait on their masters bareheaded, and leave their caps on the buffet, (side-board.) It is noted that in

CXXXIX.-1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Relate what the French traveller says of the English in Ed

256 DISASTROUS FATE OF SIR HUGH WILLOUGHBY.—1553.

this excellent kingdom there is no kind of good order; the people are reprobates, and thorough enemies of good manners.

4. In the windows of the houses are plenty of flowers, and at their taverns a plenty of rushes on their wooden floors, and many cushions of tapestry, on which travellers seat themselves. The English consume great quantities of beer; the poor people drink out of wooden cups. They eat much whiter bread than is commonly made in France.

5. "With their beer they have a custom of eating very soft saffron cakes, in which are likewise raisins. It is likewise to be noted that the servants carry pointed bucklers, even those of bishops. And the husbandmen, when they till the ground, commonly have their bucklers, swords, and sometimes their bows, in one corner of the field.”

6. To this account we may add, that the cookery was distinguished for a profusion of hot spices; and that, at entertainments, the rank of the guests was discriminated by their position above or below the salt-cellar, which was placed invariably in the middle of the table. The chief servants always attended above the saltcellar, below which the table was crowded with poor dependants, whom the guests despised, and the servants neglected.

7. Before the Reformation, churchmen affected a greater state than the nobility. The Abbot of St. Albans dined alone at the middle of a table elevated fifteen steps above the floor of the hall, and the monks who served his dinner, at every fifth step performed a hymn.

8. Commerce had heretofore been chiefly carried on by foreign merchants, who, from the place where they had been accustomed to transact their business, were called Merchants of the Steel Yard. But in the reign of Edward VI., many of the privileges of these merchants were taken from them, and the native English were encouraged to enter into trade.

9. The discovery of America occasioned a greater demand for ships, and an increase of commerce, which had never at any former period flourished so much. There arose also an unusual demand for woollen cloth, which gave great encouragement to the English manufacturers, and first brought Wakefield and Leeds into notice as manufacturing towns.

10. The spirit of enterprise which had distinguished the youth of Sebastian Cabot, was not wanting in his old age. In 1553, being the governor of the company of Merchant Adventurers, he fitted out an expedition, consisting of three vessels, under the command of Sir Hugh Willoughby, to attempt the discovery of a northeast passage to India.

11. The fate of Sir Hugh, and the companies of two of the vessels, was most disastrous. Having put into a port of Lapland to winter, they were found there the next spring frozen to death. The third vessel, commanded by Richard Chancelor, was more fortunate, who, having wintered at Archangel, and opened an intercourse with Russia,

ward VI.'s time. 6. What of the cookery? Of the entertainments? 7. What of the ponip of the clergy? 8. What of the state of trade? 9. What occasioned a demand for

ships? 10, 11. What discovery was niade? What new trade ope .ed?

CHARACTER OF QUEEN MARY.

257

reached home in safety. A company was formed to trade with Russia, of which Cabot was appointed governor for life.

CHAPTER CXL.

Queen Mary. She restores the Popish Religion.- Persecution of Cranmer.-Marriage of the Queen.-Rebellion in consequence of it.Execution of Lady Jane Grey.

1. MARY was in her thirty-seventh year at the time of her brother's death. She possessed few qualities either estimable or amiable; and her person was as little engaging as her behavior and ad Iress. She inherited her mother's gravity with her father's violence and obstinate temper; the natural sourness of which had been increased by the early mortifications to which she had been subjected.

2. Her education had been almost entirely neglected. During h father's life she had lived for the most part in a species of confinement; and though more at liberty during the reign of her brother, still she

CXL.-1, 2. What of Mary? 3. What was her first act? 4. What did she do in

258

RESTORATION OF THE PUPISH RELIGION.—1553.

led a dull and secluded life; and the great affection and constant intercourse which subsisted between Edward and Elizabeth must have been a renewed source of unhappiness to her.

3. The first act of her reign led the people to hope that they had been deceived in her character. She restored to liberty the old Duke of Norfolk, who had languished in prison, with his unexecuted sentence hanging over his head, ever since the death of Henry VIII. She also exhibited moderation in the punishment of the supporters of Lady Jane Grey. Northumberland was the only man of rank who suffered death. Lady Jane and her husband were condemned to death, but on account of their youth and innocence they were not executed, but kept in prison.

4. The next act of the queen was to reinstate Gardiner, Bonner, and Tonstall in their several bishoprics, of which they had been deprived ir. the last reign. With their assistance she hastened to overturn the fabric of the Reformation, and to restore the old religion, and to replace everything on its old footing.

5. The pope made some difficulty about receiving within the pale of the church such a country of heretics as England; but this was at length overcome, and Cardinal de la Pole was appointed legate, or the pope's representative, in England. But though Mary could restore the rites and ceremonies of the Romish Church, she found it impossible to recover to their former uses the lands and buildings of the religious houses.

6. Seeing the storm that was approaching, the foreign Protestants hastily left England, and the country thus lost the services of some of the most skilful artisans and mechanics. Many English gentlemen also left the country. Cranmer was advised to fly; but he said he had been too much concerned in every measure of the Reformation to desert its cause.

7. The queen had early marked him for destruction. She was not of a temper to forget an injury, and hated him for the share he had had in her mother's divorce; which the many good offices he had done to herself could never atone for in her eyes. Many times, as she well knew, the good archbishop had stood between her and her father's wrath.

8. Upon one occasion Henry had determined on her death, and was only prevented by Cranmer's remonstrances from putting his purpose in execution, while the time-serving Gardiner stood by without uttering a word in her behalf. But all these things were forgotten, and Cranmer was imprisoned in the common jail at Oxford.

9. His life was spared for the present by the intervention of Gardiner, who knew that the queen intended, on Cranmer's death, to give the archbishopric to Cardinal de la Pole, a man whom he hated, because his mild and benignant disposition led him constantly to oppose his own violent and sanguinary counsels.

10. The queen now turned her thoughts upon marriage. The engaging person and address of the young Courtenay, Earl of Devon

regard to religion? 5. What of the pope? 6. What did the Protestants do? 7. What Cranmer? How had he deserved well of Mary? 9. Why was his life spared