CH. I. comfort with the necessaries of life. The squire had enough to provide moderate abundance for At the Stairs' Hed beside the Parson's Bedchamber. One table, two trestylls, four beehives. In the Parson's Lodging-chamber. A bedstedyll and a feather bed, two blankets, one payr of sheets, one coverlet of tapestry lined with canvas, one bolster, one pillow with a pillocote. Item, one gown of violet cloth lined with red saye. Item, a gown of black cloth, furred with lamb. Item, two hoods of violet cloth, whereof one is lined with green sarsenet. Item, one jerkyn of tawny camlet. Item, a jerkyn of cloth furred with white. Item, a jacket of cloth furred. Item, a sheet to put in cloth. Item, one press. Item, a leather mail. Item, one table, two forms, four chairs, two trestylls. Item, a tester of painted cloth. Item, a pair of hangings of green saye, with two pictures thereupon. Item, one cupboard, two chests. Item, a little flock bed, with a bolster and a coverlet. Item, one cushion, one mantell, one towel, and, by estimation, a pound of wax candles. Item, Greek books covered with boards, 42. Item, small books covered with boards, 33. Item, books covered with leather and parchment, 38. In the said Chest in the said Chamber. Three pieces of red saye and green. Item, one tyke for a bolster, two tykes for pillows. Item, a typpett of cloth. Item, diaper napkins, 4, diaper towels, 2. Item, four pairs of sheets, and one shete, two tablecloths. In the other Chest in the same Chamber. One typpett of sarsenett. Item, two cotes belonging to the crosse of Underhill, whereupon hang thirty-three pieces of money, rings, and other things, and three crystal stones closed in silver. In the Study. Two old boxes, a wicker hamper full of papers. In the Chamber behind the Chimney. One seam and a half of old malt. Item, a trap for rats. Item, a board of three yards length. himself and his family. Neither priest nor squire CH. I. was able to establish any steep difference in out In the Chamber next adjoining westwards. One bedstedyll, one flock bed, one bolster. One form, two shelf boards, one little table, two trestylls, two awgyes, one nett, called a stalker, a well rope, five quarters of hemp. In the Butlery. Three basins of pewter, five candlesticks, one ewer of lateen, one chafing dish, two platters, one dish, one salter, three podingers [? porringer], a saltseller of pewter, seven kilderkyns, three keelers, one form, five shelves, one byn, one table, one glasse bottell. In the Priest's Chamber. One bedstedyll, one feather bed, two forms, one press. In the Woman's Keeping. Two tablecloths, two pairs of sheets. In the Servant's Chamber. One painted hanging, a bedstedyll, one feather bed, a press, and a shelf. In the Kitchen. Eight bacon flitches, a little brewing lead, three brass pots, three kettles, one posnett, one frying-pan, a dripping-pan, a great pan, two trivetts, a chopping knife, a skimmer, one fire rake, a pothanger, one pothooke, one andiron, three spits, one gridiron, one firepan, a coal rake of iron, two botts [? butts], three wooden platters, six boldishes, three forms, two stools, seven platters, two pewter dishes, four saucers, a covering of a saltseller, a podynger, seven tubbs, a caldron, two syffs, a capon cope, a mustard quern, a ladder, two pails, one beehive. In the Mill-house. Seven butts, two cheeses, an old sheet, an old brass pan, three podyngers, a pewter dish. In the Boulting-house. One brass pan, one quern, a boulting hutch, a boulting tub, three little tubbys, two keelers, a tolvett, two boulters, one tonnell. In the Larder. One sieve, one bacon trough, a cheese press, one little tub, eight shelves, one graper for a well. Wood. Of tall wood ten load, of ash wood a load and a half. Poultry. Nine hens, eight capons, one cock, sixteen young chickens, three old geese, seventeen goslings, four ducks. CH. I. ward advantages between himself and the commons among whom he lived. The habits of all classes were open, free, and liberal. There are two expressions corresponding one to the other, which we frequently meet with in old writings, and which are used as a kind of index, marking whether the condition of things was or was not what it ought to be. We read of Merry Eug- merry England;'-when England was not merry, land. Cattle. Five young hoggs, two red kyne, one red heifer two years old, one bay gelding lame of spavins, one old grey mare having a mare colt. In the Entries. Two tubbs, one trough, one ring to bear water and towel, a chest to keep cornes. Five seams of lime. In the same House. In the Woman's Chamber. One bedstedyll of hempen yarn, by estimation 20lbs. Without the House. Of tyles, of bricks, , seven planks, three rafters, one ladder. In the Gate-house. One form, a leather sack, three bushels of wheat. In the Still beside the Gate. Two old road saddles, one bridle, a horse-cloth. In the Barn next the Gate. Of wheat unthrashed, by estimation, thirty quarters, of barley unthrashed, by estimation, five quarters. In the Cartlage. One weene with two whyles, one dung-cart without whyles, two shodwhyles, two yokes, one sledge. In the Barn next the Church. Of oats unthrashed, by estimation, one quarter. In the Garden-house. Of oats, by estimation, three seams four bushels. In the Court. Two racks, one ladder. hand. things were not going well with it. We hear of CH. 1. 'the glory of hospitality,' England's pre-eminent boast, by the rules of which all tables, from the table of the twenty-shilling freeholder to the table in the baron's hall and abbey refectory, were open at the dinner hour to all comers, without stint or reserve, or question asked:* to every man, ac- The open cording to his degree, who chose to ask for it, there was free fare and free lodging; bread, beef, and beer for his dinner; for his lodging, perhaps, only a mat of rushes in a spare corner of the hall, with a billet of wood for a pillow,† but freely offered and freely taken, the guest probably faring much as his host fared, neither worse nor better. There was little fear of an abuse of such licence, for suspicious characters had no leave to wander at pleasure; and for any man found at large, and unable to give a sufficient account of himself, there were the ever-ready parish stocks or town gaol. The glory of hospitality' lasted far down into Elizabeth's time; and then, as Camden says, 'came in great bravery of building, to the marvellous beautifying of the realm, but to the decay' of what he valued more. In such frank style the people lived, hating three things with all their hearts: idleness, want, and cowardice; and for the rest, carrying their hearts high, and having their hands full. The‡ *Two hundred poor were fed daily at the house of Thomas Cromwell. This fact is perfectly authenticated. Stowe the historian, who did not like Cromwell, lived in an adjoining house, and reports it as an eye witness.-See The Earl and Countess of the justices 46 Habits and Dinners of Country Gentlemen. hour of rising, winter and summer, was four o'clock, with breakfast at five, after which the labourers went to work and the gentlemen to business, of which they had no little. In the country every unknown face was challenged and examined-if the account given was insufficient, Duties of he was brought before the justice; if the village shopkeeper sold bad wares, if the village cobbler made unhonest' shoes, if servants and masters quarrelled, all was to be looked to by the justice; there was no fear lest time should hang heavy with him. At twelve he dined; after dinner he went hunting, or to his farm, or to what he pleased.* It was a life unrefined, perhaps, but coloured with a broad, rosy, English health. of the peace. gether alone at seven. The meal * Some notion of the style of The number of persons present The provisions were as follow- Ipocras, I pipe. Plovers, 400. |