things too too much encreased. One is, the multitude of c' latelie erected, wheras in their yoong daies there were not or three, if so manie in most uplandish townes of the religious houses, and manor places of their lords alv and peradventure some great personages) but ech against a rere dosse in the hall, where he dined an "The second is the great (although not gen lodging, for (said they) our fathers (yea and w lien full oft upon straw pallets, on rough m shéet, under coverlets made of dagswain c owne termes) and a good round log ur bolster or pillow. If it were so that o the house, had within seven yeares matteres or flockebed, and thereto upon, he thought himselfe to h townè, that peradventure laie fethers; so well were they furniture which also is no of Bedfordshire, and else Pillowes (said they) we As for servants, if t seldome had they. pricking straws t1 their hardened! his bottle had gat hold: Nas browne as nut, white as snowe, or the season's fruite, wip bestow: his py-bald curre did sleepe, No quilles of oten strawe pped melody: Cannot gure complete. ! Asa's England, chap. 42. Chalmers's English Poets, vol. iv. p. 602. With the sun He doth his flocke unfold, And all the day on hill or plaine He merrie chat can hold: And with the sun doth folde againe ; Nor lackes he gleeful tales to tell, sleeps he soundly all the night, ng morrow cares, e blasting of his corne of his wares, , or stirres on land, We lost, .er than his flocke the cost. 1, sooth they say that say: Lore quiet nightes and daies The shepheard sleepes and wakes than he Whose cattel he doth graize." ""* The lines in Italics allude to the favourite beverage of the peasantry, and the mode in which they recreated themselves over the spicy bowl. To turne a crab is to roast a wilding or wild apple in the fire for the purpose of being thrown hissing hot into a bowl of nut-brown ale, into which had been previously put a toast with some spice and sugar. To this delicious compound Shakspeare has frequently referred; thus in Love's Labour's Lost one of his designations of winter is, VOL. I. "When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl:"+ * Warner in Chalmers's Poets, vol. iv. p. 552, 553. P simple yet beautiful strains of an old pastoral bard of Elizabeth' days, who, describing a nobleman fatigued by the chase, the heat the weather, and long fasting, adds that he To tell gleeful tales, tales, "whilst round the bole doth trot," was an Isement much more common among our ancestors, during the Elizabeth, and the subsequent century, than it has been in period. The Winter's Tale of Shakspeare owes its title stom, of which an example is placed before us in the the second act. Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 172, 173., eighth edition of 1676. + Milton's Poems by Warton, second edition, p. 56. 61. The farmer's daily diet may be drawn with sufficient accuracy from the curious old Georgic of Tusser, a poem which, more than any other that we possess, throws light upon the agricultural manners and customs of the age. In Lent, says this entertaining bard, the farmer must in the first place consume his red herring, and afterwards his salt fish, which should be kept in store, indeed, and considered as good even when Lent is past, and with these leeks and peas should be procured for pottage, with the view of saving milk, oatmeal, and bread: at Easter veale and bacon are to be the chief articles; at Martilmas salted beef, "when country folk do dainties lack :" at Midsummer, when mackrel are out of season, grasse (that is sallads, &c.) fresh beef and pease: at Michaelmas fresh herring and fatted* crones: at All Saints pork and souse, sprats and spurlings: at Christmas he enjoins the farmer to "plaie and make good cheere," and he concludes by advising him, as was the custom in Elizabeth's time, to observe Fridays, Saturdays, and Wednesdays as fish-days; to "keep embrings well and fasting dayes," and of fish and fruit be scarce, to supply their want with butter and cheese. † To these recommendations he adds, in another place, that "Good ploughmen look weekly of custom and right, and he subsequently gives directions for writing what he terms "husbandlie posies," that is, economical proverbs in rhyme, to be hung up in the Hall, the parlour, the Ghest's chamber, and the good man's own bed chamber. ‡ If the farmer have a visitor, our worthy bard is not illiberal in his allowance, but advises him to place three dishes on his table at * Crones are ewes whose teeth are so worn down, that they can no longer live in their sheep-walk; but will sometimes, if put into good pasture, thrive exceedingly. + Tusser, 4to. edit. 1586., chap. 12. fol. 25, 26. Tusser, 4to. edit. 1586., fol. 138. 144, 145. |