the middle of the century, contains minute particulars of the agriculture of that period. We have room only for one extract-the "Corn Harvest :" 1. One part cast forth, for rent due out of hand. 4. Another part, for harvest sickle and scythe. 5. One part, for plough-wright, cart-wright, knacker, and smith. 6. One part, to uphold thy teams that draw therewith. 7. One part, for servant, and workman's wages lay. 8. One part, likewise, for fill belly day by day. 9. One part, thy wife for needful things doth crave. 10. Thyselfe and child, the last one part would have. Who minds to quote May easily find enow, Doth follow toiling plough. Yet farmer may For yearly such good hap; Well fare the plough, That sends enow, To stop so many a gap. Harrison, in 1586, estimates the yield or produce of corn ground in average years to be, sixteen or twenty bushels of wheat or rye well tilled and dressed, thirty-six bushels of barley, or four to five quarters of oats, from each acre. The produce of an acre of wheat in the best corn counties now, is estimated at from twenty-five to thirty bushels the acre. At the commencement of the sixteenth century, the usual price of wheat, soon after harvest, in plentiful years, appears to have been about 5s. the quarter. During the middle of this period it averaged 8s.; towards the close it had increased to 15s. and upwards. A law, passed in 1594, allowed the exportation of wheat when the price was not more than 20s., of peas and beans at 13s. 4d., barley and malt 12s.: these were reckoned fair average prices. The mixture of rye and wheat sown together was called miscelin. But there were many years in which, from scarcity, the price of wheat increased to two or three pounds, and in one of the closing years of the century, for a short time, to five pounds the quarter. Raleigh computed that the value of corn imported, at this period, was equal to two millions annually. The chief consumption was of bread made from inferior grain. The allowance to a baker, in 1495, was 2s. per quarter: in 1592, when the best wheat was 21s. 4d., it was 6s. 10d. per quarter of flour, reckoned thus-fuel, 6d.; two journeymen and two boys, 1s. 8d. ; yeast, 1s. ; candles and salt, 4d.; himself, family, and house rent, 2s.; the miller's toll, 1s. 4d. Bakers, living at Stratford, were allowed to sell bread from carts in London, being two ounces heavier in the penny loaf than bread baked in the city. There were large mills on the river Lea in that neighbourhood. The improvement of agriculture, during this century, mainly proceeded from the progress of manufactures and commerce, with the advance of the general state of society. Agriculture and commerce mutually benefit each other; to think these interests are really opposed is a great mistake. The English manufacturers and farmers are reciprocally the best customers to each other; but if undue advantages are given to either class, the other must suffer. The increase of flocks, and of inclosures for pasture, excited much discontent at this period; it doubtless produced inconvenience, which ever must be the case during a state of transition; but it was another evidence of the general prosperity of the country. Among the evils remaining from feudal times, the practice of purveyance severely oppressed the agriculturist. By this power, the queen's officers could take any rural produce at certain prices, usually below the market rate; a large proportion was often resold for their own profit, or they took money from the farmers as bribes not to remove the articles. An anecdote is told of a farmer, who made his way to court, and insisted upon seeing the queen; when he saw her pass, he made his best reverences, observing aloud, so as to attract her attention, that this was indeed a fair, wellshaped lady, more so than his daughter Madge, who was reckoned the fairest in his parish: but it could not be she that took all his poultry, and sheep, and corn; that must be a very monstrous-sized person who could consume all that her purveyor required. The queen never countenanced malpractices in her officers, and being not displeased with the compliment to her personal appearance, ordered the complaint to be inquired into, and that the guilty purveyor should be punished. This evil became so notorious, that it was partly done away before the end of her reign. Another proof of progress in the state of society, and which strongly indicated increased feelings of security, was the increase of gardens and orchards during the sixteenth century; but as yet, in general, they consisted only of inclosed pieces of ground near the mansion house, with a limited assortment of flowers, trees, and vegetables. The real progress of English gardening rather belongs to the next century, though Harrison, in 1586, speaks of great improvements in the preceding forty years, having sorts of fruit trees in comparison of which most of the old trees are nothing worth. He speaks of near three hundred sorts of "simples," "not one of them being common,' as grow ing in his own little garden, of about three hundred square feet. Another evidence of this progress, even in London, appears in the account of Henry VII., For making an arber at Baynard's Castle, 5s." The palace gardens of Elizabeth are described as having groves, ornamented with trellis-work, cabinets of verdure, walks embowered with trees, columns and pyramids of marble, statues, and fountains. DRESS. 66 A considerable number of pictures remain, which were executed during the seventeenth century, representing the costume of that period. The engraving already given on page 79, is from an old picture representing sir Thomas More and his children; it affords a good idea of a respectable family in the reign of Henry VIII. In the middle are sir John More, in his robes as a judge, and his son, sir Thomas More, as chancellor. On one side are two females standing, Elizabeth, daughter of sir Thomas, and her companion, Margaret Gige. Behind is the youthful wife of sir John. On the other side is Alice, the wife of sir Thomas; before her are Cecilia and Margaret, daughters of sir Thomas; John More, a youth, standing by the side of his father; the figure next him is Paterson, the fool or jester kept by sir Thomas, afterwards given by him to the lord mayors of London. Various pieces of furniture, books, a clock, and a viol, are represented. The articles of dress worn by persons of rank are described in the directions given to a chamberlain, "how to dress his sovereign," at the commencement of this period: "At morne, when your soverayne will arise, warme his shirte by the fyre, and se ye have a fote shete made in this manner: fyrst, set a chayre by the fyre, with a cuyshen under his fete, then sprede a shete over the chayre, and se there be redy a kerchife and combe; then warm his petycote, his doublet, and his stomachere; and then put on his hosen, and his shone or slyppers; then stryke up his hosen mannerly, and tye them up; then lace his doublet, hole by hole, and laye the neck clothe, and kimbe his heed; then look ye have a basyn and an ewer with warme water and a towell, washe his handes; then knele upon your knee, and aske your soverayne what robe he will were, and put it upon him ; then do his gyrdell about him, and take your leve mannerly." The obsequious chamberlain was then to go to the church, or chapel, and make 'the soverayne's closet" ready; then to the chamber, and make the bed; to beat the feather bed, "but loke ye waste no feders." The process of putting 66 |