Some wives, grayheaded, shame not locks
Of youthfull borrowed haire:

Some, tyring arte, attyer their heads
With only tresses bare:

Some, (grosser pride than which, think I,
No passed age might shame)
By arte, abusing nature, heads

Of antick't hayre doe frame.

Once starching lack't the tearme, because
Was lacking once the toy,

And lack't we all these toyes and tearmes,
It were no griefe but joy.

Now dwels ech drossell in her glas:
When I was yong, I wot,

On holly-dayes (for sildome els
Such ydell times we got)

A tubb or paile of water cleere
Stood us in steede of glas. *

Luxury and extravagance soon spread beyond the female circle, and the Farmer's Heir of forty pounds a year, is described by Hall, in 1598, as dissipating his property on the follies and fopperies of the day.

"Vilius, the wealthy farmer, left his heire

Twice twenty sterling pounds to spend by yeare: --
But whiles ten pound goes to his wife's new gowne,
Nor little lesse can serve to suit his owne ;
Whiles one piece pays her idle waiting-man,
Or buys an hoode, or silver-handled fanne,
Or hires a Friezeland trotter, halfe yard deepe,
To drag his tumbrell through the staring Cheape;
Or whiles he rideth with two liveries,

And's treble rated at the subsidies;

One end a kennel keeps of thriftlesse hounds;
What think ye rests of all my younker's pounds
To diet him, or deal out at his doore,

To coffer up, or stocke his wasting store?" +

* Warner's Albion's England, book ix. chap. xlvii.
+ Hall's Satires, book v. satire 4.

In contrast to this character, who keeps a pack of hounds, and sports a couple of liveries, it will be interesting to bring forward the picture of the poor copyholder, as drawn by the same masterly pencil; the description of the wretched hovel is given in all the strength of minute reality, and the avidity of the avaricious landlord is wrought up with several strokes of humour.

"Of one bay's breadth, God wot, a silly cote,

Whose thatched spars are furr'd with sluttish soote
A whole inch thick, shining like black-moor's brows,
Through smoke that downe the headlesse barrel blows.
At his bed's feete feeden his stalled teame,
His swine beneath, his pullen o'er the beame.
A starved tenement, such as I guesse

Stands straggling on the wastes of Holdernesse :
Or such as shivers on a Peake hill side, &c.
Yet must he haunt his greedy landlord's hall
With often presents at each festivall:

With crammed capons everie new-yeare's morne,
Or with greene cheese when his sheepe are shorne:
Or many maunds-full of his mellow fruite,
To make some way to win his weighty suite.
The smiling landlord shews a sunshine face,
Feigning that he will grant him further grace;
And leers like Esop's foxe upon the crane,
Whose neck he craves for his chirurgian." *

We shall close these characters, illustrative of rural manners, as they existed in the reigns of Elizabeth and James 1st, with a delineation of the plain Country Fellow or down right Clown, from the accurate pen of Bishop Earle, who has touched this homely subject with singular point and spirits.

"A plain country fellow is one that manures his ground well, but lets himself lye fallow and untilled. He has reason enough to do his business, and not enough to be idle or melancholy. He seems to have the punishment of Nebuchadnezzar, for his conversation is among beasts, and his tallons none of the shortest, only he eats not

* Hall's Satires, book v. satire 1.

grass, because he loves not sallets.

His hand guides the plough, and the plough his thoughts, and his ditch and land-mark is the very mound of his meditations. He expostulates with his oxen very understandingly, and speaks gee, and ree, better than English. His mind is not much distracted with objects, but if a good fat cow come in his way, he stands dumb and astonished, and though his haste be never so great, will fix here half an hour's contemplation. His habitation is some poor thatched roof, distinguished from his barn by the loop-holes that let out smoak, which the rain had long since washed through, but for the double ceiling of bacon on the inside, which has hung there from his grandsire's time, and is yet to make rashers for posterity. His dinner is his other work, for he sweats at it as much as at his labour; he is a terrible fastner on a piece of beef, and you may hope to stave the guard off sooner. His religion is a part of his copy-hold, which he takes from his land-lord, and refers it wholly to his discretion: yet if he give him leave he is a good Christian to his power, (that is,) comes to church in his best cloaths, and sits there with his neighbours, where he is capable only of two prayers, for rain, and fair weather. He apprehends God's blessings only in a good year, or a fat pasture, and never praises him but on good ground. Sunday, he esteems a day to make merry in, and thinks a bag-pipe as essential to it as evening prayer, where he walks very solemnly after service with his hands coupled behind him, and censures the dancing of his parish. His compliment with his neighbour is a good thump on the back, and his salutation commonly some blunt curse. He thinks nothing to be vices, but pride and ill husbandry, from which he will gravely dissuade the youth, and has some thrifty hob-nail proverbs to clout his discourse. He is a niggard all the week, except only market-day, where, if his corn sell well, he thinks he may be drunk with a good conscience. sensible of no calamity but the burning a stack of corn or the overflowing of a meadow, and thinks Noah's flood the greatest plague that ever was, not because it drowned the world, but spoiled the

He is

CHAPTER VI.

W OF COUNTRY LIFE DURING THE AGE OF SHAKSPEARE; ITS MANNERS AND
CUSTOMS. RURAL HOLYDAYS, AND FESTIVALS.

-

of rural festivity and amusement, must, as far as it is d by any detail of riot or intemperance, be a subject of plation to every good and cheerful mind. Labour, on of by far the greater part of human beings, intervals of relaxation; and the encouragement of on at stated periods, may be considered, therefore, al and political point of view, as essentially useful. The ▲ amusements of our ancestors on their holydays and festinile they had little tendency to promote either luxury or dissiion, contributed very powerfully to preserve some of the best and most striking features of our national manners and character, and were frequently mingled with that cheerful piety which forms the most heart-felt species of devotion, where religion, mixing with the social rite, offers up the homage of a happy and contented heart.

It may be necessary here to mention, that in enumerating the various ceremonial and feast days of rural life, we have purposely omitted those which are peculiarly occupied by superstitious observances, as they will with more propriety be included under a subsequent chapter, appropriated to the consideration of popular superstitions.

The ushering in of the New Year, or New Years tide, with rejoicings, presents, and good wishes, was a custom observed, during the sixteenth century, with great regularity and parade, and was as cordially celebrated in the court of the prince as in the cottage of the peasant. To end the old year merrily and begin the new one well, and in friendship with their neighbours, were the objects which the common