DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52829#0182
108
two thousand pounds at the least: whereby the value of this, and their other
stuffe, dooth growe to be almost inestimable. Likewise, in the houses of
knights, gentlemen, merchantmen, and some other wealthie citizens, it is
not geson to behold generallie their prouision of tapestrie. Turkie
work, pewter, brass, fine linen, and thereto costlie cupboards of plate,
worth five or six hundred, or a thousand pounds, to be deemed by
estimation. But as herein all these sorts doo far exceed their elders
and predecessors, and in neatnesse and curiositie the merchant all
other; so in time past the costlie furniture staied there, whereas now it is
descended yet lower, euen unto the inferior artificers and manie farmers,
who, by virtue of their old, and not of their new leases,* haue, for the
most part, learned to garnish their cupboards with plate, their ioined
beds with tapestrie and silk hangings, and their tables with carpets and
fine naperie,f wherby the wealth of our countrie, (God be praised
therefore, and giue vs grace to imploie it well), dooth infinitelie appeare.
Neither doo I speake this in reproch of anie man, God is my iudge, but
* Latimer’s well-known sermon in 1549, the first he preached before Edward VI., contains
a curious picture of a farmer’s means anterior to that time. “ My father was a yoman, and
had no landes of hys owne, onely he had a farme of iij. or iiij. pound by yeare at the
uttermost, and hereupon he tilled so muche as kept halfe a dossen men. He had walke for an
hundred sheepe, and my mother milked xxx. kyne. He was able, and did finde the king a
harnesse, with himselfe and his horse, while he came to the place that he should receiyve the
kinge’s wages. 1 can remember that I buckled his harnesse, when he went unto Blackheath
fielde. He kept me to schole. He married my sisters wyth five pound or xx. nobles a
peece. He kept hospitality for his poore neighboures. And some almes he gave to the
poore, and all thys did he of the sayde farme. Where he that nowe hath it, payeth xvj.
pound by yeare or more, and is not able to do any thinge for hys prince, for hymselfe, or for
hys children, or geve a cup of drinke to the poore.”
t The goodman of the house sat at the upper end of the board, ° with a fayre napkyn
layde before him on the table, lyke a master.”—-Hist, of John Winchcomb.
two thousand pounds at the least: whereby the value of this, and their other
stuffe, dooth growe to be almost inestimable. Likewise, in the houses of
knights, gentlemen, merchantmen, and some other wealthie citizens, it is
not geson to behold generallie their prouision of tapestrie. Turkie
work, pewter, brass, fine linen, and thereto costlie cupboards of plate,
worth five or six hundred, or a thousand pounds, to be deemed by
estimation. But as herein all these sorts doo far exceed their elders
and predecessors, and in neatnesse and curiositie the merchant all
other; so in time past the costlie furniture staied there, whereas now it is
descended yet lower, euen unto the inferior artificers and manie farmers,
who, by virtue of their old, and not of their new leases,* haue, for the
most part, learned to garnish their cupboards with plate, their ioined
beds with tapestrie and silk hangings, and their tables with carpets and
fine naperie,f wherby the wealth of our countrie, (God be praised
therefore, and giue vs grace to imploie it well), dooth infinitelie appeare.
Neither doo I speake this in reproch of anie man, God is my iudge, but
* Latimer’s well-known sermon in 1549, the first he preached before Edward VI., contains
a curious picture of a farmer’s means anterior to that time. “ My father was a yoman, and
had no landes of hys owne, onely he had a farme of iij. or iiij. pound by yeare at the
uttermost, and hereupon he tilled so muche as kept halfe a dossen men. He had walke for an
hundred sheepe, and my mother milked xxx. kyne. He was able, and did finde the king a
harnesse, with himselfe and his horse, while he came to the place that he should receiyve the
kinge’s wages. 1 can remember that I buckled his harnesse, when he went unto Blackheath
fielde. He kept me to schole. He married my sisters wyth five pound or xx. nobles a
peece. He kept hospitality for his poore neighboures. And some almes he gave to the
poore, and all thys did he of the sayde farme. Where he that nowe hath it, payeth xvj.
pound by yeare or more, and is not able to do any thinge for hys prince, for hymselfe, or for
hys children, or geve a cup of drinke to the poore.”
t The goodman of the house sat at the upper end of the board, ° with a fayre napkyn
layde before him on the table, lyke a master.”—-Hist, of John Winchcomb.