66. England in the Reign of Queen Mary By GIACOMO The air of England is thick, so it often generates clouds, wind, and rain, but in calm weather the climate is so temperate that the extremes of heat and cold are rarely felt, and never last long, so that persons clad in fur may be seen all the year round. They have some little plague in England well nigh every year, for which they are not accustomed to make sanitary provisions, as it does not usually make great progress; the cases for the most part occur among the lower classes, as if their dissolute mode of life impaired their constitutions; . . SORANZO. not a half Probably there were dozen years during the reign of Henry VIII that the plague did not visit London. "On an aver soil for that and The soil, especially in England proper, produces wheat, oats, and barley, in such plenty that they have usually enough for their own consumption, but were they to work more diligently, and with greater skill, and bring the into higher cultivation, England might supply grain exportation, but they do not attend much to this, so they sometimes need assistance both from Flanders Denmark, and occasionally from France likewise. They grow no other sort of grain, and their only lentils are beans and peas. Although they have vines they do not make wine of any sort, the plant serving as an ornament for their gardens rather than anything else, as grapes do not ripen save in a very small quantity, partly because the sun has not much power, and partly because precisely at the ripening season cold winds generally prevail, so that the grapes wither, but in lieu of wine they make beer, with wheat, barley, and hops, which [last?] they import from Flanders, boiling all the ingredients together in water, and making it stronger or weaker by adding more wheat and less barley, and producing a contrary result by reversing the process. This potion is most palatable to them, and all persons drink it, even their sovereigns, although they also consume Death to the extinction of the plague in 1666-the capital lost from a fourth to a sixth of its population at one single stroke in a season." Creighton. During the sixteenth culture retrocentury agrigraded as an art. This was due largely to the the religious houses, for the monks were pioneers in agricultural advance. Toward the end of the century there was marked improvement in methods of farming, the result of the high price of provisions. An old distich says of 1525, "Turkies, hoppes reformation and beer Came into England all in one year." ... a great quantity of wine. . . . They have abundance of fish, both from the ocean and the Thames, of the same sort as is common in Venice, but they have also salmon, a fish not found in Italy. They have an immense quantity of oysters, so that occasionally as many as 20 smacks are seen filled with them, but during four months in the summer it is forbidden either to take or sell them. The country is almost all level, with few rivers and springs, and such hills as they have are not very high, and one advantage of the climate is that the grass remains green at all seasons, affording excellent pasturage for animals, especially for sheep, of which there is an incredible number, supplying that wool which is in such universal repute under the name of "Frankish," the French having been the first to bring it into Italy. Great part of this wool is manufactured in England, where cloths and kerseys of various sorts are wrought, which amount annually to 150,000 pieces of cloths of all sorts, and 150,000 pieces of kersey, the rest of the wool being exported, and taken usually to Calais on account of the staplers, who then sell it on the spot, and have the monopoly of the wool exports from England, though occasionally export-permits are conceded by favour to other persons, though the staplers do their utmost to prevent it. The quantity of unwrought wool exported is said to amount to about 2000 tons [annually]; they also export hides to the value of 500,000 ducats. In Cornwall they have lead and tin mines, from which they extract metal in great quantity, and of such good quality that the like is not to be found elsewhere. For some time they have not exported much lead because permits are refused, but they export annually from five to six thousand weight of unwrought tin, and to the value of 100,000 ducats in the wrought metal, the greater part to Spain. In Derbyshire there are some iron mines, but in small quantity, but none of gold nor of silver. In the north towards Scotland they find a certain sort of earth well nigh mineral, and which burns like charcoal, and is extensively used, especially by blacksmiths, and but for a certain bad odour which it leaves it would be yet more employed, as it gives great heat and costs little. The principal cities of the kingdom are London and York, but London is the most noble, both on account of its being the royal residence, and because the river Thames runs through it, very much to the convenience and profit of the inhabitants, as it ebbs and flows every six hours like the sea, scarcely ever causing inundation or any extraordinary floods; and up to London Bridge it is navigable for ships of 400 butts burden, of which a great plenty arrive with every sort of merchandise. This bridge connects the city with the borough, and is built of stone with twenty arches, and shops on both sides. On the banks of the river there are many large palaces, making a very fine show, but the city is much disfigured by the ruins of a multitude of churches and monasteries belonging heretofore to friars and nuns. It has a dense population, said to number 180,000 souls; and is beyond measure commercial, the merchants of the entire kingdom flocking thither, as, by a privilege conceded to the citizens of London, from them alone can they purchase merchandise, so they soon become very wealthy; and the same privileges placed in their hands the government of the city of London, which is divided into 24 trades or crafts, each of which elects a certain individual, styled alderman, the election being made solely in the persons of those who are considered the most wealthy, and the office is for life; the which aldermen, after assembling these trades, create annually a person as their head for the current year entitled Mayor, and they call him Lord, which signifies signor; and he assumes the magistracy on the day of Saints Simon and Jude, on which day he goes to the court and swears allegiance to the King, and then gives a banquet to the ambas See John Stow, Survey of London. l.e. grey. sadors and lords, and to the judges of the city and others, in such number, that in one and the same hall upwards of a thousand persons sit down to table, all being served at the same time with the most perfect order. . . The English for the most part are of handsome stature and sound constitution, with red or white complexions, their eyes also being white. According to their station they are all as well clad as any other nation whatever. The dress of the men resembles the Italian fashion, and that of the women the French. The nobility are by nature very courteous, especially to foreigners, who however are treated with very great arrogance and enmity by the people, it seeming to them that the profit derived by the merchants from their country is so much taken from them, and they imagine that they could live without foreign intercourse. They are also by nature of little faith both towards their sovereigns and with each other, and are therefore very suspicious. The nobility, save such as are employed at Court, do not habitually reside in the cities, but in their own country mansions, where they keep up very grand establishments, both with regard to the great abundance of eatables consumed by them, as also by reason of their numerous attendants, in which they exceed all other nations, so that the Earl of Pembroke has upwards of 1000 clad in his own livery. In these their country residences they occupy themselves with hunting of every description, and whatever else can amuse or divert them; so that they seem wholly intent on leading a joyous existence, the women also being no less sociable than the men, it being customary for them and allowable to go without any regard either alone or accompanied by their husbands to the taverns, and to dine and sup where they please. The English do not delight much either in military pursuits or literature, which last, most especially by the nobility, is not held in much account, and they have scarcely any opportunity for occupying themselves with the former, save in time of war, and when that is ended they think no more about them, but in battle they show great courage and great presence of mind in danger, but they require to be largely supplied with victuals; so it is evident that they cannot endure much fatigue. . . Report of England made to the Senate by Giacomo Soranzo, late 67. Elizabethan Homes The greatest part of our building in the cities and good townes of England consisteth onelie of timber, for as yet few of the houses of the communaltie (except here & there in the West countrie townes) are made of stone, although they may (in my opinion) in diuerse other places be builded so good cheape of the one as of the other. In old time the houses of the Britons were slightlie set vp with a few posts & many radels, with stable and all offices vnder one roofe, the like whereof almost is to be seene in the fennie countries and northerne parts vnto this daie, where for lacke of wood they are inforced to continue this ancient manner of building. . . . Certes this rude kind of building made the Spaniards in queene Maries daies to woonder, but cheeflie when they saw what large diet was vsed in manie of these so homelie cottages, in so much that one of no small reputation amongst them said after this maner: "These English (quoth he) haue their houses made of sticks and durt, but they fare commonlie so well as the king. Whereby it appeareth that he liked better of our good fare in such course cabins, than of their owne thin diet in their princelike habitations and palaces. In like sort as euerie countrie he attended Canon of He lived the clergyman, occupying his leisure with literary work. His most important productions are the Description of Britain and the Description of England, written for Chronicle. Holinshed's |