the capital, felt the improvement. Their wooden dishes were replaced with pewter, added to which was an occasional piece of silver; feather beds became common, and the multitude of chimneys newly erected excited the admiration of the old inhabitants. Above the mansions of the gentry stood the castles of the great nobles, which, though few in number, were in some cases of imposing dimensions. It is from the romantic description of some of these exceptional structures that many persons have formed their impressions. of the general magnificence of the age. Fortunately we have some unquestionable evidence relating to the furniture, conveniences, and modes of life in several of these dwellings of the great, which may serve to modify such impressions. Henry Percy, fifth Earl of Northumberland, who died in 1527, was one of England's most magnificent nobles. When the Princess Margaret, in 1503, married James IV. of Scotland, he was commissioned to escort the bride to the border, and did so with a train which, according to the chroniclers of the time, was royal in its splendor. He had two lordly castles in Yorkshire, where he entertained an average of fifty-seven guests a day. His regular household numbered one hundred and fifty-six, which included eleven priests, headed by a canon. For the regulation of this enormous establishment a most elaborate system was adopted and embodied in a "Household Book," which provided in advance for every detail of the daily life, the duties of each servant, the supplies for each department, and even the bill of fare for the whole year. This book, as kept for 1512, is still in existence, and throws a world of light on the condition of the highest classes in England, in at least the first quarter of the sixteenth century, and in the rural districts it did not THE NORTHUMBERLAND CASTLES 329 change much for very many years. In the first place, when the family moved from one castle to another they took all their furniture with them-a matter, however, of no great difficulty, for it was not bulky. There seem to have been no glass windows in either castle. The dishes in common use were made of wood, but for extraordinary occasions pewter ones were hired. The household's supply of linen consisted of nine table-cloths, "eight for my lord's table, and one for that of the knights." The whole allowance for the year's washing amounted to forty shillings, and that was mainly expended on the linen in the chapel. This was not extravagant, but was large enough, in view of the fact that no sheets or pillowcases were used, and probably none of the family wore underclothes, at least not any that ever went to the laundry.* This, to be sure, was in 1512; but I have already shown what Skipton Castle, the superb seat of the Earl of Cumberland, was in 1572. Viewing the accommodations in such mansions as these, Æneas Sylvius, the Italian traveller, remarked long before that the kings of Scotland would rejoice to be as well lodged as the second class of citizens at Nuremberg.+ Such, in the main, when Elizabeth ascended the throne, were the dwellings and their accommodations in the rural part of England, which then contained a much larger *"The Northumberland Household Book," Preface, etc. The new castles and baronial halls, which were erected in considerable numbers during the reign of Elizabeth, were of a different character from their predecessors, being much more fitted for comfort. The improvement here, however, as in every other direction, was due to a foreign influence, which in this case came largely from Italy, although, as I shall show hereafter, much was owing to the Netherlands. As to the Italian influence, see "Architecture of the Renaissance in England,” by J. Alfred Gotch, 1891. proportion of the inhabitants than at present. The whole population of the country probably numbered less than three millions, of whom, perhaps, a hundred thousand lived in London, and there was no other town of any great size.* London itself, about the middle of the reign of Elizabeth, consisted of a coil of narrow, tortuous, unseemly streets, each with a black, noisome rivulet running through its centre, and with rows of three-storied, leaden-roofed houses, built of timber-work, filled in with lime, with many gables, and with the upper stories overhanging and darkening the basements. These houses were stately, compared with those in the country, but they were not magnificent. But outside the city proper, especially along the single street which led by the river's strand to Westminster, were some newer mansions of a different character. These belonged to the nobles, who, greatly to the sorrow of their staid and conservative brethren, now flocked to court to enjoy the pleasures of the town, and pick up some of the fat contracts and lucrative monopolies which were showered on the royal favorites. Some few of these men lived in great splendor; they had costly plate, superb tapestries, and magnificent pieces of furni ture, gathered from every quarter of the globe, largely by the pirates with whom they were often associated in partnership. But this was, in the main, a barbaric splen *In 1631, in the reign of Charles I., London had by actual count a little over 130,000 inhabitants. See article by Prof. Thorold Rogers in Time for March, 1890. + Motley's" United Netherlands," i. 311. In the reign of James I. brick first came into general use. Hume, Appendix, "James I." The paving of London began under Henry VIII. At the coronation of Elizabeth, the streets through which she passed were newly strewn with gravel. Strype's "Aunals." dor, giving little evidence of civilization. Entering these mansions, one would appreciate the truth of Kirk's remark, that "the luxuries of life come before the comforts." For an illustration, let us look at the residence of the queen herself, which was the most magnificent of all. From the fourteenth century carpets had been in common use among the upper classes, both in France and in the Netherlands, being laid on floors of enamelled tiles or thick squares of polished oak. In 1598, Hentzner, the German traveller, went with the nobleman whom he accompanied as tutor to see Queen Elizabeth in her palace at Greenwich. This, the place of her birth, was her favorite residence, especially in summer. The queen appeared richly attired and loaded down with jewels, but the floors of the palace were covered with what he calls hay, being probably rushes. A century before, Erasmus, writing of the habits of the people, to which he ascribed the frequency of the plague in England, said of the houses: "The floors are commonly of clay, strewed with rushes, under which lie unmolested an ancient collection of beer, grease, fragments, bones, spittle, and everything that is nasty." A hundred years, it seems, had made little change either in the covering of the floors or in its effects upon the public health, if we may judge from the continuance of the plague. Carpeting was used at this time in England, but was spread on the tables and not often on the floors. In the latter days of Elizabeth, according to Drake, linen was introduced to take its place. This, however, is evidently a mistake, unless reference is made to a general introduction, for “The * See p. 117. + La Croix, "The Arts in the Middle Ages," p. 27. Nathan Drake, "Shakespeare and his Times," p. 407. Northumberland Household Book" shows that a few table-cloths were used early in the century.* If table linen was used among the wealthy classes before the end of the century, there was one piece of table furniture unknown till the reign of James I., and that was the fork. In France it had been known since 1379;+ it was in common use among the Italians, and presumably among the other Continental nations. In 1611, Thomas Coryat first introduced it into England, where even table-knives had not been in general use until 1563.§ Chaucer draws a very pretty picture of the Prioress at table: "At mete was she wel ytaughte withalle; This is all very charming in a poem of the fourteenth century; but probably we should change some of our ideas regarding the England of the sixteenth if we could look in upon the people, even of the upper classes, and see them dining perhaps off silver, but eating with their fingers and throwing the bones among the rushes on the floor. Much has been said by imaginative writers about the great variety and abundance of food under which the *Wild Will Darrell's washing bill in London, for three months in 1589, has an item of one table-cloth and fourteen napkins; but he wore a clean shirt every day, although no underclothes appear. Hall's "Elizabethan Society," p. 209. + La Croix, "The Arts in the Middle Ages." Nathan Drake, p. 407. § Ibid. See Drake as to the dining-rooms of the country gentlemen. |