Elizabethan England Part 10

If I should go about to make any long discourse of venomous beasts or worms bred in England, I should attempt more than occasion itself would readily offer, sith we have very few worms, but no beasts at all, that are thought by their natural qualities to be either venomous or hurtful. First of all, therefore, we have the adder (in our old Saxon tongue called an atter), which some men do not rashly take to be the viper. Certes, if it be so, then is not the viper author of the death of her[189] parents, as some histories affirm, and thereto Encelius, a late writer, in his _De re Metallica_, lib. 3, cap. 38, where he maketh mention of a she adder which he saw in Sala, whose womb (as he saith) was eaten out after a like fas.h.i.+on, her young ones lying by her in the suns.h.i.+ne, as if they had been earthworms. Nevertheless, as he nameth them _viperas_, so he calleth the male _echis_, and the female _echidna_, concluding in the end that _echis_ is the same serpent which his countrymen to this day call _ein atter_, as I have also noted before out of a Saxon dictionary. For my part I am persuaded that the slaughter of their parents is either not true at all, or not always (although I doubt not but that nature hath right well provided to inhibit their superfluous increase by some means or other), and so much the rather am I led hereunto for that I gather by Nicander that of all venomous worms the viper only bringeth out her young alive, and therefore is called in Latin _vipera quasivivipara_, but of her own death he doth not (to my remembrance) say anything. It is testified also by other in other words, and to the like sense, that "_Echis id est vipera sola ex serpentibus non ava sed animalia parit_." And it may well be, for I remember that I have read in Philostratus, _De vita Appollonii_, how he saw a viper licking her young. I did see an adder once myself that lay (as I thought) sleeping on a molehill, out of whose mouth came eleven young adders of twelve or thirteen inches in length apiece, which played to and fro in the gra.s.s one with another, till some of them espied me. So soon therefore as they saw my face they ran again into the mouth of their dam, whom I killed, and then found each of them shrouded in a distinct cell or pannicle in her belly, much like unto a soft white jelly, which maketh me to be of the opinion that our adder is the viper indeed. The colour of their skin is for the most part like rusty iron or iron grey, but such as be very old resemble a ruddy blue; and as once in the year (to wit, in April or about the beginning of May) they cast their old skins (whereby as it is thought their age reneweth), so their stinging bringeth death without present remedy be at hand, the wounded never ceasing to swell, neither the venom to work till the skin of the one break, and the other ascend upward to the heart, where it finisheth the natural effect, except the juice of dragons (in Latin called _dracunculus minor_) be speedily ministered and drunk in strong ale, or else some other medicine taken of like force that may countervail and overcome the venom of the same. The length of them is most commonly two feet, and somewhat more, but seldom doth it extend into two feet six inches, except it be in some rare and monstrous one, whereas our snakes are much longer, and seen sometimes to surmount a yard, or three feet, although their poison be nothing so grievous and deadly as the others. Our adders lie in winter under stones, as Aristotle also saith of the viper (lib. 8, cap. 15), and in holes of the earth, rotten stubs of trees, and amongst the dead leaves; but in the heat of the summer they come abroad, and lie either round in heaps or at length upon some hillock, or elsewhere in the gra.s.s. They are found only in our woodland countries and highest grounds, where sometimes (though seldom) a speckled stone called _echites_, in Dutch _ein atter stein_, is gotten out of their dried carcases, which divers report to be good against their poison.[190] As for our snakes, which in Latin are properly named _angues_, they commonly are seen in moors, fens, loam walls, and low bottoms.

As we have great store of toads where adders commonly are found, so do frogs abound where snakes do keep their residence. We have also the slow-worm, which is black and greyish of colour, and somewhat shorter than an adder. I was at the killing once of one of them, and thereby perceived that she was not so called of any want of nimble motion, but rather of the contrary. Nevertheless we have a blind-worm, to be found under logs, in woods and timber that hath lain long in a place, which some also do call (and upon better ground) by the name of slow-worms, and they are known easily by their more or less variety of striped colours, drawn long-ways from their heads, their whole bodies little exceeding a foot in length, and yet is their venom deadly. This also is not to be omitted; and now and then in our fenny countries other kinds of serpents are found of greater quant.i.ty than either our adder or our snake, but, as these are not ordinary and oft to be seen, so I mean not to intreat of them among our common annoyances. Neither have we the scorpion, a plague of G.o.d sent not long since into Italy, and whose poison (as Apollodorus saith) is white, neither the tarantula or Neapolitan spider, whose poison bringeth death, except music be at hand. Wherefore I suppose our country to be the more happy (I mean in part) for that it is void of these two grievous annoyances wherewith other nations are plagued.

We have also efts both of the land and water, and likewise the noisome swifts, whereof to say any more it would be but loss of time, sith they are all well known, and no region to my knowledge found to be void of many of them. As for flies (sith it shall not be amiss a little to touch them also), we have none that can do hurt or hindrance naturally unto any: for whether they be cut-waisted or whole-bodied, they are void of poison and all venomous inclination. The cut or girt waisted (for so I English the word _insecta_) are the hornets, wasps, bees, and such like, whereof we have great store, and of which an opinion is conceived that the first do breed of the corruption of dead horses, the second of pears and apples corrupted, and the last of kine and oxen: which may be true, especially the first and latter in some parts of the beast, and not their whole substances, as also in the second, sith we have never wasps but when our fruit beginneth to wax ripe. Indeed Virgil and others speak of a generation of bees by killing or smothering a bruised bullock or calf and laying his bowels or his flesh wrapped up in his hide in a close house for a certain season; but how true it is, hitherto I have not tried. Yet sure I am of this, that no one living creature corrupteth without the production of another, as we may see by ourselves, whose flesh doth alter into lice, and also in sheep for excessive numbers of flesh flies, if they be suffered to lie unburied or uneaten by the dogs and swine, who often and happily present such needless generations.

As concerning bees, I think it good to remember that, whereas some ancient writers affirm it to be a commodity wanting in our island, it is now found to be nothing so. In old times peradventure we had none indeed; but in my days there is such plenty of them in manner everywhere that in some uplandish towns there are one hundred or two hundred hives of them, although the said hives are not so huge as those of the east country, but far less, and not able to contain above one bushel of corn or five pecks at the most. Pliny (a man that of set purpose delighteth to write of wonders), speaking of honey, noteth that in the north regions the hives in his time were of such quant.i.ty that some one comb contained eight foot in length, and yet (as it should seem) he speaketh not of the greatest. For in Podolia, which is now subject to the King of Poland, their hives are so great, and combs so abundant, that huge boars, overturning and falling into them, are drowned in the honey before they can recover and find the means to come out.

Our honey also is taken and reputed to be the best, because it is harder, better wrought, and cleanlier vesselled up, than that which cometh from beyond the sea, where they stamp and strain their combs, bees, and young blowings altogether into the stuff, as I have been informed. In use also of medicine our physicians and apothecaries eschew the foreign, especially that of Spain and Pontus, by reason of a venomous quality naturally planted in the same, as some write, and choose the home-made: not only by reason of our soil (which hath no less plenty of wild thyme growing therein than in Sicilia and about Athens, and maketh the best stuff) as also for that it breedeth (being gotten in harvest time) less choler, and which is oftentimes (as I have seen by experience) so white as sugar, and corned as if it were salt. Our hives are made commonly of rye straw and wattled about with bramble quarters; but some make the same of wicker, and cast them over with clay. We cherish none in trees, but set our hives somewhere on the warmest side of the house, providing that they may stand dry and without danger both of the mouse and the moth. This furthermore is to be noted, that whereas in vessels of oil that which is nearest the top is counted the finest and of wine that in the middest, so of honey the best which is heaviest and moistest is always next the bottom, and evermore casteth and driveth his dregs upward toward the very top, contrary to the nature of other liquid substances, whose grounds and leeze do generally settle downwards. And thus much as by the way of our bees and English honey.

As for the whole-bodied, as the _cantharides_, and such venomous creatures of the same kind, to be abundantly found in other countries, we hear not of them: yet have we beetles, horseflies, t.u.r.dbugs or dors (called in Latin _scarabei_), the locust or the gra.s.shopper (which to me do seem to be one thing, as I will anon declare), and such like, whereof let other intreat that make an exercise in catching of flies, but a far greater sport in offering them to spiders, as did Domitian sometime, and another prince yet living who delighted so much to see the jolly combats betwixt a stout fly and an old spider that divers men have had great rewards given them for their painful provision of flies made only for this purpose. Some parasites also, in the time of the aforesaid emperor (when they were disposed to laugh at his folly, and yet would seem in appearance to gratify his fantastical head with some shew of dutiful demeanour), could devise to set their lord on work by letting a flesh fly privily into his chamber, which he forthwith would eagerly have hunted (all other business set apart) and never ceased till he had caught her into his fingers, wherewith arose the proverb, "_Ne musca quidem_," uttered first by Vibius Priscus, who being asked whether anybody was with Domitian, answered "_Ne musca quidem_," whereby he noted his folly. There are some c.o.c.ks...o...b.. here and there in England, learning it abroad as men transregionate, which make account also of this pastime, as of a notable matter, telling what a sight is seen between them, if either of them be l.u.s.ty and courageous in his kind. One also hath made a book of the spider and the fly, wherein he dealeth so profoundly, and beyond all measure of skill that neither he himself that made it nor any one that readeth it can reach unto the meaning thereof. But if those jolly fellows, instead of the straw that they must thrust into the fly's tail (a great injury no doubt to such a n.o.ble champion), would bestow the cost to set a fool's cap upon their own heads, then might they with more security and less reprehension behold these notable battles.

Now, as concerning the locust, I am led by divers of my country, who (as they say) were either in Germany, Italy, or Pannonia, 1542, when those nations were greatly annoyed with that kind of fly, and affirm very constantly that they saw none other creature than the gra.s.shopper during the time of that annoyance, which was said to come to them from the Meotides. In most of our translations also of the Bible the word _locusta_ is Englished a gra.s.shopper, and thereunto (Leviticus xi.) it is reputed among the clean food, otherwise John the Baptist would never have lived with them in the wilderness. In Barbary, Numidia, and sundry other places of Africa, as they have been,[191] so are they eaten to this day powdered in barrels, and therefore the people of those parts are called _Acedophagi_: nevertheless they shorten the life of the eaters, by the production at the last of an irksome and filthy disease. In India they are three foot long, in Ethiopia much shorter, but in England seldom above an inch. As for the cricket, called in Latin _cicada_, he hath some likelihood, but not very great, with the gra.s.shopper, and therefore he is not to be brought in as an umpire in this case. Finally, Matthiolus and so many as describe the locust do set down none other form than that of our gra.s.shopper, which maketh me so much the more to rest upon my former imagination, which is that the locust and the gra.s.shopper are one.

CHAPTER XVI.

OF OUR ENGLISH DOGS AND THEIR QUALITIES.

[1577, Book III., Chapter 13; 1587, Book III., Chapter 7.]

There is no country that may (as I take it) compare with ours in number, excellency, and diversity of dogs.

The first sort therefore he divideth either into such as rouse the beast, and continue the chase, or springeth the bird, and bewrayeth her flight by pursuit. And as these are commonly called spaniels, so the other are named hounds, whereof he maketh eight sorts, of which the foremost excelleth in perfect smelling, the second in quick espying, the third in swiftness and quickness, the fourth in smelling and nimbleness, etc., and the last in subtlety and deceitfulness. These (saith Strabo) are most apt for game, and called Sagaces by a general name, not only because of their skill in hunting, but also for that they know their own and the names of their fellows most exactly. For if the hunter see any one to follow skilfully, and with likelihood of good success, he biddeth the rest to hark and follow such a dog, and they eftsoones obey so soon as they hear his name.

The first kind of these are often called harriers, whose game is the fox, the hare, the wolf (if we had any), hart, buck, badger, otter, polecat, lopstart, weasel, conie, etc.: the second height a terrier, and it hunteth the badger and grey only: the third a bloodhound, whose office is to follow the fierce, and now and then to pursue a thief or beast by his dry foot: the fourth height a gazehound, who hunteth by the eye: the fifth a greyhound, cherished for his strength and swiftness and stature, commended by Bratius in his _De Venatione_, and not unremembered by Hercules Stroza in a like treatise, and above all other those of Britain, where he saith: "Magna spectandi mole Britanni;" also by Nemesia.n.u.s, libro Cynegeticon, where he saith: "Divisa Britannia mitt.i.t Veloces nostrique orbis venatibus aptos," of which sort also some be smooth, of sundry colours, and some shake-haired: the sixth a liemer, that excelleth in smelling and swift running: the seventh a tumbler: and the eighth a thief whose offices (I mean of the latter two) incline only to deceit, wherein they are oft so skilful that few men would think so mischievous a wit to remain in such silly creatures. Having made this enumeration of dogs which are apt for the chase and hunting, he cometh next to such as serve the falcons in their time, whereof he maketh also two sorts. One that findeth his game on the land, another that putteth up such fowl as keepeth in the water: and of these this is commonly most usual for the net or train, the other for the hawk, as he doth shew at large. Of the first he saith that they have no peculiar names a.s.signed to them severally, but each of them is called after the bird which by natural appointment he is allotted to hunt or serve, for which consideration some be named dogs for the pheasant, some for the falcon, and some for the partridge. Howbeit the common name for all is spaniel (saith he), and thereupon alluded as if these kinds of dogs had been brought hither out of Spain. In like sort we have of water spaniels in their kind. The third sort of dogs of the gentle kind is the spaniel gentle, or comforter, or (as the common term is) the fistinghound, and those are called Melitei, of the Island Malta, from whence they were brought hither. These are little and pretty, proper and fine, and sought out far and near to falsify the nice delicacy of dainty dames, and wanton women's wills, instruments of folly to play and dally withal, in trifling away the treasure of time, to withdraw their minds from more commendable exercises, and to content their corrupt concupiscences with vain disport--a silly poor s.h.i.+ft to shun their irksome idleness. These Sybaritical puppies the smaller they be (and thereto if they have a hole in the fore parts of their heads) the better they are accepted, the more pleasure also they provoke, as meet playfellows for mincing mistresses to bear in their bosoms, to keep company withal in their chambers, to succour with sleep in bed, and nourish with meat at board, to lie in their laps, and lick their lips as they lie (like young Dianas) in their waggons and coaches. And good reason it should be so, for coa.r.s.eness with fineness hath no fellows.h.i.+p, but featness with neatness hath neighbourhood enough.

That plausible proverb therefore versified sometime upon a tyrant--namely, that he loved his sow better than his son--may well be applied to some of this kind of people, who delight more in their dogs, that are deprived of all possibility of reason, than they do in children that are capable of wisdom and judgment. Yea, they oft feed them of the best where the poor man's child at their doors can hardly come by the worst. But the former abuse peradventure reigneth where there hath been long want of issue, else where barrenness is the best blossom of beauty: or, finally, where poor men's children for want of their own issue are not ready to be had. It is thought of some that it is very wholesome for a weak stomach to bear such a dog in the bosom, as it is for him that hath the palsy to feel the daily smell and savour of a fox. But how truly this is affirmed let the learned judge: only it shall suffice for Doctor Caius to have said thus much of spaniels and dogs of the gentle kind.

Dogs of the homely kind are either shepherd's curs or mastiffs. The first are so common that it needeth me not to speak of them. Their use also is so well known in keeping the herd together (either when they gra.s.s or go before the shepherd) that it should be but in vain to spend any time about them. Wherefore I will leave this cur unto his own kind, and go in hand with the mastiff, tie dog, or band dog, so called because many of them are tied up in chains and strong bonds in the daytime, for doing hurt abroad, which is a huge dog, stubborn, ugly, eager, burthenous of body (and therefore of but little swiftness), terrible and fearful to behold, and oftentimes more fierce and fell than any Archadian or Corsican cur. Our Englishmen, to the extent that these dogs may be more cruel and fierce, a.s.sist nature with some art, use, and custom. For although this kind of dog be capable of courage, violent, valiant, stout, and bold: yet will they increase these their stomachs by teaching them to bait the bear, the bull, the lion, and other such like cruel and b.l.o.o.d.y beasts (either brought over or kept up at home for the same purpose), without any collar to defend their throats, and oftentimes there too they train them up in fighting and wrestling with a man (having for the safeguard of his life either a pikestaff, club, sword, privy coat), whereby they become the more fierce and cruel unto strangers. The Caspians make so much account sometimes of such great dogs, that every able man would nourish sundry of them in his house of set purpose, to the end they should devour their carcases after their deaths, thinking the dog's bellies to be the most honourable sepulchres. The common people also followed the same rate, and therefore there were tie dogs kept up by public ordinance, to devour them after their deaths: by means whereof these beasts became the more eager, and with great difficulty after a while restrained from falling upon the living. But whither am I digressed? In returning therefore to our own, I say that of mastiffs, some bark only with fierce and open mouth but will not bite; but the cruelest do either not bark at all or bite before they bark, and therefore are more to be feared than any of the other. They take also their name of the word "mase" and "thief" (or "master-thief" if you will), because they often stound and put such persons to their s.h.i.+fts in towns and villages, and are the princ.i.p.al causes of their apprehension and taking. The force which is in them surmounteth all belief, and the fast hold which they take with their teeth exceedeth all credit: for three of them against a bear, four against a lion, are sufficient to try mastries with them. King Henry the Seventh, as the report goeth, commanded all such curs to be hanged, because they durst presume to fight against the lion, who is their king and sovereign. The like he did with an excellent falcon, as some say, because he feared not hand-to-hand match with an eagle, willing his falconers in his own presence to pluck off his head after he was taken down, saying that it was not meet for any subject to offer such wrong unto his lord and superior, wherein he had a further meaning. But if King Henry the Seventh had lived in our time what would he have done to our English mastiff, which alone and without any help at all pulled down first a huge bear, then a pard, and last of all a lion, each after other before the French King in one day, when the Lord Buckhurst was amba.s.sador unto him, and whereof if I should write the circ.u.mstances, that is, how he took his advantage being let loose unto them, and finally drave them into such exceeding fear, that they were all glad to run away when he was taken from them, I should take much pains, and yet reap but small credit: wherefore it shall suffice to have said thus much thereof. Some of our mastiffs will rage only in the night, some are to be tied up both day and night. Such also as are suffered to go loose about the house and yard are so gentle in the daytime that children may ride on their backs and play with them at their pleasures. Divers of them likewise are of such jealousy over their master and whosoever of his household, that if a stranger do embrace or touch any of them, they will fall fiercely upon them, unto their extreme mischief if their fury be not prevented. Such a one was the dog of Nichomedes, king sometime of Bithynia, who seeing Consigne the queen to embrace and kiss her husband as they walked together in a garden, did tear her all to pieces, maugre his resistance and the present aid of such as attended on them. Some of them moreover will suffer a stranger to come in and walk about the house or yard where he listeth, without giving over to follow him: but if he put forth his hand to touch anything, then will they fly upon them and kill them if they may. I had one myself once, which would not suffer any man to bring in his weapon further than my gate: neither those that were of my house to be touched in his presence.

Or if I had beaten any of my children, he would gently have essayed to catch the rod in his teeth and take it out of my hand or else pluck down their clothes to save them from the stripes: which in my opinion is not unworthy to be noted.

The last sort of dogs consisteth of the currish kind meet for many toys, of which the whappet or p.r.i.c.k-eared cur is one. Some men call them warners, because they are good for nothing else but to bark and give warning when anybody doth stir or lie in wait about the house in the night season. Certes it is impossible to describe these curs in any order, because they have no one kind proper unto themselves, but are a confused company mixed of all the rest. The second sort of them are called turnspits, whose office is not unknown to any. And as these are only reserved for this purpose, so in many places our mastiffs (beside the use which tinkers have of them in carrying their heavy budgets) are made to draw water in great wheels out of deep wells, going much like unto those which are framed for our turnspits, as is to be seen at Roiston, where this feat is often practised. Besides these also we have sholts or curs daily brought out of Ireland, and made much of among us, because of their sauciness and quarrelling. Moreover they bite very sore, and love candles exceedingly, as do the men and women of their country: but I may say no more of them, because they are not bred with us. Yet this will I make report of by the way, for pastime's sake, that when a great man of those parts came of late into one of our s.h.i.+ps which went thither for fish, to see the form and fas.h.i.+on of the same, his wife apparelled in fine sables, abiding on the deck whilst her husband was under the hatches with the mariners, espied a pound or two of candles hanging on the mast, and being loath to stand there idle alone, she fell to and eat them up every one, supposing herself to have been at a jolly banquet, and shewing very pleasant gesture when her husband came up again unto her.

The last kind of toyish curs are named dancers, and those being of a mongrel sort also, are taught and exercised to dance in measure at the musical sound of an instrument, as at the just stroke of a drum, sweet accent of the citharne, and pleasant harmony of the harp, shewing many tricks by the gesture of their bodies: as to stand bolt upright, to lie flat on the ground, to turn round as a ring holding their tails in their teeth, to saw and beg for meat, to take a man's cap from his head, and sundry such properties, which they learn of their idle roguish masters, whose instruments they are to gather gain, as old apes clothed in motley and coloured short-waisted jackets are for the like vagabonds, who seek no better living than that which they may get by fond pastime and idleness. I might here intreat of other dogs, as of those which are bred between a b.i.t.c.h and a wolf, also between a b.i.t.c.h and a fox, or a bear and a mastiff.

But as we utterly want the first sort, except they be brought unto us: so it happeneth sometime that the other two are engendered and seen at home amongst us. But all the rest heretofore remembered in this chapter there is none more ugly and odious in sight, cruel and fierce in deed, nor untractable in hand, than that which is begotten between the bear and the bandog. For whatsoever he catcheth hold of he taketh it so fast that a man may sooner tear and rend his body in sunder than get open his mouth to separate his chaps. Certes he regardeth neither wolf, bear, nor lion, and therefore may well be compared with those two dogs which were sent to Alexander out of India (and procreated as it is thought between a mastiff and a male tiger, as be those also of Hircania), or to them that are bred in Archadia, where copulation is oft seen between lions and b.i.t.c.hes, as the lion is in France (as I said) between she wolves and dogs, whereof let this suffice, sith the further tractation of them doth not concern my purpose, more than the confutation of Cardan's talk, _De subt._, lib. 10, who saith that after many generations dogs do become wolves, and contrariwise, which if it were true, then could not England be without many wolves: but nature hath set a difference between them, not only in outward form, but also in inward disposition of their bones, whereof it is impossible that his a.s.sertion can be sound.

CHAPTER XVII.

OF FISH USUALLY TAKEN UPON OUR COASTS.

[1577, Book III., Chapter 10; 1587, Book III., Chapter 3.]

I have in my description of waters, as occasion hath served, treated of the names of some of the several fishes which are commonly to be found in our rivers. Nevertheless, as every water hath a sundry mixture, and therefore is not stored with every kind, so there is almost no house, even of the meanest boors, which hath not one or more ponds or holes made for reservation of water unstored with some of them, as with tench, carp, bream, roach, dace, eels, or such like as will live and breed together.

Certes it is not possible for me to deliver the names of all such kinds of fishes as our rivers are found to bear; yet, lest I should seem injurious to the reader in not delivering as many of them as have been brought to my knowledge, I will not let to set them down as they do come to mind.

Besides the salmon therefore, which are not to be taken from the middest of September to the middest of November, and are very plentiful in our greatest rivers, as their young store are not to be touched from mid April unto Midsummer, we gave the trout, barbel, graile, pout, cheven, pike, gudgeon, smelt, perch, menan, shrimps, crevises, lampreys, and such like, whose preservation is provided for by very sharp laws, not only in our rivers, but also in plashes or lakes and ponds, which otherwise would bring small profit to the owners, and do much harm by continual maintenance of idle persons, who would spend their whole time upon their banks, not coveting to labour with their hands nor follow any good trade.

Of all these there are none more prejudicial to their neighbours that dwell in the same water than the pike and eel, which commonly devour such fish or fry and sp.a.w.n as they may get and come by. Nevertheless the pike is friend unto the tench, as to his leech and surgeon. For when the fishmonger hath opened his side and laid out his rivet and fat unto the buyer, for the better utterance of his ware, and cannot make him away at that present, he layeth the same again into the proper place, and sewing up the wound, he restoreth him to the pond where tenches are, who never cease to suck and lick his grieved place, till they have restored him to health, and made him ready to come again to the stall, when his turn shall come about. I might here make report how the pike, carp, and some other of our river fishes are sold by inches of clean fish, from the eyes or gills to the crotch of the tails, but it is needless: also how the pike as he ageth receiveth divers names, as from a _fry_ to a _gilthead_, from a _gilthead_ to a _pod_, from a _pod_ to a _jack_, from a _jack_ to a _pickerel_, from a _pickerel_ to a _pike_, and last of all to a _luce_; also that a salmon is the first year a _gravellin_, and commonly as big as a herring, the second a _salmon peal_, the third a _pug_, and the fourth a _salmon_: but this is in like sort unnecessary.

I might finally tell you how that in fenny rivers' sides, if you cut a turf, and lay it with the gra.s.s downwards upon the earth in such sort as the water may touch it as it pa.s.seth by, you shall have a brood of eels.

It would seem a wonder; and yet it is believed with no less a.s.surance by some, that than a horse hair laid in a pail full of the like water will in a short time stir and become a living creature. But sith the certainty of these things is rather proved by few than the certainty of them known unto many, I let it pa.s.s at this time. Nevertheless this is generally observed in the maintenance of fry as well in rivers as in ponds, that in the time of sp.a.w.n we use to throw in f.a.ggots made of willow and sallow (and now and then of bushes for want of the other), whereby such sp.a.w.n as falleth into the same is preserved and kept from the pike, perch, eel, and other fish, of which the carp also will feed upon his own, and thereby hinder the store and increase of proper kind. Some use in every sixth or seventh year to lay their great ponds dry for all the summer time, to the end they may gather gra.s.s, and a thin swart for the fish to feed upon; and afterwards store them with breeders, after the water be let anew again into them. Finally, when they have sp.a.w.ned, they draw out the breeders, leaving not above four or six behind, even in the greatest ponds, by means whereof the rest do prosper the better: and this observation is most used in carp and bream. As for perch (a delicate fish), it prospereth everywhere, I mean so well in ponds as rivers, and also in moats and pits, as I do know by experience, though their bottoms be but clay. More would I write of our fresh fish, if any more were needful: wherefore I will now turn over unto such of the salt water as are taken upon our coasts. As our fowls therefore have their seasons, so likewise have all our sorts of sea fish: whereby it cometh to pa.s.s that none, or at least very few of them, are to be had at all times. Nevertheless the seas that environ our coasts are of all other most plentiful; for as by reason of their depth they are a great succour, so our low sh.o.r.es minister great plenty of food unto the fish that come thereto, no place being void or barren, either through want of food for them or the falls of filthy rivers, which naturally annoy them. In December therefore and January we commonly abound in herring and red fish, as rochet and gurnard. In February and March we feed on plaice, trouts, turbot, mussels, etc. In April and May, with mackerel and c.o.c.kles.

In June and July, with conger. In August and September, with haddock and herring: and the two months ensuing with the same, as also thornback and ray of all sorts: all which are the most usual, and wherewith our common sort are best of all refreshed.

For mine own part, I am greatly acquainted neither with the seasons, nor yet with the fish itself: and therefore, if I should take upon me to describe or speak of either of them absolutely, I should enterprise more than I am able to perform, and go in hand with a greater matter than I can well bring about. It shall suffice therefore to declare what sorts of fishes I have most often seen, to the end I may not altogether pa.s.s over this chapter without the rehearsal of something, although the whole sum of that which I have to say be nothing indeed, if the performance of a full discourse hereof be anything hardly required.

Of fishes, therefore, as I find five sorts (the flat, the round, the long, the legged, and sh.e.l.led), so the flat are divided into the smooth, sealed, and tailed. Of the first are the plaice, the but, the turbot, birt, fluke or sea flounder, doree, dab, etc. Of the second the soles and thornback, whereof the greater be for the most part either dried and carried into other countries, or sodden, soused, and eaten here at home, whilst the lesser be fried or b.u.t.tered soon after they be taken, as provision not to be kept long for fear of putrefaction. Under the round kinds are commonly comprehended lumps (an ugly fish to sight, and yet very delicate in eating if it be kindly dressed), the whiting (an old waiter or servitor in the court), the rochet, sea bream, pirle, hake, sea trout, gurnard, haddock, cod, herring, pilchard, sprat, and such like. And these are they whereof I have best knowledge, and are commonly to be had in their times upon our coasts. Under this kind also are all the great fish contained, as the seal, the dolphin, the porpoise, the thirlepole, whale, and whatsoever is round of body, be it never so great and huge. Of the long sort are congers, eels, garefish, and such other of that form. Finally, of the legged kind we have not many, neither have I seen any more of this sort than the polypus, called in English the lobster, crayfish (or _crevis_), and the crab. As for the little crayfishes, they are not taken in the sea, but plentifully in our fresh rivers in banks, and under stones, where they keep themselves in most secret manner, and oft, by likeness of colour with the stones among which they lie, deceive even the skilful takers of them except they use great diligence. Carolus Stepha.n.u.s, in his _Maison Rustique_, doubted whether these lobsters be fish or not; and in the end concludeth them to grow of the purgation of the water, as doth the frog, and these also not to be eaten, for that they be strong and very hard of digestion. But hereof let other determine further.

I might here speak of sundry other fishes now and then taken also upon our coasts; but, sith my mind is only to touch either on all such as are usually gotten, or so many of them only as I can well rehea.r.s.e upon certain knowledge, I think it good at this time to forbear the further intreaty of them. As touching the sh.e.l.ly sort, we have plenty of oysters; whose value in old time for their sweetness was not unknown in Rome (although Mutia.n.u.s, as Pliny noteth, lib. 32, cap. 6, prefer the Cyzicene before them), and these we have in like manner of divers quant.i.ties, and no less variety also of our mussels and c.o.c.kles. We have in like sort no small store of great whelks, scallops, and periwinkles, and each of them brought far into the land from the sea coast in their several seasons. And albeit our oysters are generally forborne in the four hot months of the year (that is to say, May, June, July, and August) which are void of the letter R, yet in some places they be continually eaten, where they are kept in pits, as I have known by experience. And thus much of our sea fish, as a man in manner utterly unacquainted with their diversity of kinds, yet so much have I yielded to do, hoping hereafter to say somewhat more, and more orderly of them, if it shall please G.o.d that I may live and have leisure once again to peruse this treatise and so make up a perfect piece of work of that which, as you now see, is very slenderly attempted and begun.

CHAPTER XVIII.

OF QUARRIES OF STONE FOR BUILDING.

[1577, Book II., Chapter 11; 1587, Book II., Chapter 18.]

Quarries with us are pits or mines, out of which we dig our stone to build withal, and of these as we have great plenty in England so are they of divers sorts, and those very profitable for sundry necessary uses. In times past the use of stone was in manner dedicated to the building of churches, religious houses, princely palaces, bishops' manors, and holds only; but now that scrupulous observation is altogether infringed, and building with stone so commonly taken up that amongst n.o.blemen and gentlemen the timber frames are supposed to be not much better than paper work, of little continuance, and least continuance of all. It far pa.s.seth my cunning to set down how many sorts of stone for building are to be found in England, but much further to call each of them by their proper names. Howbeit, such is the curiosity of our countrymen, that notwithstanding Almighty G.o.d hath so blessed our realm in most plentiful manner with such and so many quarries apt and meet for piles of longest continuance, yet we as loathsome of this abundance, or not liking of the plenty, do commonly leave these natural gifts to mould and cinder in the ground, and take up an artificial brick, in burning whereof a great part of the wood of this land is daily consumed and spent, to the no small decay of that commodity, and hindrance of the poor that oft perish for cold.

Our elders have from time to time, following our natural vice in misliking of our own commodities at home, and desiring those of other countries abroad, most esteemed the Caen stone that is brought hither out of Normandy: and many even in these our days following the same vein, do covet in their works almost to use none other. Howbeit experience on the one side, and our skilful masons on the other (whose judgment is nothing inferior to those of other countries), do affirm that in the north (and south) parts of England, and certain other places, there are some quarries which for hardness and beauty are equal to the outlandish greet. This may also be confirmed by the king's chapel at Cambridge, the greatest part of the square stone whereof was brought thither out of the north. Some commend the vein of white free-stone, slate, and mere stone, which is between Pentowen and the black head in Cornwall, for very fine stuff.

Other do speak much of the quarries at Hamden, nine miles from Milbery, and paving stone of Burbeck. For toph stone not a few allow of the quarry that is at Dresley, divers mislike not of the veins of hard stone that are at Oxford and Burford. One praiseth the free-stone at Manchester and Presbury in Gloucesters.h.i.+re; another the quarries of the like in Richmond.

The third liketh well of the hard stone in Clee Hill in Shrops.h.i.+re; the fourth of that of Thorowbridge, Welden, Terrinton. Whereby it appeareth that we have quarries enough (and good enough) in England sufficient for us to build withal, if the peevish contempt of our own commodities, and delectations to enrich other countries, did not catch such foolish hold upon us. It is also verified (as any other way) that all nations have rather need of England than England of any other. And this I think may suffice for the substance of our works. Now if you have regard to their ornature, how many mines of sundry kinds of coa.r.s.e and fine marble are there to be had in England? But chiefly one in Staffords.h.i.+re, another near to the Peak, the third at Uavldry, the fourth at Snothill (longing to the Lord Chandos), the fifth at Eglestone, which is of black marble, spotted with grey or white spots; the sixth not far from Durham. (Of white marble also we have store, and so fair as the Marpesian of Paris Isle.) But what mean I to go about to recite all, or the most excellent? sith these which I have named already are not altogether of the best, nor scarcely of any value in comparison of those whose places of growth are utterly unknown unto me, and whereof the black marble spotted with green is none of the vilest sort, as may appear by parcel of the pavement of the lower part of the choir of Paul's in London (and also in Westminster), where some pieces thereof are yet to be seen and marked, if any will look for them. If marble will not serve, then have we the finest alabaster that may elsewhere be had, as about Saint David's of Wales; also near to Beau manor, which is about four or five miles from Leicester, and taken to be the best, although there are divers other quarries hereof beyond the Trent (as in Yorks.h.i.+re, etc., and fully so good as that) whose names at this time are out of my remembrance. What should I talk of the plaster of Axholm (for of that which they dig out of the earth in sundry places of Lincoln and Derbys.h.i.+re, wherewith they blanch their houses instead of lime, I speak not), certes it is a fine kind of alabaster. But sith it is sold commonly but after twelvepence the load, we judge it to be but vile and coa.r.s.e. For my part I cannot skill of stone, yet in my opinion it is not without great use for plaster of Paris, and such is the mine of it that the stones (thereof) lie in flakes one upon another like planks or tables, and under the same is an (exceeding) hard stone very profitable for building, as hath oftentimes been proved. (This is also to be marked further of our plaster white and grey, that not contented with the same, as G.o.d by the quarry doth send and yield it forth, we have now devised to cast it in moulds for windows and pillars of what form and fas.h.i.+on we list, even as alabaster itself: and with such stuff sundry houses in Yorks.h.i.+re are furnished of late. But of what continuance this device is likely to prove the time to come shall easily betray. In the meantime Sir Ralph Burcher, knight, hath put the device in practice, and affirmeth that six men in six months shall travel in that trade to see greater profit to the owner than twelve men in six years could before this trick was invented.)

If neither alabaster nor marble doth suffice, we have the touchstone, called in Latin _lydius lapis_ (s.h.i.+ning as gla.s.s), either to match in sockets with our pillars of alabaster, or contrariwise: or if it please the workmen to join pillars of alabaster or touch with sockets of bra.s.s, pewter, or copper, we want not (also) these metals. So that I think no nation can have more excellent and greater diversity of stuff for building than we may have in England, if ourselves could so like of it. But such, alas! is our nature, that not our own but other men's do most of all delight us; and for desire of novelty we oft exchange our finest cloth, corn, tin, and wools for halfpenny c.o.c.khorses for children, dogs of wax (or of cheese), twopenny tabers, leaden swords, painted feathers, gewgaws for fools, dog-tricks for disards, hawk's hoods, and such like trumpery, whereby we reap just mockage and reproach (in other countries). I might remember here our pits for millstones, that are to be had in divers places of our country, as in Anglesea (Kent), also at Queen-hope of blue greet, of no less value than the Colaine, yea, than the French stones: our grindstones for hardware men. Our whetstones are no less laudable than those of Crete and Lacedaemonia, albeit we use no oil with them, as they did in those parts, but only water, as the Italians and Narians do with theirs: whereas they that grow in Cilicia must have both oil and water laid upon them, or else they make no edge. There also are divided either into hard greet, as the common that shoemakers use, or the soft greet called hones, to be had among the barbers, and those either black or white, and the rub or brickle stone which husbandmen do occupy in the whetting of their scythes.

In like manner slate of sundry colours is everywhere in manner to be had, as is the flint and chalk, the shalder and the pebble. Howbeit for all this we must fetch them still from far, as did the Hull men their stones out of Iceland, wherewith they paved their town for want of the like in England: or as Sir Thomas Gresham did when he bought the stones in Flanders wherewith he paved the Burse. But as he will answer (peradventure) that he bargained for the whole mould and substance of his workmans.h.i.+p in Flanders, so the Hullanders or Hull men will say how that stock-fish is light loading, and therefore they did balance their vessels with these Iceland stones to keep them from turning over in their so tedious a voyage.

Sometimes also they find precious stones (though seldom), and some of them perfectly squared by nature, and much like unto the diamond found of late in a quarry of marble at Naples, which was so perfectly pointed as if all the workmen in the world had consulted about the performance of that workmans.h.i.+p. I know that these reports unto some will seem incredible, and therefore I stand the longer upon them; nevertheless omitting to speak particularly of such things as happen amongst us, and rather seeking to confirm the same by the like in other countries, I will deliver a few more examples, whereby the truth hereof shall so much the better appear. For in the midst of a stone not long since found at Chius, upon the breaking up thereof, there was seen _Caput panisci_ enclosed therein, very perfectly formed, as the beholders do remember. How come the grains of gold to be so fast enclosed in the stones that are and have been found in the Spanish Baetis? But this is most marvellous, that a most delectable and sweet oil, comparable to the finest balm, or oil of spike in smell, was found naturally enclosed in a stone, which could not otherwise be broken but with a smith's hammer.

Finally, I myself have seen stones opened, and within them the substances of corrupted worms like unto adders (but far shorter), whose crests and wrinkles of body appeared also therein as if they had been engraved in the stones by art and industry of man. Wherefore to affirm that as well living creatures as precious stones, gold, etc., are now and then found in our quarries, shall not hereafter be a thing so incredible as many talking philosophers, void of all experience, do affirm and wilfully maintain against such as hold the contrary.

CHAPTER XIX.

OF WOODS AND MARSHES.

[1577, Book II., Chapter 16; 1587, Book II., Chapter 22.]

It should seem by ancient records, and the testimony of sundry authors, that the whole countries of Lhoegres and Cambria, now England and Wales, have sometimes been very well replenished with great woods and groves, although at this time the said commodity be not a little decayed in both, and in such wise that a man shall oft ride ten or twenty miles in each of them and find very little, or rather none at all, except it be near unto towns, gentlemen's houses, and villages, where the inhabitants have planted a few elms, oaks, hazels, or ashes about their dwellings, for their defence from the rough winds and keeping of the stormy weather from annoyance of the same. This scarcity at the first grew (as it is thought) either by the industry of man, for maintenance of tillage (as we understand the like to be done of late by the Spaniards in the West Indies, where they fired whole woods of very great compa.s.s, thereby to come by ground whereon to sow their grains), or else through the covetousness of such as, in preferring of pasture for their sheep and greater cattle, do make small account of firebote and timber, or, finally, by the cruelty of the enemies, whereof we have sundry examples declared in our histories. Howbeit where the rocks and quarry grounds are I take the swart of the earth to be so thin that no tree of any greatness, other than shrubs and bushes, is able to grow or prosper long therein for want of sufficient moisture wherewith to feed them with fresh humour, or at the leastwise of mould to shroud, stay upright, and cherish the same in the bl.u.s.tering winter's weather, till they may grow into any greatness, and spread or yield their roots down right into the soil about them: and this either is or may be one other cause, wherefore some places are naturally void of wood. But to proceed. Although I must needs confess that there is good store of great wood or timber here and there even now in some places of England, yet in our days it is far unlike to that plenty which our ancestors have seen heretofore when stately building was less in use. For, albeit that there were then greater number of messuages and mansions almost in every place, yet were their frames so slight and slender that one mean dwelling-house in our time is able to countervail very many of them, if you consider the present charge with the plenty of timber that we bestow upon them. In times past men were contented to dwell in houses built of sallow, willow, plum tree, hardbeam, and elm, so that the use of oak was in manner dedicated wholly unto churches, religious houses, princes' palaces, n.o.blemen's lodgings, and navigation; but now all these are rejected, and nothing but oak any whit regarded. And yet see the change! For, when our houses were built of willow, then had we oaken men; but, now that our houses are come to be made of oak, our men are not only become willow, but a great many through Persian delicacy crept in among us altogether of straw: which is a sore alteration. In those, the courage of the owner was a sufficient defence to keep the house in safety; but now the a.s.surance of the timber, double doors, locks, and bolts, must defend the man from robbing. Now have we many chimneys; and yet our tenderlings complain of rheums, catarrhs, and poses. Then had we none but reredosses; and our heads did never ache. For, as the smoke in those days was supposed to be a sufficient hardening for the timber of the house, so it was reputed a far better medicine to keep the goodman and his family from the quake or pose, wherewith as then very few were oft acquainted.